Two Elegant Sisters, One Murdered Ophthalmologist
(“The Wilson Murder,” Forensic Files)
Technical problem: If the photos of Betty Wilson and Peggy Lowe aren’t showing up in this post, please try viewing it here.
Forensic Files doesn’t always feature suspects who look like middle-aged belles from a Tennessee Williams drama.
But when it does, they’re twins with refined Southern accents that make you wonder what deviousness could be hidden inside.
Betty Wilson and Peggy Lowe probably conspired to kill Betty’s husband, but only one of them has to rely on the prison commissary for pomegranate iced tea today.
Jack Wilson, an ophthalmologist who had been married to Betty for 14 years, ended up dead on the lacquered floor of their brick mansion in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1992.
More to the story. At first, figuring out who murdered him and how seemed like a matter of connecting a few numbered dots.
But over the course of the separate trials, conflicting forensics experts, a hit man whose story kept changing, and the pristine reputation of one of the sisters made things go askew.
For this week, I searched for more information about murder victim Jack Wilson, whose importance gets lost amid the intrigue surrounding his colorful wife and sister-in-law.
So let’s get started on the recap of “The Wilson Murder,” the Forensic Files episode about the case, along with information culled from internet research:
Two weddings. Betty Joy and Peggy Gay Woods were fraternal twins born in Gadsden, Alabama, on July 14, 1945. They were both popular in school.
Betty was a student council officer and performed in plays and talent shows. Peggy was a homecoming queen and considered the class beauty, according to an AP account.
They both got married immediately after high school, had children, and divorced within a few years.
The sisters seemed to do better on their second marriages. Peggy, a first grade teacher, hitched up with a Baptist deacon named Wayne Lowe and became lead singer of the church choir. He adopted her two kids and they had another one together.
Loving the life. Betty took up with Jack Wilson, a doctor she met at Huntsville’s Humana Hospital, where she worked as a nurse specializing in kidney dialysis.
After they married, the social-climbing Betty quit her job and enjoyed the perks of being an eye surgeon’s wife. She wore a Rolex watch and cruised around town in her burgundy Mercedes convertible. The couple also owned a black BMW.
On May 22, 1992, Jack Wilson was looking forward to leaving on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with Betty the next day. He hoped it would rekindle his relationship with his wife, whom he still loved and would reportedly do just about anything to please.
Shocking discovery. The doctor, 55, was generous to others as well, sometimes waiving the charges for struggling patients. “They were always treated the same, if they had $5 or $500,000,” one of his office staff members told WAFF 48 News. “He treated me like a daughter. He treated everyone who worked here as family.”
And he kept them entertained with his “unapologetically cornball sense of humor,” according to People magazine:
“He wore Christmas ties in the summer. Even the way Wilson concluded his will was meant to be funny. ‘To be used only if absolutely necessary, i.e., if I am dead,’ he wrote. ‘Try real hard to revive me if I only look dead.’”
His sister-in-law said he was fun to be with, sincere, kind, and “didn’t have a pretentious bone in his body.”
Noncommittal crime scene. Betty had just returned home from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when she discovered Jack’s lifeless body in a pool of blood on the hardwood bordered by two Persian rugs and pale blue wall-to-wall carpeting. A metal baseball bat was lying next to him.
Betty ran to a neighbor’s house and dialed 911. She sounded convincing enough on the call.
At the murder scene, police couldn’t find any helpful fingerprints or signs of a burglary. All of Jack’s credit cards were in his wallet and there was nothing much in the way of ransacking in the house.
But investigators soon learned that things weren’t exactly in order between the victim and his pretty wife. The couple slept in separate bedrooms.
Salacious revelations. Numerous sources reported that Betty had a distaste for Jack and the surgery he’d had because of his Crohn’s disease. Witnesses would later testify about the various unkind things she said to and about him. (Although, to her credit, she accepted Jack’s marriage proposal the day he told her he needed a colostomy.)
Another prospective motive for homicide: Jack’s will left the bulk of his $6.3 million estate to Betty.
There was also the matter of her extra-marital lifestyle.
A New York Daily News report would later describe her as a woman with a “thriving sex life that rarely involved her husband.” The AA meetings she attended regularly — she’d been sober for five years — made for convenient hookups.
With only gossip and speculation and minimal forensic facts, however, investigators couldn’t build a solid case against her.
Then, a police informant came forward.
None-too-reputable. The tipster said that James White, a 41-year-old handyman at the elementary school where Peggy Lowe taught, had been hired to kill Jack Wilson for $5,000.
White, described by a reporter as a “dirty man with ungroomed hair and bad teeth,” had a dishonorable discharge from the military and a record with the law.
Detectives found Betty’s revolver in an abandoned house next to White’s trailer as well as a library book of poetry signed out by Betty in White’s truck. He later said that Betty placed his cash advance in the book after Peggy negotiated his fee for the murder.
Police arrested Peggy Lowe and Betty Wilson. Peggy got out on $300,000 bail, but her sister was stuck in jail.
Hitman cooperates. The murder charges against twin sisters — with their smooth, articulate speech, tasteful wardrobes, and commercially attractive facial features — made news around the country.
The Boston Globe sent a reporter to Alabama to cover the case.
So many spectators flocked to the ensuing trials that the courthouse had to assign admission tickets to tame the chaos.
James White made a deal for a lighter sentence in exchange for implicating Betty and Peggy.
He said that he knew Peggy Lowe from the school in Vincent where he did some carpentry work. They had struck up a friendly relationship, speaking on the phone regularly.
Contract taken out. White found Peggy enchanting and wanted to win her favor — the eighth-grade dropout loved that she came from the right side of the tracks.
After confiding in him that she “had a friend who was in a bad marriage and whose husband mistreated her,” Peggy Lowe agreed to pay White $5,000 for a hit, with some of the money up front so that he could pay off debts and help his four children, White said, according to court papers.
White said that on the day of the murder, he hid upstairs in the Wilsons’ house until Jack Wilson came upstairs.
But White would later claim that he had already decided not to use the gun for the murder — and then realized that he didn’t want to kill him at all.
Boyfriend obligated to testify. Unfortunately, White testified, when he encountered Jack Wilson in the hallway, there was a struggle and White beat Wilson with the bat and stabbed him twice in the abdomen. Then, he said, Betty met him outside and drove him to his truck.
Police found no evidence he’d been inside Betty’s vehicle, so prosecutors took what forensics they had plus Jack’s testimony — and threw in some character assassination.
The state subpoenaed one of Betty’s lovers, an African American city official named Erroll Fitzpatrick, to testify about their relationship. Defense lawyer Buck Watson complained it was a maneuver to play upon racism.
The prosecution also presented numerous witnesses who attested to demeaning comments Betty had made about her husband.
Despite that Betty had four defense lawyers, including courtroom star Bobby Lee Cook — allegedly the inspiration for Andy Griffith’s character on Matlock — the prosecution had the edge.
Twin with the halo. After deliberating for two days, the jury convicted Betty of capital murder. She received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Eight months after Betty’s trial, it was Peggy Lowe’s turn. The prosecution alleged that the poised and proper twin was a conspirator who hired killer James White.
But Peggy Lowe’s encounter with the judicial system was markedly different from her sister’s modern-day stoning.
First off, there was little leeway to assassinate Peggy’s character. She was a happily married first grade teacher known for her kindness toward people in need. Her husband was minister of music at their church.
The defense made a point of introducing the jury to Peggy’s husband, three daughters, and son, who were in the courtroom to support her.
Teflon defendant. Dozens of her fellow First Baptist Church parishioners, some carrying “Free Peggy Lowe” signs, showed up at the courthouse to support her innocence.
There was a bit of salaciousness during the trial, however. White claimed that Peggy Lowe used sex to seduce him into the murder plot.
But Peggy denied the accusation, and it seemed to bounce right off of her.
The defense trashed White — whose lawyers had given him a makeover including new teeth — maintaining that the kind-hearted Peggy Lowe met with White to help him get carpentry work at the Wilsons’ house, and also lent him money to help his four kids.
White had a long history of abusing drugs and alcohol and a criminal record that included an escape from jail. He had even attacked his own troops while serving in Vietnam and sexually abused his daughter, Peggy’s defense team told the jury.
Two-assailant theory. Oddly, at the same time, the defense made a case that White wasn’t the murderer, noting that White had never actually admitted he killed Jack Wilson.
His original story didn’t make sense either, according to a forensic specialist who testified for the defense, because the murder weapon was probably an implement like a fireplace poker, not a baseball bat.
And, the defense alleged, the homicide required two people, who probably attacked Jack Wilson in the garage, beat, stabbed, and strangled him, then wrapped his body in a tarp, carried it upstairs, dumped it on the floor, and smeared blood on the bat so it looked like the murder weapon.
The jury took less than three hours to return a not guilty verdict.
Back to the routine. ″I asked the Lord to send me a good lawyer and he did,″ a teary Peggy Lowe said after the verdict, according to an AP account.
A prosecutor grumbled that trying to convict Peggy Lowe was like “fighting God.”
After the trial, Lowe returned to her respectable life, telling a newspaper reporter she was looking forward to attending a high school football game to watch her teenage daughter, who was a cheerleader.
As for Betty, she still resides behind razor wire, in Julia Tutwiler Prison, which Mother Jones magazine once named one of the 10 worst prisons in the U.S., although the facility has since been overhauled.
In 2006, Betty snagged herself a new husband, a former Green Beret named Bill Campbell who had become fascinated by her plight after watching a 48 Hours episode about the case.
Sister act still strong. They had a traditional wedding ceremony, although the wedding cake had to be sliced before it was allowed in the prison, the Gadsden Times reported.
Alabama does not allow conjugal visits.
Betty’s twin, known as Peggy Peck after she remarried, to a University of Alabama professor, was maid of honor at Betty’s jailhouse wedding.
Today, in addition to the support of her newest husband, Betty has the comfort of knowing that the murder and its aftermath didn’t drive a wedge between her and her sister – even when they both faced the prospect of Alabama’s electric chair and police falsely told each of them that the other had blamed her.
As for convicted hitman James White, he later changed his story — saying that he had never met Betty Wilson or slept with Peggy Lowe. He recanted his claims that Lowe ensnared him in a murder-for-hire plan. He also said that he blacked out during the time of the murder.
He later changed his story back to the original.
No country club. White resides in Limestone Correctional Center in Harvest.
It’s a maximum security prison recently targeted by Alabama’s Civil Rights Division for alleged cruel and unusual punishment, including subjecting some men to bucket detail.
White is up for parole consideration on March 1, 2020.
Judging from online comments, there’s not a whole lot of sympathy out there for James White, but many viewers are bothered by the lack of forensic evidence against Betty Wilson — and believe she was railroaded.
That’s all for this week. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube or Tubi or Amazon Prime
Thanks, Rebecca. A pretty confusing case, with such an unreliable witness as White. And so much for Peggy’s ‘Godly’ relationship, now she’s a divorcee on husband two, which wouldn’t play quite so well now…
I suppose the central question is IF this wasn’t an attempted burglary, why was Jack murdered other than through uxorial animus? If other potential enemies, such as disgruntled patients or their relatives, employees, or medical rivals could be reasonably excluded, whom did it leave but the unquestionably disgruntled wife? That’s insufficient to convict by itself, but it points a firm finger.
Lack of forensic evidence per se isn’t a reason to prevent conviction. The problem here is that juries are so used to high-level forensic evidence presentation, in its absence they may default to ‘insufficient evidence’. If that were the case, many say pre-1960 convictions would be unjustified.
Of course, CONFLICTING forensic evidence, rather than lack per se, is a different matter.
Has anyone correlated being in a church choir with homicidality? If it’s as it seems from watching FF, half of all women in jail sing good. And why do people think church goers are more likely innocent of a crime? Same about school teachers. They’re capable of making kids miserable; they are able to kill husbands if the price is right. And don’t get me started about nurses. Alright, you want to know? Closet sadists. The only thing they like doing is inflicting pain. Everything else is a means to the ends.
FF gives the impression that doctors, then nurses, are the most murderous – but choir members seem up there too!
You sound like you are projecting. Please produce the evidence about your statement about nurses. Just your statement tells me you know nothing about medical proceedures. Medical proceedures are often not pleasant, by their nature. The rest comes off as bias against Christians. They are human, and deeply flawed, just like everyone else. It is unfortunate the prosecutor did such sloppy work, and normally a convicted criminal is not considered reliable for court testimony, because they are known liars, cheaters, theives, and immoral. It is quite surprising White was used at all. Again a lousy DA, who was pretty corrupt, himself. He stated the details of a murder did not mater, right there on film. They do matter.
The Forensic File episodes ends with a message on screen stating that in 2006 Betty married the killer, James White in prison. This article says she married a man named Bill Campbell. Which is correct?
That threw me off, too, but it was definitely Bill Campbell — not James White — according to multiple media sources.
I think Peggy got away with murder. Anyone else think so?
I think she definitely played a role.
No, I think she was falsely accused but she got Justice, whilst Betty didn’t
Yes! Peggy was the missing link between White and her sister. They are both horrible people.
*Betty White(Campbell) is up for parole consideration on March 1, 2020…HMM wonder if she’s out? Amongst COVID-19..
PS. I just HATE how lawyers out now to win, not for justice.
They don’t care if they let a murderer go free, they just want to WIN, for their stats.
THIS needs to change.
James White is up for parole, not Betty. Betty got a life term without parole convinction.
This isn’t a change. Defense lawyers are always trying to free their clients just as prosecuted are trying to convict. If you’ve ever been through a trial, you’d know that trials have never been about justice. They are about which attorney can convince the jury that he/she is right.
Just maybe… halo shone that day maybe.
A beautiful woman with a heart as big as her sister’s for money. Peggy was greatly involved as she knew soon she would leave the church. Her husband and she and her sister could enjoy the wealth together. I live just down the road from Peggy. Choir directors and school teachers don’t live like her sister. Both are evil.
Yes. Dr. Wilson was eye doc for my father and many friends. Betty tried to hire other people before hiring the man who actually took the job. There is no doubt. Also, James White did not have a reason to come here other than at her behest. The phone records show that they talked immediately after the murder.
Interesting, Penny. Do you have a theory about whether Peggy was involved?
Me too!! She set her sister up. Peggy is the one that hired James White to kill Jack Wilson. She is the evil one hiding behind this goody image; it’s all fake. What better way to get away with murder than to make everyone think and believe you’re an angel, when you’re actually a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Yes, there’s no doubt in my mind that she conspired with Betty to kill Jack Wilson. Peggy Lowe introduced James White to her sister. A different defense attorney and a different prosecutor made a difference, but the biggest difference was her squeaky clean lifestyle. That is the reason Peggy Lowe (now Peggy Peck) is still free. But, make no mistake, she did conspire with her sister to kill Jack Wilson.
Agree!
As someone who knows Peggy personally, she is far from the person who would be involved in such a scheme. I know for a fact if anyone in the community had an inkling of suspicion about her it would have been shouted from the mountain tops that she was involved. I have never heard that from anyone in the community that I hold deep ties to.
I love it when people close to the situation weigh in — thanks much for offering your perspective. I have to ask…do you think Betty is innocent, too?
John: Alas, criminal history’s littered with relatives/friends/colleagues who couldn’t believe ‘their’ perp was the perp. Indeed, if those close to the perp don’t have an inkling, why would anyone else” (…if anyone in the community had an inkling…”)? The jury had an inkling that she WAS guilty.
All you can in fact say is that this was deeply surprising to those close to her such that they don’t believe she was the perp – nothing more.
After seeing what the police had i dont think any of them are guilty
Why did Betty get life without parole and the actual killer is up for parole in March 2020?
Good question — not sure what the thinking behind that decision was.
He signed a plea deal for a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony against the sisters.
He cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against Betty and Peggy.
Saw this episode (The wilson murder) on 10/14/19 on HLN. The graphic at the end said “in 2006 Betty Wilson married J. White” This must be an error! I cant find a record of this. Please 2x check this!!!
That was a shocker — but it’s just an error. Newspaper accounts give the name Bill Campbell for the man Betty Wilson married in prison.
Betty married Bill, but the couple divorced some years later. Betty is again single. At least, that’s what they said on Paula Zahn’s show
When did Bill Campbell and Betty Wilson divorce ?
80% convicted her because of her affairs not for crime.
She has been in there long enough.
The guy who set her up recanted his statement…release or new trial
Betty White married Bill Campbell NOT James White as the episode notes.
On the streaming episode from IMDB on Amazon, that reference of her marrying James White has been removed.
Glad to hear – that reference puzzled a lot of viewers.
Well, whoever it was wants his head examining…
As far as I’m concerned, I don’t understand why both sisters had different outcomes considering the lack of substantial evidence. This case was based on appearances, affairs and money — it didn’t have anything to do with real justice. To this day, I believe Peggy and Betty are innocent. James White is where he needs to be, but Betty isn’t.
I disagree: Peggy was a drunk, foul-mouthed, gold-digging, serial adulterer. This proves nothing… but it properly points a finger, because we know (i) most murder victims know their murderer (often a spouse or partner); (ii) she was highly critical of him to others and directly, according to friends and house staff; (iii) her lifestyle could be regarded as expressing contempt for him / the marriage and that she wanted out; (iv) nothing was stolen from the house but the attack was highly brutal – ‘personal’; (v) she was set to gain $5m – far more than if divorced given the infidelities.
These are all probative of murder – never mind the White factor.
It’s nonsense to aver that someone is innocent in the face of the above. What one might claim is that murder isn’t adequately proved and therefore that this LIKELY perp should be regarded as legally innocent. I think that the guilt threshold was reached because it’s far less likely that a stranger did it than that she conspired with White.
There’s a good possibility Lowe was involved – but that’s all one can claim. The likelihood is that the idea and wish for the murder was Wilson’s and the other two helped enable it. If so, that makes Wilson the worst of the three. She may be regarded as fortunate that in that state she didn’t get death for this capital crime.
You’re getting your sisters confused. Betty is the one who cheated and made comments. She’s the one in prison.
Peggy is the one not in prison.
Which now makes me wonder how many people could have gotten the women confused with each other.
Thanks. Were they twin sisters, then?
Fraternal twins.
Yes, fraternal and Peggy is the one that hired James White to kill Jack.
Okay sure there’s “motive” but did you even watch the FF episode? White’s story is skewed and the mere fact that there is no blood spatter on the walls and the strange smearing on the ground is enough to show that something is off. Plus, if White can’t recall exactly what happened, how can he suddenly remember having Betty drive him to his car? It’s not enough evidence. Motive itself shouldn’t be enough to convict someone for life in prison.
Agree that motive per se is wholly insufficient basis for conviction – but ‘I want my husband dead’ expresses BOTH motive and, potentially, intention (motive being passive; intention being active). There’s a difference. Wilson had a strong motive, and the means and opportunity, through the admittedly unreliable witness, White.
This was a ‘hate’ killing, not robbery. No-one else had apparent ‘reason’ to hate her husband but Wilson. It was a convincing circumstantial case in my view and that of the jury.
Being a bad wife isn’t a crime. Heck, wishing your husband was dead isn’t a crime. Benefiting from a rich inheritance in the event of his death, that isn’t a crime either.
If you’re going to get beyond a claim of “reasonable doubt,” there has to be more than that.
I’ll be honest, the idea of two guys murdering him outside and then dragging him inside to pose a fake crime scene with a baseball bat baffles me. It’s so implausible as to be silly. But those cuts on his skull don’t look inflicted by a baseball bat (too narrow) and even to a novice those blood smears on the ground indicate the body was moved. And there should be spatter. Head wounds bleed like crazy.
Honestly, there’s a good chance that Wilson did it (even without her sister’s help), but there’s no evidence beyond White’s word that she’s involved and he is clearly an unreliable narrator. I know it’s unsatisfying, but based on the FF information I’d rather she be acquitted and guilty than be innocent and in prison for life on dubious evidence.
She likely did it, but the prosecution was supposed to actually prove their case, which they failed to do – the jury was just too dumb to see it. It’s perfectly possible that White lied to get a reduced sentence and Peggy had nothing to do with the killing, despite being a bad wife. There was nothing close to proof in this case, and people aren’t supposed to get convicted because they ‘probably did it.’
Seriously I swear, I am astonished! It is scary to know that they convicted her just with the word of a known fellon! There is no evidence of her doing it or pay for it. This court was ridiculous! And they didn’t even check the hood found on the bed! She should have had at least a retrial when analysis of the scene came.
And you know so much about the case that you don’t know which sister is which.
I just watched the episode and I’m disturbed by the outcome for Betty. It doesn’t add up. I’m hoping between her husband and twin sister she gets support to receive parole & thereafter.
Her sentence is life without parole.
I watched it on City Confidential and what also surprised me is that when both sisters were arrested Peggy was able to bail out but didn’t bother to help Betty with her bail?
I have not seen the tv version of this horrible murder, so my comments are regarding a book written by Jim Schutze, BY TWO AND TWO. I think an innocent is behind bars. The police were conned by James Dennison White, a habitual liar, drug user and dealer and boozer. His money came from dealing drugs except the $200 dollars which Betty gave him, that is why it could not be traced. He had a grudge because Betty Wilson called his hand. She was a strong intelligent woman and wasn’t fooled by him. He wasn’t going to take it. Betty Wilson had never met Mr. White. It is unfortunate that Mr. Wilson came home at that time and realized there was someone in the house. White went off on him and committed the murder. There was no contract by the sisters on Mr. Wilson’s life.
The series is called “Forensic Files” yet where is the “forensics” to convict? Seems this case was decided by personal opinion and the word of a druggie con man who (defense should have stated) had access to the gun and book through carpentry work he performed (including uncapping a gas line to a fireplace covered over in the master bedroom) at the home. “Beyond reasonable doubt” was not met IMHO based on what I saw.
How is Betty Wilson still in jail? After Peggy was found innocent it should be clear cut an innocent woman rots in jail for the incompetence of cops. Watching this episode made me sad, I normally watch the show to reinforce my hope in law enforcement as well as scientific evidence. Stories like this are extremely rare however when they do happen there’s cops, investigators, prosecutor etc. Who clearly made up their mind based off emotions rather than objective evidence. Betty Wilson had active sex and partied, I guess that’s enough for a guilty verdict. On top of my baseless theory maybe her husband didn’t mind. He had Crohn’s which might have made it harder for him to perform husbandly duties on top of both of them living in separate rooms with no evidence being brought forth of bad blood between Betty and Jack such as witness reports of verbal fights or domestic violence. There’s a a slew of missing key pieces of info that lead ultimately to someone or someone’s committed murder and got away with it, Jack Wilson never found justice and an innocent woman rots in jail due to arrogant cops who couldn’t be bothered to be diligent in scientific evidence and ignored it outright in favor of hearsay and rumormongering. Disgraceful.
Exactly! I am so appaled by this case! It’s crazy that even now, she doesn’t get a new airing!
I think Betty is probably guilty but that’s just my opinion; there just isn’t sufficient evidence and there is reasonable doubt. So she shouldn’t be in prison, in spite of the fact that she probably was behind her husband’s murder. To have a fair criminal justice system that respects our rights, sometimes that means letting murderers go free.
I totally agree. She likely did it, but White had clear reason to falsely accuse her if she didn’t.There shouldn’t have been enough evidence to charge her, let alone convict her.
In any case, White is the one who done it. If Betty is involved, she still did not do as much as that horrible man.
I really think the twin sisters didn’t do it. I believe White blame them because peggy only wanted to help him and nothing more.
I was there. My wife worked for Betty Wilson. She tried to kill him before that. She would come home after work and say Betty tried to kill Jack again.
I call BS. Why didn’t your wife report it then?
BS
#FreeBettyWilson
The case against her was built more on sexist smears about her “lifestyle” than on forensic evidence. She remains imprisoned because they continue to take the word of a man against hers, even though he has admitted that his word was a lie! And to add insult to injury, he is eligible for parole, but she is not. Where is the justice in that?
We decry this treatment of women when it happens in Middle Eastern theocracies, but it happens here in the United States.
I disagree the verdict was founded on her lifestyle – ‘sexist.’ While it may be questioned whether the evidence was beyond reasonable doubt, it seems she was found guilty because there was reasonable evidence that she had loathed him for a long time, had talked of wanting rid of him to a number of people, and if she did she’d enjoy considerable financial gain which a divorce would seriously reduce. With the murder reflecting more intentional homicide than burglary by-product, because it was so severe as to ensure death, not just incapacitation, of a dr who is unlikely to have generated hate towards himself, she was the obvious, legitimate suspect. We also know that statistically the spouse/partner/ex/’friend’ is usually the perp.
It’s highly likely she’s guilty as charged and inadequate to cheapen the case by claiming it was about her unfaithful drunkenness, which millions of men and women are guilty of.
Which people? Nothing is said about that in the docu.
This is from the appeal transcript so is authoritative. FF can’t be a comprehensive covering of the evidence, just the main points.
There appears no controversy about the claim Wilson loathed the victim, but whether that loathing incited the crime. Unfortunately for her, his severe, ‘overkill’ beating could be interpreted as ‘personal,’ and as a seemingly popular dr who treated poor patients free, no potential motive was found in his professional life. Although far from proof, these factors probably weighed against the defendant. I think it’s highly likely Wilson at least discussed the possibility of murder-for-hire, even if she hadn’t, or hadn’t yet, ‘agreed’ it and White did it anyway. It’s by far the best explanation for events and leaves little room for doubt. Her ‘jokes’ about being a widow etc can only be considered suspicious, even if she’s a stupid widow who shot the mouth off. She’s evil.
https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-criminal/1995/cr-92-1223-0.html
“The state also presented evidence that corroborated James White’s testimony that appellant Wilson was unhappy in her marriage and that she wanted Dr. Wilson murdered. There was testimony that the marriage had deteriorated. Appellant Wilson and Dr. Wilson had separate bedrooms, and appellant Wilson had had several extra-marital affairs, one as recently as two weeks before Dr. Wilson’s murder. JoAnn Chiri, a technician who worked in Dr. Wilson’s office, testified that appellant Betty Wilson was unkind to her husband and that she had made the *454 statement that she would rather be a well respected widow than a divorcee.”
Etc…
That’s an appeals decision, so it is not going to examine the credibility of testimony. I don’t find any of the prosecution witnesses credible. The prosecutor’s defiance and hatred of science, exhibited during the episode, tells us everything we need to know about his commitment to facts.
Please, overkill?
Thanks Quincy.
You ever hit someone in the head before? They usually don’t drop over dead immediately like on tv.
One thing we can say is that he was killed elsewhere and his body was moved into the house.
Could a boyfriend be involved? I didn’t see any reference to anyone Betty was seeing.
What was the doctor’s sex life like? Could a jealous husband have caught him and killed him? Did he use prostitutes? Did an angry pimp kill him?
The investigation was terribly sloppy, and if there is hard evidence about Betty having him killed, it wasn’t supplied. They just took White’s word for it.
There’s a lot we’ll never know, but I think Betty should not have been convicted on the basis of what we’ve seen.
There was substantial evidence of her infidelity but not his possible infidelity, so the balance in that respect was against someone she was involved with, not he was. He also had some physical condition that prevented or made sex difficult (I don’t recall what or for how long, but it makes it highly unlikely he was involved physically with someone in the preceding months).
We can’t say the scenarios you raise are impossible (police will have looked into his personal background and presumably found nothing of significance), just that they were less likely on the evidence than that the murder was motivated from her side (whether by solicitation or one of a number of men she’d been seeing). The tipping point for the jury may well have been her expressed loathing for him and obvious remaining in the marriage for the money (then insurance/inheritance). She didn’t and couldn’t deny the latter due to the multiple affairs.
This dumb page reloaded and deleted a long comment I was finishing up! Grrrrr
The condition he had was Crohn’s disease which caused him to have to have his colon removed and wear a colostomy bag. This doesn’t make it impossible to have sex. He might have been self conscious about it or she was grossed out, or both. But you can 100% still have sex. That’s just one point I made in my deleted reply, but in case this site messes up again I thought that was the most important point I was making.
Sorry about your comment getting hijacked —something is wrong with this page tech-wise. It’s the only one that’s given me trouble.
DH, His physical condition would have made him rather less likely to be ‘playing away’ than we know she was. He may well have been self-conscious, particularly with women he didn’t know, regardless of how his wife viewed him. There was no evidence he was unfaithful (which isn’t proof he wasn’t), and unlike her he had a busy job. Crohn’s causes fatigue, to add to the mix. All things considered it seems unlikely he’d been unfaithful (at least since the colostomy bag), thus unlikely his death was some kind of revenge beating.
There are a range of possible explanations for others’ motivation to violence or murder that we have to sift through for the more and less likely in context. This is surely unlikely. While the beating of a love-rival happens (and murder), this was such a vicious attack it was plausibly intended as murder, not just beating. As there was no evidence the victim was currently engaged in a relationship (not difficult to determine), to murder him over a *historic* relationship (therefore over, so nothing to stop) seems extremely unlikely. Why risk a murder charge for revenge over past infidelity? Again, it’s possible, just most unlikely, whereas her motivation to remove him from her life and to preserve her wealth is vastly more likely, and with the means through the actual perp to do it. She implicated herself through her own words, too.
While it might be claimed there was insufficient evidence to convict, her involvement is far more likely than a stranger’s such as revenge-seeker. As has been said, a burglar doesn’t spend time and take unnecessary risk beating a person to death – they get out or do only what is necessary to incapacitate the householder to do so. When burglars/revenge-seekers are excluded, what does it leave but the wife who said she loathed him, wanted out, and wanted his money? It seems a third or more of the show’s eps are about just this.
I get what you’re saying, but as somebody who’s not convinced by the broader evidence on this, I’d argue statistics–spouses are more likely to kill their partners, bad people/selfish jerks/etc are more likely to kill their partners–can’t get you past the threshold for burden of proof.
Is she the most likely person to be responsible for this crime? Yes. Does that practically mean anything? No. Because many unhappy, selfish spouses don’t murder their partners. Motive can reinforce a case against someone, but it can’t be the only factor because people aren’t statistics. Just because someone is more likely to do something doesn’t mean they did it. That’s reasonable doubt, basically.
So who did it? No idea. Maybe she was involved. But lacking anything more concrete I wouldn’t say much more than that, personally.
Elizabeth, I agree that stats can’t prove anything, but I’m not arguing from stats but rather who is most likely in the particular circumstance. Most likely doesn’t mean *statistically* most likely but, in all the particular circumstances who (or who with an indicated motive) is some pointed to. That’s what circumstantial evidence is – it’s not direct (forensic). I’m not arguing that these reasonable assumptions are sufficient (most convictions are based on circumstantial evidence) in themselves, but they’re not irrelevant either. It remains for the prosecution to prove its case, not the defence its.
So I disagree that this circumstantial evidence ‘means nothing,’ and it seems the jury would too, even if it’s debatable how meaningful it was. I agree that motive alone is insufficient, just as it’s not necessary to show any motive to convict. Of course, she wasn’t convicted *only* on ‘likelihood’ but it seems to’ve played a part in tandem with other evidence, and juries are entitled to make reasonable inference from indirect evidence, as they appear to have done in this case. It doesn’t make them right, I agree.
Alabama is a cesspool of injustice.
A documentary about this case called “Finding Betty” was released just yesterday. I’ve yet to watch it—it’s not streaming for free, and I’m cheap—so I can’t offer a review.
A link to its trailer: https://youtu.be/G327ml5pQ94
Thanks much for sending this — good to know that people are dedicated to reinvestigating this case.
Gregg, you can watch free on Tubi!
You’re very welcome. I’m about to cave and plop down the $5 to watch it.
I just don’t see how she was convicted. There’s not enough evidence, forensic or circumstantial, to draw a line through. There’s also no way the testimony of one person should have affected the conviction of one sister when the other was acquitted and said testimony implicated both. Just very strange and confusing.
Who tf is Andy Griffin? It’s Andy Griffith.
Yes!!
I have created a documentary about the case of Betty Wilson, it is called Finding Betty (Amazon, Apple TV) and explores more than the injustice and facts of the case but angles more toward the mishandling of the case from the police and corruption from the detectives into the appeals courts.
Sounds interesting! You’re on Team Betty?
To answer that, yes I am. There is much more to it though that is in relation to this case. Forensic Files is actually where I first heard of it.