Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century

by Sylvia Perrini

  Her defense team told the jury, “that she was a woman of excellent character who went around helping people and never visited her friends empty handed.”

  The prosecution had an exceptionally strong case and a line of convincing witnesses. The main witness was Evelyn Lundberg who entered the court hobbling and tapping a white walking stick with her eyes unseeing.

  Caroline’s behavior in court did little to help her case. Throughout the trial, she sat looking matronly, smiling all the while. She appeared to find the court proceedings amusing and continuously laughed and joked with the guards to such an extent that her defense team reprimanded her and advised her not to laugh in court.

  On October 15, 1953, the jury took just twelve minutes to find her guilty of attempted murder. The Judge, who referred to Caroline’s ‘motiveless malignancy,’ agreed whole-heartedly with their decision and sentenced Caroline Grills to death.

  Caroline appealed. In April of 1954, the appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. She was incarcerated at the State Reformatory for Women at Long Bay Jail.

  While in prison, she became extremely popular with the other inmates who affectionately called her “Auntie Thally”.”. In October of 1960, she was rushed to the Prince Henry Hospital, where she died from peritonitis on October 6, 1960.

  It is not known where she was buried.

  LOUISE PEETE

  Not Always a Lady

  Lofie Louise Peete née Preslar was born on September 20, 1880 in Louisiana in the little town of Bienville. Louise’s family was wealthy, and she received a good education until her expulsion from school for ‘inappropriate behavior.’ Jewelry, which belonged to several of the other schoolgirls, was discovered in her bedside locker. Louise had developed a taste for expensive jewelry at a young age. Shortly after the expulsion from school, her mother died and her father’s newspaper publishing business went into decline.

  In 1903, at the age of sixteen, Louise married a traveling salesman, Henry Bosle. When he discovered Louise sleeping with another man in their marital bed, he committed suicide. Following Henry’s death, Louise, at the age of twenty, moved to Boston and began working as a high-class prostitute. She supplemented her income by stealing from her clients. When her thieving was discovered, she scampered off to Texas and settled in Waco. Here, she met a flamboyant character Joe Appel, a wealthy oilman who decorated his gaudy shirts with diamond buttons and wore diamond studded rings and diamond belt buckles.

  A week after meeting Joe, his body was found with a gunshot wound to his head and his diamonds gone. Louise came under suspicion and was hauled in front of a grand jury. Under questioning, Louise admitted that she had shot Joe but convinced the jury, with her charm, looks, and courteous manners that she had simply defended herself from rape.

  In 1913, Louise met and married Harry Faurote, a hotel clerk. Like her first husband, he committed suicide after finding her with another man. Louise’s third husband was Richard Peete, the owner of an automobile agency. They married in Denver in 1915 and had a daughter together. Louise soon tired of domestic life, so she left her husband and daughter and moved to Los Angeles. Here she met another oil baron, Jacob C. Denton, a widower. Louise moved into his house. Louise, despite already being married, was hoping for marriage; however, Jacob wasn’t. On May 30th 1920, Jacob disappeared. To neighbors and friends inquiring after him, Louise would say he was away on business or that he was in the hospital after having to have his arm amputated. Jacob’s lawyer felt decidedly uneasy and told Louise he needed to contact Jacob urgently. Louise retreated to her husband and daughter in Denver.

  Jacob’s lawyer voiced his suspicions to the police and a search of Jacob’s house was conducted.

  Jacob’s murdered corpse was found buried in the cellar of the house. He had been shot in the back with his feet and hands tied. The district attorney and Jacob’s lawyer both felt that Louise was responsible. The problem they faced was how to get Louise back to California. As it turned out, it was simple.

  Two detectives travelled to Denver and broke the news to her that Jacob Denton's corpse had been discovered. They asked her to come with them back to Los Angeles, flattering her into believing that her help would rapidly lead them to the killer. They at no time let on that they believed Louise was the murderer. Unsuspecting, Louise boarded the train with the detectives and once back in Los Angeles was arrested for the murder of Jacob Denton.

  Louise was found guilty of first-degree murder. The judge sentenced her to life in prison at San Quentin, California. Louise served eighteen years before being paroled. While she was in prison, her husband Richard committed suicide.

  San Quentin Women’s Prison Quarters

  Each year that Louise was in prison, she made an application for parole and each year her request was rejected. Louise was a model prisoner and never any trouble. In early 1939, she applied again. A member of the parole board spoke to a journalist, Caroline Walker, who had covered Louise’s trial in depth and mentioned that they were thinking of paroling Louise.

  Caroline Walker reputedly warned the board member that Louise was “far too dangerous for freedom. That Louise had spent her entire life lying, stealing, and committing violence and that if she was freed, it would be a tragedy for someone”.

  On April 11th 1939, Louise Peete stepped out of prison after serving eighteen years for murder. To the waiting reporters she declared; "Now I owe the world nothing”.

  As a parolee, strict tabs were kept on Louise, and whoever was employing her had to send in monthly reports to Louise’s parole officer.

  When Louise was released from prison, she secured herself work as a housekeeper to Jessie Marcy. Not long after taking up her post, Jessie died. Louise then went to work for Emily Dwight Latham, a woman who had been influential in obtaining Louise’s parole. Emily died shortly after Louis began working for her. Both Jessie’s and Emily’s deaths were attributed to natural causes.

  Louise then became a housekeeper in the home of Arthur and Margaret Logan. They lived in Pacific Palisades, an affluent area of Los Angeles. Margaret’s husband Arthur was mentally ailing, and Margaret, a busy real-estate broker, needed help. Margaret was fully aware of Louise’s background and believed in her innocence. Margaret Logan was one among many who liked and trusted Louise. Margaret found her charming, sweet, and believable. While working for the Logan’s, Louise met and married elderly bank manager, Lee Borden Judson, in May of 1944. He was her fourth husband.

  During her time with Margaret, Louise told her that she was to receive a large amount of money from real estate investments she had in Denver, and she would like to invest it in Margaret’s business. In believing her, Margaret Logan heavily invested in property speculation and lent Louise money. Louise, apart from lying to Margaret, also began practicing Margaret’s signature.

  On May 29th of 1944, Margaret realized that the story of the real estate was false and also discovered Louise had forged her signature on a check. Margaret confronted her. Louise, realizing she might be sent back to prison, took a gun and shot Margaret in the back. The shot did not kill her and so Louise finished her off by bashing her on the head. Louise then dug a hole in the garden, under the shade of an avocado tree, and buried her.

  Louise told the feeble-minded Arthur that Margaret was in the hospital and forbidden to receive any visitors. Louise then informed one of Arthur’s doctors that Arthur had gone crazy one night and had smashed his wife in the face and bitten her viciously on the neck and nose. She stressed to the doctors that Arthur was impossible for two women to handle. She said that Margaret was so traumatized by the events that she had gone away for a while to recover. The same story was relayed to friends and neighbors. On June 5th, by court order, Arthur was forcibly taken to the State Hospital for the insane in Patton. He died within six months on December 6. Arthur died a lonely man, bitterly thinking his wife had betrayed him and callously locked him away.

  Louise and th
e innocent Lee Judson took up residence in the Logan’s house.

  Not long after Arthur Logan’s death, an astute parole officer noticed discrepancies in the signatures on Louise’s parole reports. She pointed it out to her boss, and it became obvious to all concerned that Louise herself was signing the reports; that, alone, was a violation in her parole conditions. The matter was handed over to Fred Howser, the District Attorney; he remembered the previous case against Louise Peete and re-read her files. A discreet investigation began.

  Upon talking to neighbors and friends of the Logans, it was revealed that neither Arthur nor Margaret had been seen for several months. Fred Howser chillingly realized that he was, in all probability, investigating another murder case.

  On the cold and foggy evening of December 20th, 1944, the police raided the Logan house where Louise and Lee were living. The house and garden were thoroughly searched and under the shade of an avocado tree, they unearthed the murdered body of Margaret Logan.

  Louise and Lee were both arrested on suspicion of murder. On January 12th, 1945, the charges against Lee Judson were dropped. The following day, he went to the top of a thirteen-floor office building in Los Angeles and leapt to his death; another victim of Louise.

  Louise Peete 1947

  Louise came to trial before Judge Harold B. Landreth and a jury of eleven women and one man. Her defense admitted that she had buried Margaret Logan’s body. However, she denied killing Margaret claiming that Arthur, in an insane state, had battered and shot Margaret Logan to death. Louise explained her actions to the court by saying, that because of her previous record she felt that her only solution was to bury the body herself and have Arthur removed to an insane asylum, for his own protection and for that of others.

  On May 28th 1945, the jury took just three hours to reach their verdict of murder in the first degree. There was no recommendation for mercy.

  On June 1, 1945, Judge Harold Landreth sentenced Louise to death in San Quentin’s gas chamber.

  Louise appealed, but all the appeals failed. Until the end, she maintained her innocence saying, “I have never killed or even harmed a human being. “

  On April 11th of 1947, Louise Peete, at the age of sixty-six, was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. As she said goodbye to the prison matron and her fellow prisoners, Louise is reported to have said, “Don't be troubled, my dears. Death is merely an eventuality in all our lives”. To the reporters attending her execution, she declared, “The governor is a gentleman - and no gentleman could send a lady to her death”.

  Gentleman or not, the Governor did.

  San Quentin Gas Chamber

  San Quentin's warden, Clinton Duffy, later said of Louisa Peete that she projected,

  “an air of innocent sweetness which masked a heart of ice”.

  Louise is buried at the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. Louise’s daughter Betty travelled to LA in April of 1947 to visit her mother one last time.

  On April 11th, 1947, Louise Peete, at the age of sixty-six, was executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. Louise Peete was one of only four women to be executed in California.

  According to Betty’s children, their mother believed in Louise’s innocence until the day she died in Oregon at the age of 76.

  MARIE BESNARD

  Crime Doesn’t Pay?

  Marie Joséphine Philippine Besnard, née Davaillaud, was born on August 15th, 1896 in Loudun, France, close to the Loire valley. Her father, Pierre Eugène, and mother, Marie-Louise, adored Marie, having lost two sons before she was born. Her father was a wealthy but frugal farmer. Marie was brought up as a Catholic and received her education at a convent school. Her classmates remembered her as being immoral, spiteful, and mean and for being wild with boys. Marie was also remembered for lying and stealing.

  Marie married Auguste Antigny, her cousin two years her senior, in 1920. Her mother was the sister of Auguste’s father, and they had known each other all their lives. Her parents had not allowed her to date him until she was eighteen, and they were not given consent to marry until she was twenty-four. Auguste was diagnosed with tuberculosis shortly before the wedding. Tuberculosis, in the 1920’s, was an incurable, untreatable disease, but Marie said she was in love and wanted to marry him. The marriage lasted until his death on July 21st, 1927 when Marie was thirty. The cause of death was officially noted as tuberculosis. When Auguste died in Marie’s arms, she was reported to have sobbed uncontrollably.

  In 1929, Marie married Léon Besnard, the owner of a rope shop in Loudon. Léon, although only just making an adequate living, belonged to an extremely wealthy family. Léon and Marie lived a modest life but dreamed of better times when they might inherit wealth. Two wealthy great aunts of Léon’s died in 1938 and 1940 and left their estates to León’s parents. Marie and Leon invited the parents, who were aging, to come and live with them. Shortly after moving in with Marie and Leon, Léon’s father died after consuming poisoned mushrooms. Léon’s mother, Marie-Louise Besnard at the age of 68, died three months later from pneumonia. Léon and his sister, Lucie, age forty-five, inherited the parents' estate. Lucie, not many months after her mother's death, apparently killed herself on March 27, 1941, and Léon then inherited the entire estate.

  Around this time, on May 14, 1940, Marie and Léon’s bank account increased yet more after Pierre Eugène, Marie's father, passed away from what was suspected to be a cerebral hemorrhage. However, all this wealth appeared not to be enough for Marie and Léon for they then invited an affluent childless couple, the Rivets, to be houseguests. Touissaint and Blanche Rivets soon became attached to the Besnards, especially Marie, thankful for her hospitality. Monsieur Rivet passed away from pneumonia on July 14th, 1940, and Blanche Rivet followed the following year. Blanche became ill with nausea and convulsions and died on December 27th, 1941. Touissaint and Blanche had made Marie their sole beneficiary. The Davaillaud’s family, the Besnard’s family, and friends were dropping like flies.

  Although Marie and Léon Besnard had experienced an unusual number of deaths amongst their family and friends in such a short time frame, few people in the town suspected anything. It was simply considered bad luck. This began to change when an elderly, wealthy cousin of Marie’s, Pauline Bodineau at the age of 88, who was living with Marie and Léon, died on July 1st, 1945. Marie claimed Pauline had mistakenly eaten a dish of lye (caustic soda) thinking it was a desert. Talk and suspicion in Loudon began. On July 9th, 1945, another elderly, wealthy cousin of Marie’s, Virginie Lalleron at the age of 83, who was also living in the house died in an identical manner to Pauline. Now the town’s suspicions became highly aroused. Marie was the only beneficiary of both of the cousins. Despite the suspicions of friends and neighbors as ‘something being not quite right’, nothing was done, and no criminal inquiry took place.

  Marie-Louise, Marie's mother, died on January 16th of 1946 and left her entire estate to Marie. Marie and Léon were now exceedingly wealthy. They owned an inn, a cafe, six houses, as well as several stud farms.

  Then Marie discovered that her husband was conducting an affair with Louise Pintou, the local Postmaster. In retaliation, she began an affair with a German man, a handsome ex-prisoner of war. However, Marie was not going to let Léon get off that lightly with his infidelity and she saw as his betrayal.

  Léon confided in Louise Pintou that he thought Marie would attempt to poison him. He asked Louise to insist on an autopsy if he died. Louise promised she would. Léon Besnard died at home on October 25th of 1947, apparently of kidney failure.

  Louise Pintou kept her word and sent a letter to the local public prosecutor telling him of Léon’s fears and suspicions. She also discussed the matter with her customers at the town’s post office. Marie was in control of all the money, which was a great deal, and felt powerful. When she heard the town chatter, she went door-to-door threatening the gossips with their lives. Louise Pintou had her house broken into, and every present Léon had given to Louise was destroyed or stolen. Two clo
se friends of Louise’s, who had also contacted the public prosecutor, were forced to leave the town in fear of their lives after arsonists had burned down their homes.

  The local prosecutor was by now receiving so many complaints about Marie, he passed the case on to an investigating magistrate. Léon’s body was ordered to be exhumed. It was exhumed on the 11th of May in 1949. The pathologist reported that Léon’s body showed that significant amounts of arsenic had been ingested.

  Marie was arrested for the suspected murder of Léon and held in the local jail while the investigation continued. Here Marie, incarcerated as she was, attempted damage control. However, three informers reported Marie to the police saying that Marie had tried to hire them to “get rid” of Louise Pintou and her friends, the Massip brothers.

  The investigative magistrate ordered twelve more bodies to be exhumed: these were Pierre Eugène Davaillaud, Marie-Louise Davaillaud, Léon’s parents, Auguste Antigny, Lucie Bestard, Toussaint Rivet, Blanche Rivet, Pauline Bodineau, Virginie Lalleron, and Léon’s two great aunts.

  Auguste Antigny’s body contained 6 mg arsenic.

  Léon Besnard's body contained 19.45 mg of arsenic.

  Marie-Louise Besnard’s, née Gouin’s (68-years-old), body contained 60mg of arsenic.

  Lucie Bodin’s, née Besnard’s, body contained 30 mg of arsenic.

  Pierre Eugène Davaillaud’s body contained 36 mg of arsenic.

  Monsieur Toussaint Rivet’s body contained 18 mg of arsenic.

  Madame Blanche Rivet’s body contained 30 mg of arsenic.

  Pauline Bodineau’s body contained 48 mg of arsenic.

  Virginie Lalleron‘s body contained 20 mg of arsenic.