FULL TEXT: Fort Worth, Aug. 8. – Mrs. Ada Bilbrey was freed Monday of
an indictment charging her with poisoning three members of her family.
She had been charged with the death of her husband. G. C. Bilbrey; her
daughter, Dorothea Duke, and her son-in-law, Richard Duke. They died last
October.
District Judge Willis McGregor dismissed the indictment on
recommendation of District Attorney Stewart Hellman.
In his three-page motion, Hellman said:
“I cannot ask a jury to convict this defendant when I myself am not
convinced that she is guilty.”
“It is a great relief to hear such news,” Mrs. Bilbrey said.
Today’s action ended legal proceedings in one of the most sensational
and widely publicized cases in recent Tarrant County history.
[“Mrs. Bilbrey Is Freed Of Poisoning Charges,” Tyler Morning Telegraph
(Tx.), Aug. 9, 1949, p. 10]
***
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FULL TEXT: Fort Worth, Aug. 8. – Mrs. Ada Bilbrey was freed Monday of
an indictment charging her with poisoning three members of her family.
She had been charged with the death of her husband. G. C. Bilbrey; her
daughter, Dorothea Duke, and her son-in-law, Richard Duke. They died last
October.
District Judge Willis McGregor dismissed the indictment on
recommendation of District Attorney Stewart Hellman.
In his three-page motion, Hellman said:
“I cannot ask a jury to convict this defendant when I myself am not
convinced that she is guilty.”
“It is a great relief to hear such news,” Mrs. Bilbrey said.
Today’s action ended legal proceedings in one of the most sensational
and widely publicized cases in recent Tarrant County history.
[“Mrs. Bilbrey Is Freed Of Poisoning Charges,” Tyler Morning Telegraph
(Tx.), Aug. 9, 1949, p. 10]
***
***
FULL TEXT: The Bilbreys, who lived in the neat white cottage
on Chestnut St. in Fort Worth, presented a charming picture of family life to
their neighbors.
There was 56-year-old George Clark Bilbrey, who worked hard
in the railroad shops and seemed to enjoy slippered contentment when he was
home. There was his 51-year-old wife, Ada, a fine housekeeper, an ardent
churchworker, and a diligent mother. There was their daughter, Dorthea, 26, and
her bridegroom of four months, Richard Duke, who were living with "the
folks" until Duke, a postal clerk after hi3 World War II service, could
"get on his feet."
“A truly happy family,” their neighbors agreed, knowing nothing
at all of what seethed within the walls of the Bilbreys’ modern, well-kept
home.
Actually, Mrs. Bilbrey's religious fanaticism, plus the
effects of the menopause, led her to disagree with everything her family wanted
to do.
Billbrey was trying desperately to extricate himself from
an extra-marital romance.
Dorthea was unhappy because Dick was less attentive than he
had been four months before. And Mike was determined to get out of the
Bilbreys' house and into a home of his own as quickly us he could.
Thus matters stood on Feb. 7, when Dorothea was taken
suddenly ill. The family physician, Dr. T. J. Cross, was called. "Oh, give
her some of this." Dr. Cross scribbled off a prescription. "She'll be
all right."
~ Dorthea's Illess Called Influenza ~
Ten days later when he was called again, Dr. Cross
discovered that Dorthea was far from well. "It's influenza," he
decided.
Duke and the doctor took Dorthea to a hospital about 2 P. M.
on Feb. 17. and Duke vowed he would not leave her side. At midnight Dr. Cross
stopped by. His patient seemed to be doing better. At 3:30 A. M his home
telephone rang.
"Mrs. Duke doesn't feel right," her nurse
reported. When the doctor arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, Dorthea was
dead. "
This thing just doesn't sound right," observed Dr.
Cross. "I think we should have an autopsy."
Neither parents nor young widower could bear the thought of
having Dorthea "cut up."
Duke continued to live with the Bilbreys, but his
determination to get away never lessened. He talked of buying a place at a lake
resort where he could make money selling beer a project which his
mother-in-law, a fanatical dry, bitterly opposed.
And then, at 2 A. M., Friday, Oct. 30, Dr. Cross was
summoned again to the neat white house on Chestnut St.
Duke was sitting on the front steps when the doctor jumped
from his car.
"You'd better hurry," the young man greeted the
physician.
Dr. Cross found Bilbrey lying rigid on his bed. Mrs.
Bilbrey, holding his hand, sat on the edge of the bed. "lie must have had
n heart attack. Can you do anything?" she besought the doctor.
But Bilbrey had been dead for quite some time. Dr. Cross
made what examination he could before breaking the news to Mrs. Bilbrey.
"Ada, you must be brave. These things " A scream from the next
bedroom interrupted him. Rushing in, Dr. Cross found Duke doubled up in agony.
"My stomach! My stomach!"
Dr. Cross rushed to the kitchen to prepare medicine. A call
from the hospital delayed him. When he returned to Duke's bedroom he found the
young man in the throes of death.
"That's just how Clark looked!" Mrs. Bilbrey
exclaimed.
NEXT morning the hearts of Fort Worth's 300.000 citizen went
out to the widow when they read in their newspapers how her husband died of
heart trouble, and how this excitement caused her son-in-law to suffer a fatal
heart attack 45 minutes later.
Then, on Nov. 2, Justice of the Peace Frank Hurley revealed
that he had ordered autopsies upon the bodies of Bilbrey, his daughter, and hi3
son-in-law because Dr. Cross had refused to sign death certificates for Bilbrey
and Duke.
Later that day Tarrant County District Attorney Al Clyde
announced that all three had died of strychnine poisoning. His assistant. Jack
Love, was assigned to conduct an investigation "to uncover the dastardly
murderer."
Love came up with two important pieces of information.
The first was that one week before the double death, Mrs.
Bilbrey and her son-in-law visited the home of J. C. Sherley in Haslet, a small
town near Fort Worth. Sherley wasn't home at the time, and when he returned
somewhat later, a bottle of strychnine which he used to kill rodents was
missing from his back porch.
The second bit of information is that strychnine had been
found in the Bilbrey bathroom in a bowl normally filled with salt for
toothbrushing.
Everyone in Fort Worth agreed with the District Attorney
that murder had been done. However, public opinion was fairly well divided on
the identity of the murderer.
One theory held that Duke had first killed, his wife and
then tried to kill his mother-in-law. But when Bilbrey was poisoned by mistake,
Duke, in remorse and possibly fear, killed himself, this group said.
The other school of thought backed the District Attorney in
his charges against Mrs. Bilbrey.
"She's psychotic," Clyde declared.
"That's just
plain silly!" scoffed Mrs. Bilbrey. "If you'd like me to take a lie
detector test, I'll be glad to do so."
Clyde accepted this unexpected offer and on the afternoon of
Nov. 6, Mrs. Bilbrey was sped by automobile over 200 miles of highway to the
State Police Headquarters at Austin.
There, strapped to a lie detector, she was questioned over
and over upon her relations with her family.
Q. Did you love Richard Duke?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you love him with a motherly love?
A. Yes.
Q. Aren't you lying? Didn't you kill your husband and your
daughter because you loved Duke?
"That doesn't make sense," retorted the calm,
emotionless woman. "If that's true, why would I kill Dick?"
Throughout the test, Mrs. Bilbrey denied all knowledge of
how her family received the poison, and showed little reaction to the
questioning.
En route back to Fort Worth, officials expressed
dissatisfaction with the test.
"Is there some other test you'd like me to take?"
Mrs. Bilbrey asked. "I'd be glad to."
"We do have a truth serum test," someone answered.
"But it might be fatal."
"Good!" retorted Mrs. Bilbrey. "I don't care
whether I wake up or not. I've lost everything -- even my reputation."
Thus Mrs. Bilbrey took sodium amytal at Harris Hospital in
Fort Worth. Under its influence, she underwent a "twilight sleep"
memory stimulant test. Dr. Cross watched over his patient. Dr. John C. Powell,
a psychiatrist, and District Attorney Clyde asked the questions.
AFTER the long ordeal, Clyde walked wearily from the room
into a bevy of reporters.
"I'm convinced Mrs. Bilbrey knows nothing of the
case." he announced dispiritedly.
"I'm just going to sit down and hold my head in my
hands."
During the days which followed, the widow, weak and
tormented, took to her bed in her Chestnut St. home. Friends, heatedly
proclaiming her innocence, rallied about her and fended off the curious.
~ Prosecutor Charges Widow With Murder ~
But Clyde, a fiery young World War II veteran, hadn't been
elected prosecutor for nothing.
One morning late in November, he arrived at the Bilbrey home
with reporters, photographers and County Physician W. B. Petta.
"Mrs. Bilbrey," he announced solemnly, "I
have filed a. charge accusing you of the strychnine murder of your
husband."
Mrs. Bilbrey lay motionless.
After a long while, she spoke.
"Mr. Clyde, why did you say you were convinced I had
nothing to do with this ease?"
"I feel no need to give an explanation," the
District Attorney replied stiffly.
But later, outside the house – after Dr. Petta had declared
that the woman was too ill to be kept in jail and it had been arranged that she
should remain in technical custody at home until a $10,000 bond was arranged –
reporters again put Mrs. Bilbrey's question to Clyde.
"Oh, that was just to throw her off guard," he
answered cheerfully.
While Clyde prepared to submit evidence against Mrs. Bilbrey
at a hearing before Peace Justice Hurley, reporters returned to see the sick
woman.
She was what they called a "typical Texas pioneer"
tall, gaunt, with a strong, firm face.
For 34 years, she said, she had been married to Bilbrey. She
had cared for her husband, her home, her garden, and her church.
"And I've been punished for my sins," she
murmured, patting the Bible she kept on the pillow beside her. "This
murder charge climaxes my punishment. I've had my hell on earth."
This made good copy and developed interest in the case to
such a pitch that Peace Justice Hurley, setting the hearing date for Nov. 30,
took over a district courtroom to accommodate as many spectators as possible
Seeking to establish a motive for murder, District Attorney
Clyde called O. W. Walker, relief man at
the Texas and Pacific Railroad shops, where Bilbrey had worked.
Q. Mr. Walker, do
you know whether there was a woman in Mr. Bilbrey's life, other than his wife?
A. There was. I do not know her name, hut I do know that after her husband's
death, Mr. Bilbrey began advising her.
"About a
near ago," Walker continued, "Bilbrey called me on the telephone and
asked me to come to work early and relieve him. He said the reason he wanted off
work was to see a lady and break off an affair. He said he used to meet this
lady in Trinity Park and he was afraid his wife and daughter had seen her. He said,
'You know sometimes things like this can get tint of hand and be dangerous.'
"After that
I began to notice that some woman was always calling the. short and asking for
Bilbrey. She called the night Bilbrey's daughter was getting married and when 1
told her Bilbrey wasn't there she said, 'Oh that's right – he's giving the
bride away.'"
When Walker's
testimony was done, Clyde announced that he did not care to name the
"mystery" woman at that time, but that he had questioned her and was
ready, if the case west to trial, to produce her in court.
TEMPERS of
counsel for both sides were strained and Peace Justice Hurley did his best in
the interest of both peace and justice. Dr. Cross, who was the next witness for
the State, detailed the circumstances of Dorthea's death, and the fatal
seizures of her father and husband.
"When
Dorthea died," Dr. Cross recalled, "her father and husband were very
much upset. Ada certainly wasn't showing her emotion as much as the men were.
She was extremely calm, too, when Clark and Dick" died."
~ Doctor
Describes Speed of Poison ~
The doctor
testified that in his opinion both men took strychnine in capsule form.
Throughout this
testimony, opposing lawyers jumped, figuratively. at each other's throats.
"Now,
doctor," cross-examined Attorney Clifford Mays, "will you tell us how
long it takes strychnine to work?”
"It's a
quick acting poison," replied Cross. "It begins to show effects
within 15 minutes after it is administered."
Mays beamed and nodded
with satisfaction.
Q. How long were
you and Mrs. Bilbrey with Bilbrey? A. Oh 23 or 30 minutes.
Q. So that during
that period Mrs. Bilbrey could not have been giving strychnine to her
son-in-law? A. No; the was right with me.
Q. Now was she at
the hospital prior to her daughter's death? A. No; she was not.
Q. But Richard
Duke was at his wife's bedside? A. Yes; he was.
By the time Mays
finished this cross-examination, his line of Questioning was clear. Clyde
reminded him that Mrs. Bilbrey was accused of murdering her husband. Mays
retorted that the person who killed one killed all and Mrs. Bilbrey did not
have the opportunity to poison Dorthea or Dick.
When these
fireworks subsided the District Attorney called Grady Haire, a detective who had
worked with Iove. Again the pendulum of doubt swung. Haire said:
"We would
never have filed a case if we hadn't talked to a lot of people about it."
Q. And
established a motive? A. That is right.
Q. You found that
Mrs. Bilbrey was a jealous woman? A. Right.
Q. She was
jealous of a certain particular individual who was meeting her husband in the
park several times a week? A. That is right.
Q. And the last
such meeting occurred Tuesday before his death? A. That is right.
Q. And Mrs.
Bilbrey had made the statement that she couldn't stand to see another woman
riding in the automobile bought by Dick and Dorthea? A. That's right.
Q. And she made
the statement that she could never stand to see another woman living in her
house? A. That's right.
Q. And that Dick
Duke had had another woman in his automobile? A. Right.
Q. She knew all
those facts? A. Right.
This was damning
testimony, but Mrs. Bilbrey's lawyer was undaunted. In his cross-examination of
Detective Haire. Mays suggested that Dick might have put a strychnine-filled
capsule in the bathroom and that Bilbrey might have taken it for something else
by mistake. Mays recalled Dr. Cross's testimony that, in his death throes, Dick
wore an expression of terror.
Q. Assuming my
theory is correct that Bilbrey inadvertently got Dick's capsule wouldn't Dick
be terrified by his act?
Haire's brow
wrinkled.
A. Well, my
experience is that if Dick knew he'd taken strychnine himself, or if the doctor
told him he was poisoned, he'd look scared.
Q. I ask you if
Dick could leave green the strychnine to Clark and then taken some himself? A.
It could have happened that tray.
Again defense
counsel beamed.
Mays did not
smile, however, when Detective Lt. Cata Hightower, a prosecution witness,
recalled the words of Glenn C. McLaughlin, Department of Public Safety expert
who helped administer the lie detector test to Mrs. Bilbrey at Austin.
McLaughlin said
Mrs. Bilbrey was a pathological liar upon whom the lie detector Would not
work."
Mays demanded
that the state define "pathological liar." Clyde obliged.
"One who has
no moral inhibition to lie," he said. "Truth becomes fiction and
fiction becomes truth in that person's mind, so that the blood pressure and
respiration are not affected. A pathological liar has no organic reaction. Thus
his lies do not register on the lie detector machine."
AT the end of
three days of testimony and cross-examination, Clyde announced that the state
rested. Mays rose quietly to his feet.
He referred to
Mrs. Bilbrey's cooperation during Clyde’s investigation.
"However, so
that there will be no doubt in anybody's mind, including Mr. Clyde's" Mays
paused dramatically, "and then continued "as to the willingness of
Mrs. Bilbrey to testify in this case and of her desire to continue to ferret
out the truth in this matter, we, at this time, Mr. Clyde, tender Mrs. Bilbrey
to you as your witness if you desire to interrogate her."
Visibly surprised
by this defense offer, the District Attorney declined. The hearing was done.
"Defendant
bound over to the Grand Jury without bond," droned Peace Justice Hurley.
There was a stir,
murmur, and then a roar in the courtroom. Surprised and angered anew, Clyde
frowned.
For in Texas,
where a peace justice must bind a defendant over to the Grand Jury after a
hearing, Hurley signified his own belief of insufficient proof of guilt when he
failed to place Mrs. Bilbrey under bond.
The defendant,
who for three days had been described as one "without emotion," burst
into tears. Friends rushed to her and wept with her.
But "hell on
earth" wasn't over for the religious Mrs. Bilbrey.
Clyde brought 30
witnesses – including the mysterious, gray-haired Mrs. X – before the Tarrant
County Grand Jury. On Dec. 14 Mrs. Bilbrey was indicted for murder in all three
deaths in her family.
Shortly after, an
election shunted District Attorney Clyde out of office and swept Stewart
Hellman in Justice of the Peace Frank Hurley Hellman said he would make his own
investigation of the Bilbrey case.
For eight months
nothing happened. Then, on a sweltering July day in 1949, a newspaper reporter
called upon Mr. Bilbrey.
The accused widow
told him how she had ticked off day after day, waiting for some word to tell
her where she stood. She gardened, embroidered and crocheted to relieve her
suspense, and stayed with a relative at night "because I'm too big a coward
to stay alone and I'm lonesome.'' Mrs. Bilbrey said at first she hoped for
dismissal of the indictments, "but I've got so now that anything just
anything so long as it is action would be a relief." Ending his interview,
the reporter hurried to District Attorney Hellman's office.
~ Reporter Prods
District Attorney ~
"What about
the Bilbrey case?" demanded the newsman.
"What
Bilbrey case?" asked the District Attorney.
Less than one
month later Hellman went before District Judge Willis McGregor to disagree
completely with Clyde, his predecessor.
"Your
Honor," Hellman began, "in the case of Ada Bilbrey, my assistant and
reviewed 300 pages of Grand Jury testimony. We questioned city detectives who
made the original investigation into the deaths of Mrs. Duke, Mr. Bilbrey, and
Mr. Duke. We consulted with medical authorities who testified before the Grand
Jury. "
“I cannot ask a
jury to convict this defendant when I myself am not. convinced that she is
guilty. I will not ask any jury to do that which I would not do myself. I
therefore ask that false indictments be dismissed."
And they were
dismissed.
Half of Fort
Worth let out a roar of pleasure the other half a roar of protest. Mrs. Bilbrey
accepted both brickbats and bouquets with her usual reserved politeness. Then
she obtained a civil court order by which she collected her husband's $2,000
life insurance policy.
And that was the
end of it.
[Ruth Reynolds, “What Was justice In This Case?” Sunday News
(New York, N. Y.), Jan. 21, 1951, p. 80]
***
CHRONOLOGY
Feb. 7, 1948 – Dorothy (Dorthea) Duke (27), daughter, becomes ill.
Feb. 18, 1948 – Dorothy Duke (27), dies.
Oct. 28, 1948 – George Clark Bilbrey (56), husband dies; Richard
Duke (31), son-in-law, dies.
Oct. 30, 1948 –
Nov. 2, 1948 – autopsies ordered.
Nov. 19, 1948 – charged.
Date? 1948 – Ada held a press conference. A police guard was
posted at Ada’s house.
Dec. 2, 1948 – released without bond.
Dec. 14, 1948 – 3 indictments; Tarrant County.
Aug. 8, 1949 – Indictments withdrawn.
1951 – Ada remarries Landon
J. Glenn, born Nov. 19, 1893, Hood, Texas.
Jul. 27, 1962 –
Landon J. Glenn dies in “an unusual accident.”
***
EXCERPT: Bilbrey
maintained her innocence and eventually even remarried. That apparently ended
in tragedy, as well. "Her [new] husband supposedly died of an unusual
accident," said Larry O'Neal (nephew of Ada Bilbrey). [Todd Unger, “A serial killer in Cowtown? 70 years ago, Ada
Bilbrey was the front-page sensation,” WFAA, Nov. 8, 2018 Updated: Nov. 14, 2018]
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