00:00:06
hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elina and this is morit [Music] honey this is morbit honey it's morbit
00:00:28
honey baby Sweetie po it's small bed honey and if you hear of I don't know if you will I don't think you will but I'm
00:00:35
just hedging my bets here I'm covering my bases I'm covering my butt if you hear a lawn mower in the background it's
00:00:42
not my lawn mower if you hear a lawn mower no you no you don't it's one of my neighbors is having their lawn done and
00:00:50
it's loud it's loud but we're trying we tried to wait till they were further away so yeah hopefully they don't come
00:00:56
back around these pots again yeah I don't feel like you're going to hear it but again just covering all my bases you
00:01:02
know I don't know if you're going to hear it I don't know your life I don't know your life I don't know how good
00:01:07
your hearing is okay I don't know oh my God we're like silly goofy cuz it's the end of the week and the end
00:01:15
we a little bit tired I feel very like is that a plane I think [ __ ] okay so now
00:01:23
my neighbors Mo their lawn and planes are flying in the sky planes are flying can we have a moment of peace and quiet
00:01:29
around never Jesus never that was a loud [ __ ] plane though that was loud he was like I was like going to stay in the
00:01:37
sky I don't like that you good in the sky you staying up there I recommend it all right well with all that silly
00:01:44
goofy out of the way I do have a case that is uh incredibly tragic cuz this is morbid yeah it's a wild one though it's
00:01:52
a distressing one it's a distressing one I saw an episode of Forensic Files and I
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said doing it well there you go doing it and then good enough for Forensic Files
00:02:01
it's good enough for me I was raised on that program that's right literally um but then Dave really helped me get a lot
00:02:08
more information so Dave we beefed up this case we love a Dave moment we love Dave we love his podcast bring me the
00:02:15
axe yeah go check other podcast 99 cent rental yeah I mean look how good he is helping us out so he's got podcasts on
00:02:23
podcasts on podcasts he's so good he's a brilliant mind that man I don't really know I think I'm in a place of old timey
00:02:31
right now this is not super old you know that's that's where I live yeah you you
00:02:36
brought me into that neck of the woods I was just researching like a bunch of old
00:02:39
cases so I feel like I'm just talking like this now you're talking with a Transatlantic accent shouldn't we all
00:02:46
just go away I would love that I know I feel like that's where I live I hey I'm for it I'll never tell you to stop I'm
00:02:54
just hey baby that's it I don't know nailed it I don't know I'm literally so tired been a
00:03:01
long week it's it has but let's focus on this cuz this is a a gnarly very sad story T yeah and it all starts with a
00:03:08
woman named Betty Wilson so Betty Wilson was born in I believe it's called Gadson
00:03:13
Alabama on July 14th 1945 she was one of four girls born to Oscar and Nell Woods
00:03:20
uh Oscar was a police officer and Nell worked at a factory okay friends and family would later remember the woods
00:03:26
family as quote unquote poor but Betty described the family as typical lower middle class so okay just kind of
00:03:34
depends who you asked but they were in a family that had a ton and at a time when
00:03:38
most of the rural South was transitioning from wartime production causing massive layoffs Oscar's job as a
00:03:44
police officer actually kept the family afloat so w it was good that he had that
00:03:49
position and what also helped was like many police officers at the time Oscar supplemented his income by accepting
00:03:55
bribes from local Bootleggers Union Busters and gambling operations you know yeah just just things like not good
00:04:03
things but just side hustles kept food on the table you know it's hustle culture it is it's not the best but they
00:04:11
had four kids that's what he did yeah it's not honest money but it's money so in the early years the woods home life
00:04:17
was uh it was this is It's dysfunctional it's very sad oh no they had a disruptive and a pretty dysfunctional
00:04:25
life because in addition to Oscar's involvement in illegal activities he was also a heavy drinker and he also carried
00:04:32
on multiple extramarital affairs with other women saw that coming like multiple women yeah according to Author
00:04:38
Jim shz shs I believe during the day while he made his rounds Oscar drank he drank with his women he drank at the
00:04:44
illegal establishments he helped protect he drank in the police car by the time he came home at the end of the day his
00:04:50
condition was somewhere between fairly drunk and stinking ew yeah so he was just shitfaced at all times oh with four
00:04:59
Young children yeah like come on so while that obviously made for a quite a challenging home life Betty recalled
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mother made up so completely for Daddy's absences and drunks that we never felt any lack of Love or attention oh man so
00:05:15
right yeah Nell was just out here making sure that just being both parents literally being both parents and making
00:05:21
sure that these girls didn't feel or any of these kids like felt any kind of wow
00:05:25
n like abandonment from their dad n's an MVP truly that's a parent right there that's a parent and a half yeah so while
00:05:35
her husband was off drinking cheating gambling any of that kind of thing Nell devoted all of her time and attention to
00:05:41
her children and by the time Betty and her twin sister Peggy came along the couple's other daughters I think it's
00:05:47
jidel is one of their names and Martha they were eight and 10 years old so they were kind of establishing their
00:05:53
independence like they could like get their food together get dressed on their own that kind of thing yeah so Nell
00:05:59
shifted did more of her Focus onto her twins Peggy and Betty She lavished them with all kinds of attention praise any
00:06:06
Penny she earned she spent on her youngest daughters oh Nell Wood's life had not been easy and it never would be
00:06:14
but by devoting all of her energy to shielding her children from their father's drunken abusive wrath she
00:06:20
managed to actually show them a life of comfort and love was possible even when the circumstances weren't ideal so she
00:06:27
really was like she went above and beyond and she was a pretty good role model to be like this could be your and
00:06:32
obviously it wasn't as easy to divorce back then and she wouldn't have likely she wouldn't have been able to support
00:06:39
four daughters on her own so she was like I have to stay with your dad but he's a [ __ ] [ __ ] so let me do my
00:06:45
best that I absolutely can so that you can have a better life exactly going forward exactly so by the time she
00:06:52
reached High School Betty had developed a strong and somewhat theatrical personality all her years performing in
00:06:58
the school plays and speaking in church had actually made her really comfortable
00:07:01
in front of an audience but she actually preferred to spend most of her time by herself she was a little bit of a
00:07:07
Wallflower in that regard a little bit of a loner yeah but Peggy her sister her twin sister was a lot more gregarious
00:07:15
and Peggy would drag Betty into social situations okay so Betty said like she probably in high school at least
00:07:22
wouldn't have had as many friends or time spent going to social outings had it not been for Peggy yeah so it's like
00:07:29
they credit each other yeah they do but while Betty was shy and bookish in most public settings she had considerably
00:07:35
fewer reservations when it came to boys she really liked boys she liked it to boys shuts wrote there was a devilish
00:07:42
streak in her that enabled her to do things Peggy would have never dreamed of doing skipping school coming home late
00:07:48
in Cars with Boys who had been drinking so so she was she was going for it and it's funny cuz it's like I think to
00:07:55
Peggy she's like oh wow like my sister Betty was so shy and I had to bring her out to introduce her to these people and
00:08:00
Betty's like yeah I'm shy but like if I'm hanging out with somebody I think is handsome let's [ __ ] go baby which
00:08:06
like it's cool for now oh yeah oh so because I don't know this story I almost said this show I don't know this I don't
00:08:14
know the show well you will so when she graduated from high school Betty married
00:08:19
her High School boyfriend and the couple had three boys in very quick succession
00:08:23
but it didn't take long before their marriage started to fall apart Betty said my husband was a good man but we
00:08:29
both knew we'd gotten married too young uh the truth was a little bit more complicated than that that sure that was
00:08:35
part of it like they were very s like a nice yeah that was that was really chocking it all up to like one thing
00:08:41
yeah by all accounts Betty's first husband was said to be a good man that's that's the truth but he also believed in
00:08:48
very specific gender roles and he wanted to be very much in charge of what his wife did what she wore and where she
00:08:55
went was his name uh what's what's that guy's name Harrison oh the kicker what's his last name yeah
00:09:02
the kicker the kicker was he the kicker yeah his word last name isn't even wor he's that guy reincarnated honestly it
00:09:07
kind of sounds like that and the thing was for somebody as spirited as Betty like we know she likes to go out and
00:09:12
have a good time yeah the idea of having somebody control every aspect of her life was just not something she was
00:09:19
going to drive with it was mean nobody should control any aspect of your life you control your life and it was also
00:09:24
the dawn of the 1970s so it went hand in hand with the woman's liberation movement and things were changing and
00:09:31
women were realizing like [ __ ] this I don't have to listen to this guy times they were a changeing and Betty wanted
00:09:36
to change with them so recognizing that things weren't working out they did end up getting divorced and Betty's husband
00:09:43
agreed to keep custody of the children until she got settled because she was moving to Huntsville Alabama okay so he
00:09:48
was like I'll keep the boys you get settled in Huntsville and then like Cody exactly um but now freed from the
00:09:56
responsibilities of a children and a h of a children of a Children of Children and a husband Betty wasted no time
00:10:03
establishing her new life in Huntsville initially her plan was to get settled find work and then send for her children
00:10:10
got it makes sense totally in some capacity y but instead she worked two or three low-wage jobs and spent all of her
00:10:18
money on clothes drugs and partying and essentially completely abandoned those children for quite some time wow what an
00:10:24
[ __ ] move yes during the day she worked at the local J C Penney department store and at night she worked
00:10:30
the desk at a local Health Club a job that not only helped her pay the bills but also provided opportunities to meet
00:10:36
other young single people she later said I've heard the stories and read the books about me that talked about the
00:10:41
wild partying the drugs and the heavy drinking that that went on there some of it was true and I make no apologies for
00:10:47
it I make no apologies for abandoning my children yeah to party okay got it totally got it girl
00:10:57
okay I understand like women's Liber ation 70s like yeah you don't want to sit around having your husband tell you
00:11:03
what to do but you two collectively made the decision to bring three lives into the world children and you both owe
00:11:09
those children equal love attention and Care AB it's not about you anymore it's just not when you have kids that's just
00:11:16
accept it that's the way it is it's not about you anymore like you're not the main the primary like you don't you
00:11:22
don't get to party anymore sorry yeah you gave that up exactly like you can be a full full human being while being a
00:11:31
parent absolutely but you you can't but you don't get to prioritize your self anymore exactly you don't get to
00:11:39
prioritize like frivolous [ __ ] like partying and not come like and especially just like straight up
00:11:45
abandoning your kids like yeah and just like doing drugs and drinking like obviously go get your haircut and have
00:11:50
some U time like that's necessary for like a healthy normal relationship with everyone in your life but like don't
00:11:57
just never see your [ __ ] kids again and be like I'm going to go to the bar yeah like that's that's crazy and I
00:12:03
think we're like we're obviously like overe explaining because like you know you know how it is you know how it is
00:12:08
but that's [ __ ] it just situation I'm not going to ere explain it it's [ __ ] in my opinion well it continues to get
00:12:15
more [ __ ] yeah so [ __ ] that [ __ ] so [ __ ] and Betty never did send for her
00:12:20
children instead she spent the first few years of the 1970s working she worked a
00:12:26
few jobs at a time she dated around and she just enjoyed the freedom that she felt she never had yeah she's childless
00:12:32
now so yeah exactly look at that now a few years after arriving in Huntsville a Woman Betty met at the health club
00:12:38
recommended that she apply for a job at the newly built um I think it's human Hospital the woman told her you're too
00:12:45
smart and pretty to spend your life doing this like working at the health club and she suggested Betty could use
00:12:50
her as a reference since her husband was one of the investors who funded the development of the hospital so the
00:12:55
reference worked and Betty did land a job at the hospital as a secretary a unit secretary she recalled from the
00:13:02
first from the very first day I loved it I could hardly wait to get to work every
00:13:06
morning which it's like cool it's wild that you can like dedicate yourself to a job but not three beings who lived
00:13:13
inside of you that you created like whoa that's cucko nuts that's interesting I think eventually and I it's not like the
00:13:20
main focus here I think eventually she does end up reconnecting with her children but okay she didn't raise them
00:13:26
it doesn't sound like that's their business exactly none of my business but just to throw that out there I they did
00:13:31
reconnect at some and and hey I'm glad and I think I hope it all worked out I think she was part of like her
00:13:36
grandchildren's life for a period of time okay which could be a good thing or a bad again I do not know the story at
00:13:43
all so I'm speaking from total ignorance here of what happens next oh you just wait so the more Betty became involved
00:13:50
with the patients the more it occurred to her that working in healthare and specifically like one-on-one with
00:13:55
patients was exactly what she wanted to do with her life so within the 3 years of starting as a secretary she had
00:14:00
completed the nursing program at the University of Alabama and soon she was hired as a dialysis nurse wow so I mean
00:14:07
that's a big accomplishment and it was through her work at the hospital that she came to meet Jack Wilson in
00:14:13
1976 he was a newly practicing and noticeably nervous optomologist or op is it opthamologist or op I always say
00:14:21
optomologist me too but then you you think of like aesthetic yes and it's like and you spelled athetic it's
00:14:29
aesthetic aesthetic and it's like oologist actually yeah it might be that now that I'm let's Google it so quack so
00:14:37
quack so quack we we'll Google it so quack so quack Opthomologist it feels like that makes sense yeah I agree but
00:14:45
I've always said optomologist but what I've learned especially through this podcast is that I've been saying things
00:14:51
wrong a lot for my life exactly exactly Opthomologist Opthomologist see oh my God it's opthamologist no it's not
00:15:01
opthamologist opthamologist no that I don't buy I won't I will not subscribe to that I'll
00:15:08
subscribe to opthamologist but I will not subscribe to opthamologist I won't do that sounds like a rap song literally
00:15:16
I won't sound opthalmologist opthalmologist I feel like my brain is breaking no I'll I'll accept
00:15:24
opthalmologist but I'm not I'll say I'll continue saying it wrong he was a doctor
00:15:30
who specialized in eye care and health boom there you go got around it opthalmologist there it is stop saying
00:15:37
it please op theologist never it's losing all meaning so she met she met Jack Wilson a a doctor specializing in
00:15:45
Eye Care uh and health and he was performing surgery this is when they met he was performing surgery on an elderly
00:15:51
patient and complications actually like arose in the middle of this surgery it was like a medication allergy that the
00:15:58
patient had so the patient had to be rushed to the dialysis Ward to be treated for renal failure oh wow now
00:16:04
Betty became increasingly frustrated as Jack nervously paced around the room worrying and repeatedly asking her if
00:16:10
the elderly woman was going to be okay cuz I this is his patient and he's a new doctor he's like I don't need a mouth
00:16:16
practice suit right off the bat yeah but so Betty was like Jesus Christ like can
00:16:20
you just let me work on this like you're pissing me off but despite her annoyance
00:16:24
she also couldn't help but find what she described as the small anxious man and somewhat endearing she later said he
00:16:31
reminded me of a little boy with an impish smile on his face all the time with an impish smile yeah adorable he
00:16:38
just sounds very like he sounds very unassuming yeah unassuming sweet non-threatening very
00:16:45
Nonet little nervous yeah little type very type you know we don't hate it yeah no we don't hate it at all we don't hate
00:16:52
that you know now let's talk about Jack let's talk about him okay well like Betty Jack had been raised under
00:16:58
different ult circumstances his circumstances are just as heartbreaking oh that's sad he was born in 1937 to a
00:17:05
single mother who lacked the means to raise her children so he ended up being raised by wera and Bill Wilson I don't
00:17:12
know if it was like a traditional adoption story or if it was like uh we know like his mom knew these people but
00:17:19
they ended up becoming his adoptive parents for all intents and purposes so he was raised by wera and Bill Wilson
00:17:27
okay now just as one of Betty's parents had been a pretty hard and cool person wera Wilson lacked the warmth and
00:17:34
affection that you know is stereotypically characteristic of mothers uh and she just constantly
00:17:40
reminded Jack that his mother had abandoned him his real mother W and this is awful but she would tell him she's a
00:17:48
[ __ ] she walks the streets of Los Angeles wow like a little boy oh and then like all the way throughout his
00:17:56
life she would just tell him like that's awful your mom's like a [ __ ] oh my God
00:18:01
can you imagine just looking out like boy a child that you took in yeah to like protect yeah however if Jack's I
00:18:09
don't even want to call her a maternal figure cuz she's not but what was supposed to be a maternal figure if she
00:18:14
was cold and mean which she was his father bill was the complete opposite Bill Wilson worked as a line cook in a
00:18:20
restaurant and spent all day on his feet often returning home completely exhausted burned out from a long day if
00:18:27
you've worked in a kitchen cook you know but no matter how tired he was he always
00:18:32
made time for Jack and was always over the moon excited to be with him Bill Bill Bill's a real bill bill bill bill
00:18:41
but just as Betty had longed to get out of her small town Jack spent his days dreaming of a life somewhere other than
00:18:48
where he lived and he was raised in Chicago fortunately he had always been very very like incredibly intelligent
00:18:55
which along with the determination and motivation instilled in him by his father Bill actually got him early
00:19:01
admission to Accidental college so during the day he worked just like a regular old job to help support his
00:19:07
family and at night he studied relentlessly for his classes now after they ended up getting married because
00:19:13
they do get married Jack told Betty he studied and worked hard and worked so hard then because he quote wanted to be
00:19:20
somebody because he wanted to make money because he wanted to be respected I mean
00:19:24
good for you man he just got Drive yeah and he went through it so he's like you know what what I wanted to become
00:19:30
someone exactly no matter where I came from right but he also studied because he was fascinated by the material and
00:19:36
the subjects he felt the idea that a person could suffer from a theoretically correctable vision problem he felt like
00:19:43
that was really frustrating so he became completely determined to find cures for
00:19:48
common Vision impairments that's badass he's just like a a good person who's completely driven and just like wants to
00:19:55
make a difference and he was in it for the right reasons like obviously everybody wants to like you know be
00:19:59
successful be respected like make money to support your family all that stuff and it's like but he's also in CU he's
00:20:05
like I want to help people yeah he's like I want to help people's Vision issues yeah like I'm frustrated that
00:20:10
people have to deal with this and if there's something I can do to help let me learn how to do it like yeah exactly
00:20:14
I just really like him he sounds like a really nice guy so that drive eventually
00:20:18
took Jack to Memphis where he studied for his Doctorate at the University of Tennessee and it was there that he met
00:20:23
his first wife Julia Jack and Julia's marriage was pretty normal they lived a quiet life they had two sons together
00:20:31
and they actually eventually adopted a third son so he as an adopted person was like I want to adopt a child yeah I want
00:20:37
to like pay it forward yeah however as like ordinary as their marriage was it was marked by periods of upset and Julia
00:20:45
became more and more frustrated by Jack's almost pathological commitment to his work and the ways in which it kept
00:20:52
him from his family so by 1976 The Strain on the relationship was just too much to bear and Julia ended end up
00:20:58
leaving Jack with a plan to work things out through a trial separation but she was like something's got to change
00:21:04
because we have this awesome family and like I do love you I know you love me you're a good dad but you're exactly
00:21:11
you're great when you're here but you're not here a lot so at first Jack was actually shocked when Julia left and I
00:21:18
think I wonder if he was just because like we know people like this that you are so dedicated to your work that you
00:21:24
don't even realize that things are falling apart around you exctly successful where you're focusing right
00:21:31
exactly so at first he was like what but the more he thought about it the more it
00:21:35
occurred to him that having never had a normal stable life he didn't really know
00:21:39
how to build one with another person he didn't know that like he didn't know what that looked like yeah of course he
00:21:45
wasn't taught that yeah but despite the challenges Jack spent over a year trying
00:21:49
to rebuild his relationship with Julia until he met Betty from the moment they met Jack was immediately drawn to Betty
00:21:56
unlike the more traditional southern women he was pretty much accustomed to at that point I mean we know but he was
00:22:02
very strong independent and she did not seem interested in deferring to men certainly not no their meeting also
00:22:09
helped Jack understand that his marriage to Julia really was truly over like there wasn't a lot of Hope there yeah
00:22:14
there was nothing that they could Salvage no it didn't seem like it so they divorced soon after but they
00:22:19
actually were lucky enough to remain friends with each other oh that's good yeah and I feel like that so speaks to
00:22:24
who they both were yeah that they clearly loved each other it just yeah exactly but to Betty and Jack Betty
00:22:31
recalled Looking Back Jack and I never really dated so it was more like they kind of just like met each other and
00:22:38
then just like it just happened it just kind of happened on its own yeah they became friendly enough through their
00:22:43
work at the hospital and on their second date Jack said if we're going to spend the rest of our lives together he may as
00:22:49
well move in with me I was like okay like all right then so about a year after Jack moved in because I think they
00:22:56
just kind of like moved in with each other very quick yeah Betty got offered a job with a
00:23:00
company in Atlanta which Jack encouraged her to take he was like go for it yeah the distance was hard but they were
00:23:06
determined to make their relationship work so they stayed in touch through long-distance phone calls and visits
00:23:11
whenever possible but that all came to an end in 1978 now at this point they've only been together like two years
00:23:18
because in 1978 Jack who had suffered from Crohn's disease his entire life he needed to get surgery to actually remove
00:23:26
part of his lower intestine that's tough yeah Betty said there was never any doubt as to what I would do I quit my
00:23:32
job gave up my apartment and moved back to Huntsville to be with Jack and I'm just like does he know that you have
00:23:38
three kids that you just abandoned yeah I don't know if at this point she like became I'm not entirely sure at which
00:23:45
point she became she became reconnected because like I said she does eventually and like she she talks about grandkids
00:23:53
so so I don't know who knows but I'm like inter interesting that you would like there was never any question there
00:23:59
as to what you would do but it's like but you were so quick to just kind of and I wonder if I feel like there there
00:24:06
is some kind of psychology to the relationship that she has with Jack because she herself said like she sees
00:24:12
him as like a not like a little boy but remember she said like she saw him very unassuming very like innocent almost
00:24:20
like wounded bird kind of thing you know so maybe it is like and she said she almost is mothering a little bit or
00:24:26
nurturing with him I should say you know and I wonder if she said like to herself
00:24:30
you know like I didn't go back when I should have and like is this life make up for it yeah like is this is this my
00:24:37
second chance to like be there for somebody maybe I don't know maybe but the surgery prompted Betty to take the
00:24:44
relationship more serious and a short time after Jack's recovery the two were married to the outside world their
00:24:50
marriage was the type that most couples aspire to they were wealthy successful they actually really seemed
00:24:57
to enjoy one another company and that's nice it is in a 1996 interview Betty said we were happy and satisfied with
00:25:03
each other he met every need that I or my children or my grandchildren had so there you go so at some point he became
00:25:10
involved in their lives too but despite what others saw in Betty in Jack's relationship or how Betty described it
00:25:16
after Jack's death the truth was that there had been tension involved in the marriage too for quite some time Betty
00:25:23
had been Charmed by Jack from the moment they met like I said but while she found
00:25:28
many things about him endearing the fact was that they were very different people
00:25:33
and that can either work like swimmingly yes or it can become the biggest issue exactly now Jack was incredibly and to
00:25:43
be frank almost obsessively dedicated to his work he was yeah that's what it sounds like very like work first and
00:25:50
often that came at the expense of other parts of his life as we see from his previous marriage un and I think it's
00:25:56
something he tried to work on like think it's something that he completely ignored or anything like that but I
00:26:01
think that might have just been who he was that was part of his personality but bety she was driven and she worked but
00:26:09
she also always made time for a social life yeah she sounds like she did yes and Jack also wasn't materialistic in
00:26:17
his professional or personal life and he really went out of his way to help others well he sounds so nice he really
00:26:22
does he sounds like a good guy but Betty was far more money and things oriented like she she was kind of materialistic
00:26:30
yeah which is not necessarily a bad thing but it does become a bad thing here and it can be a budding heads thing
00:26:38
yes and so those were all the kind of like smaller things that they were butting heads about but the greatest
00:26:45
point of contention in their relationship was their intimate life and I'm going to try to talk about it as
00:26:50
delicately as possible but it is a huge part of this case okay so since leaving her first husband and moving to
00:26:55
Huntsville so many years earlier Betty had fully Embrace that sexual Liberation that helped Define the 70s and ' 80s but
00:27:02
Jack on the other hand he was very very shy when it came to the subject he didn't like to openly talk about
00:27:08
intimacy okay if they were going to have a conversation that was even like remotely sexual in nature Betty would
00:27:14
have been the one to initiate that conversation so for Betty she felt like this this was almost an awkward
00:27:21
adolescent attitude toward toward intimacy and she found it very frustrating okay and things got worse
00:27:27
once Jack had that operation to treat his Crohn's because it resulted in him requiring an ostomy bag now for Jack who
00:27:36
was shy to begin with the ostomy bag made everything a lot more complicated oh that breaks my heart which you can
00:27:42
understand that breaks my heart I know I agree now the physical reality of the bag itself quote made him even more
00:27:49
painfully self-conscious than before which oh that like really breaks my heart he just seems like a good person
00:27:55
and it's such it's out of your control like you did completely controls it does and the subsequent surgeries and
00:28:02
medications caused various problems when it came to sexual functioning okay so it
00:28:07
was also just a it became a physical yeah of course reality reality exactly thank you now Betty too struggled to
00:28:14
adjust to the postsurgery lifestyle and confided to friends and this is just a [ __ ] thing to say I'm just going to put
00:28:21
that right out there it's a [ __ ] thing to say she convited to friends that she
00:28:24
found the ostomy bag to be repulsive that's [ __ ] [ __ ] up I'm sorry that's [ __ ] up to tell you talk
00:28:30
to your friends and say that because if you love somebody you get past it yeah you just yeah you figure out a way to
00:28:36
move past it because sorry but like I could never find any one part of my husband to be repulsive no I was just
00:28:43
thinking that I was like No And especially something that he be control for him and that like needed to happen
00:28:51
to make him his life better yeah painful physically but also painful emotionally
00:28:57
like he's having a hard time coming to grips with it your job as a wife and as a and
00:29:02
I'm not saying like I as a w a saying like as his wife and like his loved one is to support him yeah you guys are a
00:29:10
team like you build each other up it's supposed to be teamwork man teamwork isn't saying that the other one is gross
00:29:16
because of something completely out of their control I not teamor I don't get it personally yeah and that's just
00:29:22
really mean to say it is really mean to say to like gossip with your friends about your husband's saying like that
00:29:27
bag that has to have because he had part of his intestines removed because he's been in severe pain for years it's
00:29:34
repulsive also as a nurse to say that's the other thing I'm like I'm like well sh [ __ ] like Cool Betty we love a
00:29:42
supportive partner a supportive Queen but the thing was Betty had relied on her desirability to prop up her
00:29:49
self-esteem for most of her life so being romantically intimate was something that she pretty much required
00:29:56
in order to feel valuable mhm which that sure I understand that to a degree like
00:30:01
you want to be wanted but rather than adapt to their new circumstances or come up with any alternative way of
00:30:07
expressing desire for one another the problem festered yeah and each of them found unproductive and harmful ways of
00:30:14
dealing with stress and the emotional pain of the situation like they were going to go to therapy together and
00:30:19
figure out you know some like sex therapist and see if they can no you know make this work some other way still
00:30:25
the 70s yeah exactly so Jack retreated in to himself often getting lost in work which that's it seems like that's just
00:30:32
his Mo you know all he knows that's what he knows while Betty all she knew was heavily drinking and spending most of
00:30:39
her time away from her husband years later when Betty was on trial so it's fine that I called her a [ __ ] oh the
00:30:46
prosecutor would make a big deal of this dysfunction pointing to it as one of the
00:30:51
driving forces for murder oh but Betty always denied that she and Jack's intimate life was part of the problem
00:30:58
she said like all marriages ours had its problems but strangely enough none of them had to do with sex Jack and I were
00:31:04
both grown people who believed that what we did in our bedroom was our business as long as both of us agreed yes I had
00:31:09
affairs but I never cheated and neither did Jack but and here's the thing so Betty's like I never cheated I I had
00:31:17
affairs but I didn't cheat and it's like that's an oxymoron yeah like what like that doesn't make sense to most people
00:31:25
no if I mean I would assume assume that if you have an open relationship you wouldn't consider your other
00:31:31
relationships and Affairs yeah right maybe I'm wrong I don't know I don't know it's like I don't know how that
00:31:38
works I don't either and I don't think Jack knew how that worked either yeah so it doesn't sound that way yeah because
00:31:44
whether or not Jack was fully on board with their having an open relationship is very unclear but at the very least he
00:31:50
did know that Betty was having relationships with other men and typically just looked the other way and
00:31:55
his his acceptance of her extramarital Affairs just wasn't sufficient for Betty she still wanted him to want to be with
00:32:02
her even though he couldn't physically fulfill that desire it's not that he didn't want to be with her he was he was
00:32:09
like I can't in the way you want me to be this different like that we have a different reality exactly so even after
00:32:14
she joined AA and stopped drinking she and even after she managed to find satisfaction with other relationships
00:32:21
Betty continued to resent Jack for what she felt like was a complete desertion of his responsibilities as her husband
00:32:27
wow At first she kept those frustrations to herself but in time she couldn't contain it anymore and she would
00:32:33
complain about her marriage to literally any soul that was going to even remotely
00:32:39
listen like anybody so naturally those closest to her were like hey have you thought about a divorce cuz it doesn't
00:32:47
really sound like either of you are in this anymore yeah but Betty would always flatly reject the idea saying she wasn't
00:32:53
willing to give up her lifestyle I knew that was coming or her role as the wife of a successful doctor everything was
00:32:58
just smokeing mirrors at that point of course so at the end of the as the end of the 1990s dawned not only had Betty's
00:33:05
relationship all but Fallen apart other aspects of her life were crumbling as well after years of regular part
00:33:12
participation in AA a place where she actually had found solace in community several of the other members of the
00:33:18
group had become concerned about Betty's Presence at the meetings among other things in the meetings she had been
00:33:25
particularly vocal about her marital problems and kind of like flashed the fact that she was having affairs with
00:33:31
other men and a lot of other people in the group found that triggering or kind of viewed it as an indication of her
00:33:37
relapse in sobriety so whatever the reasons there was enough of a concern over Betty's
00:33:43
behavior that the majority felt it best that she find another AA group they were
00:33:48
like you can't sit like how often does that happen I wonder I don't know to be honest with you that's wild but I I
00:33:55
guess you can kind of understand why they would find that Behavior triggering absolutely cuz it seems a little
00:34:01
reckless it does I mean it's which I'm sure re would feel very like this is what I'm trying to get away from like
00:34:08
this kind of Reckless attitude and L Fair attitude to Reckless Behavior yes you know exactly and like that's
00:34:15
something that people who are in recovery can't really be around and don't need exactly so she got kicked out
00:34:20
of her AA group and around the same time several of her own friends were experiencing similar frustrations cuz it
00:34:27
would be strange yeah to have somebody be like flaunting that like I feel like it would it would make me a little
00:34:33
uncomfortable cuz I'd be like I can't relate to you like I don't know well not only that but it's just like you just
00:34:39
complain about your husband all the time and like everyone's giving you a like you don't want to be with this man so
00:34:44
don't be with this man yeah you can't just cite I want to be rich still because here's the thing like obviously
00:34:50
we cover cases where it's like I don't want to be with this man but it's dangerous to get away from man this is
00:34:54
not one of those cases she could have he would have been like okay this is just you don't want to give up the lifestyle
00:35:00
exactly for years she'd been relying on friends of hers and Friends of like hers
00:35:05
and Jacks to give cover stories to jack on nights that she would be out with other men and they were done with it
00:35:12
According to Jim schz they felt the behavior had become increasingly wrong morally and destructive yeah it kind of
00:35:19
seems that way it does so with her word world just falling apart around her and her strongest support systems abandoning
00:35:25
her Betty decided that she needed to take fastic action quickly or she was just going to lose everything she had
00:35:31
all that wealth all that privilege that she' grown accustomed to I just want to warn you this murder the murder part of
00:35:38
this is very brutal so a little before 5:00 p.m. on the evening of May 22nd 1992 Jack arrived home from the office
00:35:46
and pulled his car into the driveway just as he did every other afternoon a few minutes later neighbor saw him come
00:35:52
outside onto the front lawn where he used an aluminum baseball bat to drive a campaign sign for a local politician
00:35:58
into the ground and then he went inside okay that was the last activity anybody noticed at the Wilson house until Betty
00:36:05
arrived home from an AA meeting I think she found another one a little after 900
00:36:10
p.m. the same night Betty couldn't have been in the house more than a minute when she came running out of the front
00:36:16
door and started pounding on the door of a neighbor as far as the neighbor could
00:36:19
tell something had happened to Jack and Betty needed to call 911 so on the phone
00:36:23
with the dispatcher Betty explained that she just gotten back home and she went up stairs to found her husband's badly
00:36:29
beaten body lying on the floor in the hallway just outside their bedroom so officers arrived at the house a few
00:36:35
minutes later and secured the scene finding Jack just as Betty had described him he was on the floor in the hallway
00:36:41
in a lying in a large pool of blood somebody had murdered him that was very obvious but more than that they had
00:36:49
brutalized this man his skull had been crushed in several places presumably with the aluminum bath that was laying
00:36:57
beside him there were also crushing wounds to his hands his legs his arms and his collar bone oh in addition to
00:37:05
the crushing injuries he had been stabbed twice in the stomach holy [ __ ] and there was Heavy bruising around his
00:37:12
neck making it appear that somebody in addition to all of this had also tried to choke him what the [ __ ] Overkill to
00:37:20
the highest degree oh my God a few days later when the autopsy was completed the
00:37:26
pathologist would identify the cause of death as any one of the nine blunt force
00:37:32
injuries to Jack wow but if that hadn't done it he most likely would have bled to death from the stab wounds to his
00:37:38
stomach the second of which had been made with a sawing and twisting motion holy [ __ ] this like oh my God that's so
00:37:48
brutal it's so brutal now that was in and of itself just flabbergasting to investigators that this this was a home
00:37:58
invasion maybe and this is what happened to this man like they're like what something felt off about this scene Al
00:38:05
together from the moment they arrived it seemed like somebody had been poking around in the upstairs bedroom but the
00:38:11
house was far from ransacked and there was actually no sign of a forced entry and it didn't appear like anything had
00:38:17
been stolen all the valuable items like jewelry televisions VCRs everything was laid out in plain sight and it would
00:38:25
have been some of that would have been easy to grab like running out the door you know but
00:38:30
what was curious was that the phone line had been cut and there were also multiple cigarette butts at the scene
00:38:37
when neither Jack nor Betty were smokers oh mhm now those two facts along with the green ski mask found in the bedroom
00:38:46
suggested that the killer had been lying in weit and surprised Jack when he got home meaning this wasn't a robbery gone
00:38:52
wrong this was an intentional murder yeah so detective Mickey Brantley found Betty next store at the home of her
00:38:59
neighbor whose phone she had used to call 911 and he was like hey I got to sit down and talk to you for like at
00:39:04
least a couple minutes yeah so she explained that she returned home a little after 9:00 and she found Jack at
00:39:09
the top of the stairs but she couldn't be sure she said she actually thought it was possible that when she got home he
00:39:14
might have still been alive oh which I'm not positive but she also added that the
00:39:20
couple hardly ever locked the doors because both of them were constantly coming and going so often okay so that's
00:39:27
why're was no sign of forced entury and finally she provided the names and contact information for all the other
00:39:32
people workers friends their children who had access to the house but otherwise she had no information and she
00:39:39
was deemed quote unquote too distraught at the time to be questioned so they couldn't really go much further now from
00:39:45
the moment detective Brantley arrived at the scene he strongly suspected that Jack's murder was not robbery as others
00:39:51
had suggested but instead a crime of passion it felt too much to be right bery I me there's personal [ __ ] behind
00:40:00
that it seems like it it feels like it it feels like it and speaking with friends and family investigators quickly
00:40:05
learned that Jack and Betty's marriage seemed to have been in trouble for quite some time in an interview with their
00:40:11
housekeeper Shirley green they learned that the couple had been sleeping in a SE in separate bedrooms for a long time
00:40:17
and that Betty frequently made derogatory comments about Jack's ostomy bag which she almost always referred to
00:40:23
as his [ __ ] bag to be that crass what an [ __ ] you're what an [ __ ] Shirley green the
00:40:31
housekeeper also told detectives that Betty often entertained quote unquote male visitors at the house when Jack
00:40:38
wasn't home damn so on Saturday the day after the murder detective Brantley was running down some leads when he came
00:40:44
across a note about a call that had come into the precinct the day before Jack's
00:40:48
murder the call was from the sheriff in Huntsville who received a tip from one of their informants who claimed that she
00:40:55
overheard a conversation in a local bar about a quote unquote rich person possibly a doctor or a doctor's wife was
00:41:02
going to be killed my God now Brentley called the Shelby County Sheriff's Office where the tip had originated and
00:41:10
traced it back to a woman named Janine Russell who claimed she was a drinking buddy of the man who was making these
00:41:16
threats huh now unfortunately Janine didn't know any of the specifics other than the fact that the victim's wife had
00:41:23
a twin sister who was romantically involved with the supposed at Hitman if you remember Betty has a twin sister
00:41:32
named Peggy holy [ __ ] and now there's a Hitman involved and the twin sister is
00:41:37
dating the Hitman supposedly possibly according to possibly allegedly according to this tip so the Hitman in
00:41:45
question was 41-year-old James White he was a handyman whose children went to the school where Betty's twin sister
00:41:53
Peggy taught first grade oh shut the [ __ ] up in Vincent Alabama about she's a first grade teacher dating a Hitman
00:42:01
possibly allegedly possibly possibly y suggestively that's wild the above yep she was teaching in Vincent which is was
00:42:09
about two hours from Huntsville where Betty lived damn now among other things James White had a considerable criminal
00:42:16
record a long history of substance abuse and mental health issues and also a dishonorable discharge from the military
00:42:23
so this guy's got some stuff going on a lot on his record yeah he also had a spotty employment history he was fired
00:42:30
from jobs frequently for failure to show up or just never showed up to these jobs
00:42:35
at all during a 10-hour interrogation he confessed to the killing of Jack Wilson
00:42:40
Oh and claimed he had done so at the request of one Peggy low and her twin sister Betty Wilson what the [ __ ] yes
00:42:49
according to James White he met Peggy when his daughter was enrolled in her first grade class I cannot I can't like
00:42:58
what I can't and eventually she hired him to do some work in her home after the work was completed the two continued
00:43:05
talking on the phone regularly and at least on one occasion Peggy told white that she loved him and this is according
00:43:11
to him the relationship quote started with a few kisses here and there he said and soon they were talking on the phone
00:43:17
more and more regularly now it was in these conversations that Peggy first mentioned having a friend who was in a
00:43:24
quote bad marriage and whose husband mistreated her wrong incorrect eventually though
00:43:31
Peggy clarified that the friend she was referring to was actually her sister Betty between March and April of 1992
00:43:38
the conversation evolved into making a plan to help Betty get out of her marriage by having Jack murdered and
00:43:44
eventually James White agreed to commit the murder of Jack Wilson in exchange for
00:43:50
$5,000 $5,000 yeah to murder a whole last human that what $5,000 what it was down
00:44:05
on his luck I suppose what the [ __ ] kind of person do you have to be I mean what
00:44:10
the [ __ ] kind of person do you have to be for any amount of money but literally
00:44:14
5,000 and also if you look up a picture of Jack Wilson just adorable adorable like he just adorable just seemed like
00:44:23
the most mild mannered kind man I would not cross the street if I was walking past him I would say hello how's it
00:44:30
going hi there and he'd say good how are you yeah he just feels oh it just really
00:44:35
heartbreaking it really is and especially for his his children and his his first wife Julia yes it's like Julia
00:44:43
knows Julia knows how it is to not feel loved in the marriage anymore yeah cuz he's like heed lot but they stayed
00:44:50
friends they still stayed friends exactly they were able to still like care about each other just get out of a
00:44:55
marriage and you might be able to just just be friends yeah that's the thing you could still be friends he seems like
00:45:00
he's you know a good guy oh but no damn got to have status so although white James White had a criminal record in
00:45:10
Shelby County none of his arrests were for anything violent and there was certainly nothing to indicate that he
00:45:16
would commit a capital murder holy [ __ ] and one is brutal as this yeah so when
00:45:21
asked why he committed the murder he rambled on about his expenses and the troubles he'd been having with his
00:45:27
ex-wife over custody of their children but when pressed he admitted he had done it to prove his love for Peggy he told
00:45:34
investigators I was trying to win Miss Low's love and affection and she was putting me in a crack to prove myself to
00:45:41
her what according to White he said it started as a joke but she kept calling and pushing me to get something done to
00:45:48
help her sister now at first he said he was only going to take the money and find
00:45:54
somebody else to commit the murder using the 38 caliber pistol that Betty had given him Betty Jesus I know you're a
00:46:01
first grade teacher no Betty uh Peggy is the first grade teacher sorry I'm confusing it's it's hard jeez so Betty
00:46:07
eventually he meets Betty and she gives him a pistol and says like kill him but because he was desperately in need of
00:46:14
money he said he decided to do it himself in the days leading up to the murder he said he went back and forth
00:46:19
with himself over whether he should just call the whole thing off he you should have yeah of course you should have he
00:46:25
said I've been drinking the last three or four 4 days popping pills drinking smoking dope and all I knew was I wanted
00:46:31
to get away but ultimately he decided to go through with it oh that is a horrible
00:46:36
decision and just to know that he was like I hate to say on the fence like it feel like such a casual thing to trying
00:46:43
to come to a a human decision yeah so on the night of the murder Betty had met him at a park nearby drove him back to
00:46:50
the house and told him where to hide in the upstairs bedroom in the time that passed between being dropped off and
00:46:56
Jack's arriv James White just poked around the Wilson's home which is why it looked
00:47:01
like it had been poked through casually going through Betty and Jack's belongings including Jack's adventure
00:47:06
closet Adventure closet he had an adventure closet it was filled with helmets and wigs and capes and
00:47:13
swords shut up yeah just like you know this is the most wholesome like just wow I know I know a so he went through all
00:47:24
this [ __ ] humanized this man as much as he Poss possibly could yeah and then went through this yep that's [ __ ] up
00:47:31
oh yeah 100% [ __ ] up so he's go he's just going through all their [ __ ] like you said humanizing this man before he
00:47:37
brutally attacks him but James White became startled when the phone rang and he got frustrated when there was no
00:47:43
answering machine to pick it up so it just kept ringing and ringing and he was I don't know if he was high when all of
00:47:49
this happened but it kind of sounds like it the way he says it and the way he's like the way he's responding to certain
00:47:53
things he panicked and ended up cutting the phone cord to ensure that the phone wouldn't ring again cuz it was really
00:48:00
stressing him out he said later about Jack coming home I didn't hear him come in and we were face to face and he
00:48:05
grabbed me and I freaked out of course he grabbed you you're an intruder what the [ __ ] he then claimed he started
00:48:13
grabbing around him for something to defend himself with and eventually grabbed the bat that Jack had just used
00:48:19
to pound the lawn sign into the ground he said I kept reaching until I found something and I hit him until he turned
00:48:24
me loose and then I ran uh what [ __ ] also not that simple no you didn't you also strangled this man and
00:48:33
stabbed him stabbed him like with twisting sawing Motions like come on that's the thing to to hear James White
00:48:39
tell it the assault sounded like he was just fending off Jack until he could get
00:48:42
away No One Believes that [ __ ] no the truth was far more brutal he hit Jack in
00:48:46
the head with the bat a total of seven times crushing his skull and as sheets of blood poured out over Jack's face and
00:48:53
head white continued to hit him Landing heavy blows to his arms hands which were
00:48:59
raised to protect his face it's heartbreaking causing the bones to break and actually tear through the skin holy
00:49:06
[ __ ] like compound fractures after several more swings of the bat Jack had fallen into a crumpled Heap on the floor
00:49:13
at which point white began strangling him until he felt his hyoid bone snap what the [ __ ] is wrong with this [ __ ]
00:49:22
I can't even begin to tell you then to make sure that he completed his task ask which it's like I'm pretty sure you did
00:49:30
yeah white took out the folding knife that he carried with him and stabbed Jack first in the chest just below his
00:49:36
right nipple and then in the upper abdomen sawing through the stomach and pancreas and severing two major veins my
00:49:46
God he then fled down the stairs and out through the garage and his first story is that he headed for the woods behind
00:49:52
the house and eventually to his truck which he drove back to Vincent at some point he changes his getaway story
00:49:58
shocked I know so when investigators searched White's home in Vincent they discovered a shoe with what turned out
00:50:04
to be Jack's blood on the soul of it a copy of Sleeping Beauty in the firebird which was a book of poetry that had been
00:50:11
checked out of the Huntsville Public Library by Betty Wilson what the [ __ ] when they searched the abandoned house
00:50:18
next door they were also able to locate Betty's 38 caliber pistol and the blood soaked clothing that white was wearing
00:50:25
that night and the knife refused to kill Jack were later recovered when white directed police toward the location
00:50:30
under a rock where he had hidden them so they found his bloody clothes and the knife that was literally used to kill
00:50:37
Jack but because they were found so much later in the investigation and had been
00:50:42
pretty much like degraded by the elements at that point later on the prosecution couldn't use those two
00:50:47
things [ __ ] up I know but it's like obviously this man is involved he has Betty [ __ ] in his possession the
00:50:53
abandoned house next door to him has Betty [ __ ] Jack's blood is on his shoes like come on and he can bring you right
00:50:59
to multiple locations where multiple things were used in the murder let's be real like come on now given what
00:51:05
detectives had learned about Jack and Betty's crumbling marriage and what was discovered in the search of James
00:51:11
White's home the scenario he described seemed entirely plausible mhm but the part that they were having trouble
00:51:17
believing was to the the extent to which Peggy was involved in this conspiracy cuz it's like what and it gets Crazier
00:51:26
by all accounts she was a pillar of her community she was known as a devoted wife like I said a [ __ ] first grade
00:51:32
teacher she was a regular attendee of the First Baptist Church of Vincent where her husband Wayne was the minister
00:51:39
of Music crazy okay based on what they learned about Betty it was well within the realm of possibility that she would
00:51:48
conspire to kill her husband but to everybody else Peggy seemed like the last person on Earth who would get
00:51:54
caught up in that kind of scheme they're twins man F Ado yeah yet every other part of James
00:52:00
White's confession appeared to check out so investigators had no reason not to believe him when he implicated Peggy low
00:52:07
and district attorney Mo Brooks asked reporters what other reason would you have for a stranger to come to
00:52:12
Huntsville from Shelby County to murder Dr Wilson have complete access to his home and steal nothing except for the
00:52:18
explanation he's given yeah like it's true like what how can you explain that you can't so on May 28th 1992 Huntsville
00:52:27
police arrested Betty White and Peggy low much to the shock of everybody in Huntsville and Vincent Peggy actually
00:52:34
managed to post the $300,000 property bond thanks to generous church members Church bonds Run
00:52:41
Deep wow Betty was denied bail when asked for comment on the arrest Peggy's husband Wayne low told a reporter those
00:52:49
girls weren't raised that way all I know is when Betty saw it she could hardly talk she was in shock and she was just
00:52:55
in a days all through the funeral okay it's like yeah you can be through days in like in the funeral no matter what
00:53:02
it's [ __ ] up like it's all [ __ ] up whether you had a hand in it or not yeah exactly but Betty's lawyer agreed saying
00:53:08
his client quote would have no motive for wishing her husband harm the people who knew them said there was no strife
00:53:14
and I've seen no evidence that there was trouble between them are the people who
00:53:18
knew them in the room with us right now all of their friends literally everyone who knows them people at her AA meeting
00:53:24
were like we can't handle your hatred of him anymore her their friends were like
00:53:30
yeah we can't hear you talk about how much you hate Jack anymore and we can't keep lying to him and keeping him out of
00:53:35
the house while you're entertaining your other mans's exact like what are you talking about what do you like that's
00:53:41
not even real like come on like try for try better a little bit try better there
00:53:46
but of course in their investigation detectives had learned uh there was actually quite a bit of strife between
00:53:51
Betty and Jack going back several years at this point and as for motive the district attorney had had a fairly
00:53:56
compelling theory that Jack's murder was the result of greed and Status can you imagine you don't say in interviews with
00:54:03
Betty's friends and associates they learned that she had made several statements about not wanting to get a
00:54:07
divorce because she claimed I would lose everything I would lose my lifestyle oh
00:54:12
boo yeah instead Betty wished to become a widow which Not only would win her the
00:54:17
sympathy of her Social Circle and gain everybody back but in addition she would also retain full access to Jack's estate
00:54:25
which at that point in time was valued at nearly $3 million damn yeah now in order to avoid
00:54:32
the death penalty James White agreed to a plea bargain he would receive a sentence of life in prison with the
00:54:37
possibility of Parole in seven years which I feel like they were like I feel like they were like yeah no parole board
00:54:43
is ever going to Grant you parole so like we'll put it on the table sure damn but in the exchange he would have to
00:54:48
testify against both uh Betty and Peggy in early July both women were indicted by a grand jury for first degree murder
00:54:56
and conspiracy to commit murder with Betty's trial scheduled for February of 1993 and Peggy's trial to follow shortly
00:55:04
after okay now in the months following Betty and Peggy's appearance before a grand jury the Press ran absolutely wild
00:55:11
with coverage of Jack's murder page after page of newspapers across Alabama and especially in Huntsville provided
00:55:18
seemingly endless details about Betty's affairs with various men and the extent to which she'd publicly shown her
00:55:24
animosity toward her husband damn and while many of the salacious aspects of her and Jack's life were made public the
00:55:30
Press actually focused more heavily on Betty's primary love interest around the time of the murder a man named Errol
00:55:37
Fitzpatrick at the time of Betty's arrest he was working as a riskmanagement officer for the City of
00:55:43
Huntsville and with all the negative attention caused by all of this he actually had to resign from his position
00:55:51
wow so like that's how bad and like how intense things were getting Dam now while the Press picked Betty's life
00:55:58
apart Peggy's friends and family rallied around her to defend her character Reverend HL Martin told reporters those
00:56:04
of us who knew her or who know her have never seen any evidence of any action that would indicate any bad intent Peggy
00:56:11
is probably one of the strongest ministering people I've seen she's taken in people who have been thrown out of
00:56:16
their homes a little girl in the community got pregnant and her family threw her out so Peggy took her
00:56:22
in okay it's like yeah sounds like she's willing to do a lot for those she loves
00:56:28
yeah Peggy's friends took a similarly stunned and disbelieving position her family friend Louise mcra said even if
00:56:35
she told me she was involved in this I wouldn't believe her in order to be involved with this she would have to be
00:56:40
a jackal hide Personality yeah nobody's like that so that's good it's like yeah she would have to be imagine if she was
00:56:47
yeah imagine if that existed in the world yeah that'd be crazy nuts so crazy that people don't automatically show you
00:56:53
that they're a vicious uh murderer for higher person yeah now it's worth noting that while many people came to
00:57:01
the defense of Peggy low um very few people spoke out on Betty's behalf shocking I wonder why jury deliberation
00:57:09
in Betty's case began in early April with the prosecution being led by Jimmy fry from the County prosecutor's office
00:57:15
and Betty's defense being led by Bobby Lee Cook he was an Alabama defense attorney known for his courtroom
00:57:21
theatrics and flare for The Dramatics the best kind oh yeah Now by that point the extensive press
00:57:28
coverage had obviously affected what was going to be the trial so it had to be moved from Huntsville to Tuscaloosa
00:57:35
which is so fun to say but the defense hoped that they would find a less biased or otherwise influenced jury pool out in
00:57:42
Tuscaloosa yeah the biggest problem Betty Wilson's defense faced was James White's confession implicating her and
00:57:48
her sister but also her lifestyle you know like the heavy drinking the extramarital Affairs and so on that too
00:57:55
presented a considerable challenge in what was a relatively conservative region these people are going to look at
00:58:01
her and be like that's not going to be good so after questioning 96 potential jurors on everything from their faith in
00:58:08
the testimony of Law Enforcement Officers to their feelings about drinking and drug use and opinions on
00:58:14
Betty's guilt or innocence the pool was finally narrowed down and the trial was set to begin February 23rd
00:58:21
1993 in his opening statement County district attorney Jimmy fry laid out the states case that Betty Wilson had paid
00:58:28
James White $5,000 to murder her husband in order to protect what fry referred to
00:58:33
as her world of privilege wow which I mean it's kind of black and white yeah like if I was sitting there be like it
00:58:39
seems pretty straightforward makes sense to me he described Betty as a Vain and selfish woman consumed by material needs
00:58:47
explaining to the jury that she feared getting a divorce would mean that she'd be cut off from her lifestyle and she'd
00:58:52
grown accustomed to that and didn't want to lose it yeah he continued telling the
00:58:56
jury though it appeared she had everything she wanted more and not just more she wanted it all and she wanted it
00:59:03
now wow by arranging for Jack's murder fry concluded Betty stood to gain millions of dollars in a life insurance
00:59:10
payout as well as Jack's already substantial estate so his his estate was valued at $3 million but then there was
00:59:17
also life insurance on top of that that's just so sad that like these kind of things especially
00:59:23
when it's like for money or to keep a lifestyle like our species is a wild species like
00:59:31
just that this happens like so often and with people that are supposed to love each other not even strangers right that
00:59:38
it happened so often with people who literally took vows to commit to one another like you didn't have to do that
00:59:43
like that's just really wild yeah it never gets anything less than wild I know it's so true so obviously that's
00:59:50
that's a strong argument and to us it seems pretty black and white absolutely but the prosecution's biggest hurdle was
00:59:55
that that their case against Betty was largely circumstantial yeah I can see that they did have a large amount of
01:00:00
physical evidence including hairs found on the ski mask cigarette butts with DNA
01:00:05
hairs found in Jack's hand but all of that connected James White to the murder not Betty in fact aside from James
01:00:13
White's confession there was actually almost nothing to directly connect Betty Wilson to the murder of her husband I
01:00:18
can see that instead fry relied on a state statute that allowed corroboration to be shown through quote unquote
01:00:25
evidence of malice ill will or threats that the accused has made or demonstrated towards the victim
01:00:31
interesting so fry called one witness after another who testified to the animosity and open hostility that Betty
01:00:37
felt for her husband the most damning of whom was the couple's housekeeper I knew
01:00:42
Shirley was coming back Shirley came back I knew Shirley wasn't going to let this go mm she said [ __ ] this woman I
01:00:48
don't like her NP and she had heard like a lot of terrible [ __ ] yeah among other
01:00:53
things Shirley green testified that when Betty refused to go to Jack's mother's funeral I'll say that again for you
01:01:00
Betty refused to go to her mother-in-law's funeral what and Jack was like you know what I might as well
01:01:07
be dead like that's how defeated he was oh and that prompted Betty to retrieve her handgun from the bedroom then to
01:01:14
hand it to Jack and say why don't you do it for me this man is on his way to his
01:01:20
mother's funeral and Betty do not going to go and he's upset about it and he like okay
01:01:28
like why don't I just die then and she's like yeah go ahead wow go ahead and do it for me that's [ __ ] up like on
01:01:34
another level sorry if you can do something like that I don't I don't know where your bounds are you're pure evil
01:01:40
yeah according to the testimony from Betty and Jack's former friend Brenda S I believe she said Wilson meaning Betty
01:01:47
stated that she wanted to kill her husband and she asked Sarah if she would help her or if she knew how to do it so
01:01:53
she was also going around like looking for other say so we've got another like you go around and ask my friends you're
01:01:59
not going to find one of them that says I asked them if they could help me kill my husband you're just not going to find
01:02:05
one nope you find one it means I did and it's like that hello exactly if it walks
01:02:11
like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck it's a duck quack quack yeah two days into the trial the state called its
01:02:17
most important witness James White fry was upfront with the jury saying that even the prosecution found white to be a
01:02:24
quote wretch a pitiful human being he said but we're not depending on his credibility alone I mean he really
01:02:31
nailed that description a a wful human being the prosecution had produced multiple Witnesses and evidence that
01:02:39
corroborated James White's claims of having received money from Betty Wilson and in addition to that phone record
01:02:47
showed that James White and Betty Wilson had spoken many times in the weeks leading up to the murder and if you
01:02:54
remember Betty's Li liary B was found in his possession that proved that James White had been in Betty Wilson's company
01:03:01
on at least one occasion and again it's like if it smells like it it's it man like and absolutely I can agree that
01:03:09
before that it's pretty circumstantial totally but when you add this stuff in it's like there there's no coincidence
01:03:16
like this her book is found in his possession and his hair blood fingerprints DNA is found that he did
01:03:24
this to Jack Wilson he's adting that and then there phone records between them like all that like and she's walking
01:03:31
around asking people do you know anyone who will kill my husband I mean Hello that's going from A to B to C to D like
01:03:38
we're we're hitting all the points here yeah I know my calculus and you plus me equals us here okay look at that I loved
01:03:45
that so don't don't deny it don't deny it given the circumstantial quote unquote nature of the case the defensive
01:03:53
strategy was obviously to pull kohs and The credibility of the witnesses and to offer alternative explanations for the
01:03:59
claims that Betty had repeatedly made vague threats to Jack's life the core of their argument was pretty simple they
01:04:05
said James White had implicated Betty and her sister in the murder because it was the only way he could get a plea
01:04:10
deal to avoid the death penalty without his statements and confession they argued the state would actually have no
01:04:15
case against Betty Wilson I I always love when they're like allow me to explain away why Betty made vague death
01:04:23
threats against her husband I can do that I just want to see all the jury members just lean forward and put just
01:04:31
cradle their chin and just say please explain to me go for it go ahead give me that explanation why she made death
01:04:39
threats against her husband but didn't actually have a Parton his brutal murder For Hire go for it go right ahead please
01:04:45
I'm so I'm dying to know yeah in his opening statement Betty's defense attorney cook told the jury that James
01:04:51
White was a pathological liar with a significant criminal record that involved everything from drunk driving
01:04:56
to kidnapping under cross-examination cook shouted angrily at White saying you're a great big liar before starting
01:05:04
to pick aart of story no one's saying this guy is a good guy I mean look he's a [ __ ] brutal murderer we're a piece
01:05:11
of [ __ ] we're actually here to prove like yeah he is a piece of [ __ ] and he's
01:05:14
wrapped up with this other piece of [ __ ] exactly so cook pointed to the number of
01:05:18
times that white had changed key parts of his story remember I told you that was coming including his original
01:05:23
statement that he had been instructed to shoot Jack when later he stated that he
01:05:27
was supposed to use the bat and then his original claim that he had run from the
01:05:32
house to the truck which he later changed to say that Betty had driven him back to his truck that's a big
01:05:37
inconsistency I will I'll give him that that is that absolutely that's a damaging one it is to like involve her
01:05:43
in that part and also like that's like but also I think his memory may not have been the most
01:05:51
consistent M yeah he's a yeah there's no it's not like this guy has credibility like to spare here exactly but I'm just
01:05:58
saying that's in the defense I mean obviously they went for it they gifted him that they sure did or he short did
01:06:05
yeah now a few days into the trial the defense produced a surprise witness David Williamson he was a Salesman who
01:06:12
claimed he had gotten into an argument with James White at a Huntsville hotel at the time white claimed to be hiding
01:06:18
in the upstairs bedroom at the Wilson house according to Williamson the men got into a confrontation when white
01:06:25
confronted him demanding to know what the hell he was doing there when Williams had responded that he didn't
01:06:30
know what white was talking about James White supposedly said I'll make that [ __ ] pay for what she's doing to me
01:06:35
I'll show her what lonely is all about what the [ __ ] random according to Williamson James White had mistaken him
01:06:42
for someone else and then quote quickly calmed down apparently realizing he had the wrong person what now when he was
01:06:50
asked about the conf uh confrontation James White said he had literally never seen that man before and also that he
01:06:56
had never been to the rata Inn in Huntsville where this confrontation was supposed to have taken place the [ __ ] so
01:07:02
we have this one guy being like at the exact moment that he was supposed to be in this house where his DNA was found on
01:07:08
cigarette butts his fingerprints was found his hair was found he wasn't there where he admits that he was no no he was
01:07:16
at a hotel and we got in a weird argument look at this weird surprise witness we got I like how much money did
01:07:22
you get out of this situation like that's so what a move I don't know about that what a move so on the final day of
01:07:28
testimony Peggy low was called to testify Peggy stated that she never wanted to kill Jack and as far as she
01:07:34
knew neither did her sister Betty yeah it's crazy it's just wild that I know she she says it all the time but like
01:07:40
you know jokes crazy that Betty's only connection to this man is me his daughter's first grade teacher so wild I
01:07:47
don't know on this the day of my daughter's wedding you know now according to her the only money that
01:07:53
James White had ever received from either of the women was given in an act of Charity intended to help him get
01:07:59
through a a hard financial time and there you go she's like let me discover this real quick yeah yep I'm just so
01:08:05
charitable so I'm sure there's money that has passed between all of us but it's total charity charity just out of
01:08:12
the goodness of my heart she told the jury we were trying to help him he seemed like a pitiful little man and he
01:08:17
was making an honest effort seems like somebody who is yeah yeah she also explained that the phone calls between
01:08:23
the three accused were all related to their ATT to help James White find work and nothing more oh my God so selfless
01:08:29
it's weird how did he end up at your sister's house then so weird on March 3rd 1993 closing statements were made in
01:08:35
the case during which fry highlighted the evidence and testimony that corroborated James white White's claims
01:08:42
he told the jury it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to solve this case does you can feel what this woman was about
01:08:47
and what she was after yeah the defense on the other hand reminded the jury of the mostly circumstantial nature of the
01:08:53
case against Betty and that the they said the evidence of poor character was not the same as evidence of murder which
01:09:00
I agree we're not saying that it's just poor character that we're saying here yeah somebody can be a blazing [ __ ] and
01:09:07
not be a murderer I've met many of those people but it's like we're not there's other stuff exactly there's other stuff
01:09:15
here like we're not which I know it's the defenses it's their job they got to do what they got it's their job to be
01:09:20
like you're just picking on her for being a [ __ ] and that's not fair no it's just the fact that her husband died
01:09:25
just like this really mysterious from an outside perspective you're like I don't
01:09:29
care if it's your job I'm mad exactly but he he got real theatrical of course and he said cook told the jury this is
01:09:35
not a case of maids Mercedes clothes and jewelry she is not being tried for adultery she is being tried for murder
01:09:42
for murder it's like we know it's like no we know we're here like we know there's a whole man that was killed and
01:09:51
we got instructions human being that was killed here and it's like we know it's not about Mercedes clothes and jewelry
01:09:58
like that's not what we're here for we're here because a guy got murdered exactly for no [ __ ] reason exactly
01:10:05
the jury's like I wouldn't be here if it was about clothes Mercedes and that's not how that works I'm I'm actually here
01:10:11
to do something legit yeah so that jury deliberated for less than a day before delivering a verdict of guilty on both
01:10:20
charges against Betty Wilson bye Betty per an agreement made between the family and the prosecutor's office Betty was
01:10:26
spared the death penalty and instead received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parl damn
01:10:32
Jack's sister Jane said afterwards I don't think I would want to be the person to send anybody to the electric
01:10:37
chair she was guilty and I don't think 30 years in prison is a piece of cake either honestly Jane perfectly said
01:10:44
perfectly said she's like and I feel you I don't on my hands yeah she's like I'm
01:10:49
not a murderer I don't want that on my head she did what she did and she can she can pay for it in the way that they
01:10:55
offit what a what a like that that was a refreshing take on the whole thing I know good for you Jean now after the
01:11:02
verdict was read Bobby Lee Cook her Betty's defense attorney expressed his outrage to the reporters who had
01:11:08
gathered around him in the hall he told them anyone that would believe that Mrs low would be engaged in a sexual liaison
01:11:14
with Mr White would have to take leave of their senses I think she would have chosen someone more appealing considered
01:11:20
my senses left also that's not even the main point of this no one cares what they were doing I literally don't give a
01:11:28
[ __ ] they might have just known each other maybe they didn't barely knew each other who knows exactly I don't care
01:11:33
other enough that money was exchang exchanged acquaintances were made and a man ended up dead exactly that's what
01:11:40
everybody cares about I don't give a [ __ ] what she's doing exactly years later Charles Hooper and another member
01:11:45
of Betty Wilson's defense team speculated I think Miss Wilson was convicted on her personal conduct she
01:11:50
couldn't have been convicted on the evidence the physical evidence was not there to support it sometimes it's not
01:11:56
physical evidence either and there is phys physical evidence is physical it's not all all circumstantial like a large
01:12:02
portion of it is but absolutely but sometimes cases are made on circumstantial evidences sometimes
01:12:08
there's not even a body like often you know you don't need just physical evidence there is some in this case but
01:12:15
like the circumstantial evidence doesn't lie no it's evidence like that's why it
01:12:19
has the word evidence in it and not circumstantial [ __ ] that's like that would change things exactly
01:12:26
now the members of the jury never said why they did vote the way they did but there may have been a little bit of
01:12:31
Truth to Hooper's belief that Betty's conviction was due to her moral character just a few months later peggo
01:12:37
was tried for the same crimes using the same evidence and more or less the same testimony but this time the defense
01:12:44
argued that among other things Jack wasn't killed in the house and even that aat wasn't the murder weapon now
01:12:52
recalling the trial prosecutor Donald ala said it didn't make a damned how Dr Wilson got killed what matters was who
01:12:59
did it and James White admitted to doing it whether he stomped him beat him with
01:13:03
a bat beat him with a stick but that's the type of bull that experts try and sell to juries wow is he's kind of said
01:13:10
the quiet part loud pretty much now how the evidence was framed in Peggy's case wasn't the only difference the outcome
01:13:16
was also different after hearing the evidence and testimony a jury found Peggy not guilty on all charges wow W
01:13:25
and considering how the same evidence and essentially the same testimony could produce two very different outcomes it's
01:13:32
definitely worth considering the accused themselves yeah absolutely Betty just came across as a pretty much a greedy
01:13:39
social climber she had a long history of you know extramarital Affairs uh abandoning her children prioritizing
01:13:48
drugs and alcohol well and like Peggy it's like Betty had the the motive yes exactly the the very clear very direct
01:13:57
motive mhm exactly and you know in general one might say that she was of low moral character which honestly
01:14:03
probably made it easier for a jury to believe that not only did she want out of her marriage but that she was willing
01:14:07
to do anything she could have to hold on to the lifestyle that she yeah had grown
01:14:13
accustomed to on the other hand though Peggy L like we said by all accounts she was an upstanding member of her
01:14:18
community she had a long history of community involvement Charity she was a [ __ ] first grade teacher and she also
01:14:25
wasn't just a regular attendee at church like I said earlier she was even married
01:14:29
to the minister of music so you put all those things together and it's like I mean it doesn't mean Foo to me but you
01:14:35
can see why it would have influence on a jury yeah and I think and again I don't
01:14:39
even think it was I think they're looking at it to um kind of in a shallow way here where they're like oh they just
01:14:46
did it based on moral character and look like this is this is why and it's like no no Betty has the more direct motive
01:14:52
for this like exactly obviously it's seems like Peggy Peggy knows at the very least that something was going on who
01:14:59
knows you know allegedly allegedly I have no idea yeah either but all I know is that Betty was married to this man
01:15:07
and walked around saying how much she hated him had a ton of Affairs and actually asked people if they knew
01:15:13
people that could kill her husband exactly so it's like I think that was more the thing like the actual her
01:15:19
walking around telling people she wanted to kill her husband definitely and the fact that she was like clearly un be in
01:15:25
but saying I don't want to divorce him cuz I don't want to lose my money MH I feel like that is probably more it
01:15:31
unless def like shallow moral character kind of thing exactly and I think I think the shallow moral character did
01:15:40
play a role in both trials and I think like it makes sense in a way that Peggy got away with it because they didn't
01:15:47
really have anything bad to say about there's nothing to rely on there which is obviously not to suggest that the
01:15:53
jury's verdict was bias or like based entirely on morality of these two women but it's unreasonable to assume that it
01:16:01
didn't play at least some part in the trials which I'm sure it plays a part in a lot of these trials exactly now
01:16:07
following Peggy's acquit James White actually recanted his confession in a sworn affidavit he wrote I was never
01:16:14
propositioned by Mrs Peggy low to murder Dr Jack Wilson I made it all up huh but
01:16:19
then a short time after submitting his sworn affidavit he claimed that he had been coerced into signing that statement
01:16:26
and now maintained that his original statement was and is the true version of events so nothing makes sense and and
01:16:33
you can't trust what's going on exactly uh despite his being eligible for parole
01:16:38
after just seven years he remains in prison and his latest bid for parole which was made in March of 2021 was
01:16:44
denied by the parole board yes following her trial Betty Wilson began serving her
01:16:49
sentence at the Julia Tutwiler prison in wuma Alabama she had has always maintained her innocence and has filed
01:16:57
several appeals with the state courts all of which have been denied in May of 2006 she got remarried to Bill cample an
01:17:04
army contractor who actually saw her when a story about her appeared on the CBS show 48 hours in 2002 oh and after
01:17:11
learning the details of her story and her sentence he felt outraged about the Injustice and that's how they started
01:17:18
corresponding and I guess they fell in love wow yeah in 2022 independent filmmaker Jean Adam Jr announced his new
01:17:27
project finding Betty in which he takes a closer look at the case in order to prove that Betty was innocent and was
01:17:33
wrongfully convicted he told reporters I've made this film my life's Mission because it calls into question the
01:17:38
Integrity of the J justice system itself I won't give up until Justice is done as
01:17:44
of today though Betty Wilson remains in prison wow I think the biggest thing is that it's hard for people to understand
01:17:54
how one was sentenced and the other was not based on all of the same evidence essentially so I mean it's wow
01:18:02
interesting case very interesting case very tragic case yeah poor Jack Wilson he didn't deserve to die I mean nobody
01:18:08
deserves die got caught in the middle of this crap and it's exactly oh what an awful awful awful thing
01:18:17
yeah and with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it we weird but not so weird as any of
01:18:24
this because no [Music] [Music] [Music]