Wife 'forgives' husband for hiring hitman to kill her

Nancy Shore's ex-husband Frank Howard hired a hitman to kill her. Photo / Supplied

Her husband hired a man to shoot her in the face so he could be with his mistress but despite this Nancy Shore says she "still loves" him.

When Nancy Shore arrived at her Texas home from church on the August 18, 2012 she was attacked by a man who demanded her purse before shooting her point blank in the face.

By some miracle she not only survived, but managed to drag herself into her house and call an ambulance, passing a mirror as she did so.

"I looked at myself and all I could see was blood from my eye down to my beautiful purple shirt," a now 57-year-old Nancy told the BBC.

"At that point I didn't realise that I had lost my left eye."

The bullet destroyed Nancy's eye and became lodged in her lung. The mum-of-three was in a coma for days after the horrific ordeal.

But as she was laying in her hospital bed the police made a sickening discovery.

Nancy's attack had been carefully planned out by her beloved husband, John Franklin Howard.

The 52-year-old man, known as Frank, paid a series of alleged hitmen over $108,000 to kill his wife so he could be with the woman he had been having an affair with for four years.

But despite all of this, Nancy says she forgives Frank and that she still loves him.

"We really had an awesome marriage. Obviously, you go through your ups and downs. I mean we weren't perfect, we had our issues from time to time and we always worked through those," she said.

"He was very kind, gentle, loving. He was very involved with our children."

She divorced Frank before the trial began, but explained that if he had been found innocent she was willing to remarry him and work on their relationship, adding that the guilty outcome was a "kick in the stomach".

"It's because I still loved him at the time, and you know I have to say I still love him, not in a romantic love, but in a love that he's the father of my children, and there's always going to be a love there," Nancy said.

"I have forgiven him. The Bible says that if we don't forgive those who have harmed us then we are unable to be forgiven and I couldn't afford not to forgive him because I couldn't live with bitterness."

Frank was found guilty of attempted capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison. By the time he is able to be considered for parole he will be 85.

In the early years of their marriage, Frank and Nancy seemed to have a picturesque life.

They married in 1983, raised three children together, sang in their local choir and held Bible studies for the youth group in their Carlton home.

But once the children moved out the couple started to drift apart. Frank began to travel more for his accounting job, with many of the trips actually being used to see his mistress.

While Frank eventually confessed to his infidelity, he always maintained that he was not behind the plot to murder Nancy, a stance which left her and the children feeling conflicted.

"He was continually telling them [the children] that he was innocent," Nancy said.

"That he had nothing to do with this, and he was a great husband and father until the time he wasn't. So I can totally understand why my children believe this."

It was also revealed that Frank had begun to embezzle money from one of his wealthy clients, which he used to buy his mistress an $870,000 condo home and pay $543,000 for her daughter's education.

The gang of criminals who he hired to kill his wife also continually demanded more money for the hitman job.

It is believed he embezzled more than $32 million.

Nearly six years on from the attack and Nancy has had numerous operations to rebuild her face and now has a prosthetic eye fitted.

She said she is "thankful" that she survived and is living every day of her life to the fullest.