Women Serial Killers of the 20th Century (8 page)

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 thi
rd 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 11
th
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 5
th
, 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 the 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 12
th
, 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 28
th
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 11
th
, 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.