The Shooting of the Century PT 2

I'm Kate Winkler Dawson. I'm a journalist who's spent the last twenty five years writing about true crime.

And I'm Paul Hols, a retired cold case investigator who's worked some of America's most complicated cases and solve them.

Each week, I present Paul with one of history's most compelling true crimes.

And I weigh in using modern forensic techniques to bring new insights to old mysteries.

Together, using our individual expertise, we're examining historical true crime cases through a twenty first century lens.

Some are solved and some are cold, very cold.

This is buried bones.

Hey, k how are you?

I'm well, Paul? How about you? Have you been thinking about the case.

Of course I have or Billy Woodward?

I know, I know, so this case has been for us about is this an accident or is this murder? And I feel like we have kind of contradictory evidence, but I'm not quite sure where do you think we stand now? I know you've been thinking about it this week.

Yeah, we don't have all the information yet to make that determination. And these cases can be difficult because sometimes you know, the evidence could support either theory, and that's that's where I'm interested to see where this goes as the case unfolds, because right now I think there's some inconsistencies in Anne's initial statement. However, there's some aspects where you know, it appears that how she said they you know, the shooting went down, killing Billy, you know, could be possible based on what she said. So I'm wanting answers.

You know, this is you know, what I used to do during aspects of my job is to try to look at physical evidence to answer accidental or homicide. You know, it's funny use the term murder. I never use the term murder.

I've been using the term murder for four years with you No.

Well, you know, because I just as I'm in the true crime space. My role was, you know, working homicides. You know, I'm waiting for the pathologist to rule is it homicide or accidental or natural, et cetera. We have homicide investigators, we don't have murder investigators. Murder, at least in California, is a legal term. It isn't murder until a DA charges murder. It's a homicide up to that point.

That's my perspective's my little mini rant if you will, but you can use murder, I'll accept it.

That's good because I'm probably not going to stop using murder. But that's a good explanation. Let me do a very quick summary of this case. So it's nineteen fifty five. We have a very very wealthy couple, the Woodwords billion, and they leave their a state. They have a two kids, two boys, one is eight and one is eleven. I don't think I've mentioned that the last time the boys are asleep in the family room. When Anne and Billy leave, they go to a really ritzy party with the former king and his wife. They come back and everybody in the neighborhood is scared. Essentially in this area of Long Island, everyone in this area of Long Island is very wary of intruders. There's robberies, and then Billy has been afraid

that there's a squatter that's been in their garage, and so there's a lot of mischief around. They check the house, nothing seems to miss. They go to sleep except our bedrooms, which is an unusual and then Anne says that she hears something she thinks on the roof. Then she says there are shadows bouncing off the walls in her bedroom.

She grabs her shotgun, which is in a chair next to her. That also doesn't seem unusual. She's a hunter, and especially if everybody's freaked out. Billy had a couple of guns too, that wouldn't be unusual. But what is unusual? She picks up the gun. She goes into the hallway. She sees a dark, shadowy figure near her husband's bedroom door.

She shoots twice, and Billy is dead, with no clothes on. Halfway in his bedroom, halfway out in the hallway, a lot of pulling blood. One pellet from this shotgun, apparently, according to the medical examiner, kills him, goes into the brain and then there are I think three more pellets in his skull, but his face has been hit really hard with pellets in his head. And then I think I remember correctly that the spray was about a two foot long spray right against the back wall of his bedroom from these two shots. Yeah, number one, does that sound all right? And number two? What was contradictory from what you remember that? She says, versus what maybe the evidence could be telling us? Now?

Yeah, no, I think you're spot on The one thing that is a big piece of evidence that needs to be addressed is her initial statement is that there is a shotgun blast through the door mechanism into Billy's room. At least in the photograph that you showed me, I am not seeing any damage to the inside of that door, and from a shotgun blast from a twelve gage shotgun, even with bird shot, it's going to do some significant damage that I would expect to see even on the inside of the door. So that's that's one of the pieces of the puzzle that I'm hoping to get some clarification on, whether it be through more details on the physical evidence or through the investigation itself. The two foot spread pattern on the back wall is not going to

be accurate to the distance the shooter was from Billy because those pellets flew a longer distance after the initial impact with Billy. So these just happened to be pellets that him just because the way pellets spread as they go down range, and so it's more of the spread on Billy himself and the injuries the impact with the shotgun wads. You know, that's what's kind of more indicative that we're dealing with. You know, an intermediate range shot.

And again this is you know, just educated guessing, but somewhere, you know, five to fifteen feet away. It's this is not a close range shot. If it had been and Billy's face was impacted, you know, on the on the right side, half of his face would be gone. You know, shotguns are devastating weapons at close range.

Okay, so you know I had given you details that he had a torn ear and his cheek was ripped up. But still that still doesn't say close range, right, because a twelve gage shotgun, as you said, would have just destroyed his face.

At a close range, yes, for sure, you know. And then basically a contact shot from a shatku and causes the head to explode. So it's it is a it's a devastating weapon.

So let's talk about what becomes of big interest to the people in the media, because now this is out. You know, you and I really have been talking about I would say a timeframe from one am when they get home until eleven or twelve pm the next day when the medical examiner comes out with his findings. I don't think we've even gotten past that. So now we need to talk about the churn that happens, of gossip things that will affect this investigation, but also sort of more facts that come out that could inform us of what may or may not have happened, because I know, you know, we can talk about inconsistencies or consistencies. She fired far away, but still she certainly could have fired on purpose and killed him, or someone else could have

fired on purpose and killed him. And at the same time, why would that have happened? And will there be suspicion that turns on her? So let me talk about really the relationship, because that's what people home in on here. So Anne is questioned by police, but only after she goes to the hospital and is sedated and sort of sequestered on her own for a couple of days under orders of her doctor because she's so hysterical or she doesn't want to talk to police. So New York society is whispering about this. They did not have the greatest marriage, Billy would word and his wife, so people and I think friends and family had thought they were heading for a divorce at this point anyway, which I know, I said,

you know, people can sleep in separate bedrooms, and that was not abnormal in the nineteen fifties. But this might have been because they didn't want to sleep in the same bedroom. But they did go to parties together, but that could have been keeping up appearances, right, absolutely, Okay, so let me just tell you about these these people, because that is part of this narrative here. So totally mismatched couple. It sounds like Billy came from you know, this banking family, millions of millions of dollars. Anne came from a very humble family from Pittsburgh, Kansas. She came to New York in the nineteen thirties looking for work and she found it as a model. She was a radio actress, and eventually she became a showgirl at this

swanky place called Fefees Monte Carlo Nightclub in Manhattan. You know, this is a showgirl, entertainer performer. Lots of wealthy men there. And Anne actually first met Billy through his father, William the banker, and William Senior met Anne at that nightclub, so he's the one that spots her first. There had been speculations all over the place. One speculation will be that Anne and William Senior were involved either beforehand or during the marriage. The other speculation has been that William Senior sat Billy down and said, there is a very attractive, nice woman at this club that i've met. I would like you to get involved with her because people are spreading rumors that you're gay, and we can't have that. Okay,

there's a lot happening. I know you have a look on your face like there's a lot already. I haven't even gotten halfway through it.

Well, just you know, Senior possibly having a relationship with Anne and ends up with Junior Senior maybe continuing a relationship with Anne even though she's married to a son. There's sort of an ew factor. It's like a you know, that's an unusual arrangement. And then, of course in nineteen fifty five, you know, if there's rumors of Billy being gay, that's going to be something that could hurt Senior's reputation, the family's reputation, you know. So I could see where there could be family pressure, you know, for Anne and Junior Billy Junior to you know, get married. But then under that dynamic where there isn't the sexual attraction, was Senior still dating Anne even though she has this facade

of a marriage to Billy. You know, so it's kind of a Both of those initial things you said are in some ways of you know, unusual lover's triangles, and we know that those can go sideways.

Yeah, and I think you know, of course this is part of the gossip. And this would be denied by William sor And I don't know if how much of the gossip was was that it was happening during the marriage. Definitely gossip that they had an affair. He said, I'd like you to get involved with my son, who, you know, William Woodward was very, very handsome and all of the photos I've seen, so this would not have been a stretch for Anne. I will say, let's throw another complicated person into the mix, William Senior. Billy's mother. Her name was Elsie Ogden Crider. She cannot stand Anne. So Elsie comes from a very well to do family. Also, she was a descendant of John Adams and the niece the president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Lots of money and

then she marries William Woodward and she has Billy with him, and so she has big, big dreams of Billy marrying into maybe the royal family or having just a different type of wife. A former showgirl who could have potentially had an affair with Elsie's husband was not the dream. So Elsie was incredibly hard on Anne. But Anne and Billy got married in nineteen forty three, and then they had the kids shortly after that, so you know the in forty four and forty seven. In nineteen forty seven, Billy filed for divorce yes, and Anne said hell no, and she refused to give him a divorce, and so that's when they both started having public affairs. And they were fighting in public one time and shouted at Billy,

why don't you just bring a man in our bed, that's what you want.

Well, the toxicity in this relationship is not new. I mean, this is going back to before they were married. You know, the family pressures. You know, Dad possibly was having sex with Anne prior to her marrying Billy. And then now Elsie is not liking the fact that Billy's going to marry Anne. You know, it's kind of maybe on the side, not relevant to the case, but I kind of questioned Senior and Elsie's relationship, and you know what that was like, you know, but obviously it's there's a lot of family pressure, contention at the very beginning. And then now you have Billy, you know, wanting to file for divorce really early on in the relationship, you know, and it's and Anne is not wanting that, which is interesting to me. It's okay,

why not, especially if she's now starting to you know, think, well, he might actually rather be with with another man than than with her. You know, is she looking out for her kids? You know? Maybe you know it's it's also is there a length of marriage that's needed for it to be considered a long term marriage? So she fully qualifies for all the assets she possibly could have access to from this very wealthy family. That may be part of it. You know, maybe he's pulling the trigger so fast where she gets ast out on you know a lot of financial gains because it would be characterized as a short term marriage. You know, so post Billie's desire to divorce or file for divorce, now they're fighting all

the time. Now there's all this domestic abuse. Neither one of them wants to be in this relationship. But they stay together until nineteen fifty five, and now it's like, well, okay, so what happened? You know, And at least has admitted to shooting Billy and killing him. But what was the reason for her doing that if it wasn't accidental?

I think Deceit is a big part of this relationship.

You know.

For the record, Billy's dad dies two years before he dies, So this just leaves the mom who is constantly sort of on top of this relationship and disapproving of it and being really difficult on Anne. So he has affairs and very publicly denounces them and is very upset about it. Their fights play out in public and sometimes they come to blows. There's physical violence between them, and as recently as the night Billy was shot. At that party with the former King of England, they argued about his airplane purchase, that Helio courier Craft thing of his, and that she thought it was strange that he went to her hometown to buy the plane. She thinks he is trying to dig up dirt, which is what his friends confirm, and

then you know, you have to think, well, what's the dirt that she's covering up? And there were a couple of things that she lied about to Billy. One was that, you know, she said that she was an orphan. She wasn't. Her father was actually alive, and he was a streetcar operator who had abandoned her and her mother when she was eight years old. So she lied about that, and she was concerned. It sounds like that he was going to find out by going back to Kansas, you know, that she had made up some stuff. Now, I mean, is that worse than both of them having an affair and she's screaming at him in public? Why don't you just go bring a man into our bed, that's what you want? In some ways, I was thinking a self

defense claim might be better for her, because, you know, their acrimony was so explosive, and especially if they were physical with each other. Sure would it be surprising, especially in nineteen fifty five, for a woman to say, my husband finally did it. He exploded and you know, I luckily was able to protect myself, assuming that that things did not go the way she said they went.

I mean, if she had decided to kill him, that probably with the you know, relationship history, that possibly would have been a better way to go. She's painting it under the guise of the recent burglaries that had happened, the break ins in the neighborhood, you know, the squadron and their garage. That's why she pulled the trigger on the shadowy figure. You know, she was upset that he bought the Helio Air airplane. I mean, he's going all the way out to her home city to dig up dirt.

There must have been some rumors that were significant enough for him to go, I gotta go check this out, you know.

And I was reading through her background when she came to New York in nineteen thirty seven. She had done things to reinvent herself. She tweaked her name a little bit, she got a nose job, but I didn't. There was nothing that was a huge red flag. But you're right, if she is. It could have been just the mere idea that he was looking that that's the level he would go to in a divorce. That scared her because then what would stop him from making up stuff or hiring somebody to make up stuff about her. You know.

It could have just been even that fear. Maybe not something she actually had done in Kansas.

No, potentially, I just you know, I kind of leaned towards she had something she was really concerned about, and it may be something we have no clue about today, you know, and it was never discovered by Billy or never discovered by the people he talked to are the people she knew. But that that timing seems significant. Okay, so you know this is where you know the relationship Billy's actions, Ann's actions. I really, you know, this is all seeming to be what I call churn. There is a lot of churn, you know, where now you have this contentious marriage, and it just happens that Anne was the first one to act. This could easily have gone the other way, right, And I just think Anni is either protecting a reputation and or protecting what she potentially

could gain from a divorce from such a wealthy husband. Yeah.

Absolutely, And I question whether it's Billy pushing to get custody of the two boys, or if it's Elsie, his mother pushing. Sure, you know, I don't want to think ill of men in the nineteen fifties, but it me a little bit to read that this is somebody who was you know, he was pursuing this. There's no mention of because she's going to take all my money. It's more of I do not want her to take my boys from me. And I could be totally wrong, but I do think Elsie had a lot involved with this, you know, with these two boys that she cared about too, and her husband was gone.

I think that's that's very good observation, and I would not undersell the death of Senior. Senior dies two years before Billy is killed. Senior most certainly has a will. You know, Elsie is the one that's probably going to be the primary beneficiary. But what else was distributed from Senior down to Junior? You know where? Now Junior's assets are even that much more appealing to Anne.

Okay, well, listen to this because this story it's really weird. I felt like we took a couple of left turns, but this is a left turn. And then around the corner, so they find a witness. A witness is a burglar.

He breaks into the Woodward house and he's sneaking around. All of a sudden, here's a shot. Goudn't go off, and he's like, what.

I mean, so let me tell you, Let me tell you what happens, good guy. Right, All these rumors are going around that Anne is this Anna is that she is still considered an outsider, even though she had been married to this man for twelve years and had two kids with him. So all of a sudden, New York society's turning on her and saying this must have been done on purpose, especially with all of the rumors going around between him being gay and her, you know, having dirt dug up on her. What's going to happen next?

And then of course everybody read about the fights that they had. Gosh, it's like, it's so hard for me to get past the fact that they were having these awful, vicious fights in public. Paul and number one, they were still invited places, but number two, they still went places together, and that goes back to the manicured lawns. For me, it is one hundred percent appearances. They are both beautiful people, they have two gorgeous sons, and this facade, I guess even when it breaks down, you know, when they both get too drunk at the Vanderbilts, then you know this is still important to them. It's amazing, miserable.

It's important to them, as you know, during the time that they're a couple, but it's important to them in their future because they're envisioning themselves being divorced and separate and so they need to have allies, right for both of them, they need to maintain relationships so they are still in that you know, that type of social circle.

Okay, here comes the prowler. So our witness is a prowler. He's twenty two, He's from Germany. His name is Paul Wirths. He said, I've been burglarizing mansions in the neighborhood, including this property, the Woodward property. He said that a few days before the murder, he had broken into the six cargarath.

Remember the property manager said the window was broken out of the garage. So he is also a squatter, burglarana squatter. But on the night of the shooting, he says he was over a half a mile from the estate, and that night he had broken into a local country club and taken food from a refrigerator. But he changes the story.

He said after he hit that country club and took food out of the refrigerator, he went back to Sunken Orchard, the Woodward home, and then he says he broke into the poolhouse where he had been before. He ate four frozen hot dog rolls, and that same night, when all the lights in the house went dark, which you have to presume is between one am and two am. Paul says, he climbed this tree and he enters the house through an open window which enters onto the second floor hallway. Now, Billy and Ann's I told you before, was on the first floor. Right, he hears shotgun blasts, He freaks out, He runs back out and jumps through the window, climbs towards the roof, and he jumps off and he runs away, and investigators say to Paul, okay, burglar squatter, why don't

you reenact this? And so he goes and explains everything. He says, uh, you know, this is the way I did it. And when they look outside of Anne's bedroom there is a broken tree branch, and so they're saying, this is, as you like to say, churn. Maybe there is some churn there. Now you can react. But also there's that last photo in your packet that actually gives you a sketch of what Paul Worth says happened that night where he heard the shotgun blast. Now he's not saying Ann did it. He's not, you know, he's not saying anything happened. It is placing him by his own emission.

At the scene.

Well, this is definitely a different view of the house than the other the other so this is showing what appears to be a primary entrance into the house. And I don't know if this is the rear of the house or considered the front of the house, because it appears that there are you know, there's a cobblestone drive where the police car and another vehicle are parked. And then you can see that this house is. Even though it's only showing part of this house, it's it's a significant house. This is a rambling, you know, large house.

I'm surprised that Billy's bedroom window and Anne's bedroom window are right there, ground level, right by this main entrance. Yeap.

Now, one note Paul I want to make is that Paul has said our burglar witness, that he has come to this house before because he liked to peep at Ann. And I think that the reason that this has become a big deal is because Anne had said I heard somebody on the roof. I freaked out. I took a gun and I shot at the person who I thought had been on the roof. Now we've got a guy who says he's been on the roof. He was sitting there peeping at her, and they're looking to see if they can find this physical evidence. Just wanted to explain.

Yeah, well, you know, and I think that that's significant in terms of corroborating the reason Anne got up, you know, and now you have you have Paul Worth saying well, yeah I was there, you know, so you know what a coincidence. But you know, stranger things have happened in my experience, So this is not anything that I would even come close to dismissing. You know. One of the things about Paul Worth that stood out to me, you know, and we kind of talked about this, and when we first started talking about this case, is he is that that burglar that is just prowling in this community and you know, he's running, he's needing food, and you know, so this is this is a real deal. And these types of neighborhoods, you know, he's he's not going into

you know, houses where there's a lack of valuables. He's he's going to score every single time he breaks into any of these houses, just because of the wealthy nature of of this this location. But the fact that he went into the Woodward house that night, knowing the family was home, he sees them turn off the lights. Okay, this, this is what is an evolution of your typical evolution of your like your fetish burgh type of individual, you know.

And you when you mentioned that, you know, he admitted to peeping on an I wasn't surprised at all. It's like, yeah, you know, burglars that are financially motivated don't want to go into structures where people people are there. They try to avoid that at all costs because their interest is the property and they don't want to be confronted by you know, the owners or the family. And that's why you often see residential burglaries occurring during the day because that's when people are at work in school. And then you see commercial burglaries happen at night because all the employees are home, you know, asleep, you know. So that's that's where when when he's at night and he's going in to the woodward houses, like, oh, okay, this this

guy's more than just a financially motivated burglar, and I'm not surprised at all he was peeping. Now, of course that that elevates him as a potential suspect.

She's admitted to it.

That's just it. You know, if if she had not admitted that, I would think, yeah, the investigation probably would have really drilled down on Paul Worth, you know, and him just putting him self inside this residence at the time the shotgun goes off. I mean, that's that is a significant statement. But I you know, with with Anne admitting shooting Billy, and you know, I truly think Paul Worth with what I know. I mean, he's he's an ear witness. He doesn't see the shooting, you know, he just hears the shotgun go off, and I'm sure you know, he probably got the hell out of that house as fast as possible, thinking that maybe that shotgun was aimed at him.

Now, let me tell you the rumors which would not shock me. So remember I told you that Paul the burglar had changed his story. When they initially interviewed him, he said he was a half mile away robbing a country club. Then two days later he changes his story and says, yeah, I did that. I the hot dog buns or whatever the hot dog rolls. And then I came and decided this would be a good time to peep at Anne and the fact that he changed his story and made people raise their eyebrows. And it's because of this Elsie Woodward was so concerned about her family's reputation that the thought is that Elsie really sat down and thought about it and said, what would be worse for my daughter in law, who potentially murdered my son

to walk away and maybe I get the boys, or for her to be convicted and there'd be a massive murder scandal in our family. So the thought was that she paid off Paul the burglar to say that he was on the roof instead of his original story. Now he had peeped before, for sure, But I don't know what we know about these people. What do you think makes the most sense?

Yeah, that's you know. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to determine how that changes the course of the investigation. Let's say you're falsely inserting this burglar into the residence at the time of the shooting. He most certainly is going to be eyeballed very very closely. If the idea is is that he is the shooter, then it's also going to be he's going to have to offer up specific details that match up with how the shooting went down, Yeah, you know. And so that's how the investigators are going to have to sit him down.

If he's cooperative and he's providing details, they just have to be able to drill down and see is he factual about how the shooting went down or not.

It sounded that they were trying to retrofit him into this whole scenario, like they knew he was the Oyster Bay prowler. He had said when police interrogated him, Yes, I've been on their property before, and whether or not was lying about it. She said she heard, you know, steps on the rooftop and that's what triggered her to pick up the gun. And so it seems a little complicated to then have Elsie send somebody to find this guy who is probably in jail, pay him off, and say, well, you've said that you've been there in the past. Why don't you just say you were? I don't know. It just didn't doesn't make a lot of sense. But Elsie is very concerned about a scandal.

I know that it is a big stretch to think that Elsie would be able to identify Paul Worth as the person that's been prowling in this area, especially if he has not been arrested for a similar crime in that area, or law enforcement is unaware that he's doing that. The fact that Paul Worth initially says he was like six blocks away.

Right, Yeah, he said he was a half a mile away. But they do suspect and they do get out of him that he was the Oyster Bay Cove prow or. So they track him down and start asking who have you been prowling? And then the word words were one of them, and so that's how they start to make that connection.

Okay, you know, but his initial statement, this is a guy doing you know, he's doing property crimes. If he recognized that he was in the homicide house at the time the homicide occurred, he's not going to freely admit that, right, And so he's he's you know, basically telling investigators, oh, no, I wasn't there, Okay, because because I think, you know, this is just you know, your typical self preservation lie and so not. I'm not dismissing outright the fact that Elsie could have potentially worked through intermediaries in order to you know, influence him to at least complicate the investigation.

But I just I just don't see where. You know, if the investigators are doing their job, you know, it probably would become very clear pretty quickly that he wasn't just in the house, but he was the actual shooter. It's just it doesn't negate and admission the use of Anne's shotgun, you know, everything else from the victimology. So that's I think where I right now. I'm sitting on pretty firmly on the side that he was a witness, Yeah, and it was just a coincidental thing. He was in the house at the time the shotgun went out.

But does it add to her credibility because she does hear his footsteps, she freaks out, she picks up the gun. Does this now sound more like an accident rather than a spiteful wife who scared her husband is going to just rip apart her life.

I think it does. It does not determine the difference between accident and homicide. However, Let's say Anne intentionally shoots Billy, but now she's making it as an accident, and she's lying about it. People weave true things into their lies, and she may have heard something up on the roof, and so as she's telling what you know, this lie about what happened. She's building that in because she knows she did hear something, but it's also can be argued the other way. She heard something, she got up, she thought there was a prower inside the house and shot him.

It's just again the discrepancies in her initial statements. I do have concerns with Yeah.

And I think you know, so this goes to a grand jury, there's a lot of testimony and the contention of some of the witnesses. Many of the witnesses were they heard Paul on the roof and grabs a gun, and Billy jumps up from bed even though he doesn't have his weapons with him, totally naked, and this is where all of this happens. I mean, I don't think you're going to be surprised at all to know they did not indict her. It was unanimous, and you know, they were all pretty convinced that this was, you know, an accident and just a terrible coincidence that they were having an absolutely awful, toxic relationship while this was happening.

So I don't know if you want to wrap up the crime part of this, because the aftermath is about as interesting as the prelude. To all of this.

You know, the lack of the indictment is not surprising in this case, you know, And I've worked cases with you know that were husband reports wife committed suicide or girlfriend reports suicide. And there's evidence to suggest, no, that's not looking like a suicide. And yet there is not enough to be able to determine either for sure or to convince a prosecutor to file charges because a prosecutor is looking downstream. Can I convince twelve people in the jury, right, It's just not strong enough of the case, you know.

I think the circumstantial evidence with Anne, the victimology, the marital history, you know, there's a lot of things that point to possibly you know, this argument at the party she was done, you know, and and there's a financial component that's it's unclear, but you know what, when, what and how she would get you know, the Woodward assets for the Woodward a state, you know, would be significant, you know, and so there's a lot of motive for her to possibly take Billy out to preserve that down the road. It's also possible, you know that what Anne said, she heard something on the roof, she comes out, she's sees a shadowy figure thinks it's a stranger inside the house, shoots and kills a stranger, then recognizes that it's Billy,

and that some of the initial statements that are inconsistent with the crime scene itself may just be a result of the dynamics, the psychological and emotional trauma that she most certainly would have experienced under that type of scenario. And so it really is a tough case to come down with a definitive answer. And so I would I would say, I'm you know, I kind of lean towards Anne purposefully killing Billy, but I can't I can't conclude that, not with the state of the evidence and the circumstantial stuff.

It's just it is a complicated case on that front.

It is, and the aftermath is complicated too. So Anne is not indicted, she is shunned by New York society. And Elsie makes a statement. She says, and we know how Elsie feels about Anne. She says, I know Anne loved Billy very much and the shooting could be nothing but an accident. And then Ann and the boys move in with Elsie, and then Elsie sends the boys almost immediately to a boarding school in Switzerland. And this is all to protect the wood word name, I mean, these.

People, you know. But that's also part of the dynamic of this, you know, these powerful elitist types of individuals, is that there's there's a different perspective, you know, in terms on how they approach their decision making because of their status, preserving their status, their reputation, their their allies, their you know, find their wealth that you know, probably most people that are in our society, they don't think about it, they don't worry about that kind of thing, you know. I've I've been involved in some cases with some significantly wealthy individuals, but the circumstances weren't such like this to where there's any concern about reputation, you know, they weren't at the level of the Woodwards for sure.

Well let me tell you what happens. There's a lot that happens, and I'll try to shorthand it. So the boys go to Switzerland, and eventually Ann goes to Switzerland too to be around them. In Switzerland, she has a fateful encounter with a man named Truman Capoti, who I know, you know in cold Blood, which I think a lot of people you know, associate with sort of the first modern true crime book. I think that's true. I thought is writing is amazing in Cold Blood, but a lot of this is not accurate, and the victim's families hated the way that he portrayed the clutters in the book.

So Truman Capote could be nasty. And what he did was he was looking for another true crime story. Around nineteen fifty nine. In Cold Blood had been of course a massive hit, and Billy Woodward's death, which involved you know, high society sex, gossip, all the stuff that Capoti would have loved, appear perfect for him. So after he met her, he started referring to Anne Woodward as missus Bang Bang, which caught on, and he named a character clearly based a character in a book that he had written as a follow up. And it was a tremendous amount of public shaming for her, especially with Capoti because he was so in with all the high society gossips, and so this became, you know, a really really big deal. It

just decimated her character, and Capoti really used her, for better or for worse. Whatever we think of whatever Anne did or what that relationship was like, he really used her as a way to elevate himself, but also just I mean reck her character. She was described as a murderess, the jazzy little carrot top killer, and the high society ladies said that she was brought up in some country slum.

They called her inescapable, white track, and a slut. And then you know, among Capote's friends they were talking about Billy mocked as an anal oriented episcopalian. Weird insult but okay. And you know, there was an excerpt from this book that Anne was based on that was so offensive that it ended up turning on Capoti, so it kind of ruined that project for him. And it just becomes this unraveling of this family that goes on for several generations.

In nineteen seventy five, everybody's still alive after and during years of gossip, a lot of it really spurred on by Capoti and takes her own life by taking Cyanine. Elsie is still alive, and she says, well, that's that she shot my son and Truman Capoti murdered her, and so now I suppose we don't have to worry about that anymore. Boy is something else. And then I would say in adulthood things were very rough. Both of an sons take their own lives too.

Wow.

This is part of sensational true crime. And the reason that I appreciate this story so much is that, to me, it is one of those stories. It's like the epitome of the disgustingness of what true crime can be, where you're taking someone's life like what Capoti did with Anne Woodward and turning it into this character and this narrative when she's a real person and it just destroyed her.

Is what it sounds like. I am not a fan of Truman Capoti, in case anybody doesn't know, I just I just I did not like what he stood for. And so this is this is the antithesis of what you and I try to do on this show. Really is.

Yeah, you know, I've never read in Cold Blood.

The writing. I love the writing. I think the writing is great. It's just that he made up a lot of stuff. And the Clutter family said he was awful the way he treated Missus Clutter. Yeah, and they really and they, you know, I mean they there was just a documentary out about it. They have come out and said this was not good. And I think Capoti had a lot of regrets too. But I mean he is definitely held up as one of the icons of true crime.

And I'm not refuting that. I'm just saying, look at your icons sometimes.

Sure well, in many ways it sounds like he he was in you know, lockstep barrel with the media at the time. How salacious the media was covering these types of cases, you know, and you know, the salaciousness sells, right, So you know, especially hearing that there's not a lot of factual stuff or there's you know, basically fiction in Capote's book, I mean, that just turns me off. I don't want to read something like that, you know. I go after you know, content that is going to be informative about the case and not misleading.

That's why when I teach my true crime class at UT that at the very beginning, I've told you this before the very beginning, I say, my goal is for you, by the end of this class to at least recognize what good content in this genre is. It doesn't mean you're going to listen to it or read it or pay any attention to it after this class, but I'm going to make you listen to it right now, and you're going to be able to recognize it later on.

And you know, I'm not perfect. You're not perfect. Everybody, everybody I know who is a high quality journalist or somebody who produces this content says things where people are like, wait what. And the intent though, with everything that we do, I think is always to be good to the victim, to be good to the survivors and the families, and to just educate people on things. And so this is that case when you have, you know, encounter somebody that has that name recognition where I just kind of go, God, that was He's gross. That was gross. And I've read a lot of accounts of that, and so you know, I'm not here to slam Truman Capoti, but I am here to say that sometimes you know people who are in history and you just think, are you know, incredible

and we're so thankful for parts of it? Yes, But but there were problems and there always will be problems with true crime reporting, I think.

Yeah, you know, and kind of getting back to the Woodward case, you know, I'd be curious, you know, if they actually documented Billie's body adequately and good autopsy and everything else, you know, good photos of the crime scene. You know, I'd be one. I'd be wondering if I could spot something that could you know, either kind of tip the scales if you if you will, if and accidentally shot him, or if it was intentional.

Yeah, I mean interesting to know. I think, you know, I come back to Ann of course, the boys who were totally innocent in this, the two sons who didn't hear a thing, by the way, I mean, every time people say how could somebody have not heard anything, these are two boys with I mean they didn't hear a shotgun blast and two of them sure, and the Ruckus and so really though, if you look at Anne, you know there's some things wrong with their marriage obviously, but we really don't know if anything, if she had done anything, whether she was a gold digger or any of that, you know, any of those things. That the way that her life turned because of a couple of people she was involved with, to me, is.

Just so sad for sure. Well, Kate, this was an interesting case. Thank you.

I know you're ready to go. Usually you like tell you're like, I've kind of stop talking about this flipped case. I know, well, you know there are cases that stick with you, and you know, I think I know most of our cases stick with you, but I'll have something fresh for you for.

Sure, all right, as always looking forward to it.

Fe This has been an exactly right production for our Sources and show notes go to exactly Rightmedia dot com slash Buried Bones sources. Our senior producer is Alexis Amrosi.

Research by Alison Trumble and Kate Winkler Dawson.

Our mixing engineer is Ben Tolliday.

Our theme song is by Tom Bryfogel.

Our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Executive produced by Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia hard Stark, and Danielle Kramer.

You can follow Buried Bones on Instagram and Facebook at Buried Bones pod.

Kate's most recent book, All That Is Wicked, a Gilded Age story of murder and the race to decode the criminal mind, is available now.

And Paul's best selling memoir Unmasked, My life Solving America's Cold Cases is also available now.

Listen to Barry Bones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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