A bitter ex-wife of a New Jersey con man – who is believed to have wed at least six women to swindle them – yesterday said her filching former hubby once even pretended that he had leukemia to rip her off.
Donna Layne Roberts said smooth-talking ex-husband William Barber lied when he told her he was receiving chemotherapy for his cancer six months before he walked out on her – and she had begged to take care of him.
“I said I wanted to go and hold his hand,” Roberts told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“He was throwing up blood. I found out later from his sister that he had a bleeding ulcer. He was taking aspirin and throwing up blood to imitate having the cancer.”
Roberts, who was deserted by bigamist Barber just eight days before he went on to marry another woman, said she has no idea even what number wife she was.
“I want him [Barber] put away, put away in jail,” Roberts said. “Throw away the key, and he never sees daylight again.”
Barber, 54, was arrested in Wharton, N.J., 10 days ago while living with new wife Joyce Reynolds, pretending to be a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon on sabbatical.
Authorities revealed that Barber had at least six wives in five states, had lived under 24 known aliases, had several Social Security numbers and did time in Kansas, California, Texas and Missouri on charges ranging from bigamy to extortion.
Barber had wooed Reynolds, a divorced mother of two, over the Internet and married her a week after the pair met up in person four years ago.
Yesterday, Reynolds – who was hospitalized when she found out the truth about her husband – took steps to permanently boot him from her life. She obtained a permanent restraining order against him from a New Jersey judge and erased his name from their bank accounts.
Barber’s two-decade-long web of deceit was discovered after Reynolds’ family became suspicious and tracked down his sister, who revealed Barber was a serial con artist who’d left previous wives destitute.
Barber was charged in a Morris County court with filing a false marriage license by using a bogus name, Social Security number and birth date.
He was also charged with failing to pay $50,000 in child support being sought by a third wife from Missouri.
That wife, Diana Barber, said she met the con man in 1984 in a bar in St. Louis and married him two years later.
Besides forging her name on a business loan for $100,000, he skipped out on child-support payments.
“That he continued to live that way and that he’d always lived this way came as a shock to me,” Barber, whose son is now 18, told The Post.
“My son has not one ounce of love for his father, he loathes him.”
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‘I want him put away, put away in jail. Throw away the key, and he never sees daylight again.’ – Ex-wife Donna Layne Roberts (right), on ABC’s “Good Morning America” yesterday