199: The Legs Murder Scandal

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Southern fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. On

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Saturday, March seventh of nineteen thirty
five, a woman's torso was discovered near

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Bell's, Tennessee. Right away,
the authorities knew they were going to have

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a hard time identifying this woman.
The torso was badly decomposed. And it's

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nineteen thirty five. The advanced forensic
technology we have today didn't yet exist.

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But some people had a sneaking suspicion
they knew exactly who this torso belonged to.

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About two months earlier, a set
of legs had been found, but

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not in Tennessee. These legs were
found about five hours south in Laurel,

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Mississippi, and they belonged to fifty
seven year old missus Daisy Keaton. So

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the Tennessee authorities called the Mississippi authorities
and they got a hold of Jones County

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Attorney Jack Devers, who was covering
the notorious legs scandal of Laurel, Mississippi.

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He knew Daisy's case better than anyone. The Tennessee authorities described there recently

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found torso in detail, explaining that
this might be a portion of Daisy Keaton's

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body that someone had disposed of way
up north in Tennessee. Divers immediately knew

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that this wasn't the same woman.
The body types were too different. Plus,

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even though Mississippi papers kept calling Daisy's
case the legs murder and the Legs

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Scandal, they hadn't actually found a
pair of legs. Rather, it was

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a pair of upper thighs and the
lower torso of a woman. Anatomically,

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devers knew this Tennessee torso and the
Mississippi upper thighs and lower torso just couldn't

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be the same two people. The
parts didn't match up correctly, but still

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news travels fast even when it's wrong, and numerous papers reported that this mysterious

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Tennessee torso might belong to Daisy.
It didn't. The remaining portions of Daisy's

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body her head, arms, upper
torso, lower legs, and feet were

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never found, and depending on who
you believe, the rest of Daisy's remains

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probably couldn't be found. Welcome to
episode one ninety nine, Daisy Keaton The

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Legs Scandal. If you're wondering it's
probable that the woman whose torso was found

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in Tennessee remained unidentified. There were
no additional news reports about her case after

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it was established that she was not
Daisy Keaton. Sarah Daisy McKinstry was born

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in August of eighteen seventy seven to
parents George and Laura and Jasper, Mississippi.

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Some accounts indicate that Daisy was actually
born in eighteen seventy nine, not

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eighteen seventy seven. It's unclear which
year is correct. The two year discrepancy

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might be a clerical error on some
government records, but it was pretty common

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for women in the late eighteen hundreds
and early nineteen hundreds to blatantly lie about

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their birth year, even on government
records. You know how it was and

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is for women to be younger is
to be better, or at least that's

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what the patriarchy keeps telling us.
Even Daisy's tombstone has a different number entirely

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eighteen ninety seven. In nineteen thirty
five, one of her sisters would explain

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to journalists that Daisy's age was a
mystery even to her family. When pressed,

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the sister guessed that Daisy was about
fifty seven years old. If we

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do some quick math, that means
Daisy was born in eighteen seventy seven,

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so that's what we're sticking with.
Daisy was the second oldest out of eight

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children, but in eighteen eighty her
older sister Mary died at age five.

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Daisy was three, and without Mary, Daisy became the eldest child. That

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same year that Mary passed in eighteen
eighty, Daisy gained a younger brother named

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Newman. Then came Agnes in eighteen
eighty two, and Eloise in eighteen eighty

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five. Andrew arrived in eighteen eighty
nine. Nine, Then George Junior was

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born in eighteen ninety three, and
then last but not least, was Laura,

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named after her mother. She was
born in nineteen oh six. Daisy

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was twenty nine years old at the
time of Laura's birth. In May of

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nineteen oh six, the same year
Laura was born, twenty nine year old

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Daisy was also sued by the pen
Mutual life insurance company. They were suing

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because Daisy had collected or was about
to collect, twelve thousand dollars on her

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husband's life insurance policy. Daisy's husband
was John Monroe Keaton of Jasper, Mississippi.

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John was born in April of eighteen
seventy, and after building a successful

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career as a businessman who sometimes worked
in the railroad industry, he died on

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October third, nineteen oh seven,
at age thirty seven. Somehow, John

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had been thrown from a moving train
and he had died instantly upon impact at

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the McNeil, Mississippi train station.
The situation surrounding John's death was odd,

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and the insurance claimed that Daisy had
plans to collect on. John's death was

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framed as an accident, but the
insurance company had questions like how could this

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experienced man fall accidentally from a moving
train. John also had plans to move

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about eighty miles south to Angie,
Louisiana, but Daisy and the kids were

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going to live in Laurel, Mississippi. Could John's death have been a suicide

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not an accident? And the insurance
policy had only been taken out a year

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before his death. None of these
questions were resolved, and honestly, the

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answers to them might have been innocent. Maybe the business John had in the

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railroad industry had nothing to do with
trains themselves. He could have worked in

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accounting. Maybe John's family planned to
follow him to Angie, Louisiana. Maybe

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the insurance policy had been taken out
at just the right time by sheer luck.

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But Daisy didn't show up to the
trial when she was supposed to,

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so by default, the courts ruled
in favor of the insurance company. There's

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no documentation that Daisy paid back her
twelve thousand, which is more than three

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hundred and seventy thousand in today's money, but she must have, after all,

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she was legally obligated to. Or
maybe she hadn't received the sum yet.

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This part of the story is lost
to history, probably because Daisy didn't

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show up to the trial. When
John died in nineteen oh seven, he

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and Daisy had been married for about
twelve years. They had both grown up

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in Jasper and married around eighteen ninety
five, when John was twenty five and

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Daisy was about eighteen. They had
their first child, maud Kay Keaton,

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in eighteen ninety six, a year
after they were wed. Then came Juanita

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May Keaton, who went by Weeda
in October of eighteen ninety eight. After

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that was John Earl Cotton Keaton,
who went by Earl in March of nineteen

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oh two, and then it was
John M. Keaton in nineteen oh three.

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Unfortunately, John em passed away in
nineteen oh four when he was only

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one year old. Three years later, in nineteen oh seven, John Senior

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died and that same year Daisy gave
birth to her fourth and final child,

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Mary Elouise Keaton. She would go
by Eloise. Following the death of Daisy's

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husband, she did not remarry,
and she maintained her married name of Missus

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Keaton. With Daisy at the helm
of the Keaton family, they kept their

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status and renown in the community.
Everyone in Laurel, Mississippi, and surrounding

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areas knew who the Keatons were,
especially after the papers caught wind of a

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young man who sued Daisy Keaton for
alienation of affection concerning her youngest daughter,

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Eloise. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. On September

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twenty eighth of nineteen twenty five,
a man named Rayburn Alec Robinson, who

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is twenty five years old, asked
eighteen year old Eloise Keaton to marry him.

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They had met two years earlier in
nineteen twenty three at a street show.

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At the time, Eloise was only
sixteen years old, and she knew

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her mother Daisy, would never approve
of Rayburn, though it's never explained why.

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Maybe Eloise was just too young.
Regardless, twenty three year old Rayburn

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and sixteen year old Eloise began a
secret relationship, Rayburn passing letters through Eloise's

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friends. This went on for two
years. Daisy had no clue that her

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teenage daughter was in a very serious, very committed relationship with a man,

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an older man that Daisy had never
met to boot, So on that September

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day in nineteen twenty five, Daisy
was flabbergasted to learn that her precious Eloise

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and some random guy had gotten engaged. Daisy immediately spoke to her daughter,

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twenty eight year old Wida Keaton,
and Weida immediately called the police and county

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clerk to see if a marriage license
had already been obtained. She wanted to

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know more about the illicit couple,
who was this Rayburn person and when were

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he and Eloise getting married. Weda
also asked her fifty nine year old boss,

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W. M. Carter to help
with the situation. Weda was a

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stenographer and bookkeeper for Carter's lumber company, and Carter was more than just Weda's

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boss. He was also a close
friend of the Keaton family. Some called

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him their adviser. Weeda had found
out that Eloise and Rayburn were set to

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marry in a little town called Ellisville. It was only eight miles south of

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Laurel, so Weda asked Carter to
drive to Ellisville and see what he could

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uncover. Upon arriving, Carter checked
out the town's marriage records. The situation

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was far worse than Daisy or Rita
thought. Turns out, Eloise and Rayburn

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were not just engaged as of September
twenty eighth, nineteen twenty five, they

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were already married. After Daisy learned
of her daughter's elopement, she demanded that

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her son Earle drive her to the
local sheriff's office. From there, Daisy

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and the sheriff went to Ellisville themselves. They talked to anyone and everyone who

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had been present during the nuptials,
including the Justice of the Peace who had

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performed the ceremony. Just when Daisy
thought things couldn't get any worse, she

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learned that the newly weds were already
well on their way to Chicago. They

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had taken a train one that would
stop in Birmingham, Alabama. So Daisy

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and the Laurel chief of police and
a telegram to Birmingham's chief of police.

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In the telegram, Daisy requested that
the train be searched and that Rayburn be

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charged with perjury and marrying a girl
under age. Daisy was hoping to intercept

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Eloise and Rayburn before they made it
all the way to Chicago, but by

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the time the telegram had gotten to
Birmingham, their train was long gone.

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But the train was going to make
another stop, this time in Chattanooga,

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Tennessee. Daisy sent yet another telegram. Luckily, this one made it to

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Chattanooga in time. Eloise and Rayburn
were removed from the train and detained by

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police. Meanwhile, Daisy hopped on
the first train to Chattanooga. She arrived

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there the next day. According to
court documents, the meeting of Daisy,

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her daughter Eloise, and her new
son in law Rayburn was stormy. No

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details were given, but Daisy must
have prevailed because Eloise left Chattanooga with her

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mother and they returned to Laurel.
Meanwhile, Rayburn continued to Chicago, and

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just a few days later, Eloise
and Rayburn's marriage was annulled. In total,

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the couple had been husband and wife
for three days. Less than a

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month later, on October sixth,
nineteen twenty five, Rayburn filed a lawsuit

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against Daisy and the Keatings. He
wanted two hundred thousand dollars that's nearly three

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point five million in today's money,
for the alienation of the affections of his

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wife and for being falsely arrested.
Alienation of affection laws, sometimes known as

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home wrecker laws, are a civil
court matter. They allow the spouse to

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sue another person for quote, purposefully
interfering with the marital relationship if the person

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sued, as usually the person a
spouse cheated with, not the spouse's mother,

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although I suppose that's obviously possible.
This whole thing sounds bizarre and definitely

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old timey, and it was some
juicy gossip for the small town of Laurel.

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About a year later, in November
of nineteen twenty six, the case

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had already been settled and appealed.
It was determined that Daisy and not the

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entire Keaton family, was the only
person held responsible for alienating Eloise's feelings and

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causing Rayburn's false arrest. As a
result, Daisy was ordered to pay nine

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thousand, five hundred dollars to Rayburn, a far cry from the initial request

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of two hundred thousand, but still
it's about one hundred and sixty four thousand

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in two thousand and three money.
But there's no indication that Daisy ever paid

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Rayburn. Instead, she gifted all
of her assets to her daughter, Weeda.

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I'm not certain about the legal ramifications
of that action in nineteen twenty six

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Mississippi, but it seemed to work
out okay for Daisy. It doesn't appear

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that she was sent to jail or
anything because of it. Nine years later,

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in nineteen thirty five, the fiasca
between Eloise and Rayburn was long past.

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Eventually, Rayburn would remarry and moved
to Louisiana, then Illinois, and

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Eloise would remarry as well. Her
second wedding was set for February second,

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nineteen thirty five, but days before
Eloise's big day, tragedy struck her mother.

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Daisy was missing and likely dead.
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joining wonder E plus. From nineteen
thirty one to nineteen thirty four, Earl

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00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:39.240
Cotton Keaton, his wife, and
their daughter lived in the Keaton family home

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with Daisy and Weeda, and that
suited the mother daughter pair just fine.

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Even though Wida was known as a
rather high maintenance person. According to Wieda's

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aunt, Paula Reicheimer, the young
woman was a bit weird. Paula recalled

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that Weida would have Christmas gifts delivered
to herself, then she would pretend they

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were from her boyfriend friend who did
not exist. These gifts included expensive items,

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candy, roses, and more.
Paula said that WeDo was also known

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for keeping baby clothes in her dresser
despite not having a baby. She said

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Weido was dreaming and sometimes WeDo would
throw tantrums. She would spend weeks in

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her room pouting. The Keaton family
would have to deliver her mills to her

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bedroom because Weda refused to come to
the dining room. Paula remarked that Weeda

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was moody and spoiled, but maybe
she just didn't get along with Weeda.

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She also complained about Weda looking in
the mirror too often, so it's safe

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to say that Paula was quick to
criticize her niece. But again, with

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all this juicy gossip, despite any
off putting childhood behaviors, Weda and her

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mother, Daisy, were described as
being very close. As a child,

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Weda actually preferred hanging out with her
mother more than other kids, and as

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an adult, Weeda and her mom
were seen around town together all the time,

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and they had plans to open a
hotel together in New Orleans. Weeda

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had even taken a hotel management course
in Washington, d C. To prepare

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00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:11.519
for their new business venture. That
way, they could use Daisy's money to

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00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:17.720
fund the business and Weda could run
it. Even though Daisy was considered wealthy

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00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:21.840
by those in Laurel, Mississippi,
it seems that Weeda still controlled most,

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00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:26.440
if not all, of Daisy's financial
assets. She had ever since Daisy had

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00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:30.200
signed them over to her in the
wake of Rayburn's lawsuit. But by January

206
00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:36.120
of nineteen thirty five, the statute
of limitations on Rayburn's case had run out,

207
00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.159
and Daisy wanted to regain control of
her money. She was tired of

208
00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:44.159
having to confer with Weeda every time
she wanted to write a check, but

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00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:48.039
nobody in the Keaton family expected to
transfer of funds to be an issue.

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00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:52.960
Weeda was a devoted daughter. She
would do anything for Daisy. But even

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00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:56.000
though Weedda appeared to be doing well
financially thanks to her mother's money, she

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00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:02.120
was having a hard time personally holding
down a job. Like I said before,

213
00:17:02.440 --> 00:17:04.920
Weeda used to work as a secretary
for lumber businessman W. M.

214
00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:10.319
Carter, but she left that job
two years earlier. Now she mostly worked

215
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:14.160
as a cashier at a filling station
that her brother in law, David McGray

216
00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:18.480
owned, But Wida was probably just
biding her time until her and Daisy's New

217
00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:22.799
Orleans hotel premiere. On the afternoon
of Saturday, January nineteenth, Wido worked

218
00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:29.279
to shift at David's gas station sometime
that day. She also visited her aunt,

219
00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:33.279
Paula Reicheimer, for about an hour. Throughout the course of this Saturday,

220
00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:37.160
When people asked Weda about her mother's
well being, she explained that Daisy

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00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:42.680
was traveling. She had taken a
trip to New Orleans. That's where Daisy's

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00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:48.240
youngest Elouise lived. According to Weeda, Daisy would be back in a week,

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but Daisy never made it back.
On Monday, January twenty first,

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00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:57.079
nineteen thirty five, a rabbit hunter
from Laurel was walking near a remote road

225
00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:03.319
north of Sandersville. The hunter's name
was Dan Evans Junior, and Dan's dogs

226
00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:07.039
had noticed something odd on this isolated
rural road, a sugar sack filled with

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00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:14.200
something. Upon closer inspection, Dan
realized that the something inside the sugar sack

228
00:18:14.440 --> 00:18:18.359
wasn't sugar at all. It was
human remains, but not all of the

229
00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:22.359
human remains, just the upper legs
and lower torso of a white woman.

230
00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.200
Right away, Dan contacted the authorities, and right away rumors ran wild.

231
00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:32.880
The public quickly became suspicious that Daisy
was not in New Orleans at all,

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00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:37.480
and when members of the Keaton family
were able to identify a specific mole that

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00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:42.240
Daisy had on these legs, it
became widely understood that fifty seven year old

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00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:48.920
Sarah Daisy Keaton was probably dead.
But Daisy's death was an official After all,

235
00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:51.960
a lot of people have moles on
their legs, some of them are

236
00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.440
even in similar places. There really
was no one hundred percent accurate way of

237
00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.839
knowing that these were the legs of
Daisy Keaton, so the police had their

238
00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:06.160
investigative work cut out for them.
First, the detective searched the area where

239
00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:10.240
the dismembered legs had been discarded,
but they didn't find any relevant evidence.

240
00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:14.000
They did locate one witness who said
there was a strange car on the same

241
00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:18.519
road where the legs were found just
hours before the hunter discovered them. Another

242
00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:22.400
person made a similar report indicating that
they had seen a red car, and

243
00:19:22.480 --> 00:19:26.680
yet another person said that around that
same time they saw a person throw two

244
00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:33.400
packages from a bridge into Tallahawa Creek, But for undisclosed reasons, the police

245
00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:37.480
discredited that third report and didn't search
the creek. According to the Sheriff's office.

246
00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:41.799
As reported by The Sun Herald,
some members of the Keaton family expressed

247
00:19:41.920 --> 00:19:47.839
that a relative might have killed Daisy. During my research, I got the

248
00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:52.279
sense that Daisy had a big personality, one that sometimes clashed with her family.

249
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:56.519
For example, Daisy and her son
in law, David McRae weren't on

250
00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:02.440
speaking terms for a long time.
Eventually, the police found a man named

251
00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:06.079
W. E. Kennedy, and
Kennedy told the officers that on the same

252
00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:08.559
Monday that the legs were discovered,
he had been in that exact area.

253
00:20:10.200 --> 00:20:14.920
He was driving along Highway eleven going
from Quitman, Mississippi to Laurel, Mississippi,

254
00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.640
and a little before nine am.
As Kennedy approached Laurel, he spotted

255
00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:23.640
Weeda Keaton walking on the side of
the road. Kennedy remembered that Weeda was

256
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:27.720
wearing a dress and a fur coat, but no stockings or hat. This

257
00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:33.920
struck Kennedy as odd. It was
a cold and rainy January day, not

258
00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:37.680
the right weather to wear an expensive
fur coat, and certainly not the right

259
00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.119
weather to forget her stockings or hat. When Wheeda signaled for Kennedy to pull

260
00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.599
over, he did, and then
she explained to Kennedy that her maroon car

261
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:49.720
had gotten stuck a little ways away. She told Kennedy that she was trying

262
00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:52.720
to get to her friend's house.
She was going to stay there a while

263
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:57.200
while her mother was away in New
Orleans. Kennedy didn't think anything of it.

264
00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:00.680
He was happy to help we to
get to her destination. He drove

265
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.839
her for about half a mile and
then dropped her at a crossroads near her

266
00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:08.680
house. Later that Monday, Weda
called a mechanic to help dislodge her car.

267
00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:14.640
It had been stuck in some swampland
near Sandersville Road, very close to

268
00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:18.799
where the dismembered legs would be found. That same day, on Friday,

269
00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:22.079
January twenty fifth, it had been
four days since the rabbit hunter Dan had

270
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:26.160
come across the package of legs,
and on this day, the police visited

271
00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.079
the Keaton home, where only one
Keaton was left, thirty six year old

272
00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:34.559
we to make Keaton. When Weda
answered the door at about nine am,

273
00:21:34.680 --> 00:21:38.440
the authorities asked to speak to her
mother, but Weida said that would be

274
00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:42.799
impossible. According to her, Daisy
had left for New Orleans that Tuesday,

275
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:47.759
which was a strange thing for her
to say, especially since she had told

276
00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:52.440
people on Saturday that her mother was
already in New Orleans and she said something

277
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:57.440
similar to Kennedy on Monday. But
apparently Weda had driven Daisy to the train

278
00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:03.640
station herself on Tuesday, and Weeda
told the officers she had even received a

279
00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:07.160
letter from Daisy just that morning,
but when the police asked to see this

280
00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:12.559
letter from Daisy, Weda couldn't find
it anywhere. With Weeda's permission, the

281
00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:18.640
police officers proceeded to search the Keaton
home. Her brother Earl accompanied them.

282
00:22:18.359 --> 00:22:22.079
Earle didn't mind helping the police.
He wanted to know where his mother was,

283
00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:26.599
and he, like many and Laurel, already suspected that Daisy was dead

284
00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:33.559
in the Keaton home, the detectives
discovered traces of blood. Later, forensics

285
00:22:33.599 --> 00:22:40.599
experts would determine that this was likely
human blood. There were blood spatters in

286
00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:45.240
Daisy's bedroom and a bathroom, and
portions of the bathroom had been recently repainted.

287
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:52.000
The officials also identified a mysterious sticky
substance on Whida's car. As the

288
00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:56.680
chief of police talked to Weeda about
this substance, she tried to rub it

289
00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:00.240
away, and that's when the officers
asked to go with them to the district

290
00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:06.960
attorney's office. There are mixed reports
as to whether Weda was considered arrested at

291
00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.880
this point. She hadn't been charged
with anything yet, but it's clear that

292
00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:15.160
the police knew she was hiding something. I'm going to pause now for a

293
00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:25.400
short commercial break. After the police
took Weeda into custody, they questioned her

294
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:29.440
for twenty hours. According to the
son Harold, there were no breaks for

295
00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:33.640
Weeda. Later, it would be
revealed that Wida was not offered any opportunity

296
00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:38.720
to eat, drink, or rest
during this prolonged period of interrogation. And

297
00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:42.400
maybe that's the reason why we'd ha
told so many different versions of events.

298
00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:48.279
At first, Weeda claimed that her
mother was in New Orleans. Then she

299
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:52.519
said her mother had been held at
gunpoint by an older woman. Then two

300
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.000
different men who may or may not
have been in cahoots with the older woman,

301
00:23:56.359 --> 00:24:00.160
kidnapped her mother. This second story
is you can probably made no sense,

302
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:06.519
and so the officers continued pressing Weeda
for the truth, and eventually this

303
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:11.960
is the supposed truth that Weda landed
on. She confessed that, yes,

304
00:24:11.559 --> 00:24:15.640
she had hidden her mother's dismembered legs
and a sugar sack on a rural road,

305
00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:21.680
but she hadn't killed her mother.
Another person had and that person was

306
00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:26.440
none other than her former boss and
family friend. Sixty seven year old W.

307
00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:30.359
M. Carter. William Madison Carter
was born on May twenty third,

308
00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:36.559
eighteen sixty seven, to parents James
Marianne and Bartow Georgia. He was the

309
00:24:36.599 --> 00:24:41.480
oldest of seven children, and depending
on what you believe about Daisy's confession,

310
00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:47.039
Carter might have been an additional victim
in this ordeal. William Madison was named

311
00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:51.240
after his grandfather, William, who
died in eighteen forty five. We're not

312
00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:56.720
entirely sure what William Madison went by
himself as all the local newspapers simply called

313
00:24:56.759 --> 00:25:00.680
him W. M. Carter,
but we'll refer to him as Car for

314
00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:06.720
clarity and brevity. In eighteen eighty
nine, twenty one year old Carter married

315
00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:11.440
a girl named Nettie Newton. She
was twenty years old. Their ceremony took

316
00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:17.000
place in Nettie's hometown of Belleville,
Alabama. Carter and Nettie had four children,

317
00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:22.119
Mary Lou, Pauline, Helen,
and Charles. Unfortunately, nineteen year

318
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:26.400
old Mary Lou passed away after an
illness. By the time of her funeral,

319
00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:32.000
the Carters had moved from Alabama to
Mississippi, so Mary Lou was buried

320
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:37.039
in the Hickory Grove Cemetery of Laurel, Mississippi. Eventually Carter and his wife,

321
00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:41.279
Nettie would be buried there as well. In Laurel, Carter made his

322
00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:45.440
name as a lumber supply businessman.
He had been in the lumber and sawmill

323
00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:49.039
industry since eighteen ninety two, and
he had opened up his own wholesale company

324
00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:52.880
near Laurel around nineteen oh seven,
when he was about forty years old.

325
00:25:53.640 --> 00:25:59.160
But even before that, Carter was
doing really well financially. He owned two

326
00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:03.559
nice houses, supported his wife and
kids, and was generally recognized as a

327
00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:08.599
rich man. Sometime between nineteen sixteen
and nineteen twenty, Weda Keaton was hired

328
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:14.039
as Carter's secretary. She would have
been between eighteen and twenty two years old.

329
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:18.720
Weeda was responsible for collecting bills from
his clients, transcribing notes, and

330
00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:25.240
managing the office. About a year
into their working relationship, Weda and Carter

331
00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:30.319
began a secret romantic relationship. The
deals of this affair are largely unknown.

332
00:26:30.799 --> 00:26:36.640
Weda would later claim that she and
Carter were frequently intimate, but Carter,

333
00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:40.480
who did admit that he and Weida
had feelings for each other, said nothing

334
00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:45.960
sexual ever happened. But sex or
no sex, it was undeniable that Carter

335
00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:49.359
visited Weeda at her home a lot, so often that the people of Laurel

336
00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:55.200
noticed. But these meetings between Weeda
and Carter at the Keaton home were always

337
00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:59.240
on the up and up. Weda's
mom, Daisy, was always there to

338
00:26:59.319 --> 00:27:03.599
chaperone, and nothing unsavory seemed to
happen. Carter just became known as a

339
00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:08.640
friend of the Keatons and Weida's mentor. He had experience in banking and finances,

340
00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:12.480
so he could have been offering Daisy
and Weeda advice on their upcoming hotel

341
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:18.200
venture. On June twenty fifth,
nineteen thirty three, Carter's wife, sixty

342
00:27:18.200 --> 00:27:22.240
three year old Nettie, died in
Laurel, Mississippi. Nettie was buried,

343
00:27:22.359 --> 00:27:26.319
as I mentioned before, near her
daughter in the Hickory Grove Cemetery, and

344
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:33.039
around this time in nineteen thirty three, Weeda quit working for Carter. The

345
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:37.480
reason that Weedo quit working for Carter
is heavily debated. It may have been

346
00:27:37.519 --> 00:27:41.559
because her physical health was deteriorating.
That same year, in nineteen thirty three,

347
00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:45.880
Weeda began to experience horrible back,
shoulder, and neck pain. She

348
00:27:47.039 --> 00:27:51.480
attributed this chronic pain to a severe
injury she had sustained as a six year

349
00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:55.839
old child, and Whida's family reported
that when she was in pain, she

350
00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.279
paid no attention to what was said
and had a far away look in her

351
00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:03.559
eyes. And at the same time
that Weeda quit working for Carter, she

352
00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:07.480
seemed to be experiencing mental health issues
and seemingly out of nowhere, she lost

353
00:28:07.519 --> 00:28:14.720
about forty pounds and began acting oddly. According to one of Daisy's sisters testimony,

354
00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:21.359
Weeda was unusually bright mentally and a
good conversationalist, but starting in nineteen

355
00:28:21.400 --> 00:28:23.759
thirty three, she would seem to
try to avoid us, have little to

356
00:28:23.839 --> 00:28:29.039
say, and appear restless and nervous. She would turn pages and magazines,

357
00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:33.400
running through them rapidly without reading a
line. Her eyes had a wild,

358
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.039
stary look. Weida's brother, Earle, noticed that something was amiss with her

359
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:42.119
too. He said she just wasn't
the same person. According to Weeda,

360
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:47.720
she quit working for Carter because his
advances had become much more heavy handed since

361
00:28:47.759 --> 00:28:51.440
his wife had passed, and there
does seem to be some evidence that this

362
00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:56.400
was true. Weda's sister in law, missus Earle Keaton, remembered that Carter

363
00:28:56.559 --> 00:29:00.759
was at the Keaton home far more
after his wife died, and Weida's sister

364
00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:03.079
in law would have known since she
had lived with Weeda and Daisy for several

365
00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:10.480
years. According to Weeda, Carter
was persistent. On multiple occasions. He

366
00:29:10.599 --> 00:29:15.119
tried to get Weeda to run away
with him. On Saturday, January nineteenth,

367
00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:18.519
just two days before Daisy's legs would
be found, Carter tried yet again

368
00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:22.359
to win over Weeda. While she
was working her shift at the gas station,

369
00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:26.880
Carter asked that she go with him
on a trip to Mobile, Alabama

370
00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:30.680
the next day, but Weeda said
no for many reasons, I'm sure,

371
00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:34.640
one of the main ones being that, according to Weeda, she was engaged

372
00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:40.119
to an attorney from Washington, d
c. He was referred to in the

373
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:45.480
newspapers as mister Grace. Weeda had
met mister Grace while attending that hotel management

374
00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:49.680
course she took two years ago,
back in nineteen thirty three. At the

375
00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:52.839
time that Weeda met mister Grace,
she had already quit working her job as

376
00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:59.720
a secretary and was no longer in
Carter's employ According to court records, Weida's

377
00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:03.799
mother, Daisy, begged Carter to
stop pursuing Weeda romantically. It was even

378
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:07.400
one of the reasons that she let
Weeda go across country to take that hotel

379
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:12.720
management course. Daisy wanted Weeda out
from under Carter's thumb, but as reported

380
00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:18.319
by the Clarion Ledger, Carter continued
sending Weed a letter after letter after letter,

381
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.799
even while she was in DC.
Now let's jump to January twenty sixth

382
00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:27.079
of nineteen thirty five, Weeda was
speaking to the police, who had figured

383
00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:32.920
out she was lying about her mother
traveling to New Orleans, and after Weeda

384
00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:37.400
realized the authorities weren't buying her tall
tails, she revealed to them what she

385
00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:42.200
said was the actual truth. Late
at night on Saturday, January nineteenth of

386
00:30:42.279 --> 00:30:47.240
nineteen thirty five, Carter went to
the Keaton home. He was there to

387
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:52.079
see Weeda. Then, according to
Weeda, Carter attacked her mother, Daisy,

388
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.400
out of nowhere. There was no
build up or heated argument. Carter

389
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.680
just struck Daisy with an iron fireplace
poker, repeat until she fell to the

390
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:07.519
floor. Then Weda said that Carter
continued beating Daisy with the poker, bashing

391
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:11.880
it into her head again and again. The only reason we'da had for Carter's

392
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:17.480
alleged actions was that he wanted himself
and Daisy to have more privileges. I

393
00:31:17.519 --> 00:31:22.160
am assuming this was a euphemism for
sex, and based on the reporting of

394
00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:26.119
these events, the general masses had
no clue either. Then, Weda said

395
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:32.440
that Carter drove off with Daisy's body. That same night, he returned with

396
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:37.480
Daisy's upper legs and lower torso bundled
into a sugar sack. He wanted Weeda

397
00:31:37.559 --> 00:31:41.759
to hide them, so the next
day, Weda drove her maroon sedan with

398
00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:47.039
the partial remains of her mother and
her passenger seat. She dropped the remains

399
00:31:47.079 --> 00:31:51.039
on a deserted road and left,
and that was when her car became stuck

400
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:55.240
and Kennedy had to help her get
back to town. According to this version

401
00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:57.880
of events, we'da had no idea
what Carter had done with the rest of

402
00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:02.359
her mother's body, and also,
according to Weeda, Carter had told her

403
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:07.519
to tell the police that kidnapping story. Weeda said she had to because Carter

404
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:14.160
had threatened her life. Weeda would
later claim that this confession was coerced,

405
00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:17.359
but that argument would not hold up
in court, and Weda's confession would be

406
00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:22.839
considered as is. After Daisy had
been murdered late Saturday or early Sunday and

407
00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:28.680
disposed of on Monday, Weeda spent
several nights at our aunt Paula Reikhimer's house.

408
00:32:29.720 --> 00:32:32.599
She would be there Tuesday through Thursday
night, but it would appear that

409
00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:37.480
we to return to the Keaton home
the sight of her mother's murder during the

410
00:32:37.559 --> 00:32:42.960
daytime. On Friday, January twenty
fifth and Saturday, January twenty sixth a

411
00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:46.240
crowd of people had gathered outside of
the jail where Weeda was in police custody.

412
00:32:47.799 --> 00:32:52.240
The whole ordeal was big news.
The Keatons were considered local celebrities,

413
00:32:53.279 --> 00:32:57.680
and it didn't take long for folks
to put two and two together. A

414
00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:02.079
mother was missing and a daughter was
in jail. Somehow Weeda was involved in

415
00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:13.279
Daisy's demise. I'm going to pause
now for a short commercial break. On

416
00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:16.839
June twenty eighth, nineteen thirty five, Wida was charged with murdering and dismembering

417
00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:22.319
her mother. Around this time,
Weedo was allegedly over her. Talking to

418
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:25.559
her sister Eloise, she said,
they are accusing me of killing mother.

419
00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:30.200
You know I didn't do it.
That same day, sixty seven year old

420
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:35.200
William Madison Carter was arrested. He
was held out of jail in Jackson,

421
00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:38.680
Mississippi. He had been charged with
murder and connection with the slave, and

422
00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:45.359
the only evidence against him was Weeda's
confession, which Carter vehemently denied. After

423
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:50.640
Carter's arrest, they searched his car
for any remnants of Daisy, and they

424
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:53.119
did find a few strands of hair
but these weren't brought up during trial,

425
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:59.680
so they probably didn't match Daisy.
Still, Weeda's confession and Carter's arrest had

426
00:33:59.720 --> 00:34:05.200
motive the authorities to find the rest
of Daisy's body. The police knew that

427
00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:09.159
would make convicting these two murderers so
much easier. After all, without a

428
00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:14.480
body, the prosecution has to take
on the burden of proving there was a

429
00:34:14.480 --> 00:34:21.679
crime, and that extra argumentation can
derail even the most focused jury. For

430
00:34:21.880 --> 00:34:24.079
days, the police were positive that
they were going to find the rest of

431
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:30.519
Daisy's body based on Wheda's confession.
Carter couldn't have hidden Daisy's remains very far

432
00:34:30.599 --> 00:34:34.119
away. He had to have left
the Keaton home, gotten to his home,

433
00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:37.599
cut up the body, and hidden
the pieces in just a few hours.

434
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.119
There's no way he could have gotten
far. There wasn't time. But

435
00:34:42.239 --> 00:34:46.199
days and days passed and still the
rest of Daisy was not discovered. They

436
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:52.039
sent fifty incarcerated men to comb the
swampy woods where Daisy's legs were found,

437
00:34:52.599 --> 00:34:57.679
and they searched nearby bodies of water, but it seemed like Daisy was quite

438
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:01.519
literally gone. On February firm first, the son Harold reported that police were

439
00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:06.679
no longer positive that they could find
Daisy's body, and they never did it.

440
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:10.159
During Weeda's trial, the most likely
reason as to why they couldn't find

441
00:35:10.199 --> 00:35:15.960
Daisy would be revealed. But before
her trial, a lot happened. Carter

442
00:35:16.039 --> 00:35:21.719
steadfastly denied that he had any part
in Daisy's death, and WIDA's mental health

443
00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:24.519
took a turn for the worse.
While in jail, she entered a catatonic

444
00:35:24.559 --> 00:35:30.320
stupor. She wouldn't speak, she
hardly ate, and it didn't seem like

445
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:35.519
Weeda had the capability to understand her
surroundings. As a result, she was

446
00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:40.000
transferred from the jail to a hospital. Her doctor was especially passionate about transferring

447
00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:45.960
Weeda to the hospital because the concrete
and steel jail cell couldn't be heated well.

448
00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:50.719
Just a few days later, on
February two, WIDA's little sister,

449
00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:54.719
Eloise, married a man named Jack
Anderson. Jack was a handsome young fellow

450
00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:59.679
who served on the Laurel Police Force. We're not sure when Aloise and Jack

451
00:35:59.719 --> 00:36:02.800
began their relationship, but we do
know that Eloise returned to Laurel from New

452
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:08.079
Orleans at the news of her mother's
likely death. In late January. Eloise

453
00:36:08.199 --> 00:36:12.960
was part of the reason why Weda's
first story of Daisy went to New Orleans

454
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:16.199
was debunked. Eloise was quick to
say that her mother had never told her

455
00:36:16.280 --> 00:36:20.360
she was coming to New Orleans,
and it seems like if you had a

456
00:36:20.440 --> 00:36:23.920
daughter there, you would let her
know you were on your way. Perhaps

457
00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:29.199
their wedding was always planned for February, or perhaps Eloise and Jack just hit

458
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:31.880
things off very quickly. After all, this would be twenty eight year old

459
00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:37.960
Eloise's third marriage, after she married
Rayburn for three days in nineteen twenty five.

460
00:36:38.159 --> 00:36:43.239
She had next married an aviator named
James Daniels in the early nineteen thirties,

461
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:46.079
but they had ended up divorcing.
It could have been that Eloise was

462
00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:51.480
tired of wasting time on the wrong
men, but who knows. Regardless,

463
00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:54.320
Eloise and Jack tried to keep the
wedding a secret from the citizens of Laurel,

464
00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:00.079
But you know how small towns are. Where got out and everyone was

465
00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:02.960
critical of this small country wedding.
It was even brought up in court.

466
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:08.280
How could the Keaton family celebrate Eloise's
nuptials so soon after their matriarch had been

467
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:14.719
slain and butchered. On February eleventh, Weda was moved from the hospital to

468
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:19.239
the jail. It had been ordered
by the county attorney, Jack Devers.

469
00:37:19.639 --> 00:37:22.400
I wonder if he thought Weda was
faking her mental health episodes or if he

470
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:27.519
thought the jail is too cold was
a poor excuse. It was clear many

471
00:37:27.559 --> 00:37:32.039
others believed that. Two days later, on February thirteenth, Weeda filed a

472
00:37:32.039 --> 00:37:37.440
petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The argument was that she was being

473
00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:43.199
wrongly imprisoned since Daisy's death hadn't been
officially proven. That's weird coming from a

474
00:37:43.239 --> 00:37:46.840
woman who confessed her part in her
mother's death. But okay Weda. The

475
00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:51.920
following day, on February fourteenth,
Weda was reported by The Sun Sentinel to

476
00:37:51.960 --> 00:37:57.480
be in a serious condition. When
Weeda was indicted four days later, she

477
00:37:57.639 --> 00:38:01.840
had a nervous breakdown due to severe
mental health exhaustion. After that, the

478
00:38:01.880 --> 00:38:07.000
authorities moved Weeda back to the hospital. She couldn't make the walk from the

479
00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:08.960
jail house doors to the ambulance,
so they had to put her on a

480
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:15.119
stretcher and carry her out. Meanwhile, Weda's lawyers were probably panicking They openly

481
00:38:15.159 --> 00:38:20.000
told journalists that they were struggling to
get FaceTime with Weeda. She was in

482
00:38:20.039 --> 00:38:22.679
no state to talk about her mother's
murder. Her mental health would not allow

483
00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:28.480
it. When they did try to
ask Weeda questions about Daisy, she was

484
00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:32.280
unintelligible. And as you can imagine, it's incredibly difficult for a defense attorney

485
00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:37.840
to do their job when they can't
communicate with their client. And Weida wasn't

486
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:43.960
communicating with anybody. She had gone
completely mute. Everyone in town was fascinated

487
00:38:43.960 --> 00:38:47.039
by this phenomenon. They even had
to move Weeda's hospital room to the second

488
00:38:47.039 --> 00:38:52.599
floor because over forty townspeople tried peering
into the windows of WDA's original first floor

489
00:38:52.679 --> 00:38:58.960
room. On February twentieth, Weeda
Keaton didn't respond when the judge asked her

490
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:02.119
what her plea was going to be. After an awkward silence, her lawyers

491
00:39:02.199 --> 00:39:07.079
entered it as not guilty. Weeda's
attorneys had not been able to speak with

492
00:39:07.079 --> 00:39:09.719
her about the case yet. Due
to her severe mental health issues, Weeda

493
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:14.800
couldn't even walk. She was being
transported to and from all court proceedings in

494
00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:20.280
a wheelchair and accompanied by a dedicated
nurse. The next day, on February

495
00:39:20.280 --> 00:39:23.360
twenty first, W. M.
Carter entered a plea if not guilty.

496
00:39:24.119 --> 00:39:29.760
The Greenwood Commonwealth Paper indicated that he
looked physically worn by the stress of the

497
00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:35.920
situation. His trial would begin after
Weeda's I'm going to pause now for another

498
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:46.159
quick commercial break. Weeda's trial began
on February twenty seventh, nineteen thirty five,

499
00:39:46.679 --> 00:39:52.519
and the public spectacle surrounding the event
was crazy. There were five hundred

500
00:39:52.519 --> 00:39:55.400
seats in the courtroom and every single
one of them was taken. People wouldn't

501
00:39:55.440 --> 00:40:00.119
leave during the lunch break for fear
that they would lose their seat. One

502
00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:05.280
point, the balcony seating area was
so overloaded with spectators that the platform dipped

503
00:40:05.360 --> 00:40:09.239
about eleven inches. Still the people
wouldn't leave. The judge had to order

504
00:40:09.239 --> 00:40:14.280
the evacuation of about two hundred people
in the balcony. They were willing to

505
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:19.480
risk a balcony collapse and potentially serious
injuries just to see Weeda Keaton's trial.

506
00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:25.480
The prosecution prepared sixty witnesses and was
seeking the death penalty. Their entire case

507
00:40:25.559 --> 00:40:30.559
was predicated on one simple, permeating
argument that Weeda Keaton was a liar.

508
00:40:31.239 --> 00:40:35.599
Not only had she lied about her
mother traveling to New Orleans, but she

509
00:40:35.639 --> 00:40:38.360
had also lied in her confession,
and she might even be lying about her

510
00:40:38.360 --> 00:40:45.599
mental state. According to Weeda's confession, Carter had killed Daisy with an iron

511
00:40:45.679 --> 00:40:51.800
poker and disposed of the majority of
the body elsewhere. Carter had theoretically only

512
00:40:51.880 --> 00:40:54.800
left Weeda with the upper thighs and
lower torso, which Weeda took to that

513
00:40:54.880 --> 00:41:00.239
country road in a sugar sack,
but the available evidence indicated that most of

514
00:41:00.320 --> 00:41:07.119
Daisy Keaton's body had never left her
home. During the investigation, the authorities

515
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:12.360
had found that the Keaton family fireplace
had recently been cleaned and repainted. Remnants

516
00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:15.639
of the cleaning powder could be seen, and the paint was barely dry,

517
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:21.920
and despite someone's best cleaning efforts,
there was still incriminating material left behind.

518
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:25.719
Small white bone fragments were in the
fireplace, along with greasy stains near the

519
00:41:25.760 --> 00:41:31.360
front portions of the fireplace. Experts
testified that these stains could have been caused

520
00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:36.519
by the fats of a human body
being burned. A pair of Whida's gray

521
00:41:36.559 --> 00:41:40.280
silk stockings were also collected from the
Keaton house. These stockings had some odd

522
00:41:40.360 --> 00:41:45.159
bad smelling stains on them. Experts
told the court that these stains were probably

523
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:52.000
undigested vegetable matter from Daisy's stomach.
In the Keaton backyard, they found more

524
00:41:52.039 --> 00:41:57.840
bone sharks and a portion of a
woman's hat. Additionally, the prosecution presented

525
00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:01.719
witness upon witness who testified that there
was a horrific odour coming from the Keaton

526
00:42:01.800 --> 00:42:08.880
house between Sunday, January twentieth and
Tuesday January twenty second. Neighbors said it

527
00:42:08.920 --> 00:42:15.079
smell like an awful combination of burning
hair, rubber and leather, and to

528
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:17.760
put the final nail in the coffin. The investigators had even found a murder

529
00:42:17.800 --> 00:42:22.719
weapon. It was a pistol that
had been hidden in between clothes and Weda's

530
00:42:22.719 --> 00:42:27.280
closet. It could hold six bullets. When the authorities found the gun,

531
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:31.519
three of those bullets had already been
shot. There was evidence that these shots

532
00:42:31.519 --> 00:42:36.960
had happened at extremely close range,
as if someone had pressed the muzzle directly

533
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:42.039
into someone's skin and wouldn't you know
it. Numerous neighbors of the Keatons testified

534
00:42:42.039 --> 00:42:45.519
to hearing three muffled gunshots on the
same night that Daisy was likely killed.

535
00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:52.880
Based on this information, the state
presented the following scenario. Someone, probably

536
00:42:52.920 --> 00:42:57.199
Weeda, had shot fifty seven year
old Daisy Keaton while she lay sleeping in

537
00:42:57.239 --> 00:43:00.639
her bed Saturday night or early Sunday
morning. They dragged her body to the

538
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:05.760
bathroom, dismembered her, and burned
most of her remains in the fireplace.

539
00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:09.760
Yes, the iron fireplace poker that
Weeda said Carter used to bludgeon her mother

540
00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:15.800
to death did have blood on it, but the prosecution contended that it was

541
00:43:15.800 --> 00:43:19.280
for a different reason. They said
that Weda had used the poker to tend

542
00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:23.400
the fire in which her mother's remains
were burning. The state didn't take a

543
00:43:23.400 --> 00:43:28.119
clear stance on whether or not they
felt Carter was involved in Daisy's murder,

544
00:43:28.760 --> 00:43:32.159
but they made it undeniably clear that
Weeda was far more involved than she let

545
00:43:32.199 --> 00:43:37.400
on, and that she was absolutely
guilty for her role in Daisy's murder.

546
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:42.519
The state also didn't present a possible
motive, but I think she had a

547
00:43:42.559 --> 00:43:46.400
pretty big one, since Daisy had
recently asked Weeda to transfer her financial assets

548
00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:51.679
back to her. And there's always
the added wrinkle that Weeda and W.

549
00:43:51.880 --> 00:43:57.000
M. Carter were or had been
involved in response to all this, Weida's

550
00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:00.159
defense tried to prove that she was
legally insane. They brought in six daughters

551
00:44:00.199 --> 00:44:06.239
to testify to Weeda's insanity, and
across the board, all six doctors believed

552
00:44:06.239 --> 00:44:10.199
Weda wasn't in a right mind.
Here are the statements from each doctor.

553
00:44:10.760 --> 00:44:15.079
J. D. Smith said,
she's insane. JB. Jarvis said,

554
00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:19.159
I considered her insane the first time
I saw her, and she's quite insane

555
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:22.159
now. AJ. Carter said she
was insane when I brought her to the

556
00:44:22.199 --> 00:44:29.199
hospital. Robert T. McLaurin,
she's insane. Joe Green said this girl

557
00:44:29.239 --> 00:44:32.559
has been suffering from some kind of
dementia Procox, which means early on set

558
00:44:32.559 --> 00:44:39.079
dementia. And finally R. H. Cranford, she's insane. But the

559
00:44:39.119 --> 00:44:44.800
prosecution was prepared for this argument.
They said that Weda was acting very differently

560
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:47.199
when she was all by herself than
she was out here in the courtroom.

561
00:44:47.880 --> 00:44:52.920
During the trial, Weeda was nearly
comatose. She sat in her wheelchair and

562
00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:57.159
stared at the ceiling. Nothing phazed
her, not even when they brought out

563
00:44:57.159 --> 00:45:00.280
her own mother's legs and lower torso
to be submitted into evidence. She did

564
00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:06.719
not move or react at all.
Sometime following this trial, Daisy's partial remains

565
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:10.519
were buried in the mcneills cemetery,
so it must have been jarring for the

566
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:15.280
jury to hear Weda's personal guard testify
that she behaved very differently when alone.

567
00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:21.239
She could feed herself, she even
paid her bills. The prosecution demonstrated that

568
00:45:21.239 --> 00:45:24.639
Weda had written multiple checks since she
had been admitted to the hospital after her

569
00:45:24.760 --> 00:45:29.920
arrest. Later, outside of the
courtroom, Weeda slapped the guard for his

570
00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:35.480
testimony. Keep in mind, this
is not a question of is Weeda's mental

571
00:45:35.559 --> 00:45:39.159
health okay? Because her mental health
wasn't okay. That was obviously clear.

572
00:45:39.639 --> 00:45:44.800
But the question the court needed to
answer was was Weeda legally insane at the

573
00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:50.920
time she committed these violent crimes.
It would change her sentencing significantly. It

574
00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:54.199
was the difference between life and prison
and life in a mental institution, and

575
00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:58.679
even though both places aren't ideal,
one is far worse than the other.

576
00:46:00.079 --> 00:46:02.440
By the end of the proceedings,
the state had painted Weeda as a fiendish

577
00:46:02.480 --> 00:46:07.239
person who killed her mother in cold
blood and then burned her body for several

578
00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:10.639
days. Meanwhile, the defense painted
Weeda as a woman out of her mind.

579
00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:15.679
On March twelfth, nineteen thirty five, after a night of deliberation,

580
00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:21.719
the jury found thirty seven year old
Weda may Keaton guilty as charged. She

581
00:46:21.800 --> 00:46:25.480
was sentenced to life in prison.
Weda immediately moved for a retrial, but

582
00:46:25.519 --> 00:46:30.679
it was denied only two days later. So Weeda began preparing for W.

583
00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:35.639
M. Carter's trial, because even
though she hadn't testified at her own trial,

584
00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:38.840
she was going to at his.
But how could that be? Wasn't

585
00:46:38.840 --> 00:46:44.239
Weeda unable to communicate? Well?
It turns out Weda was able to talk

586
00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:47.400
again. In fact, by March
twenty sixth, only a few weeks after

587
00:46:47.400 --> 00:46:52.599
her own verdict, she was speaking
just fine, I'll let you draw your

588
00:46:52.639 --> 00:46:57.599
own conclusions about that. I'm going
to pause now for a final commercial break.

589
00:47:01.039 --> 00:47:05.639
Carter's trial began a few months later, on May twenty fourth, nineteen

590
00:47:05.719 --> 00:47:09.159
thirty five. Once again, the
prosecution was seeking the death penalty, and

591
00:47:09.199 --> 00:47:14.159
once again the trial was a madhouse. There were hundreds of people who came

592
00:47:14.199 --> 00:47:19.639
to watch we to testify, and
actually Weeda's testimony was the bulk of the

593
00:47:19.639 --> 00:47:24.039
prosecution's case against Carter. But her
testimony was different than her original confession.

594
00:47:25.519 --> 00:47:30.639
Now, she agreed with the prosecution's
assessment of the case as it was presented

595
00:47:30.679 --> 00:47:35.079
at her trial. Carter hadn't beaten
Daisy to death with a fire police poker.

596
00:47:35.559 --> 00:47:38.800
He had shot her. And where
before Weeda had claimed that Carter had

597
00:47:38.800 --> 00:47:43.679
taken away Daisy's body to dispose of
it, now she said she couldn't remember

598
00:47:43.679 --> 00:47:46.400
what happened next. As soon as
Carter shot her mother, her memory went

599
00:47:46.440 --> 00:47:51.960
blank until the following Wednesday. That's
when Carter appeared at her home requesting ten

600
00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:58.599
thousand dollars for undisclosed reasons. Carter's
defense team was able to provide an alibi

601
00:47:58.679 --> 00:48:01.760
for him except for the few hours
in which Daisy Keaton had been killed on

602
00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:07.039
Saturday night or early Sunday morning,
specifically from midnight to about five thirty am,

603
00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:12.440
and that's because Carter was, according
to his lawyers, alone in bed.

604
00:48:13.239 --> 00:48:15.559
His daughter in law, who was
living with him at the time,

605
00:48:15.920 --> 00:48:20.119
did testify that she heard Carter getting
up in the night. She explained to

606
00:48:20.159 --> 00:48:22.599
the court that she was awake after
drinking a Coca cola and two cups of

607
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:28.519
coffee very late the day before,
but since she hadn't actually laid eyes on

608
00:48:28.599 --> 00:48:30.599
him. It was hard to know
for certain that Carter was in his home

609
00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:37.079
when he said he was. The
defense also presented the testimony of a witness

610
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:40.639
named C. L. Griffin.
Griffin was a private night watchman who had

611
00:48:40.679 --> 00:48:44.679
heard two women in the Keaton home
arguing on the night of the murder.

612
00:48:45.599 --> 00:48:49.400
One woman said I didn't do it, and another replied angrily, I know

613
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:53.039
you did. The first woman said, don't accuse me, or I'll knock

614
00:48:53.079 --> 00:48:58.320
the hell out of you. Then
Griffin heard three gunshots. It would have

615
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:02.840
been after midnight and before one.
I'll be honest, based on what we

616
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:07.760
know here, I'm pretty convinced that
Carter had nothing to do with Daisy's murder,

617
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:12.800
but the jury felt otherwise. On
June seventh of nineteen thirty five,

618
00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:16.360
after at least eight hours of deliberation, sixty eight year old William Madison Carter

619
00:49:16.519 --> 00:49:22.159
was convicted of murdering Daisy Keaton.
Carter immediately requested a retrial, but it

620
00:49:22.199 --> 00:49:25.760
was denied. Then he appealed his
case, and this appeal was successful.

621
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:30.519
If you're a true crime fan,
you know that's pretty rare. A year

622
00:49:30.599 --> 00:49:34.480
later, in March of nineteen thirty
six, the state Supreme Court reversed Carter's

623
00:49:34.480 --> 00:49:39.320
conviction and sentence. The Supreme Court
believed Carter had an alibi, and they

624
00:49:39.440 --> 00:49:45.760
established that the state would need better
evidence against him to retry him. So

625
00:49:45.880 --> 00:49:50.400
the prosecution tracked down Weda again.
They wanted her to testify at Carter's second

626
00:49:50.440 --> 00:49:55.199
trial. Since Carter's first trial,
Weida had also appealed her case. She

627
00:49:55.280 --> 00:49:59.960
said that her confession was coerced and
that her mental health was not taken into

628
00:50:00.039 --> 00:50:04.400
account properly, but that appeal was
denied in April of nineteen thirty six,

629
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:08.960
and the court's original decision for her
case was upheld. But now Weda was

630
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:13.679
in a mental health facility. The
jury had sentenced her to life in prison,

631
00:50:14.320 --> 00:50:16.960
but the prison medical team felt that
Weda was better suited somewhere else,

632
00:50:19.360 --> 00:50:22.559
somewhere that would cater to her mental
health needs, and in May of nineteen

633
00:50:22.599 --> 00:50:28.199
thirty six, Weeda was officially declared
insane. She was admitted to the state

634
00:50:28.239 --> 00:50:34.119
asylum at Whitfield. The prosecution still
asked Weeda to testify at Carter's second trial,

635
00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:37.760
but she refused. Weeda claimed that
she didn't remember anything about her mother's

636
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:43.480
murder, so she wouldn't be able
to further implicate Carter. In February of

637
00:50:43.559 --> 00:50:46.239
nineteen thirty seven, a judge said
to Weeda, if you can't testify,

638
00:50:46.400 --> 00:50:50.920
of course we can't try it,
to which she replied, if I knew

639
00:50:50.920 --> 00:50:52.440
what I said was true, all
right. But I don't know it,

640
00:50:52.840 --> 00:50:55.480
and the only honest thing I could
do is tell you I don't know.

641
00:50:58.519 --> 00:51:04.159
As a result, w Carter was
never retried. Carter died on January twenty

642
00:51:04.199 --> 00:51:07.840
first, nineteen forty nine, at
age eighty one, in Jones, Mississippi.

643
00:51:07.400 --> 00:51:12.280
He was buried in Laurel. His
health had been failing for about three

644
00:51:12.360 --> 00:51:16.360
years, according to his obituary.
He continued running his lumber supply company well

645
00:51:16.360 --> 00:51:22.280
into his seventies. He had six
grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Weeda May

646
00:51:22.360 --> 00:51:27.639
Keaton died on November eleventh, nineteen
seventy three, at age seventy five,

647
00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:31.519
in the mental institution at Whitfield.
She was buried in mcnail, Mississippi.

648
00:51:32.119 --> 00:51:37.199
She had outlived all of the other
Keaton's siblings, and at some point the

649
00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:40.679
Keaton family home had been destroyed.
I don't know about you, but I

650
00:51:40.760 --> 00:51:45.920
found this case fascinating. If I
had been a local in Laurel during that

651
00:51:46.039 --> 00:51:51.519
time, I probably would have been
keeping a scrapbook of newspaper articles to collect

652
00:51:51.559 --> 00:51:54.360
all the gossip of the Keaton family
saga. Even before days he went missing,

653
00:51:55.639 --> 00:51:59.519
I probably would have been on that
balcony that was about to collapse at

654
00:51:59.519 --> 00:52:02.960
weeds Tell, and I would love
to know if that night watchman was right,

655
00:52:04.480 --> 00:52:07.079
because I bet Daisy was confronting her
daughter about something and that's how this

656
00:52:07.159 --> 00:52:14.039
all started. It adds another layer
of mystery to this old case. If

657
00:52:14.079 --> 00:52:16.519
you like these antique cases like I
do, make sure you listen to episode

658
00:52:16.519 --> 00:52:21.840
one thirty one, the Alabama Axe
Murderers. It reminds me of Weeda's case

659
00:52:21.880 --> 00:52:24.960
a lot. These mysterious the old
cases are a good way to end spooky

660
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:34.159
season, Happy Halloween. Southern Fried
Truecrime is hosted and produced by me Erica

661
00:52:34.239 --> 00:52:37.800
Kelly. Today's episode was researched and
written by Andrea Marshbank, with additional writing

662
00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:43.840
by me. As usual, all
editorial comments are my own. Southern Pride's

663
00:52:43.840 --> 00:52:46.760
original music is by Rob Harrison of
Gamma Radio, and the original graphic art

664
00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:52.159
is by Cooley Horner. Today's episode
was edited and mixed by Brandon Schock Sneyder

665
00:52:52.199 --> 00:52:57.239
of Southern Gothic and me Erica Kelly. If you have any case suggestions,

666
00:52:57.280 --> 00:53:00.480
please go to my website and click
on the listener's suggestion tab. It's the

667
00:53:00.480 --> 00:53:04.639
best way for me to get those
little known cases. Y'all always send me.

668
00:53:05.360 --> 00:53:09.480
Please remember that I don't accept suggestions
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669
00:53:09.559 --> 00:53:14.960
please come join our Facebook group,
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670
00:53:14.960 --> 00:53:17.679
we swap recipees, worship Dolly Parton, and share means. We do,

671
00:53:17.800 --> 00:53:21.760
of course discuss true crime, not
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672
00:53:22.199 --> 00:53:25.320
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673
00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:28.880
safe and fun corner of Facebook,
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674
00:53:28.920 --> 00:53:30.840
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675
00:53:30.840 --> 00:53:35.159
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676
00:53:35.199 --> 00:53:37.760
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677
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678
00:53:44.280 --> 00:53:46.360
time, thanks so much for listening, y'all. Take care