0:00

Only 4% of universities in the

0:02

U.S. are R1 research institutions, and Temple

0:04

University is one of them. This means

0:07

100% of students have the opportunity to

0:09

participate in hands-on learning and research with

0:11

world-class faculty. With over 600 academic programs

0:13

across 17 schools and colleges,

0:16

Philadelphia's largest public university provides students with

0:18

a rich variety of opportunities and propels

0:20

graduates to succeed in their careers. Temple

0:23

University. Schedule a campus

0:25

tour today at admissions.temple.edu.

0:30

Hello, saver! Whether you're

0:33

saving for that trip to the tropics or

0:35

saving for an emergency, now is the time

0:37

to take advantage of Wells Fargo's savings options.

0:40

Wells Fargo offers savings accounts that can help

0:42

you save towards your goals. So,

0:44

what are you saving for? Visit

0:47

a Wells Fargo branch or wellsfargo.com/save

0:50

to open a savings account today.

0:54

Wells Fargo Bank N.A. Member FDIC.

1:00

True Crime Brewery

1:09

True Crime Brewery contains disturbing

1:11

content related to real-life crimes.

1:14

Medical information is opinion based on facts

1:16

of a crime and should not be

1:18

interpreted as medical advice or treatment. Listener

1:21

discretion is advised. True

1:25

Crime Brewery Welcome

1:28

to True Crime Brewery. I'm Jill. And

1:31

I'm Dick. So, as

1:33

fraternal twins, Betty and Peggy were

1:35

together from the very beginning of

1:37

their lives. And as

1:39

adults, they were very different people, but

1:41

they still remained best friends. Then

1:44

in 1992, they either conspired

1:47

together to have Betty's husband killed,

1:49

or they fought together to prove their

1:52

innocence in his murder. Join

1:54

us at the Quiet End for Split Decision.

2:00

murdered in his own home, suspicions

2:02

turned to his wife, Betty. Betty

2:04

was an outspoken, hard-headed woman who

2:07

had engaged in numerous extramarital affairs.

2:10

So her promiscuity, alcoholism,

2:13

and an adulterous affair with a

2:15

black man in racist Alabama may

2:18

have turned the police and eventually

2:20

a jury against her. So

2:22

if the prosecution's theory was that

2:24

Betty and Peggy conspired together to

2:27

kill Jack, then why

2:29

was Betty found guilty and then Peggy

2:31

was acquitted? It may

2:33

have just been the result of prejudice

2:35

against Betty, the wild one, and

2:37

more appreciation for the sweet and

2:40

amiable Peggy. I can't

2:42

think of any other reason for it but

2:44

we're going to talk about it. Yes, we

2:46

are. And we're going to drink a nice

2:48

beer called El Gordo from Good People Brewing

2:50

Company in Birmingham. This is a Russian Imperial

2:52

Stout. Again, I'm a heavy hitter, 13.9%

2:57

ABV. Beer is a dark brown

2:59

color, small mocha head, nice aroma,

3:01

dark chocolate, espresso and molasses expressed well

3:03

in a taste, espresso, dark chocolate.

3:05

And the molasses isn't quite as noticeable

3:07

as in the aroma. This is a

3:10

big-bodied beer. The alcohol will warm you

3:12

up as you drink it. It

3:15

will also make us take naps. A

3:17

lot of alcohol in that beer. It's a strong beer.

3:20

We'll split it with a few people. Okay. All

3:22

right. Well, let's open one. All

3:37

right. Down to the quiet end. It

3:39

does smell very chocolatey and delicious. Yes,

3:42

it's a good bedtime beer. I

3:44

think so. Yes, it is. But we're not going

3:47

to bed yet. So let's take it easy. What

3:49

do you think? Oh,

3:51

we will. Okay. All right. Well, this

3:53

case is really kind of amazing. I

3:55

just don't understand how it turned out

3:58

the way it did. So maybe... our

4:00

listeners will be able to call and write in

4:03

after this and try and explain it to us.

4:05

But we'll go over everything that I was able to

4:08

find out about it. It's a

4:10

strange case, I gotta tell you. It really

4:12

is, yeah. So start us out with their

4:14

childhoods. So Betty Woods was born

4:16

the twin of her sister Peggy on July

4:18

14th 1945

4:20

in East Gadsden Alabama. Betty would

4:22

later describe her family as typical

4:25

lower middle class. During World War

4:27

II, Gadsden had been a munitions

4:29

and chemical manufacturing center. Between 1930

4:31

and the end of the war,

4:33

the city's population

4:35

doubled. So there was a

4:37

sudden transition to peacetime manufacturing. But by the

4:39

end of the war and return of the

4:42

soldiers was more than the local economy could

4:44

handle. In the late 40s and early 50s

4:46

there were layoffs in the steel mills and

4:48

the rubber plants. So many families suffered the

4:50

hardest times they had known since

4:53

the Great Depression. Absolutely, but you

4:55

know Betty's family was not really poor.

4:57

Parents Oscar and Nell Woods were nowhere

4:59

near wealthy, but they got by okay.

5:02

When other families were losing their homes,

5:04

Oscar moved his family out of their

5:06

apartment and actually bought them a small

5:08

brick house. Oscar was a

5:11

Gadsden policeman and this was very

5:13

dangerous work through the 1960s and

5:15

the police weren't paid anywhere near

5:17

enough to support their families and

5:19

live decent lives. So

5:21

they made up for this with corruption.

5:24

A lot of corruption. So like a

5:26

lot of the south, the area around

5:28

Gadsden had remained dry after the repeal

5:30

of prohibition. Most of the police were

5:33

paid off by the bootleggers and most

5:35

of the bootleggers were firemen. Racism

5:38

was going strong in Gadsden and

5:40

Oscar was as bad as any of them at

5:43

harassing and abusing the black men

5:45

around town. Oscar took

5:48

money from the bootleggers and used it

5:50

to support his many mistresses across town.

5:52

He worked for the Union Busters too

5:54

and it was believed that he knew

5:56

what had happened to many people black

5:59

men around town. and white who

6:01

had disappeared from Gadsden. But

6:03

the scariest part of this is that Oscar

6:05

was really just the norm in this police

6:07

force at the time if you can believe

6:09

it. Oh, I can. But Oscar

6:12

was also a heavy drinker. He

6:14

drank with his various women at

6:16

the illegal establishments that he helped

6:18

to protect. He even drank in

6:20

his police car and he

6:23

drank in his pickup truck. By the time he

6:25

would come home at night, he was heavily under

6:27

the influence. And on some nights he

6:29

came home in a rage and woke

6:31

his children with a flashlight in their faces.

6:34

So from the time the girls were very young,

6:37

Peggy was the peacemaker. She

6:39

took Betty with her into the bathroom and

6:41

closed the door and the two little girls

6:43

whispered to each other for hours while

6:46

Peggy tried to talk Betty into doing

6:48

whatever was necessary just to

6:50

keep their father calm. Betty and

6:52

Peggy had two older sisters, Gadel

6:54

and Martha, and they were eight

6:56

and ten years older than the twins. So

6:59

they were pretty independent by the time

7:01

the twins were in grade school. But

7:03

their mother Nell was very loving. Most

7:05

of what Nell earned at her job

7:07

she spent on the little girls. Every

7:09

Friday night she walked them a mile to

7:12

the movie theater. And Nell Woods

7:14

was never one to complain. She never said

7:16

anything to imply that her life was anything

7:18

but normal and happy. So the

7:20

terrifying times when their father came home

7:23

drunk and raging were not the only

7:25

reality for the twins. They also had

7:27

warmth and comfort that they received from

7:29

their mother. Both were very pretty

7:31

little girls but it was Peggy who had

7:33

inherited the very best of each of her

7:35

parents very good looks. So

7:37

she was considered the real beauty of

7:40

the family. Yeah, Peggy had perfect southern

7:42

manners and she spoke with the gracious

7:44

Alabama accent of the middle and upper

7:46

middle classes. She was always perfectly in

7:49

control of herself. Social lines in Gadsden

7:51

had everything to do with money and

7:53

the Woods family had none. But Peggy's

7:55

good looks and graciousness made her

7:58

popular in high school. She was chosen

8:00

for every honor offered by Gaston

8:02

High that in any way linked

8:04

with physical beauty. She was sophomore

8:07

class-made, junior class-made, homecoming queen, among

8:09

others. Peggy eventually developed the persona

8:11

of a Southern girl who

8:14

has often spoken to audiences in school

8:16

and at church. She was

8:18

invited to join a high school sorority

8:20

whose other members were mainly girls from

8:22

wealthy families. As she did whenever she

8:24

gained acceptance into any new group, the

8:27

first thing Peggy did was to ask if her

8:29

sister Betty could join a group as well. Yes,

8:32

shy and awkward and bookish, Betty might

8:34

have preferred to be left alone, but

8:37

Peggy just would not hear of it. In

8:40

their little brick house, Peggy was the family

8:42

hero and her twin Betty

8:44

would share some part in Peggy's life.

8:46

It was Betty, though, who was more

8:48

interested in boys and she ended up

8:50

doing things Peggy would never have dreamed

8:52

of doing, like skipping school,

8:54

coming home late in cars with

8:56

boys who'd been drinking, and defying

8:59

parents and every other authority

9:01

figure she came across. But

9:03

for a while after high school, the twins

9:05

loves continued to be linked and pretty much

9:08

alike. They both married without going

9:10

to college. Both had babies

9:12

right away, but each stayed married for

9:14

only a few years. Betty left her

9:16

husband, a good man and a good

9:18

father, to her three little boys because

9:20

he wanted to tell her what to

9:22

do, what makeup to wear, and how

9:24

to act. She left for

9:27

Huntsville and her husband agreed to

9:29

keep the little boys until she got settled, but

9:31

that would never happen. Now Peggy

9:34

left her husband because she disapproved of

9:36

the way that he behaved and she

9:38

left him for a man named Wayne

9:40

Lowe, the handsome young

9:43

choir director at Calvary Baptist Church.

9:45

Wayne was married too and he got divorced

9:47

in order to marry Peggy. He took

9:50

immediately to Peggy's little girl and boy

9:52

and became the one that they would

9:54

call dad. Now Wayne and Peggy moved

9:56

to a wooden subdivision on Logan Martin

9:58

Lake about 30 miles away

10:01

from Gadsden. Wayne taught school

10:03

and he became the choir director in

10:05

the church and he sold

10:07

household items door to door in the evenings and

10:09

on the weekends. Peggy went back

10:11

to school and completed her teaching degree

10:14

then she taught at the elementary school

10:16

with Wayne and she also

10:18

often worked second jobs. They

10:21

always dressed well and drove nice cars but

10:23

they lived within their means and

10:25

as Peggy had been the hero of

10:27

their little brick house back on Hope

10:29

Street as an adult she was compelled

10:32

to fix things for other families who

10:34

were having a hard time. So on

10:36

several occasions she took in on wed

10:38

teenage mothers for however long it took

10:40

them to resolve their issues. One

10:42

young woman stayed with her for over a

10:44

year and she once took in a homeless

10:46

family who were living in a dump and

10:49

sleeping in their car. There were

10:51

several very young neglected children who she

10:53

brought home she bathed and said them

10:55

and then she and Wayne found them

10:57

housing and work. The rest

10:59

of the family never complained about this

11:02

either even when Peggy loaned money from

11:04

the family's scarce savings to anyone in

11:06

need who she came across. She's

11:09

a nice woman. Very nice. After

11:11

Betty left Gadsden for Huntsville her

11:13

life became very different from Peggy's.

11:16

As close as they had been it was

11:18

a relief for Betty to be away from

11:20

her twin and in some ways all of

11:23

Peggy's fixing and helping had kept Betty from

11:25

having the fun she wanted to have. She

11:27

worked two and three jobs but she spent

11:29

most of what she earned on clothing and

11:31

nice cars. She never did bring

11:33

her three boys up from Gadsden but

11:36

their father was a good man and Betty

11:38

was allowed to visit them often. In

11:40

Huntsville in the 1970s alone

11:42

and on her own Betty was really

11:45

enjoying the attention of many men. So

11:47

Betty became a heavy drinker and

11:50

started using drugs including cocaine. She led

11:52

what she thought was an exciting life.

11:54

She worked at a JC Penney store

11:57

never did have much extra cash after

11:59

paying her bills. So she took

12:01

a job at the Cosmopolitan Health Club working

12:04

evenings. She really enjoyed that job and it

12:07

would end up changing her life. A

12:09

few years after she had come to Huntsville,

12:12

the city had a major new commercial hospital

12:14

being built and the addition of the new

12:16

hospital was important in elevating Huntsville with

12:18

a major regional medical center. Young

12:21

doctors were coming in from all over the

12:23

country. A woman whose husband was a major

12:25

investor in the new hospital belonged to the

12:27

health club where Betty worked. One

12:29

evening she suggested to Betty that she apply

12:31

for a job at the new hospital. So

12:33

Betty was hired and she worked at the

12:36

hospital as a unit secretary. And

12:38

within a few years Betty had completed

12:40

a curriculum for nurses at the University

12:42

of Alabama. Now she too

12:44

could be a hero, happy but unstable

12:47

time for Betty. She became an expert

12:49

in kidney dialysis which was

12:51

in demand at this hospital. She worked long

12:53

hours enjoying her work with a

12:56

passion. She still played hard away from

12:58

work and her life was

13:00

driven by both self-indulgence and selflessness.

13:02

Then one day in 1976 a

13:06

nervous ophthalmologist gave a commonly used drug to

13:08

an elderly patient in the middle of surgery

13:10

and the drug caused the patient to go

13:12

in a renal failure. Surgery

13:14

had to be stopped and the

13:17

patient was rushed to another room where

13:19

nurse Betty Woods began an emergency kidney

13:21

dialysis. Yes, so Betty just

13:23

took over this patient. She was focused on

13:25

her work and her patient

13:27

and she didn't notice it first when this

13:29

ophthalmologist came into the room with her. He

13:32

was a little guy, 33 years old with

13:34

shiny black hair and big brown eyes. He

13:37

paced around the room holding his head,

13:39

sighing and worrying aloud. Leave me alone

13:41

Dr. Betty said to him. Dr. Jack

13:43

Wilson said this was one of his

13:46

favorite patients and he just couldn't bear

13:48

to lose her. And then as he

13:50

left the room Betty glanced his

13:52

way and she thought to herself well there

13:54

goes the cutest little thing I've ever seen

13:56

in my life. I love that story.

14:00

I imagine it has something to do with the woman's history.

14:02

It was an elderly woman. I'm sure

14:04

she had some condition. I just

14:06

think it's adorable that she took charge and

14:09

he's the doctor and he's this nervous little

14:11

guy and she thought, gosh, he's really cute.

14:13

She liked him. I guess he

14:15

kind of had his eye on her for a while,

14:17

but he wasn't the kind of guy who was gonna

14:20

say anything. He wasn't gonna make any

14:22

moves on her? No, and he was married, of course,

14:24

too. So, Jack Wilson's

14:26

path to becoming an ophthalmologist with

14:28

a practice in Huntsville, Alabama was

14:31

actually long, difficult, and highly unusual. He

14:33

never knew who his biological father was

14:36

and no one even tried to give

14:38

him a name or a description of

14:40

this guy. His siblings would say Carolyn

14:42

English, his real mother, was a young,

14:44

attractive single woman at the end of

14:46

World War II who ended

14:49

up with a married man for a lover

14:51

instead of a husband of her own. So,

14:53

she worked hard as a waitress and had

14:55

children out of wedlock whom she wasn't able

14:57

to support. Though hers was

14:59

definitely not a respectable life, but

15:01

she wasn't a sex worker, either. The

15:04

woman who raised him, Werta Wilson, had

15:06

always told Jack that his mother was

15:08

a whore. And that was after

15:10

Jack was 10 years old and had figured

15:12

out that Werta wasn't his real mother and

15:14

that Carolyn was. Werta Wilson was

15:17

a real oddball. She used to stuff pillows

15:19

in her dress and walk around telling people

15:21

she was pregnant. Then she'd leave

15:23

for a few days saying she was

15:25

going to a hospital in Chicago to

15:28

give birth and she'd come home with

15:30

another baby, adopted from some girl who

15:32

couldn't take care of it. And Jack

15:34

was the youngest of Carolyn English's biological

15:37

children. Werta had adopted his two

15:39

older sisters from Carolyn and

15:41

she had adopted younger twins from another

15:43

woman. But Werta was indifferent

15:45

with all the children once she had possession

15:47

of them. So, it's kind of difficult to

15:49

understand why she'd been so eager to have

15:51

them in the first place. Carolyn

15:54

did visit whenever she could. She

15:56

was a pretty affectionate woman on

15:58

like Werta. Relationship to the

16:00

children was never explained to them because

16:03

that was part of the deal that Carolyn had made

16:05

with Werda But the great

16:07

love of Jack's childhood would turn out

16:09

to be Bill Wilson, Werda's husband. Bill

16:12

was a warm-hearted Intelligent man

16:14

who adored the bright funny tiny

16:16

little boy that he called Jackie

16:18

boy. Bill Wilson had worked as

16:20

a newspaper man And an editor,

16:23

but life had not been easy for him in

16:25

his later years So most of

16:27

the time when Jack was growing up Bill worked

16:29

as a cook and he came home

16:31

tired But he never turned his back on the

16:33

little boy Jack really brought a

16:35

spark of life back to Bill Wilson at the

16:38

end of a long hard day But it worked

16:40

both ways too Jack

16:42

would make up stories to entertain Bill.

16:44

He went to school which he loved

16:47

But he was so small for his age

16:49

and seemed so odd to the other children

16:51

that he was unable to play in the

16:53

neighborhood He was really a target of bullies

16:56

So he came straight home from school each

16:58

day and Jack spent his afternoons watching

17:01

television Reading books and

17:03

daydreaming in the early evening when

17:05

he was tired and lonely Jack

17:07

would crawl under Werda's big bed and read

17:09

books He spent long hours

17:11

looking through the cheap set of encyclopedias that

17:13

Bill had bought one volume at a time

17:16

From the grocery store and one thing

17:18

Jack loved is he loved to learn

17:21

Eventually Jack's teachers told Werda that Jack

17:23

was actually more than just bright. He

17:25

might be a prodigy Werda

17:28

then had a new interest in him So

17:31

she took him down to a radio station

17:33

in Chicago to audition for a quiz show

17:35

The producers chose him and put him on

17:38

the show He was funny quick and answered

17:40

all the questions correctly and he won a

17:42

puppy Oh good for him Yeah

17:45

and Bill built a house and a dog

17:47

run for the puppy and the

17:49

puppy of course became Jack's best friend He

17:52

wasn't lonely anymore He ran home to

17:54

his puppy after school and kept it

17:56

at his side every moment But two

17:58

years later when his puppy was hit

18:00

by a car and killed, Jack was

18:02

devastated. He cried for days and

18:05

Bill was the only one who could comfort him.

18:08

Bill died of cancer when Jack was 15. For

18:10

weeks Jack was paralyzed by grief. He

18:12

went to school because he offered some

18:14

relief but the rest of the time

18:16

he lay in his tiny bedroom and

18:19

sobbed quietly to himself. Then one

18:21

evening Jack came out of the bedroom and said

18:23

to Wertha, I'm going to get

18:25

a job to help you with money. He

18:27

came home two days later with news

18:29

of an afternoon job he got doing

18:32

bookkeeping and filing for a trucking company.

18:34

Now his employers liked him immediately and

18:37

increased his duties giving him raises and

18:39

some small bonuses. A few weeks later

18:41

Jack brought Wertha some money and while

18:43

she sat and counted it he told

18:45

her that he had gotten a social

18:47

security number and was changing his

18:49

last name from English to Wilson. Bill

18:51

was the only father he had ever had and he

18:53

wanted to take his name. So just

18:55

kind of a remarkable kid. He

18:57

does. I really get a kick out

19:00

of the story about Jack. He was

19:02

admitted two years early to Occidental College

19:04

where he began his lifelong habit of

19:06

constant study. He worked at his

19:08

bookkeeping job, he continued helping to

19:10

support Wertha and the two younger

19:12

children and he studied. His

19:15

wardrobe was always mismatched and rumpled

19:17

and he was pretty much just invisible to women.

19:20

After he finished his classes, completed his

19:22

duties at work and then checked in

19:24

at home to see if Wertha and

19:26

the twins needed anything, Jack would go

19:28

straight to the library where he studied

19:30

until the early hours of the morning.

19:33

So his dietary habits were horrible. He

19:35

ate candy bars and potato chips and

19:37

washed them down with coke. And

19:40

it was during this time and later

19:42

when he was at the University of

19:45

Tennessee Medical School in Memphis that Jack

19:47

learned he was suffering from Crohn's disease.

19:50

So could his diet have anything to do with that?

19:52

Is that more of a genetic thing? It's

19:54

genetic. Diet does have a tiny role

19:56

in development but now it's genetic. bowel

20:00

diseases, Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Right.

20:03

It's not a nice disease though. No, it

20:05

sounds horrible. He really had a horrible time

20:07

with this. Yeah, the disease

20:09

is named for Burl B. Crohn

20:11

who is an American gastroenterologist that

20:14

described the disease, primarily a disease

20:16

of the lower small intestine, the

20:18

ileum. The symptoms of it are

20:21

fever, diarrhea, bad cramps,

20:24

abdominal pain, weight loss,

20:26

bloody stools, I think you can even

20:28

get some arthritic changes. So

20:30

Jack had suffered pretty much all the symptoms

20:32

on and off since childhood. But once he

20:34

was in med school, Crohn's got worse. Some

20:37

of that is the natural history of

20:39

the disease that can get worse. It's

20:41

supposed to get worse when you're stressed

20:44

but for Jack, it seemed to get

20:46

better. Once he started his residency after

20:48

medical school, typically a time of stress.

20:50

Of course, in Jack's case, his internship

20:52

or residency out of med school is

20:55

like heaven. He was thrilled

20:57

every time someone addressed him as doctor and

20:59

he met a woman. She was Julia

21:02

Kelly, junior at Memphis State University. She

21:04

was a very good looking woman and I

21:07

was absolutely crazy about Jack. So he must

21:09

have improved his bearing since his younger days.

21:12

He's no longer invisible to women. Well, because he's a

21:14

doctor. Does that help? Oh, that

21:16

doesn't hurt I guess. It definitely helps,

21:19

trust me. By the time Jack arrived

21:21

at Charity Hospital to begin his residency,

21:23

Julia was his wife and they were

21:25

expecting their first child. She

21:28

was a teacher. They were poor and

21:30

Jack was happier than he'd ever been. He continued

21:32

to feel that way for the next 10

21:35

years through his residency in ophthalmology in Birmingham

21:37

and into his first years in Huntsville where

21:39

he went in 1968 to establish his

21:42

practice. Yeah, but the Crohn's came

21:45

back with a vengeance in the final

21:47

years of his ophthalmology internship. So the

21:49

Crohn's came back with a vengeance in

21:51

the final years of his ophthalmology residency

21:53

and he knew he had to do

21:55

something about it. So he

21:57

agreed to an operation where the ulcerated portion

21:59

of his his ilium was removed and

22:01

the remaining part was sutured to his

22:03

large intestine. Then in 1976 Julia left him. By

22:08

then they had two sons and they had adopted

22:10

a third. Jack was completely

22:12

shattered as he had been after Bill

22:14

Wilson's death. Between

22:16

medicine and his recurring bouts with

22:18

Crohn's, he knew he

22:20

had failed to provide Julia with companionship

22:23

or a sex life at all. He

22:26

felt like he had failed as a husband and a

22:28

parent and he really wanted to figure it all out.

22:31

So Jack and Julia remained friends. Walking

22:34

off from the dialysis room where

22:36

Betty was reviving his patient that

22:38

day, he felt something very pleasant.

22:40

He liked that nurse. She

22:42

seemed both bright and tough and

22:44

she was very good looking. So for

22:47

the first time since he and Julia had split

22:49

up, Jack thought seriously about asking

22:51

someone out on a date. So he did

22:53

and their first date was a basketball game.

22:55

On their second date, Jack said that she

22:58

may as well move in with him. Betty

23:00

was already in love with Jack and happily agreed.

23:03

But the topic of marriage didn't come up right

23:05

away. Jack's practice grew under

23:07

his relentless hard work. He was popular

23:10

with his patients and with the other

23:12

doctors. Betty still had a

23:14

tendency to pull back from social contact

23:17

and she felt very overwhelmed when she

23:19

was at events and felt like she

23:21

didn't fit in. It was a trait

23:23

that tended to cut short her relationships

23:25

with men. But when Jack talked with

23:27

Betty, he was able to say things

23:29

to her that made her feel understood and

23:32

appreciated. There were things Betty could see in

23:34

Jack too. His failures as a

23:36

parent, still very painful to him, had

23:38

to be weighed against what he had

23:40

accomplished because he was now

23:43

an important man in Huntsville and he

23:45

really was adored by his patients. His

23:48

own experience with poverty had made it

23:50

impossible for him to withhold treatment from

23:53

anyone who couldn't pay. And in the

23:55

years when Medicare and Medicaid were still

23:57

new, there Were many people with bad

23:59

eyes. You know

24:02

I'm allergist the check love to

24:04

practice medicine and he loved his

24:06

patients. He has had

24:08

to people before. If he had to

24:10

pay to practice he would. That.

24:12

Wasn't about the money to have uses. Loved

24:14

it. So his patients were his

24:16

biggest fan said in many ways, especially

24:18

after Julia left him they were his

24:20

family chef never raised to see them,

24:23

was happy to give treatment to anyone

24:25

who needed it. But then one government

24:27

insurance for a thing, the money really

24:29

began to come in. There was a

24:31

sort of adjusting that went on in

24:33

many practices. And couldn't pay

24:35

procedure a for example, and the

24:38

government wouldn't pay for it than

24:40

the doctor might put down procedure

24:42

be for which the government would

24:44

pay. So. Just started growth

24:46

thing as much as a million

24:48

dollars a year from his practice.

24:50

Insurance savvy staff members took over

24:52

the computers and rearrange the building

24:54

process. So. Now every possible

24:56

ten he was gained from the government

24:58

insurance programs. And. One of the

25:01

people who really understood the business of

25:03

government paid medical services. Was.

25:05

Betty. Kidney. Dialysis.

25:07

her field was very expensive and

25:10

when dialysis was added to the

25:12

procedures that Medicare would pay for.

25:15

That. He was good at seeing to it

25:17

that this worked in the hospital Saver.

25:20

She was so good at this in

25:22

fact that a new private entity yes

25:24

sir to leave the hospital and come

25:26

to work in Atlanta as an administrator

25:28

where she would help setting up dialysis

25:30

clinic. All. Around the south so this

25:32

was a big job. Do their job.

25:34

Yeah, But by this time that

25:37

he couldn't imagine her life without. Still,

25:40

He urged her to take the job to.

25:42

that mean his feelings for her were less

25:44

serious than hers for him. He.

25:46

Said know. They would

25:48

continue the relationship. long distance bike

25:51

commuting, He told that he that

25:53

he would go to Atlanta and pay for

25:55

her to come back to Huntsville for visit.

25:58

He thought that she needed to achieve. success

26:00

in her own right and what

26:02

Jack said made sense. Betty

26:04

knew he was smart and she really

26:07

respected his opinion, but there were things

26:09

about Jack's manner that were irritating her.

26:12

She thought that he had learned as

26:14

a child to shield himself from disappointment

26:16

by telling himself he didn't need relationships.

26:19

Anyway she took the job. She

26:22

was very effective at seeing to it that

26:24

the government would pay for new dialysis centers

26:26

almost as fast as the company could buy

26:28

the real estate and the equipment to build

26:31

them. And Jack was

26:33

really good about getting on the plane almost

26:35

every week and coming to see her. So

26:38

for a while that went quite well. Yeah,

26:40

it's tough though maintaining a long

26:42

distance relationship. Sure, yep. They're both

26:45

people who have their issues for sure. Yeah.

26:48

But they seem to bring out the best in each

26:50

other most of the time. Jack

26:53

called her every morning and she continued

26:55

to date other men occasionally at night

26:57

with Jack knowing about it. But for

26:59

the most part she really wasn't interested

27:01

in the other men, but her job

27:03

continued to improve. There was a

27:05

bar in her office that was fully stocked with

27:07

liquor, which she never touched during

27:09

the day. But then she began drinking every

27:11

night to fall asleep. Then

27:13

in early 1978 Jack called

27:16

and told Betty that the Crohn's disease was

27:18

just getting worse. And not

27:20

the long distance relationship was too stressful. And he

27:22

asked her to come back to hunt so he

27:24

would get married. So this was a

27:26

terrible blow to both of them. But

27:29

Jack would have to have surgery that would

27:31

leave him with an ostomy. So

27:33

he'd have this bag on his abdomen that

27:36

would collect stool. Really tough

27:38

for a person for your body image

27:40

especially. Body image and

27:42

just the thought of collecting kind of

27:44

liquidy stool in a bag attached to

27:46

your abdomen. Well I remember early

27:48

in my nursing career I took care of this

27:50

poor woman. She was an elderly

27:52

woman but still very active and she had to

27:55

end up with an ostomy. And this woman

27:57

would cry every night. She was so upset by

27:59

it. The Suicidal. It was just really

28:01

hard for her to live with that. She.

28:04

Turned out being okay with it and

28:06

accepting it. but it took therapy and

28:08

there was a group of people with

28:11

the same problem. That. Would get

28:13

together like a support group. And.

28:15

Finally, I think she did okay, but it

28:17

was a long road for her. It was

28:19

certainly not easy. So. Yeah, it's a

28:21

really big deal, but Betty was supportive at

28:23

least in the beginning. You're. So.

28:26

Betty quit the job. And. Moves

28:28

Hussein's who jerks a permanent home so. She.

28:31

Was nervous. the best decision for she did

28:33

some of her job in Atlanta but he

28:35

loved Jack as crumbs diseases is getting worse

28:37

and worse. So. He ended up

28:39

having the operation and was left with

28:42

an awesome bag. Suits.

28:44

And surgery combined with his insecurity

28:46

in the medications he did put

28:48

i. Made. Him impotent that he

28:50

was a nurse so she had seen a lot. But.

28:53

She could not to test the idea

28:55

of life without sexual intercourse. Now in

28:57

her drinking became much worse after that.

28:59

Now listen to the distress going on the

29:01

same way: a. Lot the yeah. By

29:03

then they were living in a big

29:06

house on Boulder Circle. They.

29:08

Were a wealthy and prominent couple in

29:10

Huntsville. Checks. Were made

29:12

him a real safer that party. And.

29:15

His reputation for generosity and humor

29:17

was very well known. This.

29:19

Was never a life that came easily

29:22

to that either. When she attended her

29:24

first medical, a distillery reception, she was

29:26

already drunk at ten in the morning.

29:29

Because. She was terrified of the other women.

29:32

whom. She thought of as rich vicious

29:34

on her worst days or social

29:36

fear made her defensive and she

29:38

could be very unpleasant to be

29:40

around. She spoke sweetest. She

29:43

was suffering frequent alcoholic blackouts

29:45

to. And it wouldn't be

29:47

until five years after Betty joined

29:49

Alcoholics Anonymous and Stop Drinking. Said

29:51

Jack was able to tell her

29:53

about these blackouts. Because. that when

29:56

she had them she would barge into the

29:58

bedroom at three in the morning rip bedding

30:00

off of Jack and scream at him. She

30:02

would swear at him and call him an

30:04

impotent ship bag but then the next day

30:06

she wouldn't remember anything about it. So Jack

30:08

really didn't know how to deal with this

30:11

because he did love her. Well,

30:13

she got admitted to a hospital

30:15

in Birmingham. Then she detoxed there.

30:17

She had pancreatitis due to

30:19

her excessive drinking. Probably had some liver

30:21

disease too. Counselors there told her she

30:24

needed to disabuse herself of the idea

30:26

that she's going to hide her problem

30:28

or her recovery from anybody back in

30:30

Huntsville. Well, yeah because at first she's

30:32

thinking well I can just sneak off and get

30:34

better but no this is something you really have

30:37

to confront and you have to be willing to

30:39

talk about it. Yes. So

30:41

the first thing she did when she came

30:43

home was to join Alcoholics Anonymous and

30:46

the first meetings were pretty tough. Betty would

30:48

go up to the podium in her meat

30:50

coat and tell her long dramatic stories about

30:52

how difficult it had been growing up in

30:55

the shadow of a more beautiful twin sister

30:57

but people in the audience had had their

30:59

own hard times and many of them would

31:01

shake their heads skeptically and say

31:03

well that doesn't sound that tough to me. They

31:06

thought she had it kind of easy but

31:08

gradually it worked for Betty and her

31:10

fellow members in AA encouraged her to

31:12

take responsibility for her own life. Then

31:15

Betty became a very active member of

31:17

AA and she would give talks on

31:19

the disease and work to help others.

31:22

So once she'd been sober for some

31:24

time sex was continuing to be a

31:27

big problem. By this point Jack couldn't

31:29

even talk about it and even though

31:31

her recovery seemed to be going well

31:33

she found herself faced with a new

31:35

type of temptation and that was men.

31:38

Many of the men in Alcoholics

31:40

Anonymous were attractive to her and

31:42

Betty was especially attracted to a

31:44

man named Errol Fitzpatrick a very

31:46

confident man who was the director

31:48

of risk management for the city

31:50

of Huntsville. But he was an

31:52

African American was not really important to Betty one

31:54

way or the other. She

31:56

Had had black lovers before and she

31:58

just wasn't racist. And.

32:01

Jack would look the other way, but

32:03

very found that infuriating. She began inviting

32:05

Errol to the house during the day

32:07

while Jack was at his office. By.

32:10

Then Jack and Betty had separate

32:12

bedrooms. Checks. Refusal to even

32:14

try to have sex with Betty

32:16

anymore was very upsetting for her.

32:19

She. Wanted him to care, to be

32:22

jealous, to get angry, and to fight

32:24

for her. The Thatcher's wasn't Jack. From.

32:27

The only safe place and booze

32:29

was and so for me was

32:31

exercise shoes or jersey says fanatic

32:33

and was convinced she needed to

32:35

exercise in order to keep her

32:37

many cosmetic surgeries. I'm saying. It's

32:40

tough. It's. Tough girl so jack and

32:43

barely managed to stay together and one

32:45

of the things that move help them

32:47

with their grandchildren. Bitty. Baby said

32:49

every day. Loved it! For. Her

32:51

the time of the to grand kids with a

32:53

second chance because of the time she had lost

32:55

their own children. checked him home to see them

32:58

even if you have to return the officer hospital.

33:00

After. With and work until late at night,

33:02

he tried to give them the same kind of

33:04

attention he received from the Wilson when he was

33:06

a little boy. So.

33:14

Just let me ask you something went up.

33:16

There was someone out there who kept a

33:19

lot of every single thing you did every

33:21

minute of the day. I think that be

33:23

pretty creepy. But. When you're online,

33:25

that's exactly what's happening. Your.

33:27

Internet provider like a T and

33:29

T of Horizon is allowed to

33:31

store logs as every website you've

33:33

ever visited. And they can

33:35

legally sell the status anyone? That's.

33:38

Why we always used Express

33:40

Vpn. Express. City and

33:42

reroute your Internet connection through their

33:44

secure servers. so your Internet. Provider:

33:47

can't see or log what you're

33:49

doing online. Now. I bet many

33:51

of you are wondering, well if I am

33:53

rooting all my data through a Vpn. then

33:56

wouldn't that just mean that the vpn can see

33:58

what i'm doing and love my data instead?

34:01

You're right to think that. Many VPNs

34:03

do claim to have a no logs

34:05

policy, but have been caught

34:07

logging their customer activity. ExpressVPN

34:10

is actually the only VPN

34:12

I trust because they use

34:14

trusted server technology. In

34:16

fact, ExpressVPN were the first

34:19

major VPN provider to engineer all

34:21

of their VPN servers to run

34:23

on RAM only. This makes

34:25

it impossible for their VPN servers

34:27

to store any data, including

34:29

logs of any ExpressVPN

34:32

customer. And you don't have

34:34

to take my or even ExpressVPN's word for

34:36

it. ExpressVPN is so

34:38

confident in their no logs

34:40

claim, they even had one

34:42

of the biggest assurance firms,

34:45

PricewaterhouseCoopers, audit their technology.

34:48

So really it's no wonder that

34:50

CNET and The Verge have named

34:52

ExpressVPN the number one VPN in

34:54

the world. So stop

34:56

letting people keep logs of what you do

34:58

online. Visit expressvpn.com/TCB right

35:01

now and find out

35:03

how you can get

35:05

three months free. That's

35:08

E-X-P-R-E-S-S vpn.com/TCB.

35:11

Expressvpn.com/TCB and

35:13

you can

35:16

learn more.

35:24

This year, thousands of New Jersey homeowners will lose their

35:26

homes. You don't have to be one

35:38

of them. If you are falling behind, contact the New

35:40

Jersey courts to learn more about your options. Call 609-421-6100.

35:42

That's 609-421-6100. So

35:56

the town of Vincent, Alabama Is

35:58

a pretty little village along Logan. Martin Lake.

36:00

I Ninety Ninety One is become a

36:03

bedroom community for people who commuted an

36:05

hour or more to escape city life.

36:07

The. People in Vincent sent their children to

36:10

the public schools and lived an old

36:12

Farms are a new subdivisions In August

36:14

Nineteen Ninety one, James White took a

36:16

small job doing work for Melanie Little

36:18

who taught his daughter Kelly Renee Agence

36:20

in elementary and this is where Betty,

36:23

Sister Peggy Love and her husband Wayne

36:25

are teachers suffer teacher didn't like something

36:27

in his or her classroom. They could

36:29

repair it or build it during the

36:31

summer months for get someone else do

36:33

it at their own expense. So weights

36:36

daughter's teacher needed to has and. Shelves.and

36:38

in this case the principal had agreed

36:40

to supply the lumber. is Melanie little

36:42

kid persuaded turned to do the work

36:44

away. It appeared to be so attuned.

36:46

Do the work for nothing. He.

36:48

Did do nice job. At by the

36:51

time he had finished explaining his personal problems

36:53

to Melanie. She. Felt obligated to

36:55

do something to help him. Yes, I

36:57

just don't the how Peggy Low is

36:59

getting her own first grade classroom ready.

37:01

While. Her husband was working on his

37:03

ramp. Wayne and Peggy breath teenage daughter

37:06

Stephanie to the school to help them.

37:08

Now at noon the family had lunch

37:10

and Peggy swam and when way it's

37:12

finish building now in the ah the

37:14

shelf she needed. He continued to

37:16

hang around the school, suggesting that he

37:18

needed more help with all this problem.

37:21

So. Melanie handed them off to Peggy

37:23

Low by suggesting to him. That.

37:25

Mrs. Love might also need help with her

37:27

room. And supposed isn't. Yeah so

37:29

during lunch wait appeared in the

37:31

doorway he was stepped forward and

37:34

holding his granted a stock happiness

37:36

him. And. He addressed

37:38

Peggy well as miserable as southern courtesy

37:40

and explain that he was looking for

37:42

more work to do. Take this has

37:44

been weighing was skeptical. That. peggy

37:47

agreed to go look at the south

37:49

and melodies around in the time it

37:51

took for peggy to walk down the

37:53

corridor with white he began sharing his

37:56

many problems she gave him work building

37:58

cells in her classroom and Every minute

38:00

he was in the room, he spoke

38:02

of all the ways that he and

38:04

his children were suffering. All of James

38:06

White's stories were laced with his dire

38:08

financial problems and the hardships on his

38:10

children. So finally, there were no

38:13

more shelves to be built in Peggy Lowe's

38:15

classroom. Peggy went to the principal

38:17

and persuaded him to hire White to build

38:19

some risers that the school needed for the

38:21

chorus. So he agreed to hire

38:23

him and pay him some money. But for

38:25

White, this was all business as usual. In

38:28

the evenings, when he was drinking with his

38:30

buddies, he would talk about Peggy Lowe, how

38:32

he had her wrapped around his little finger,

38:34

and how she really wanted him sexually. By

38:36

the time the work at the school had run out and

38:39

the school year had begun, White was

38:41

seriously pestering Peggy. He even

38:43

sent his little boy Josh, a student

38:45

at Vincent Elementary, to stop Peggy in

38:47

the hallway. And the boy handed her

38:49

a written note. One of White's children

38:51

had been in the hospital, the note

38:53

said, and White was distraught

38:56

over his inability to give the child

38:58

the care that he needed. He was

39:00

so depressed that he had attempted suicide.

39:03

So was it possible that Mrs. Lowe and

39:06

her husband Wayne might have worked for

39:08

him at their beautiful house? Wayne

39:10

was very skeptical and could easily have

39:12

sent White away packing. But Peggy was

39:15

the softer one, and White persuaded Peggy

39:17

to hire him to work on her

39:19

home. Wayne resisted, but there was finishing

39:21

work that needed to be done, and

39:23

with Wayne's busy schedule, he was never

39:26

going to get it done himself. Mr.

39:28

White had done a good job at the school,

39:31

Peggy said, and he seemed to be willing to

39:33

work on the house at very reasonable rates. So

39:36

White persuaded Peggy and Wayne to hire

39:38

him to do several jobs. Then,

39:41

barely having begun any of the work, he

39:43

would ask for cash up front. In

39:46

the months ahead, White was relentless, and he

39:48

persuaded Peggy to agree to more work around

39:51

the house. He even convinced Wayne to get

39:53

his own mother to pay him thousands of

39:55

dollars to pour a driveway for her. Each

39:58

night, when he drank with his friends, White

40:00

bragged about his hold over Peggy Lowe.

40:02

He interpreted her kindness as

40:04

a sign of his own power. So the more

40:07

money he got out of Peggy, the more powerful he

40:09

felt. So along with his

40:11

complaints, White suggested that things were so

40:13

difficult, he might have to go back

40:15

to drinking, which he'd never really quit

40:17

anyway. The problem was that there was

40:19

no money left that Peggy could use

40:21

to make White go away. His

40:23

incessant phone calls had become a big

40:26

burden, but Peggy just wasn't

40:28

able to say, Mr. White, stop calling me.

40:30

So in the second week of May 1992,

40:34

when he called her to threaten both suicide

40:36

and a return to drinking, Peggy

40:39

said, Mr. White, I just can't help

40:41

you anymore with money. But

40:43

my sister, Betty, who lives in Huntsville,

40:45

is a recovering alcoholic, and

40:47

she might be able to help you. She's married to

40:50

a doctor, and they're doing a lot of work on

40:52

their house right now. She's

40:54

having her kitchen remodeled. Maybe

40:56

Betty could help you get involved with Alcoholics

40:58

Anonymous, too. And

41:00

she and her husband might be able to give you

41:02

more work, too. So over the

41:04

next several days, White just nagged

41:07

Peggy constantly about when he would be able

41:09

to go to Huntsville to work for her

41:11

sister. Peggy did call Betty

41:13

and said she was trying to help

41:16

a handyman in town who needed work

41:18

in order to keep his children fed and clothed. So

41:21

Betty agreed to hire White, whom

41:23

she'd never met, to do part of the work

41:25

in her kitchen. But part of

41:27

the deal, Betty said, was that he was

41:30

going to get involved in Alcoholics Anonymous. Betty's

41:33

instincts told her that it wasn't a good

41:35

sign that he was not already in AA,

41:37

but she decided that she would give this

41:39

man a chance. But

41:41

it was only going to be one chance. So

41:44

at some point in the negotiations over the

41:46

work he would do in Huntsville, White was

41:48

given a map to Betty's house. And from

41:50

then on, he began making trips

41:52

back and forth from Vincent to Huntsville

41:55

in his pickup truck, driving the 80 miles drunk

41:57

and high. And he made these trips. trips, even

42:00

though Betty had not actually agreed yet on a

42:02

time for the work to begin or even what

42:04

the work was going to be, was it? Yeah,

42:06

he was going to help with the remodel

42:09

but specifically no. Yeah, when he

42:11

did set a time to come and do some work,

42:13

he didn't show up. So... Yeah,

42:15

this guy was pretty much a mess. Betty's son

42:17

Trey was living with Jack and Betty while he

42:19

was going to college and he had been at

42:21

home on Thursday, May 21st, 1992. He'd

42:25

been studying all morning. He had

42:27

a short shift to work that afternoon in

42:30

Jack's office and then he had to

42:32

go take a final exam. When Betty

42:34

had first asked if her son could come and live

42:36

with them and work for Jack while finishing

42:38

college, Jack had been really happy.

42:41

Two of his own sons had failed to

42:43

finish college and that had been a major

42:45

disappointment for him. So during

42:47

Trey's time in the house, he and Jack

42:49

had become really close. So that

42:51

morning Trey asked Betty if he and she could

42:54

go to lunch together. They

42:56

often ate with Jack either at home or at

42:58

the hospital but Jack had already called

43:00

to say he wouldn't be eating lunch that day.

43:03

Betty really didn't have time for lunch either

43:05

but she wanted to talk to Trey and

43:07

let him know that he wasn't invited to

43:09

go with her and Jack on their planned

43:11

trip to Santa Fe the next day. She

43:14

and Jack needed to be alone and they

43:16

agreed that they would go away from their

43:18

obligations of their daily lives and spend time

43:20

together. So Betty was trying to

43:22

complete some last minute errands but

43:24

if Trey was willing to follow her in

43:26

his own car, she said they could eat

43:29

together at the mall. But at the same

43:31

time, James White was watching the Wilson house

43:33

and he was able to cut through the woods

43:36

and into his pickup in time to follow them.

43:38

Betty and Trey went into a music store

43:40

in the mall where Trey bought some CDs.

43:44

Betty stopped at a clothing store and bought a dress.

43:46

Then the two of them crossed the parking lot

43:48

and ate lunch together at the McDonald's. So

43:51

White was really tired. He'd spent the

43:53

previous night driving, drinking, smoking dope and

43:56

taking pills. He visited the

43:58

Chick-fil-A restaurant in the mall. Then after

44:00

eating, he needed to go somewhere to get some

44:02

sleep. The nearest motel was

44:04

an old Ramada Inn, and he chose this

44:06

motel because it was the one nearest to

44:09

him when he got tired of stalking Betty

44:11

and her son at the mall that day.

44:13

So he checked in at 12.47pm and

44:16

paid for the room in cash. After

44:18

White got to his room, he dozed and

44:20

drank some more. Then he made some phone

44:22

calls, including a couple of calls to Betty

44:24

Wilson's house. The machine there answered

44:27

the phone, but White didn't leave a

44:29

message. She didn't speak at all. There

44:31

was a fundraiser for Tim Morgan, a

44:33

candidate for district attorney, that was being

44:35

held at a fellow doctor's house that

44:37

night. So Betty and Jack knew people

44:40

with money who had generally liberal Democratic

44:42

leanings, and they would help to fund

44:44

the Morgan campaign. Betty took

44:46

Morgan by the arm and led him to the

44:48

front of her friend's living room, where he made

44:50

a brief modest speech, and then the checks were

44:52

piling up on a table near the door. After

44:55

the party, the checks were counted and put

44:58

into a blue bank bag, which Betty took

45:00

home with her. It was her job to

45:02

make the deposit in the Morgan campaign account

45:04

at the bank the next day, and then

45:06

take the receipt to campaign headquarters. Then

45:09

earlier the next morning, Trey went into Jack's

45:11

room and told him he was not going

45:13

to Santa Fe with them. He was joining

45:15

some friends for a drive to the Florida

45:17

beaches instead. So Jack and Betty ate breakfast

45:19

together, and then Jack went to his office,

45:22

and Betty went to Renerin's. They

45:24

met again for lunch at home, and Jack told

45:26

Betty that he had to go

45:28

back to the office and wrap up some

45:30

work. So after it's 5 p.m. that day,

45:32

Betty was out running errands. When she remembered,

45:34

she hadn't made the bank deposit for the

45:36

Tim Morgan campaign. It was a Friday, and

45:39

the drive-through window at the bank would still be

45:41

open. So she hurried back home to

45:43

pick up the bank bag, and when she opened

45:45

the front door, James White was upstairs

45:47

in Jack's room. But as quickly as

45:49

she was in, Betty was back out, and White

45:51

moved to a front window and saw her carrying

45:54

the blue bank bag to her car, then

45:56

driving away. Neighbors saw Jack in

45:58

front of the house a short time later, hammering a

46:01

Tim Morgan campaign sign into the front

46:03

one using a baseball bat. Yeah,

46:06

so that night, May 22, 1992, at around 9.30

46:08

p.m., Betty called 911 from her neighbor's house.

46:14

So Betty said that she thought

46:16

her 55-year-old husband was attacked in

46:18

their home. She had arrived home

46:20

to find him lying in a pool of

46:23

blood. So police found Dr. Jack Wilson dead

46:25

on the landing at the top of the

46:27

stairs. He was on his back with

46:29

blood on the floor around him, and

46:31

there was blood spatter on the walls. An

46:34

aluminum baseball bat was found near his

46:36

body with blood on it. In addition

46:38

to being bludgeoned, he'd also been stabbed

46:40

multiple times in his chest. So

46:43

the initial police report was Bruce. Dead

46:46

man upstairs, badly beaten, stabbed,

46:49

obvious fall play, no

46:51

forced entry. TV sets and

46:53

video cassette players untouched, jewelry

46:55

untouched, and no indication of

46:58

a simple robbery. Phone line

47:00

cut indicating attacker had been

47:02

waiting. No one else in the house.

47:04

Dead man is the owner. Hall came from

47:07

his wife. She came home, found the body,

47:09

ran next door, called 911. Nothing

47:12

obvious on the ground. House and

47:15

scene sealed. Detectives asked Betty to

47:17

provide the names of housekeepers, workmen,

47:19

and any other people who might

47:21

be familiar with their house. She

47:24

didn't mention James White at first, but

47:26

then in a later conversation, she did

47:28

name him, along with a few others

47:31

she'd forgotten to include in this first

47:33

list. She explained that Mr. White was

47:35

a carpenter who had been recommended to

47:37

her by her sister, who lived in

47:40

the Vincent area about 80 miles south.

47:42

So the next morning, detectives learned that

47:44

a day before the murder, the Madison

47:47

County Sheriff in Huntsville had passed on

47:49

a tip that a rich person, possibly

47:51

a doctor or a doctor's wife, was

47:53

going to be killed. There was

47:55

vague information in this tip about the

47:58

victim or someone near the victim. having

48:00

a twin sister who was somehow

48:02

involved. At that point, however,

48:04

the tip was not the focus of the

48:07

investigation. The murder looked more like

48:09

a crime of passion than a burglary gone

48:11

wrong. Investigators were devoting most

48:13

of their energy to all family

48:15

members and associates who might have

48:17

had a reason or opportunity to

48:19

kill Jack Wilson. The week

48:21

before the murder, James White had

48:23

worked for a few days at a barbecue restaurant

48:26

in a small town near Vincent. He failed to

48:28

show up again for work the week of the

48:30

murder, but by Sunday morning, 48 hours

48:33

after the killing, White had come down from

48:35

his alcohol and drug binge and he needed

48:37

money. He called the restaurant and begged them

48:39

to give him another chance. They agreed to

48:42

give him one more chance, so he was

48:44

at work at the restaurant on Sunday when

48:46

Shelby County deputies came in and arrested him.

48:49

In the initial interrogation, White was told

48:51

that his drinking friend Janine Russell had

48:53

ratted him out, that the police knew

48:55

everything and that they had proof that

48:57

he had murdered Jack Wilson. Over

48:59

the next 24 hours in custody, he

49:02

denied that he had murdered Jack Wilson,

49:04

but he did admit that he knew

49:06

Peggy Lowe, who was Dr. Wilson's wife's

49:08

twin sister. He may have admitted

49:10

that he had been inside the Wilson

49:13

house, but if he did, he quickly

49:15

offered implausible reasons to explain why, and

49:17

the more he talked, the more guilty

49:19

he sounded. Now here's where I start

49:21

having difficulty. And this is a tenuous

49:23

connection for White and Wilson.

49:26

Yeah, I agree. But it's the only connection

49:28

that they have. Yeah. Yeah. It's the only

49:31

way that he would have ever heard of

49:33

Dr. Wilson would be through Peggy Lowe, so

49:35

that part I can see. Yes.

49:37

How did they know to question

49:40

White about the Wilson murder? Because

49:42

they got a tip from that drinking buddy

49:44

of his, Janine Russell that you were talking

49:46

about, that he had been bragging about it,

49:49

that he was going to kill a doctor

49:51

for a twin. So when he was drunk,

49:53

he would talk and he would tell stories.

49:55

And most of the stories, his friends would just

49:57

laugh off because he would talk about how the...

49:59

these women wanted him and

50:02

from all descriptions, he was pretty gross. He

50:04

had rotten teeth and he was kind of

50:07

hunched over and dirty and you know, just

50:09

a mess. You know, he

50:11

had severe alcohol and drug problems. But

50:13

he had been talking about the twins and he

50:15

had started talking about how he was going to

50:17

kill a doctor for money for a

50:19

twin. So that's how the police got to

50:22

him in the beginning. Patty

50:24

was crying and was really difficult

50:26

to talk to after Jack died.

50:29

But then after a day or

50:31

two, she was regaining her composure

50:33

and becoming stronger. She was

50:35

taking heavy doses of Valium though and

50:37

hadn't been sleeping well since her husband's

50:39

death. Questioning her about people who

50:41

might have a motive to kill her husband, detectives

50:44

asked her if she had ever had

50:46

an affair or sex outside of her

50:48

marriage. Well, she had,

50:50

yes, and she calmly said that she had.

50:53

When asked with whom, she said there had

50:55

been several and she was very willing to

50:57

give them the names. In fact,

50:59

Betty didn't even blush talking about this and

51:02

the detectives didn't like it. She told them

51:04

she'd met most of the men that she

51:06

slept with at AA meetings and

51:09

she explained to them why she did it

51:11

was because her husband had been impotent and

51:13

that he was aware of these activities. But

51:16

I don't think the police ever really believed that the

51:19

idea that there was a personal reason

51:21

for the murder grew stronger as more

51:23

and more information came out. Jack had

51:25

been bludgeoned, choked and stabbed. That kind

51:28

of murder doesn't always have a personal

51:30

connection. It can happen that someone wanders

51:32

in and then just goes over the

51:34

top. But more often than not,

51:37

it is personal. There seemed to be

51:39

hatred in the way Jack Wilson was

51:41

killed and his wife seemed like a

51:43

real hardened rich bitch to the detectives.

51:46

She had looked two homicide cops in the

51:48

eye and told them all about the men

51:50

she'd had sex with. The physical

51:53

facts of the case, no forced entry,

51:55

no theft and the savagery

51:57

of the attack meant that it was

51:59

smart for the Huntsville homicide cops to

52:01

give the Betty Wilson connection

52:03

a very thorough investigation. By

52:06

Tuesday, May 26, James

52:08

White said he was involved somehow with

52:10

the twin sister. White was admitting

52:12

that he had made trips to Betty Wilson's

52:14

house in Huntsville and he had talked on the

52:17

phone many times to Peggy Lowe. Betty Wilson had

52:19

told police that one of the people who

52:21

might have had access to the house was a

52:23

carpenter from Vincent. He had been in town

52:25

the day before the murder while she was not

52:27

in town and she said that she had

52:29

fired him before he had ever come to the

52:32

house. Well, White was told that he

52:34

was looking at the death penalty and he began

52:36

immediately testing the waters to get himself a deal.

52:38

I might know some things I might not, he

52:40

said, but I got a family too, you know.

52:42

I have kids I have to think about. I

52:45

might be able to help with some things, but

52:47

I have to be took care of, you know.

52:49

I don't know if I should trust you or

52:51

not. And he refused to

52:53

have any of his interviews taped. According

52:56

to a detective's notes, some of

52:58

which he would later claim to have lost,

53:00

White began by giving details of what

53:03

he said was a murder for hire

53:05

plot in which the twins had contracted

53:07

with him to kill

53:09

Jack Wilson. Somewhere along the

53:11

way, White had figured out

53:13

that the police were very interested in

53:16

Betty Wilson and her sister Peggy Lowe.

53:18

So if he was to implicate them,

53:20

there were logical questions that would have

53:22

to be answered to make his story

53:24

work and make him believable. So

53:26

his story in the first few days of interviews

53:28

was this. He had been having

53:30

an affair with Peggy Lowe, he said.

53:32

He said they had never actually had

53:34

sexual intercourse, but there had been

53:37

moments both at the school and at

53:39

her home when her husband was away

53:41

when she had not been able to

53:43

resist a few stolen kisses with him.

53:45

It seems impossible that anyone could have

53:48

looked at White's rotting brown teeth and

53:50

matted beard and not shudder at

53:52

the thought of someone stealing one single kiss

53:54

from him. But his story was

53:56

in its early stages at this point. He

53:58

still had plenty of time to iron out

54:01

the details. Yes, it's evolving. It

54:03

evolves a lot. So

54:05

White said he had been in Huntsville that

54:07

Friday morning to do the job but he

54:09

said he had a crisis of conscience and

54:11

began driving back to Vincent in the early

54:14

morning but then he started drinking and taking

54:16

pills and when he got high his resolve

54:18

returned and he went back to Huntsville. And

54:20

sometime between 2 and 3 p.m. he

54:23

said he had met Betty Wilson at the Parkway

54:25

City Mall for instructions then he went to the

54:27

Wilson House. At first he said

54:29

he did not remember killing Dr. Wilson and thought

54:31

that Dr. Wilson had still been alive when he

54:33

left the house. He said he fled on foot

54:35

through the woods and walked back to the mall

54:37

where his truck was parked. He drove

54:39

back to Vincent then and then went out socializing

54:41

with his brother and a friend. Well

54:44

after the first interview in the

54:46

Shelby County Jail was completed the

54:48

police were allowed to re-arrest White

54:50

under the jurisdiction of the Huntsville

54:52

Police Department and remove him from

54:54

the jail. Then they drove White

54:56

from the jail to Vincent where they

54:58

visited his home on top of the hill above

55:01

Peggy Lowe's church. They

55:03

searched through White's clothing for the clothing he

55:05

had worn during the murder but they were

55:07

unable to find any of the clothes he

55:10

said he had worn that day except for

55:12

a pair of shoes. White led

55:14

the police over to the broken porch and

55:16

pried up a floorboard. Then a detective reached

55:18

in and pulled out a handgun that was

55:20

wrapped in a rag and he said that

55:23

the twins had given him that gun to

55:25

kill Jack Wilson with. Detectives

55:27

picked up Betty and Peggy separately on the

55:30

day of Jack's memorial service. They

55:32

confronted both of them with what James White

55:34

had told them. Betty

55:37

denied ever even meeting White and

55:39

Peggy vehemently denied having an

55:41

affair with him or ever hiring him

55:43

to kill anybody. So the police tried

55:45

telling each twin that the other had

55:48

turned on them but they each refused

55:50

to believe that. After that

55:52

they each hired attorneys. In order to

55:54

afford it Betty had to contact her

55:57

accountant who suggested that she sell Jack's

55:59

medical practice. But there

56:01

were some major credibility issues with

56:03

James White's story. Even getting

56:05

a judge to sign a warrant for

56:07

the twins' arrest, let alone convincing the

56:10

DA to prosecute them, was going to

56:12

be impossible, unless White could explain things

56:14

better. So according to the

56:16

detective's rough notes, he was

56:19

claiming that Betty Wilson had paid him a large

56:21

amount of money to kill her husband. And

56:24

he mentioned various amounts, from $5,000 to $20,000. But

56:29

if White had received that money shortly

56:31

before the murder, he'd have to prove it. Under

56:34

Alabama law, nothing he said could

56:37

be used in court, unless it

56:39

could be independently corroborated. And

56:41

because he was going to admit that he

56:43

was a co-conspirator, his word was worthless, according

56:45

to the law, unless what he said was

56:48

proven in some other way. When White paid

56:50

his bills, he always paid it the last

56:52

possible moment. But as it happened, he

56:54

had paid off about $2,500 in bills, not too long

56:56

before Jack Wilson was killed. No

57:00

one may ever know where that money really came from.

57:03

But White quickly offered up that it had come from

57:05

the twins. Yeah, the story really became

57:07

this. James White had

57:09

originally told the twins he could hire someone

57:12

else to commit the murder for $20,000. But

57:15

Betty Wilson, being cheap, had said that price

57:17

was too high. And

57:20

why would $20,000 be a lot of money for her?

57:22

That doesn't make sense. So White

57:24

had come in with a lower offer of $5,000. And

57:27

the twins had agreed to that. But Betty

57:29

said she would only pay half in advance,

57:31

and then the other half in completion. So

57:33

he said that shortly before the killing, she

57:36

had paid him $2,500. So

57:39

this really looked bad for Betty and Peggy. White

57:41

was willing to say anything to get a plea

57:43

deal, whether the twins were behind

57:46

this murder or not. He

57:48

claimed that he and Peggy had formed a

57:50

friendship, and she had told him

57:52

about her sister and Aunt Sal who wanted to

57:54

get rid of her husband. And

57:56

of course, this sister was Betty Wilson. of

58:00

asking White about the money, a detective

58:02

asked him if he had ever received

58:04

any money directly from Betty Wilson. Then

58:06

White recalled that he had and that

58:08

the money, $200, had been

58:11

passed to him in a library book at

58:13

Guntersville State Lutch. Now

58:16

Betty would say she had given him that

58:18

money so that he could get a

58:20

hotel to stay at nearby and come to an

58:22

AA meeting. This was before she had fired him.

58:25

Police investigators were immediately sent

58:27

to Vincent where they searched

58:29

White's pickup truck and they

58:31

found the library book that he had been talking

58:33

about. It had been borrowed in the name of

58:36

Betty Wilson. So this was

58:38

an important breakthrough for them. Now they

58:40

had a physical link between James White

58:42

and Betty Wilson. But of

58:44

course according to Betty, she put the

58:46

$200 in the library book because she

58:48

expected him to come into the lodge,

58:50

introduce himself, attend an AA meeting

58:53

and give her her book back. She

58:55

didn't give him the gun either, she said. He had

58:57

stolen it from the house. So it

58:59

was difficult to understand why she would have

59:01

given him a gun registered in her name

59:04

and a library book she had checked out

59:06

in her name. But early in the morning

59:09

Betty and Peggy were arrested and they were

59:11

led away from Peggy's house in handcuffs. White

59:14

suddenly remembered staying at the Ramada Inn the

59:16

night before the murder. He

59:19

remembered that Betty had met him at a

59:21

fast food restaurant at the Parkway City Mall

59:23

at Chick-fil-A and had passed him $100 in

59:25

a used food bag to pay for his

59:27

day at the motel. He remembered

59:29

wearing the ski masks the police had found in

59:31

the Wilson home. He suddenly remembered

59:33

that while he was lying in the backseat

59:36

of Betty Wilson's car after committing

59:38

the murder with a pink clothing

59:40

bag over him, he had noticed a light

59:42

blue bag on the front seat. But there

59:44

were still some things that needed to be

59:46

remembered. There was a problem for investigators that

59:48

there was no physical evidence to show that

59:51

Jettim Swite had ever been in Betty Wilson's

59:53

car. In his statements he had been

59:55

willing to remember everything right up to

59:57

the murder, sometimes in detail as in

59:59

the matter of Betty's flowered

1:00:01

tennis shoes. He had been

1:00:03

willing to remember everything right after the murder,

1:00:05

such as the light blue bank bag on

1:00:08

the front seat of Betty's car too. But

1:00:10

he continued to refuse to remember the

1:00:13

murder itself. And he continued

1:00:15

to insist that he wanted a written

1:00:17

contract with the authorities, guaranteeing him a

1:00:19

light sentence in exchange for

1:00:22

putting the twins in the electric chair. So

1:00:24

some of the search for corroboration

1:00:27

had very troubling results. A

1:00:29

police dog handler had taken a

1:00:31

scent-searching dog named Zeke to Betty's

1:00:33

house at 2700 Boulder

1:00:36

a short time after Jack's murder. The

1:00:39

dog was given a piece of James White's

1:00:41

clothing and searched the area. The

1:00:44

dog picked up a scent near the back of the

1:00:46

house and then made a straight path down

1:00:48

through the woods where White had said

1:00:50

in all of his early statements that

1:00:52

he had escaped on foot after

1:00:55

doing the killing. But the trouble was that

1:00:57

White no longer remembered running away on foot.

1:00:59

If Zeke the dog sniffed out a strong

1:01:01

trail he had left through the woods, then

1:01:04

the dog was actually confirming White's

1:01:06

early version, which had not implicated

1:01:09

Betty. And he was contradicting the

1:01:11

suddenly remembered new version, which did

1:01:14

implicate her. Also, no

1:01:16

clothing was found where White had claimed to

1:01:18

have buried his either. The behavior of the

1:01:20

dog would have to be explained in court.

1:01:22

And investigators would later say that the dog

1:01:25

had an allergy during the search, which

1:01:28

seems pretty ludicrous. So this missing

1:01:30

clothing would become one of the biggest mysteries

1:01:32

in the case. Then as

1:01:35

he lay on his bunk in the

1:01:37

jail early one morning White said a

1:01:39

vision came into him. The vision of

1:01:41

Mrs. Betty Wilson bending down beside her

1:01:43

BMW on the parking lot at Parkway

1:01:45

City Mall, taking off her shoes and

1:01:48

slipping her feet into brand new pair

1:01:50

of tennis shoes, flower tennis shoes. So

1:01:52

from here on out everything Betty had

1:01:54

told the police in her first statements

1:01:56

would become corroborating evidence helping White's accusations

1:01:59

against her. This is the end of this video. Please like,

1:02:01

share and subscribe for more videos. Thank you very much and see you next time. This

1:03:00

is the end of this video. Thank you very much and see you next time. Bye. 12

1:03:30

Regular Jurors and 2 Alternates. 12 Men and

1:03:32

2 Women. Of

1:03:34

the 12 Regular Jurors, 3 were Black, a

1:03:37

Young Man, an Older Man and a Late

1:03:39

Middle Aged Woman. The overwhelming majority of the

1:03:41

jury then was made up of White Men,

1:03:44

most of whom were middle aged to

1:03:46

elderly and most of whom were working

1:03:48

class. That's with the exception

1:03:50

of a Professor, a retired doctor and

1:03:53

a businessman. So with her

1:03:55

back to the public and her profile to

1:03:57

the jury, Betty wore a well tailored gray

1:03:59

hound. tooth suit. Her hair had

1:04:01

been cut short and colored black, streaked

1:04:03

white on the sides. The suit,

1:04:06

the hair, and an expert application of

1:04:08

makeup was all intended to make her

1:04:10

look like a respectable woman, but it

1:04:12

didn't work. Betty had spent

1:04:14

the better part of a year locked

1:04:16

in a jail cell by the time

1:04:18

her trial began. Her only contact with

1:04:21

the outside world had been through her

1:04:23

attorney, and over the months James White

1:04:25

had had dental work and a makeover.

1:04:27

Betty Wilson was the white woman who

1:04:29

had slept with African American men in

1:04:31

her sick husband's house, and she

1:04:33

was very hated. Betty's will to

1:04:35

survive had kept her going but just

1:04:37

barely. By the time she

1:04:40

got to trial, her ordeal was really showing

1:04:42

on her face. Betty looked

1:04:44

hardened. She was pale and she was

1:04:46

terrified. The first day of her trial

1:04:48

was not good, either. The prosecutor was

1:04:51

friendly and went over the jurors with

1:04:53

his good old boy, Persana. He told

1:04:55

them about Dr. Jack Wilson, the

1:04:57

Huntsville ophthalmologist whose patients had all adored

1:04:59

him. He led the jurors to the

1:05:01

moment of the murder, and he told

1:05:04

them about James White, the man who

1:05:06

had killed Dr. Wilson. He moved in

1:05:08

close to the railing separating him from

1:05:10

the jurors, and he put his hands

1:05:12

on the rail and faced them silently

1:05:14

for a moment. Then he told them,

1:05:17

when the police found Jack Wilson, his

1:05:19

forearms had been beaten and broken, his

1:05:22

skull had been beaten and crushed. He'd

1:05:24

been stabbed in the abdomen. He died on

1:05:26

the second story of his own house, just

1:05:29

outside of his wife's bedroom, in a

1:05:31

pool of his own blood. Then he

1:05:33

went on to describe Betty as a

1:05:35

vain and selfish woman. She was obsessed

1:05:37

with her own image and appearance, and

1:05:40

with having things, and with a big

1:05:42

house and the two expensive cars.

1:05:45

Everything all of us would think of as

1:05:47

the good life, but she wanted more. He

1:05:49

said that Betty was cruel to Jack, and she

1:05:52

cheated on him. Then he described

1:05:54

a triangle. On one side is Betty

1:05:56

Wilson. On the other side, her twin

1:05:58

sister Peggy Lowe. And on the

1:06:01

third side is James White. Then in

1:06:03

the center is Jack Wilson, the victim.

1:06:05

He said, like wet hay in the

1:06:07

barn, all the elements were together for

1:06:09

spontaneous combustion. So he had a flair

1:06:11

for the dramatic. Yes, I think so.

1:06:14

So the jury was told that Jack Wilson

1:06:16

had left behind a $6 million estate, which

1:06:18

would all go to his wife, Betty. James

1:06:21

White, under indictment for his part in the

1:06:23

murder and obligated to take the stannest part

1:06:25

of his plea deal, testified that he was

1:06:27

hired by Betty and her sister Peggy to

1:06:29

kill Dr. Wilson. He said that one of

1:06:31

the reasons he had committed the murder was

1:06:34

to win Peggy's affection. White said

1:06:36

that after he was paid, he paid

1:06:39

some past-due utility bills, deposited $500 in

1:06:41

his bank account, which was $400 overdrawn,

1:06:44

and spent the rest on his kids. White

1:06:47

said that Peggy started pressuring him to kill

1:06:49

Jack Wilson after he had intercourse with her

1:06:51

on May 15, 1992. He

1:06:54

said that his money was all gone, so

1:06:56

Peggy had told him to go and see

1:06:58

Betty at Lake Huntersville State Park and get

1:07:00

some money from Betty, who was at an

1:07:02

AA meeting. Peggy described Betty's car, a

1:07:05

black BMW, and told him to get the

1:07:07

library book, which would have cash in it.

1:07:09

Yeah, White testified that two days before

1:07:12

May 16, he

1:07:14

received a phone call from Betty, asking

1:07:16

him what was going on and why

1:07:18

Dr. Wilson had not been killed yet.

1:07:20

She wanted Jack dead before May 24,

1:07:23

so she wouldn't have to go on vacation to

1:07:25

Santa Fe with him on their planned trip. He

1:07:27

went on to say that he was given the

1:07:29

gun by Betty. Then he took it home, wrapped

1:07:31

it in a towel, and hid it under some

1:07:33

boards. He said he needed more money on

1:07:35

May 21, and Betty met him

1:07:38

at the Chick-fil-A at the mall around noon and gave

1:07:40

him a bag with $100 in it. He

1:07:43

testified that around 3 PM on Friday, May

1:07:45

22, as he

1:07:47

got out of her car, he'd noticed

1:07:49

Betty's flowered tennis shoes. He

1:07:52

got down on the floor, and she drove him to

1:07:54

her house. When they arrived, she

1:07:56

pulled into the garage and handed him $40 and told

1:07:58

him to get the bag. him where her

1:08:00

husband's bedroom was located. Dr. Wilson

1:08:03

was not home at that time.

1:08:05

White testified that he decided not

1:08:07

to use the gun and instead took

1:08:09

some rope along with him. He said

1:08:11

he waited in the house for several

1:08:13

hours for Dr. Wilson to arrive. Then

1:08:16

as he was walking on the landing of

1:08:18

the stairs he came face to face with

1:08:20

Jack Wilson. After this he said they wrestled

1:08:22

and he hit Dr. Wilson with an object

1:08:24

that he couldn't identify. Then

1:08:27

he blanked out and found himself behind the house

1:08:29

in the woods. Then he went back to the

1:08:31

house where Betty picked him up and drove him

1:08:34

to the mall where he had left his truck

1:08:36

parked. His remaining $2,500 was

1:08:38

supposed to be left in Peggy

1:08:40

Lowe's garage on the Sunday after

1:08:42

the murder he said but

1:08:45

there was no money there. There was no

1:08:47

physical evidence. There were no witnesses.

1:08:49

There was only James White's accusation. If

1:08:52

he wasn't seen as credible then

1:08:54

the whole story would fall apart.

1:08:56

It sure would. So witnesses who corroborated James

1:08:58

White's story said that he had a great

1:09:00

deal of money immediately after Jack Wilson's murder.

1:09:03

The head teller at his bank said that

1:09:05

he had made no deposits to his account

1:09:07

from January to April 1992. At the time

1:09:09

of his $500 deposit, April 27th, his

1:09:11

account was overdrawn

1:09:16

by $400. The owner of a local

1:09:18

grocery store testified that White came in

1:09:20

on May 22nd and paid

1:09:22

her for two checks which had been returned

1:09:25

for insufficient funds. White was

1:09:27

questioned about money he received through lawsuits approximately

1:09:29

$34,000 and White explained the

1:09:32

money was used for his children's expenses for

1:09:35

Max Wives especially for Christmas. So

1:09:37

Wizzes job is a cook and drug

1:09:39

dealer and the money he received from

1:09:41

the lawsuit and working odd jobs is

1:09:44

making nearly $100,000 a year. Far

1:09:46

from a poor man, he was more than

1:09:48

likely someone who could not finance his income

1:09:51

properly. He owned property, a vehicle

1:09:53

and was able to support his drug use

1:09:55

and alcohol habit. A state presented

1:09:57

evidence that Betty Wilson was unhappy in

1:09:59

her marriage and this was easy

1:10:01

to do because Betty had been very

1:10:03

outspoken, she'd had multiple lovers

1:10:06

and she and Jack slept in separate

1:10:08

bedrooms. An employee from Dr. Wilson's office

1:10:11

testified that Betty was on kind to

1:10:13

him and she once told her that

1:10:15

she would rather be a well-respected

1:10:17

widow than a divorcee. Shirley

1:10:20

Green, the Wilson's housekeeper, testified that

1:10:22

the Wilson slept in separate bedrooms

1:10:25

and that Betty had made derogatory remarks

1:10:28

about her husband, including that

1:10:30

she called his colostomy bag a

1:10:32

shit bag. She also confirmed

1:10:34

that Betty had brought several other men to

1:10:36

the house when Jack was out. There

1:10:39

was also testimony about what had gone

1:10:41

on at Lake Guntersville State Park. Keith

1:10:43

Tucker, a security guard, testified that White

1:10:45

had come to the park on May

1:10:47

16th and wanted

1:10:49

to get a book from Betty Wilson's car. Another

1:10:52

security guard testified that he had accompanied

1:10:54

Betty to her black BMW to get

1:10:56

the book. Telephone records confirmed

1:10:58

that there was a 10-minute phone call

1:11:00

made to Peggy Lowe's house from a

1:11:02

payphone at the store about three

1:11:05

miles from the park's entrance. The

1:11:07

manager of the Ramada Inn testified that

1:11:10

James White stayed there on the evening

1:11:12

of May 21st, that he

1:11:14

paid cash for the room and that he

1:11:16

made several phone calls from that room and

1:11:18

records would confirm that he had called Peggy

1:11:21

Lowe. Witnesses testified about Betty's behavior

1:11:23

on the day of the murder as

1:11:25

well. The manager of a

1:11:27

department store had sold Betty a pair

1:11:29

of flower tennis shoes. A neighbor of

1:11:31

Betty's identified White as a man she

1:11:33

had seen limping in the direction of

1:11:36

the Wilson house at around 5 p.m.

1:11:38

and then she had seen Betty driving

1:11:40

toward her house at 5.15. Witnesses

1:11:43

testified that Betty didn't arrive at her

1:11:45

5.25 p.m. AA meeting until 6 p.m.

1:11:47

and that

1:11:50

she was dressed casually with flower tennis

1:11:52

shoes. Betty's defense was that

1:11:54

she was trying to help James White get

1:11:57

into AA. that

1:12:00

the occurrences at the state park were just

1:12:02

an effort by Betty to try and give

1:12:04

white money so that he could come to

1:12:06

the AA meeting and then spend

1:12:09

the weekend nearby. Late on

1:12:11

the afternoon of the first day of

1:12:13

the trial, when all the jurors were

1:12:15

beginning to tire, the prosecutor brought Dr.

1:12:17

Joseph Embry, who was the chief pathologist

1:12:20

for the Alabama Department of Forensic Science,

1:12:22

whose call to the stand. Dr. Embry

1:12:24

spoke in a soft voice as he

1:12:26

handled and commented on the photos of

1:12:29

the body and murder scene. There are

1:12:31

nine tears in the head, including two

1:12:33

on the forehead, and these pictures are

1:12:35

8 by 10 inch glossy police photos.

1:12:38

So as Embry finished describing each picture,

1:12:40

the prosecutor took them over to the

1:12:42

jury box to be passed from juror to

1:12:44

juror. So the most severe tear was at

1:12:46

the front of the head, which caused a

1:12:49

skull fracture right in the midline of his

1:12:51

forehead. The prosecutor handled the jurors' portrait taken

1:12:53

straight on from a few inches away of

1:12:55

Jack Wilson's face on the floor. In front

1:12:58

of his skull was caved in and crimson

1:13:00

with blood, and his eyes were bulging out

1:13:02

from their sockets. Jack's dead face

1:13:04

with the eyes knocked out of his skull

1:13:06

and his bloody skull with his scalp peeled

1:13:08

back were shocking pictures to look at. Betty

1:13:11

was afraid that any emotion she showed might

1:13:13

be interpreted by the jury as fake, but

1:13:15

at the same time she was afraid that

1:13:17

failing the show emotion would be interpreted as

1:13:19

callousness. Many of Betty's friends and acquaintances had

1:13:21

thrown her under the bus, and they all

1:13:23

believed she would be guilty. Yeah,

1:13:26

the prosecutor led Embry through a

1:13:28

detailed description of Jack Wilson's two

1:13:30

stab wounds. The one just

1:13:32

above the navel is U-shaped, Embry said,

1:13:35

and goes through the abdomen wall, through

1:13:37

the stomach and pancreas, covering

1:13:39

the inferior mesenteric vein and the

1:13:42

left renal vein, stopping just

1:13:44

in front of the aorta and

1:13:46

two and a half inches deep into the body. Embry

1:13:49

concluded that both the knife wounds and

1:13:51

the baseball bat injuries would have been

1:13:53

fatal. Each without the other,

1:13:55

so this was an overkill. Yeah, there were

1:13:57

two days of

1:14:00

deliberations by the jury, there was one

1:14:02

holdout who didn't believe that Betty was

1:14:04

guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but

1:14:07

she was eventually convinced to vote

1:14:09

for unanimous verdict of guilty. Both

1:14:11

the prosecutor and the defense had agreed

1:14:14

that it would be very difficult to

1:14:16

win a death sentence because Betty was

1:14:18

not a physical participant in the murder

1:14:20

and because of the relatively light sentence

1:14:23

that White had received by getting Betty

1:14:25

convicted. He received a life

1:14:27

sentence but he was eligible for parole in

1:14:29

just 7 years. Both sides agreed

1:14:32

to petition the judge jointly and they

1:14:34

asked him to waive the penalty trial

1:14:36

and go ahead and give her a sentence

1:14:39

of life in prison without the possibility of

1:14:41

parole. So the judge agreed to that. And

1:14:44

you know they never really figured out

1:14:46

exactly how Jack was bludgeoned. There were

1:14:48

experts that thought the bat couldn't be

1:14:50

the weapon, they thought it was something

1:14:52

narrower like rebar or like a fire

1:14:54

police poker. So they really never figured

1:14:56

this out completely. I don't think we're

1:14:58

ever really going to know what happened.

1:15:00

I do believe that White did it

1:15:02

but I don't know if he remembers

1:15:04

doing it. He was in such a

1:15:06

drug alcohol state. Yeah, I

1:15:08

think you could convince me that White did

1:15:11

the actual crime. Yes. But still not

1:15:13

sure. Well, I can believe that he did it

1:15:15

but I really don't know why he did

1:15:17

it. I can see him stalking Betty and just

1:15:19

being in the house when Jack comes home and

1:15:22

just going crazy. That happens. In

1:15:25

the weeks after the verdict, Peggy and Wayne Lowe

1:15:27

had to deal with their feelings of sorrow for

1:15:29

Betty as well as their fear of what may

1:15:31

lay ahead for Peggy. Yeah, she isn't going

1:15:34

to trial you. No. And

1:15:36

it's not looking good for her if her sister

1:15:38

is convicted. It sure isn't. Betty had

1:15:40

been defended by the best lawyers that money could

1:15:42

buy too because she had a lot more money

1:15:44

than Peggy. Even though Betty couldn't

1:15:46

pay them unless she wanted a quittle

1:15:48

and inherited Jack's estate, her legal team

1:15:50

had been willing to invest hundreds of

1:15:52

thousands of dollars worth of their own

1:15:55

time in Betty's case, betting that they

1:15:57

would win and then they'd be paid.

1:16:00

We know they'd lost and they would never be

1:16:02

paid. Peggy and Wayne had a

1:16:04

combined family income of about $50,000 a year and

1:16:06

they had no savings. Every

1:16:10

dollar they'd earned had gone into their home,

1:16:12

their modest expenses and their children. Remember

1:16:15

they also gave a lot to charity, including

1:16:17

James White. Now

1:16:20

the only thing they could offer lawyers was

1:16:22

the national attention that the case might bring

1:16:24

them, but the jury had believed

1:16:26

James White and of course he would

1:16:28

testify in Peggy's trial as well. If

1:16:30

her sister had been found guilty based on

1:16:33

a story that included Peggy as a

1:16:35

co-conspirator, Peggy felt that her chances of an

1:16:37

acquittal were not good at all. When

1:16:39

it came time for Peggy's trial, the state would

1:16:42

put on the same evidence that it

1:16:44

had presented in Betty's trial. There really was

1:16:46

no other evidence. It was

1:16:48

virtually the same case, only with a

1:16:50

different twin sitting at the defense table.

1:16:53

So if Betty had lost, there was

1:16:55

every reason to believe that Peggy would

1:16:57

as well. Sure. After

1:16:59

six months between Betty's conviction and

1:17:01

the beginning of Peggy's trial, the

1:17:03

people of Peggy's church and the

1:17:06

town continued to support her. Once

1:17:08

they came running out of storefronts and

1:17:10

physically chased off a group of reporters

1:17:12

who'd come to town to cover the

1:17:14

story. They didn't believe that Peggy could

1:17:16

be guilty and they would

1:17:19

never weaken in this conviction. Whenever

1:17:21

she thought that the fear was going to

1:17:23

crush her, it was her community and her

1:17:25

church that saved her. But Peggy felt that

1:17:27

it was her who had failed her twin.

1:17:29

After all, she was the one who had

1:17:31

sent James White to Betty in the first

1:17:33

place. Now Betty had gone to prison and

1:17:35

Peggy, the family hero, was not too far

1:17:37

behind. Peggy couldn't afford

1:17:39

a hyprophile lawyer. She hired David

1:17:42

Cromwell Johnson, a middle-aged criminal defense

1:17:44

attorney in Birmingham, with a good

1:17:46

reputation. And Johnson was able

1:17:48

to bring in Herman Watson of Huntsville. Watson

1:17:51

had represented members of the Dixie Mafia in

1:17:53

the old days in Alabama and had taken

1:17:55

part in major political trials more recently. So,

1:17:58

this is a major win. having

1:18:00

him added to the team. But 18 months

1:18:02

of investigating had failed to turn up

1:18:04

a single shred of evidence that Peggy

1:18:06

had ever done anything bad in her

1:18:09

whole life. It was going to be

1:18:11

difficult if not impossible to get any

1:18:13

jury to believe that a woman who

1:18:15

had led a completely upright and virtuous

1:18:17

life had fallen into a murder plot

1:18:19

after suddenly falling in love with the

1:18:21

drunken lowlife like James White. Given

1:18:23

more time and an entire trial record

1:18:25

to go by, the second Twins defense

1:18:28

team might be able to do what

1:18:30

Betty's team had failed to do. They

1:18:32

might be able to show the jury

1:18:34

how the police had filtered information to

1:18:36

White and poisoned his testimony. So in

1:18:38

spite of what had happened to Betty,

1:18:41

Peggy did have a chance. But

1:18:43

every time Peggy allowed herself to be

1:18:45

hopeful, she remembered that Betty's lawyers had

1:18:48

insisted that they would win Betty's case

1:18:50

right up until when the verdict was read. So

1:18:53

Peggy's trial was moved to Montgomery and set

1:18:55

for September 13th, 1993. In the months leading

1:18:57

up to the trial, Madison

1:19:01

County District Judge William Page, who

1:19:04

was presiding over the case, had made

1:19:06

it known in several hearings that

1:19:08

he thought White's testimony was very

1:19:10

suspect. That the signed contract

1:19:13

Mo Brooks had given White was crazy.

1:19:15

Mo Brooks was the current DA, very

1:19:18

conservative, and that the state needed to

1:19:20

come up with more corroboration than it

1:19:22

had in Betty Wilson's trial. No law

1:19:25

enforcement investigator in Alabama had ever been

1:19:27

able to find a single witness, piece

1:19:29

of paper, electronic record, or other evidence

1:19:32

that would support the allegation that Betty

1:19:34

Wilson had gathered the $2,500 in $20

1:19:36

bill to pay James

1:19:41

White to kill her husband. Because in

1:19:43

reality, it's not easy for the average

1:19:45

person in the modern world to put

1:19:47

together that much cash without leaving some

1:19:49

kind of a financial footprint. If the

1:19:51

cash had come from her own bank,

1:19:53

there would be a computer record. If

1:19:56

she wrote a check somewhere else, there would be a record

1:19:58

of the check. Even if

1:20:00

she had taken other bills and converted them

1:20:02

to 20s, there would be a record.

1:20:05

If she had always kept a stash of

1:20:07

several thousand dollars and twenty dollar bills in

1:20:10

her home, someone would have known about it.

1:20:12

She did have a housekeeper. Also

1:20:14

after months of searching, investigators had failed

1:20:16

to turn up any physical evidence to

1:20:19

back up White's story of those car

1:20:21

rides to and from the murder scene.

1:20:23

And no one ever had any

1:20:25

indication that Peggy could have been

1:20:27

romantically involved with James White, so

1:20:29

the state's plan was basically to

1:20:31

put Betty on trial again. It

1:20:34

was all going to come down to Betty being

1:20:36

found guilty already. Getting a

1:20:38

second jury to believe she was still

1:20:40

guilty wouldn't be too difficult. It wasn't

1:20:43

possible to inform the jury of the

1:20:45

first jury's verdict, but by reading testimony

1:20:47

from the first trial record at this

1:20:50

trial and by going over the details

1:20:52

of the alleged plot, the prosecution would

1:20:54

be able to make this point. So

1:20:57

no matter what the judge told these

1:20:59

jurors, the knowledge of Betty's conviction would

1:21:01

certainly get around. They were twins. Twins

1:21:03

have secrets. Twins are

1:21:06

unlike other human beings. Neither owns

1:21:08

a whole conscience of their own.

1:21:11

But in the process of discovery, the

1:21:13

state had turned over absolutely nothing. They

1:21:16

had found nothing new for this case. So

1:21:18

they'd have to go with what they

1:21:20

already had, and that was basically Betty's

1:21:22

conviction. So the defense was

1:21:25

able, during cross-examination of James White, to

1:21:27

go through his own personal criminal history

1:21:29

before he had met Peggy Lowe. The

1:21:32

events that Betty's prosecutor had successfully

1:21:34

presented to the first jury as

1:21:37

just useful in discretion now

1:21:39

came across in much more lurid detail.

1:21:41

So one example was a run-in with

1:21:44

the law, which White had explained away

1:21:46

in the first trial as some bad

1:21:48

luck he had suffered while hitchhiking in

1:21:50

Arkansas. But in fact, he and

1:21:53

another man were picked up by a married couple

1:21:55

who were traveling with a U-Haul trailer behind their car. White and

1:21:57

his buddy had looked at the car and looked at the

1:21:59

car. locked the husband in the trailer and

1:22:02

were headed off to do god knows

1:22:04

what with the wife when a group

1:22:06

of state troopers surrounded the car with

1:22:08

shotguns and forced them out. So

1:22:10

White had served five years and

1:22:12

he had escaped and was captured and

1:22:14

convicted of selling drugs. Then he was

1:22:16

returned to prison where he was charged

1:22:19

with sodomy. So he

1:22:21

interrupted the defense attorney self-righteously while

1:22:23

being questioned about this to

1:22:26

tell him that the sodomy had not occurred

1:22:28

while he was in prison but actually while

1:22:30

he was in the Talladega County Jail awaiting

1:22:32

trial on car theft charges. What

1:22:35

a genius. So that should make all the

1:22:37

difference, right? Yeah. It wasn't prison

1:22:39

sodomy, it was jail sodomy. So

1:22:41

they're actually able to show him in a much

1:22:45

less positive light in this trial.

1:22:47

In Peggy's trial by going over

1:22:49

in detail, her defense attorney was

1:22:51

able to get the jury to understand

1:22:53

how White had changed his story in

1:22:55

order to get his pleading. He was

1:22:57

able to use the state's witnesses and

1:22:59

the state's evidence to show that the

1:23:01

state's version of what had happened was

1:23:04

actually impossible. Betty's time

1:23:06

was accounted for almost minute by

1:23:08

minute by their corroborative evidence. Except

1:23:11

for the few minutes when she returned to the

1:23:13

house at 5pm for the bank bag, there

1:23:16

were no gaps when she could have driven White

1:23:18

to the house and then returned to

1:23:20

give him a ride back to his truck. Also

1:23:23

Dr. Wilson was on the phone chatting

1:23:25

with people after the time he would

1:23:27

have had to die in order for

1:23:29

Betty to have been in on it.

1:23:31

And then for every witness the prosecution

1:23:33

had presented to call Betty Wilson a

1:23:35

slut, the defense team presented at least

1:23:37

two to testify to

1:23:39

Peggy Lowe's kindness, honesty and

1:23:41

virtue. Some of the

1:23:43

stories of Peggy and Wayne's generosity were

1:23:45

so moving that the jurors got teary-eyed

1:23:47

as the witnesses spoke. One after

1:23:49

another people took the stand to tell

1:23:52

how the Lowe's, who were people of

1:23:54

very modest means, had reached

1:23:56

out to give support to people in need. There

1:23:59

were on-way mothers who took the stand to tell

1:24:01

how the Lowe's had opened their home to them. Women

1:24:04

who had known Peggy for years came

1:24:06

to the stand to talk about her

1:24:08

tolerance and her generosity. Wayne

1:24:10

and Peggy's children came to the stand

1:24:12

and they spoke movingly of their happy

1:24:14

childhood and the happiness of their

1:24:16

home life. Wayne testified and

1:24:19

he came across as a strong,

1:24:21

responsible and honest man. Peggy

1:24:23

took the stand in her own defense. The

1:24:26

jurors were ready to believe Betty had been

1:24:28

falsely convicted. They were ready to believe James

1:24:30

White was a liar. They were even willing

1:24:32

to accept that the police had gotten themselves

1:24:34

wrapped up in White's lies. But it all

1:24:36

depended on what the jury thought of Peggy.

1:24:39

On the stand Peggy talked about her

1:24:41

remarriage, going to college and becoming a

1:24:43

teacher. She said that Jack Wilson was

1:24:45

one of the most caring, sympathetic, kind-hearted

1:24:47

men she has ever met. Then she

1:24:50

talked about meeting James White. She told

1:24:52

how she and Stephanie and Wayne were

1:24:54

eating lunch together in her classroom when White

1:24:56

came in and asked for more work. Wayne

1:24:58

asked, did you have sexual intercourse with James

1:25:00

White? She said no and an angry, bitter

1:25:02

voice. The first time I ever heard of

1:25:04

the accusation of sex was at Betty's trial.

1:25:07

Her attorney asked her why she had referred

1:25:09

James White to her sister and she explained

1:25:11

that Mr. White had called her and said

1:25:13

he was suicidal. He said he had tried

1:25:15

to kill himself. She explained all of the

1:25:17

calls back and forth, White's trip

1:25:20

to Gunter's Hill and each and

1:25:22

every detail of the state's story. The

1:25:24

longer she talked, the more accepting the

1:25:26

jury became. She came across

1:25:28

as a middle-class person from humble beginnings

1:25:30

who had led a good life. So

1:25:33

the jury deliberated for just two hours,

1:25:35

long enough to elect a foreman, re-read

1:25:38

the judge's instructions, talk for a while

1:25:40

and take a vote. Peggy

1:25:42

was acquitted on all counts. But

1:25:45

after Peggy's acquittal, the media

1:25:47

would continue to report as if both

1:25:49

of the twins had been found guilty.

1:25:52

So Betty can't get out of prison because

1:25:54

her sister was found not guilty when

1:25:56

tried on the same facts as her case. to

1:26:00

find new information or errors in her

1:26:02

trial in order to free her. But

1:26:04

the information that should free her is

1:26:07

the same evidence that was presented in

1:26:09

her trial. There is no new

1:26:11

information. If the only mistake was

1:26:13

the jury's mistake in the verdict that they

1:26:15

looked at all the evidence and came to

1:26:17

the wrong conclusion, that won't help her.

1:26:20

That can't be used on appeal. Shockingly,

1:26:22

the lies which are in James White,

1:26:24

his light sentence, have been recanted and

1:26:27

sworn affidavit signed in prison on June

1:26:29

1, 1994, James White confessed that the

1:26:31

whole story he told in court to

1:26:34

help get the twins convicted was

1:26:36

a lie. He said that his resentment

1:26:38

toward Peggy's rejecting him romantically influenced him

1:26:40

to make false accusations against her and

1:26:42

her sister. He also admitted to never

1:26:45

meeting Betty Wilson in person. He said

1:26:47

that Peggy Lowe helped him find work

1:26:49

in 1991. He said he began to

1:26:51

think of her in romantic terms. He

1:26:54

remembered sharing his feelings with her and then she

1:26:56

laughed at him. At the same time,

1:26:58

he said that his memory of this entire period of

1:27:00

his life is clouded by alcohol

1:27:02

and drug use. So he might

1:27:04

not even know himself what's true and what's not.

1:27:07

I don't think he does. I really don't think he

1:27:09

does. Unfortunately, White also tried

1:27:11

to say in that same document though

1:27:14

that he really had nothing to

1:27:16

do with Jack Wilson's death. So

1:27:18

when reporters asked him about White's

1:27:21

recantation, Betty's former prosecutor responded that

1:27:23

the statement was worthless because

1:27:25

it was impossible to believe anything

1:27:27

James White said, the irony. That's

1:27:29

irony, right? Yeah. Yeah. But White's

1:27:32

word was the core of the

1:27:34

state's case against both twins. There

1:27:36

was no physical evidence. There were

1:27:38

no eyewitnesses, nothing except

1:27:40

James White's story. And of course,

1:27:42

he's an admitted lifelong chronic liar.

1:27:44

Like everything else James White has

1:27:46

ever said in his life, the

1:27:49

statement offered a little bit of truth wrapped up

1:27:51

in lies. So it really didn't

1:27:53

help anyone. Hello,

1:28:02

saver! Whether you're saving

1:28:05

for that trip to the tropics or saving

1:28:07

for an emergency, now is the time to

1:28:09

take advantage of Wells Fargo's savings options. Wells

1:28:12

Fargo offers savings accounts that can help you

1:28:14

save towards your goals. So,

1:28:16

what are you saving for? Visit

1:28:19

a Wells Fargo branch or wellsfargo.com/save

1:28:21

to open a savings account today.

1:28:25

Wells Fargo Bank N.A. Member FDIC.

1:28:37

Betty Wilson remarried in prison. Back

1:28:40

in 2002, an Army contractor named

1:28:42

Bill Campbell saw Betty on 48

1:28:45

Hours, and he was shocked by

1:28:47

Betty's conviction and began writing to

1:28:49

her. So, they were married four

1:28:51

years later. They had cake and they drank

1:28:53

Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper. James

1:28:56

White was up for parole after just

1:28:58

seven years in prison, but he

1:29:00

has been repeatedly denied. His

1:29:02

last effort was in 2021. Betty's

1:29:05

appeals have been denied despite growing support

1:29:07

for her claims of innocence. There's

1:29:10

a Facebook page, Justice for Betty

1:29:12

Wilson, and a documentary

1:29:14

on the case titled Finding Betty

1:29:16

that was released in 2022. What

1:29:19

about Peggy? Well, Peggy didn't get convicted.

1:29:21

Peggy's fine, but she still supports Betty and

1:29:23

wants to help get her out of prison.

1:29:25

I think actually Peggy did end up remarrying,

1:29:27

so her and Wayne did break up. There's

1:29:30

a lot of stress they were under. Yeah.

1:29:32

Yeah, absolutely. So, it's just, it

1:29:35

seems like Betty's innocent. I

1:29:37

can't 100% say that, but

1:29:39

certainly seems like it was

1:29:41

an unjust conviction to me. It

1:29:43

does. Yeah. If

1:29:45

you're basing the whole case on someone who's a

1:29:47

liar, that's really not cool. It has worked beautifully

1:29:49

for them. Yep. We

1:29:52

will not allow- We will not allow- We

1:29:57

will not allow- We will not-

1:30:00

feedback. Okay

1:30:13

Dickey, how about some feedback? Yeah,

1:30:15

I got a fair amount of feedback for you

1:30:17

this time. Yay! So we have

1:30:19

three, count them three, voicemails. Beautiful. And

1:30:21

an email. And there's still some voicemails

1:30:23

put up here. I'm just going to

1:30:25

dole them out from time to time.

1:30:27

Thanks guys, keep them coming. So let's

1:30:30

start with a voicemail from Nate. We've

1:30:32

had several from Nate lately and they've

1:30:34

been very good. Hi Joe and Dick, it's

1:30:36

Nate again. I have one more case to

1:30:38

suggest. This one, I think I sent you

1:30:41

a book on it's the

1:30:43

death of Justin Cosby at

1:30:45

Harvard University. He

1:30:47

was a student there and he was

1:30:49

murdered in a conspiracy. Two other female

1:30:51

students who were involved in his murder

1:30:54

were expelled from Harvard. One of them

1:30:56

ended up going to prison under a

1:30:58

plea deal and then the shooter and

1:31:00

the other people involved got life or

1:31:02

close to life sentences. I think it's

1:31:04

interesting because it happened right here in

1:31:06

Boston and it's Harvard University and there

1:31:08

are not that many murders associated with

1:31:10

Harvard. So I don't know if you

1:31:12

guys are interested in covering that or not. But

1:31:15

anyway, both of you obviously,

1:31:18

cheers. I don't have a beer suggestion for it

1:31:20

but I'm sure you could find a mass beer.

1:31:22

Maybe Sam Adams. That's

1:31:24

kind of a cop out. But anyway, cheers.

1:31:27

Sam Adams isn't bad, is it? No,

1:31:29

and it does represent Boston.

1:31:31

Absolutely, yes it does. Like

1:31:34

Nate said, there's plenty of beers that I

1:31:36

could choose from. Yes, in

1:31:38

Massachusetts for sure. Well, what was

1:31:41

that one we really liked in the small town? Was

1:31:43

it Night Owl? Remember what I'm talking about?

1:31:45

Night Shift. Night Shift, yes. That's

1:31:47

a great brewery. Yeah.

1:31:49

Have we done any of those on a show? I

1:31:52

don't think so. Oh, well that would be a

1:31:54

great one to do because they have lovely beers.

1:31:56

I miss that place. But back to true crime,

1:31:58

I remember this case very... well. Harvard

1:32:00

student Brittany Smith helped her boyfriend

1:32:02

and two other men kill Justin

1:32:04

Cosby. She gave her student ID

1:32:06

to the boyfriend so he could

1:32:09

gain access to a dormitory and

1:32:11

she also hid the gun that was

1:32:13

used in the killing. She ended up

1:32:16

pleading guilty to accessory after the fact

1:32:18

and she lied about her involvement and

1:32:20

she only got three years in prison.

1:32:23

So in a memoir, Murder at Harvard

1:32:25

Kirkland House, A Mother's Worst Nightmare, Justin

1:32:27

Cosby's mother Denise tells the story of

1:32:29

her son's life, death and legacy and

1:32:32

Nate sent this to us probably two three

1:32:34

years ago because I remember reading it on

1:32:36

vacation. It's been a while. Yeah so

1:32:39

we are familiar with it and it's certainly

1:32:41

something that could be in an upcoming episode.

1:32:43

With a bus in the mirror. Absolutely. Thanks

1:32:45

Nate. So next we

1:32:48

have a voicemail from? We have

1:32:50

a voicemail from Bex. From Bex.

1:32:52

He's a fairly frequent flyer with

1:32:54

us also. Yeah we've got all our

1:32:56

regulars today. Okay let's see what Bex has

1:32:58

to say. Hey this is

1:33:00

Bex and I have another case suggestion.

1:33:02

I just came across this case very

1:33:05

recently. I had never heard of it

1:33:07

even though it was a 1976 case.

1:33:10

So it is this case of Colin

1:33:12

Davis and the murders of

1:33:15

Andrea Wilborn and Stanfar and the

1:33:17

shooting of Priscilla Davis. So

1:33:20

Colin was an extremely wealthy heir to

1:33:22

a Texas oil fortune. He was married

1:33:24

to Priscilla and they were in the

1:33:26

middle of a very very contentious divorce.

1:33:29

He was forced to move out of his dream home

1:33:32

which was a mansion he had built and

1:33:34

a soon-to-be ex-wife was living there. He was

1:33:37

also paying for Priscilla's expenses and paying

1:33:39

support above and beyond that and as

1:33:41

we see in cases like this money

1:33:43

and greed can lead people to murder. So that

1:33:47

night Colin's stepdaughter 12 year old

1:33:49

Andrea was staying overnight at the

1:33:51

mansion. Priscilla came home late that

1:33:54

night with a man named Stanfar.

1:33:56

Priscilla noticed some blood and then

1:33:58

froze in the kitchen. while Colin

1:34:00

dressed in disguise stepped out of

1:34:02

the shadows and shot her. She

1:34:04

yelled, It's Colin run Stan. So

1:34:06

Stan shut the door between him

1:34:08

and the shooter, allegedly Colin right,

1:34:10

but he was shot and killed

1:34:13

anyway. Priscilla was not dead. And

1:34:15

she managed to escape while two

1:34:17

other people simultaneously arrived at the

1:34:19

house. This couple also ran

1:34:21

into the shooter. And the

1:34:23

woman identified him as Colin. The

1:34:26

man was shot dead. And this young woman

1:34:28

ran. She was

1:34:30

a runner. She like ran as fast as she

1:34:32

could, jumped over a wall and ended up escaping

1:34:34

and went for help. Police later

1:34:36

found Priscilla's daughter, Andrea, dead in

1:34:38

the basement. They think Priscilla let

1:34:41

her step or not Priscilla.

1:34:43

They think Andrea, the stepdaughter, let

1:34:46

Colin into the house that night before the

1:34:48

other adults came home. And Colin was able

1:34:50

to use his family money to pay

1:34:52

for the best defense he could get. And

1:34:54

I'll leave it there without telling how it

1:34:56

all turned out. I don't know if

1:34:58

you've heard of this story

1:35:01

Dick and Jill. I checked. I

1:35:03

don't think you've done this story on

1:35:05

your podcast. I think it'd be super

1:35:07

interesting. And I just Google it and

1:35:09

there's tons of articles, details, etc.

1:35:12

on the web. And Texas, not

1:35:14

familiar that much with Texas beer, Dick, but

1:35:16

I'm sure you could find a good one. Thank

1:35:19

you, Bex. Thanks, Bex. Good case.

1:35:22

At this point, we could really be

1:35:24

hiring on Bex and Nate as our

1:35:26

research and show producers. There we

1:35:28

go. Because they're bringing in all the

1:35:30

ideas. I had not really

1:35:32

heard of this case. I did look into

1:35:34

it. There is a book from 1979 titled

1:35:37

Blood Will Tell, which was a little

1:35:39

confusing because we did another case that

1:35:41

had a book by the same name,

1:35:43

right? But that really sounds like a

1:35:45

very interesting case, Bex. I'm definitely on

1:35:47

this one. Okay, next we

1:35:49

have a voicemail from Erin. And it looks

1:35:52

like Erin is right to the point. It's

1:35:54

a 30-second voicemail. Hi, Jill and

1:35:56

Dick. Love your podcast. So very much

1:35:58

one of my top favorites. Case

1:36:01

suggestion, the case

1:36:03

of Trey Zwicker, his step

1:36:06

brother, Josh Young, was acquitted of

1:36:08

his murder. Fascinating case and I

1:36:11

really don't hear many podcasts that

1:36:13

cover it. I think I may

1:36:15

have heard one and it

1:36:17

just fascinated me the whole entire case. So

1:36:20

it would be awesome if you guys would

1:36:22

cover that. Love y'all. Great.

1:36:25

Thanks, Erin. So this is quite the case

1:36:27

as well. It was May 11,

1:36:30

2011 when Terrence Trey Zwicker was found

1:36:32

beaten to death in a creek bed

1:36:34

behind Liberty High School on East Indian

1:36:36

Trail in Louisville. So Trey was a

1:36:39

freshman honor roll student at Seneca High

1:36:41

School at the time of his death

1:36:43

and his step brother was arrested for

1:36:45

the murder but his father testified during

1:36:47

his trial that he was the one

1:36:49

who beat the stepson to death with

1:36:52

a pipe and that it just felt

1:36:54

right. So the step brother said

1:36:56

he took Trey behind Liberty High School to

1:36:58

confront him about stealing a lighter and a

1:37:01

plate of food and then killed him with

1:37:03

the pipe which he rinsed off in the

1:37:05

creek. So no murder weapon was ever found.

1:37:07

So it's still kind of a mystery but

1:37:10

it seems like the home life was very

1:37:13

iffy at best. Yeah, he didn't

1:37:15

have a nurturing home life. No,

1:37:17

sounds terrible and I'd like to find out more

1:37:19

about the mother and what she

1:37:21

had thought of all this. That's another one I'd

1:37:23

really like to look into. So

1:37:25

thank you very much, Erin. Alright, so

1:37:27

that's three voicemails. Let's do the one

1:37:29

email that you have here. Yeah, okay.

1:37:32

This is Vanessa who says, Hi Jill

1:37:34

and Dick, I love your show and have

1:37:36

listened to every episode. I have a book

1:37:38

and case suggestion. After listening

1:37:40

to the Carla Homoca episode, I was

1:37:43

reminded of a book I read during

1:37:45

my days as a forensic psychologist. Wow.

1:37:47

I think you would really find interesting.

1:37:49

The title of the book is Without

1:37:51

Conscience, The Disturbing World of the Psychopath

1:37:53

Among Us. Yes, so

1:37:56

thanks Vanessa. I did look up this book

1:37:58

on Amazon and ended up ordering it for me. for my

1:38:00

Kindle. The description says that people are

1:38:02

fascinated with serial killers like Ted Bundy

1:38:05

and John Wayne Gacy and they are

1:38:07

good examples of a psychopath. People

1:38:09

with psychopathy are aware of the

1:38:12

consequences of their actions and

1:38:14

do know the difference between right and wrong

1:38:16

but they're self-centered, remorseless and really

1:38:18

unable to care about the feelings

1:38:21

of others. They often seem completely

1:38:23

normal and of course most of them

1:38:25

aren't killers. This book

1:38:27

describes the world of con artists,

1:38:29

hustlers, rapists and other predators and

1:38:32

it really explains how to recognize these

1:38:34

people and even how to protect ourselves.