After being convicted, Arnstein was released while she waited to appeal. Directly after, the US attorney for the northern district of Illinois told Arnstein that someone put a hit out on her life. Laura Smith, writing for Timeline, claims the attorney "was trying to scare her into his protection so he could use her for his purposes" by putting her in fear for her life. 

Arnstein returned to the Chicago Playboy mansion rattled and paranoid. Hefner and everyone else in the mansion feared they were being set up. Hefner swept the place for bugs and drugs that may have been planted, and everyone was a suspect.