Doris McGown was the first child born to Randy McGown, a Dow Chemical engineer, and his wife, Ann. She grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, and had one sibling, a younger brother, Steven McGown. She graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in speech pathology. After graduation, she began a career as a schoolteacher, and later became a sales representative for a pharmaceutical firm.

In 1976, McGown met William "Bill" Beck, a representative for an office products company. They married and moved to Clear Lake City.

She met Robert Angleton, a successful bookmaker, at a bar in the Houston West Loop when she was 28 years old. According to Robert Angleton, he and Doris met because William Beck, Doris's husband, was a client of his bookmaking business. Both Robert Angleton and Doris Beck, although already married, were attracted to each other, eventually divorcing their spouses. They married in 1982. On August 1, 1984, Doris Angleton gave birth to twins, Nicole and Alessandra.

Robert Angleton earned millions of dollars a year by running a sports-betting scheme. He managed to do this by becoming a police informant and reporting his rivals to the Houston Police Department. He moved his family to the wealthy River Oaks area of Houston, Texas.

Although her friends believed that she was happy, Doris Angleton said she wanted out of her marriage when she grew tired of bookmaking. In February 1997, she went ahead with the divorce process, wanting 50% of their joint assets.

On April 16, 1997, Robert Angleton expressed concern when Doris failed to show up for their twin daughters' softball game. After the game, Angleton drove the girls home and discovered Doris's body. She sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the face and chest.

Around the time of her murder, Doris' brother in-law, Roger Angleton, was arrested on unrelated charges. Police found a suitcase that revealed him to be her killer. Roger committed suicide in a Houston prison cell by cutting himself more than fifty times with a disposable razor. Roger Angleton also left behind a suicide note that cleared his brother of the murder of Doris. Robert Angleton was later found not guilty in his wife's death.

Due to the investigation, Robert Angleton's income was investigated. As they were earned in relation to an illegal sports betting scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted and jailed Robert Angleton. While awaiting trial, Robert fled to the Netherlands, where he was apprehended by the Dutch government. A Dutch court ruled that he could not be extradited on a charge related to the murder of his wife because he had already been found not guilty. However, they ruled, he could be extradited on the tax evasion charges. He was subsequently convicted of tax evasion and passport fraud, and was sentenced to twelve years in prison.

Robert Nicholas Angleton, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons Register # 13831-179, is currently incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. His release date is January 15, 2013.

Writer Vanessa Levrier Leggett was found in contempt by a federal district court judge on July 20, 2001 for refusing to give up some of her interviews for a book that she wrote about the Doris Angleton case. Leggett was sent to federal prison for more than five months. She was released in January 2002, after the grand jury's term expired. Her Federal Bureau of Prisons register # is 13371-179.