by Alice Waters
First published 2016
Betty Lou Beets stands in her kitchen, planning her next move. She has already killed two men and attacked four others, but the justice system keeps offering her ways out. Her ex-husbands file charges against her. Her own children testify about her violence. Yet prosecutors seem reluctant to pursue the death penalty with full force. Betty Lou understands how to present herself as a victim even while acting as predator. She knows the system's weaknesses and exploits them. The courts want to give her life in prison instead of execution. Betty Lou becomes only the fourth woman executed for murder in an era when forty to fifty people face capital punishment each year. Her case reveals how gender, manipulation, and legal mercy intersect in unexpected ways. The story exposes the complexity of a woman who transformed from victim to killer while maintaining her ability to evoke sympathy from those who held her fate in their hands.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: unreliable-narrator, victim-to-killer
Period: 20th-century
28 pages · Paperback · Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Content warnings: abuse, murder, violence