10 Oldest Female Killers in NJ Prisons; Ocean County Hairdresser On List

Sylvia Flynn, a hairdresser from Brick, was convicted of aggravated manslaughter in 2000 in connection with the shooting death of her husband.

Flynn argued during her trial that she lived with 28 years of physical and sexual abuse from John Flynn, who she had married a year before the killing — her sixth marriage.

The day before he was shot, Flynn had returned from a week with his mistress in California — a week that included the Flynn’s one-year anniversary. She claimed that her husband became enraged when she confronted him during a telephone call prior to his return.

She said she slipped out of the house when he returned from California and went to WalMart. That night, Aug 15, 1998, she called Brick police asking for an escort home because she feared her husband. Brick police opted instead to call John Flynn and send Sylvia Flynn home, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Sylvia Flynn shot John Flynn five times — four in the chest, one in the brain — later that night, and just what happened inside their Albert Street house became the central question of the trial.