Louise Peete

Louise Peete (born September 20, 1880 in Bienville , Louisiana as Lofie Louise Preslar , † April 11, 1947 in San Quentin State Prison , California ) was an American serial killer .

Life

Louise Preslar was the child of wealthy parents and was sent to an expensive school, which she had to leave early because of bad behavior. In 1903 she married the traveling salesman Henry Bosley and traveled with him through the United States. In the summer of 1906, Bosley surprised his wife in bed with another man and took her own life two days later. Preslar moved to Boston, where she worked as a noble prostitute and regularly stole from her wealthy clients.

After a while Preslar moved to Waco and met the oil baron Joe Appel there. A week later, Appel was found shot dead, and all of his jewelry had disappeared. Preslar was charged, but alleged that Appel tried to rape her and that she shot him in self-defense. There was no longer any question of the missing jewelry and Preslar was acquitted.

In 1913 Preslar married the hotel employee Harry Faurote for the second time. Faurote died by suicide . In 1915 Preslar entered into her third marriage. In Denver she married agent Richard Peete and gave birth to a daughter in 1916. In 1920 Peete left her husband and daughter and moved to Los Angeles .

There she met Jacob Denton and lived with him for a few weeks. Denton disappeared on May 30, 1920, and Peete lived alone in his house for several months. Peete answered questions about Denton with made up stories to explain his disappearance. Denton's attorney put Peete under increasing pressure and finally went to the police in September 1920, who unearthed Denton's body in a subsequent house search in the basement. Denton had been shot. Peete was immediately put on a wanted list and found in Denver, where she lived with her husband and daughter again. In January 1921 she was sentenced to life imprisonment. Richard Peete committed suicide three years later.

In 1939, Peete was released from prison and worked as a housekeeper for 60-year-old Jessie Marcy. A short time later, Marcy died and Peete took a job helping out with probation officer Emily Dwight Latham's household. This had campaigned strongly for the release of Peete. Peete worked there until Latham's death in 1943. However, the police investigations revealed a natural cause of death in both cases.

In May 1944, Peete had her fourth marriage to bank clerk Lee Judson and worked in the household of Arthur and Margaret Logan in Pacific Palisades . Margaret Logan disappeared on May 30, 1944. Peete explained her sudden disappearance by saying that Arthur Logan bit his wife in the nose; Mrs. Logan is in hospital for a nose operation. She explained to Arthur Logan, who was already demented, that his wife was in the hospital and was not allowed to receive any visitors. Peete had Arthur Logan admitted to a mental institution, where he died six months later.

In December 1944, Peete was questioned by the police about checks with Margaret Logan's signature, which a bank clerk believed were forgeries. A house search followed and Margaret Logan's body was found in the garden under a mound of earth. Logan had been shot. Peete and Judson were then charged. Judson was acquitted on January 11, 1945 and committed suicide a day later.

In the six-week trial that followed, Peete tried to put the blame for Margaret Logan's death on her husband, who should have killed her in his confusion. She only feared that she would be accused of burying Margaret Logan's body and having Arthur Logan admitted to a psychiatric ward. Peete was sentenced to death for murder and executed on April 11, 1947 in the gas chamber of the San Quentin State Prison .

Web links

• Article in Time Magazine on June 11, 1945
• Article in the Palisadian Post, Feb. 14, 2008
• Louise Peete. In: murderpedia.org. Retrieved March 16, 2013 .