Louise Peete

Louise Peete (September 20, 1880 – April 11, 1947) was a convicted American serial killer. Peete was first convicted of the 1920 murder of wealthy mining engineer Jacob C. Denton, and was sentenced to life in prison in 1921. She was paroled in April 1939. In May 1945, Peete was convicted a second time for murdering her employer, Margaret Logan, and was sentenced to death. She was executed in April 1947, making her the second of only four women to be executed in the California gas chamber.

Early life Peete was born Lofie Louise Preslar in Bienville, Louisiana. Her father was a prominent and wealthy newspaper publisher. Peete would later say that she "came from cultured, educated people. My parents were not delinquents, and did not rear delinquent children." She attended a private school in New Orleans, but was expelled at the age of 15 for stealing from her classmates and engaging in promiscuous behavior. After Bosley's death, Peete relocated to Shreveport and worked as a high-class prostitute, stealing money from her clients. After Peete's true identity was discovered, police allowed her to leave town to avoid embarrassing the family. Embarrassed over being accused of theft and despondent over his wife's infidelities, Faurote shot himself. However this seems unlikely and he is more likely to have been another of Peete's victims. The couple fought constantly and finally separated in the summer of 1920. Shortly thereafter, Peete hired a gardener to transport a load of dirt into the basement claiming she was planning to grow mushrooms. When a bank official noticed Denton's signature looked unusual, Peete claimed that his right arm had been amputated after he was shot by an angry "mysterious Spanish looking woman" with whom he had gotten into an argument. claiming that Denton was in seclusion as he was "ashamed" by his amputated arm and would only see and speak to her.

In the weeks that followed, Denton's friends, business associates and neighbors began asking Peete to reveal his whereabouts. Peete gave several stories to explain his absence, including a story that Denton was on an extended business trip in various locations and would return shortly. In August, she charged two expensive dresses at Bullock's department store in Denton's name, still claiming to be his wife.

Peete's trial was extensively followed by newspapers nationwide. Coverage by the Hearst newspapers, known for their sensationalized reports and yellow journalism, was especially intense. Thousands of spectators lined up daily to watch Peete walk into the Hall of Justice.

Throughout her trial and during the first two years of her sentence, Peete's husband Richard remained steadfastly loyal and continued to believe she was innocent. In 1923, she told Richard that he should divorce her so he would be free to remarry. Richard obliged, but vowed that he would "wait forever" for her release. Soon after the divorce was finalized, Peete stopped answering his letters and refused to see him. Peete later said her ex-husband killed himself because he felt guilty over her conviction and was despondent over his own poor health. She was released into the custody of Jessie Marcy, a woman who had lobbied for her release, and began working as her live-in housekeeper. Neither death was investigated at length as police were unaware that Peete was the subject of a previously publicized murder case or was on parole. Shortly after her release, Peete had legally changed her name to "Anna Lee".

After Latham's death, Peete moved in with Arthur C. Logan and his wife Margaret, an elderly couple who lived in Pacific Palisades. Peete had struck up a friendship with Margaret, a retired social worker, while she was in prison. Margaret believed that Peete was innocent and had also lobbied for her release. The Logans had also cared for Peete's daughter while she was in prison. Peete worked for the couple as a live-in housekeeper and nurse to Arthur, who was suffering from age-related dementia and had been declared mentally incompetent. Three days later, Arthur was committed to Patton State Hospital by Peete, who claimed to be his foster sister. When neighbors began asking about Margaret's whereabouts, Peete claimed that Arthur had attacked his wife in a frenzy and bitten her nose so severely that she was left disfigured. Peete was arrested and charged with murder a few hours after the discovery. She said she did not report the murder because she feared she would be blamed due to her previous conviction. The following day, he jumped to his death from the ninth floor of the Spring Arcade, an office building in Los Angeles. Prosecutors theorized that Peete killed Margaret Logan to gain control of her finances. They alleged that she killed Logan after the two had an argument about a $200 check Peete forged in Logan's name. On May 31, a jury found Louise Peete guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced her to death. While her sentence was being read, Peete sat in the courtroom reading The Importance of Living, a Chinese philosophy book by Lin Yutang. She looked up briefly to make a mocking facial expression to the prosecutor and then resumed reading. She was the second woman in California history to be executed by the state. Louise Peete is interred at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles.

In popular culture

Her story was dramatized in the series Deadly Women, episode "To Love and to Murder", originally aired August 24, 2011.