Hazel Allison, Double Black Widow Shotgun Ace – South Carolina, 1988

FULL TEXT: YORK, S.C. - Family members Thursday defended a woman who killed two husbands by pumping each full of No. 6 buckshot after a day of rabbit hunting and drinking liquor as a loving person who sometimes "passed a lick."

Hazel Allison, 48, was convicted Wednesday of terminating her second husband. Apparently, she is a creature of habit, because her first husband died in exactly the same manner - of a hole in the chest fired from a 12-gauge shotgun, officials said.

Both killings were preceded by a day of rabbit hunting and drinking beer and liquor, they said. Both husbands were hit on the right side of the body.

Both times, the woman said, she fired after her husband threatened her. Both times, she ran to a neighbor's house to call police.

"I've never seen anything like it," York County sheriff's officer C. J. Mitchum, who investigated the second killing, said Thursday. "Looking back at the old folder, from some notes and things that were taken, she essentially gave the same story this time as she did in the first case."

In the first case, when she was 28, Allison received a suspended sentence and probation for killing Billy Byers Johnson. This time, a circuit judge sentenced her to 30 years in prison for the Jan. 11 killing of Eddie Allison.

In both marriages, husband and wife hunted and drank liquor and beer together, family and investigators said.

And in each case, they argued.

Nearly 20 years ago, on Nov. 28, 1968, Billy and Hazel Johnson "got into it," her family said. In the heat of the fight, Hazel Johnson grabbed the single-barrel shotgun her husband pointed at her. She shot him, tearing a 1-inch hole in the right side of his chest. Johnson, 35, fell back into a chair and died.

"She gave the same story as this time," Mitchum said. "She said she was threatened, and they were fighting over the gun."

The first time, in the same court where she was convicted Wednesday, she got a two-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation on a manslaughter conviction. During her probation, she married Allison.

For 17 years, they were constant companions. They fished, picked blackberries and peaches and hunted rabbits. They loved to walk. They argued.

"She loved him," said Eddie Allison's niece, who asked not to be identified. "They just had problems like every other husband and wife."

They were just like any other married couple, said Annie Mae Lynn, the woman's sister.

"Sometimes, they got along, and sometimes, they didn't," Lynn said. Sometimes, they got in an argument, and sometimes, they wouldn't. Sometimes, they would pass a lick, and sometimes, they wouldn't."

On Jan. 11, after a 12-inch snowstorm socked the Carolinas, history repeated itself.

After hunting rabbits, Eddie Allison bought a six-pack of beer and a fifth of liquor. For two hours, the Allisons drank.

Then, according to accounts of the incident, Eddie Allison violently grabbed and twisted his wife's breast. Hazel Allison ran crying into the kitchen.

Two hours later, Hazel Allison said, her husband began cursing, hitting and threatening to kill her. She got the gun. They struggled for it. She fired, putting a 4-inch hole in his right side. He fell on the couch and died.

"It's like this is her answer to wife beating," Mitchum said. "She must have figured, it worked one time so I'll try it again."

Eddie Allison’s niece said maybe it’s a good thing the judge sent Hazel Allison to prison this time.

“Once you do it one time, you don’t ever get nothing out of your system,” the niece said.

[“History repeats in woman’s killing of 2nd husband like first,” The Tampa Tribune (Fl.), Aug. 19, 1988, p. 5-A]

 

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CHRONOLOGY

 

Nov. 28, 1968 – Hazel Johnson murders Billy Byers Johnson.

1969 – Hazel convicted; 2 year suspended sentence and 3 year probation.

Jan. 11, 1988 – Hazel murders Eddie Boyd Allison (37, 35?).

Aug. 18, 1988 – Hazel Allison (48), convicted. Sentenced to 30 years in prison.

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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

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[208-1/3/2021; 296-11/14/21; 1184-5/14/23]

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Rose Marie Bobillier, Double Black Widow – France, 1908

FULL TEXT: Vesoul. - Mme Barbe-Bleue, that's how we nicknamed Rose-Marie Bobillier, a peasant woman from Montigny-les-Vesoul, who appeared today before the Hautè-Saône Assize Court. The nickname exaggerates. However, the accused is not an ordinary woman: she killed, during their sleep (which rather reminds the ogre of Little Thumb than the cruel husband who murdered seven wives the other tale), she killed her husband in 1905, and her lover, her farmhand, in 1907. It was this second crime that led to the discovery of the first.

On May 18, she informed the police that Monigoz, her valet and lover, had just injured himself in his barn. The police ran there and found him moaning, a gun beside him, a large wound on his head.

The unfortunate man died the same evening. When questioned, the widow Bobilier declared that he had committed suicide. But after the autopsy she had to make a confession.

She had killed him while he was sleeping drunk in the barn. She had stabbed him three times in the temple with the ax and, in the hope of diverting suspicion, had placed a revolver near him. She had killed him because he was constantly quarreling with her and beating her.

Witnesses confirmed the reality of these quarrels. But they put forward the idea that for such a motive, in 1905, the husband must have died in such a manner.

She had told that he had died from a horse kick and we had believed him. The examining magistrate had the corpse exhumed. It was found that the skull was fractured on the right and on the left as well as the two jaws were broken. It was proof that the head had been hit while resting on the ground. Bobillier was dead as his servant was to die later. His widow had to confess this first crime, after the second.

Information established that the household was the most disunited. The man was drinking, the woman behaving badly. One day she was boasting to her husband that she was pregnant with the child of another man. He had beaten her, kicked her out and then picked her up.

Examined by alienists, the Bobillier woman was declared responsible for her actions, but the alienist doctor, Doctor Lalanno; concluded a serious psychic debility. After indictment from the prosecutor Blondeau, the widow Bobillier, very skillfully defended by Me Morel, of the bar of Vesoul, was sentenced to fifteen years of forced labor and ten years ban on residence.

[“Mrs. Bluebeard.” (“Mme Barbe-Bleue.”), Le Figaro (Paris, France), Feb. 4, 1908, p. 3]

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Rose Marie Bobillier, Montigny-les-Vesoul - Montigny-lès-Vesoul is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France.

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FULL TEXT: Vesoul. – Mme Barbe-Bleue, c'est ainsi qu'on a surnommé Rose-Marie Bobillier, une paysanne de Montigny-les-Vesoul, qui a comparu aujourd'hui devant la Cour d'assises de la Hautè-Saône. Le surnom exagère. Pourtant, l'accusée n'est poin tune femme ordinaire: elle a tué, pendant leur sommeil (ce qui rappelle plutôt l'ogre du Petit Poucet quele cruel époux sept fois meurtrier de l'autre conte), elle a tué son mari en 1905, et son amant, son valet de ferme, en 1907. C'est ce second crime qui a fait découvrir le premier.

Le 18 mai dernier, elle informait le garde champêtre que Monigoz – son valet amant venait – de se blesser dans sa grange. Le garde y courut et le trouva râlant, un revolver auprès de lui, une large blessure à la tète.

Le malheureux mourait le soir même. Interrogée, la veuve Bobilier déclara qu'il s'était suicidé. Mais après l'autopsie elle dut faire des aveux.

Elle l'avait tué pendant qu'il dormait, ivre, dans la grange. Elle'lui avait porté trois coups de hache à la tempe et, dans l'espoir de détourner les soupçons, avait, près de lui, places on revolver. Elle l'avait tué parce qu'il la querellait et la battait sans cesse.

Des témoins confirmèrent la réalité de ces querelles. Mais ils émirent l'idée que pour un motif pareil, en 1905, de pareille façon avait dû mourir le mari.

Elle avait conte qu'il était mort d'un coup de pied de cheval et on l'avait cru. Le juge d'instruction fit exhumer le cadavre. On constata que le crâne était fracturé à droite et à gauche de même les deux mâchoires étaient brisées. C'était la preuve que la tête avait été frappée posant sur le sol. Bobillier était mort comme devait plus tard mourir son domestique. Sa veuve dut avouer ce premier crime, après le second. L'information a établi que le ménage était des plus désunis. L'homme buvait, la femme se conduisait fort mal. Un jour elles'était vantée à son mari d'être enceinte des œuvres d'un autre homme. Il l'avait battue, mise à la porte et puis reprise.

Examinée par des aliénistes, la femme Bobillier a été déclarée responsible deses actes, mais le médecin aliéniste, le docteur Lalanno, concluta une grave débilité psychique. Après réquisitoire de M. le procureur Blondeau, la veuve Bobillier, très habiliment défendue par Me Morel, du barreau de Vesoul, a été condamnée à quinze ans de travaux forcés et dix ans d'interdiction de séjour.

[“Mme Barbe-Bleue.” Le Figaro (Paris, France), Feb. 4, 1908, p. 3]

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For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

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[70-1/2/21; 864-7/16/22; 1945-9/9/22]

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