Washington intrigued by the case of Albrecht Muth, charged with killing the former journalist 44 years his senior

Albrecht Muth pretended to be a lot of things. One guise was that of an Iraqi general as he marched around his upmarket Washington neighbourhood in an olive green uniform with a swagger stick under his arm and cap rimmed with gold braid.

He regaled government officials, foreign diplomats and military officers with tales of Baghdad intrigue at lavish dinner parties. Muth even attended official ceremonies in Washington in Iraqi army uniform.

Another pretense was that he was the loving husband to the wife 44 years his senior who provided him with the means to live in the US and opened the door to a world of contacts.

Now Muth, 47, who is originally from Germany, has been charged with murdering his 91-year-old wife, Viola Drath, a renowned journalist with many friends in high places who was found in her bath strangled and beaten so badly that she suffered fractured ribs.

The couple had endured 22 years of turbulent marriage that saw Drath throw her husband out of the house several times, including one occasion when he had a sexual relationship with a man.

Drath's friends told the Washington Post Muth was a serial liar and a delusionist. Each time she took him back and, to all but those who knew the couple best, Muth kept up the act of being an Iraqi general and devoted husband with an impressive contacts list of people invited to what were billed as official Iraqi embassy dinners at his home.

The embassy issued statements rejecting Muth's claims to have been in the military or to represent the diplomatic mission but that did not discourage him.

Muth regularly contacted the media, including the Washington Post, which said he would begin conversations "Brigadier General Muth here" before offering supposedly informed insights into the military situation in Iraq. In fact, the fake general was unemployed and living on a $2,000 a month allowance from Drath.

Muth contacted the newspaper again after his wife's death in an attempt to place an obituary that said her death was caused by head injuries from a fall.

Prosecutors contend that Muth killed Drath and then presented a document to her family hours later granting him as much as $200,000 from her estate. According to court documents, investigators believe Muth forged Drath's signature.

German-born Drath, who moved to America after the second world war after marrying the US military governor of Bavaria, built a reputation as a journalist writing on foreign affairs. After her husband died in 1986, she was left devastated and lonely in their house in the upmarket Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington.

Then she began appearing at government functions with a young German on her arm, to the consternation of friends. Muth would sometimes appear wearing an eye patch and spun stories that few believed.

"He was a pathological liar," George Schwab, president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, told the Washington Post. "His stories were always so bizarre that I only listened with one ear. He always tried to impress me with all of his accomplishments and I always saw through him. But [Drath] believed it. She said he updated her on the news every morning over breakfast."

The pair wed in 1989. Three years later, Muth was jailed for assaulting Drath with a chair. Other attacks followed. A gay lover obtained a restraining order against him.

According to prosecution documents, Muth told the police someone broke into the house and murdered his wife. Detectives discovered no signs of forced entry and scratches on Muth's face pointed to a fight.

One of the prosecutors, Glenn Kirschner, said Muth alone had "access and opportunity" and motive to kill Drath.