This episode maintain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi. I'm Shannon. Hi I'm Tanya, and we are Crimes and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how are you? I'm doing pretty good for a Monday.
How are you?
I am doing a really good for a Monday too. I've come to some decisions.
Oh, important life decisions.
I like to call them first world problem. So no, seriously, A while back, I was using ozembic right caab really good results. Then some life events happened. I put it on the back burner and it's been about gosh, six eight weeks now, you know. And just yesterday I was sinking, I need to get my head back on it. I need to get back on it because they had really good results and I like it. And then I was like, oh, whoa Thursday is Thanksgiving? Are you fucking kidding me? I'm
not starting it right now. I'm not going to start it until January probably this is prime grazing time. Yes, you know, I did this guy, we'll call him Ronnie. Ronnie. I had to take him to rehab twice, and I remember both times. Yeah, both times we had to stop and get him a fifth of Jamison that he was going to polish off in the twenty minute ride to rehab, which was usually going to keep him out of jail time. So that's how I feel like I am, Tanya. This
is my Jamison time. I'm loading up on Jamison until I get to rehab, which is December. After Leftover, it's just Nomber twenty eight. I'll be ready for.
Zen Helm Pigure's your rehab exactly.
I'm ready. I'm fucking ready right after Christmas.
Yes, I hear you.
How's it going with you?
Oh it's great. I also was on nozempic, but I haven't been taking it the past few weeks, and I because I just wanted to see, like, can I still maintain? I've been able to maintain. I've still lost the pounds, so I'm up around like thirty five pounds.
So see that's what I mean. Like, I know, I'll let you know what I weigh my next land because I don't want to know yet. You know, I'm not ready to face that. You're right, I'm not facing it, not yet. So I have some big eating to do. I don't know about me and massed potatoes. We're gonna get down in dead day.
So what do you got for me today?
Well, I do have a story about Miss Betty Lou Beats. And before I tell you, let me let everybody know that wherever you're listening to us, that goal ahead and hit subscribing, you'll never miss us crimes and consequences. So, Tommy, let me tell you about Betty Lou Dunavante. That's her maiden name, which we will call her Betty Lou Beats. All right, all right, okay, So Betty Lou. She was born in Roxboro, North Carolina, on March twelfth, nineteen thirty seven.
That makes her Pisces. Okay, So she had a hell of a childhood. She lost her hearing at a very early age. She was three due to the measles and yeah, I know in nineteen thirty seven, so forty measles, no backs. She claimed to have been sexually abused by her own father when she was only five years old. She was
the second child born to her parents. Her father's name was James Garland Dounavon and her mother was Margaret Louise Smithwick Smithwick Dounavon the town of Roxboro barely had five thousand people in its population at the time Betty came into the world, and this area was still trying to get back on its feet, and the community was just trying to find their way out of the Great Depression
m h m hm. At the time of her birth, Betty's family resided in a very small cabin that had no running water, and the windows of the cabin home didn't even have glass in them. Can you imagine that is just like little house on a prairie?
Right?
Do you remember reading those books too?
I did not read the books. Oh, I only watched the show.
Yeah. I Oh my gosh. You know you're always worried about the hungry wolf in the winter. Yeah, and then there's a window in the panes. So Betty had an older brother named Dewey, and to also two younger siblings, but not much has really known about them, other than the fact that Betty and Dewey had to take care of one another when she was around twelve years old after her mother became mentally ill. Will dive deeper into Margaret's mental state, but before her mother became mentally ill.
She cleaned mansions and homes of wealthy families. Whenever their mother came back home after long day's work. Margaret would always love telling her children every little detail of the houses she worked in that day. Especially that was exciting. Yeah, you know, like I wonder what mom saw today. Betty's eyes would light up and sparkle while listening to her
mother's detailed day. The small family lived in poverty, so they never were really able to get their hands on milk and vegetables, so they had no choice other than to survive on flour, salted pork, and corn meal. You imagine. No, Now, I didn't really know what the difference between regular pork and salted pork was, so I did a little digging, and I was able to discover that salted pork is usually used for adding flavor to dishes, like you added
to canned baked beans. Get that nice savory flavor. Now, these three food items were barely nourishing enough to keep Betty and Dewey fed. The family's only way to get heat in the cabin without windows was a cold stove, but since the house had no windows, the heat was never felt. Betty and her brother were always fighting colds and the flu due to their constant lack of warmth in the winter months. When she was still a child, her family moved from North Carolina to the industrial town
of Danville, Virginia. This was only about thirty miles north from Roxboro, North Carolina. While Betty and Dewey went to daycare, Margaret and James were able to find work at the local cottinas. While working there, Betty's parents were able to provide more than the basic necessities for their children. They were also able to move into a cozy little home that had windows and was able to keep the family warm.
See how things can just change in a day, right, That's like grueling kind of childhood for.
Didn't even imagine.
Oh. After this move was when Betty got sick with the measles, and this illness nearly killed her. She was only about five years old and she suffered through one hundred and five degree fever for days. Ooh Ough, her mother looked after her and would try to keep her little girl's temperature down with ice cold compresses on her forehead. She once compared Betty's fevered body temperature to a frying pan.
I bet yeah, Margaret prayed and prayed that God wouldn't take her baby because she was that sick with the measles came one ear infection after the next, and when Betty got better and was able to return to school, she could barely hear her teachers as they went through their lessons. Betty struggled and she had to repeat the fourth grade. Oh boy, Yeah, this in itself is embarrassing
for any child to go through. As the rest of her friends moved on to the next grade, she was absolutely humiliated as her friends made fun of her When they would see her in the hallways at school. They would chant at her and call her stupid. It just makes me want to punch makes it, you know what I'm saying. I know that there are children, but it makes me want to just be their age for just a quick minute, take care of some business. I'm not gonna grow right back up. But Betty didn't know any
better about herself. She leave the rumors about herself. Yeah, and that is really what kids do. And that's why you know how kids can be jerk sometimes.
Yeah, that's true.
It really is. The first bullies. Betty's mother, Margaret, gave birth to a son named Jinny when Betty was eight years old. Two years later, another child was born, a daughter who they named Jackie. Four years after giving birth to Jackie, Margaret had a mental breakdown, or what they called a psychotic break. Never once did she experience any symptoms that would lead doctors into predicting that this was
going to happen. One day, everything was fine, and the next day the cotton mill called an ambulance for Margaret to be rushed to the closest hospital. Margaret was admitted and she stayed in the hospital for a week, and when she was finally released, Margaret was pale and completely shaken at what had just occurred in her place of work. Nothing like this had ever happened to her, so she had no clue what to think, and she was scared.
Her doctors provided her with medications to regulate her, and they would consistently come by the house to make sure she was okay. Not long after the mental break, she sadly began to hallucinate demons, and she began hearing voices
in her head that sounds like schizophrenia, Yeah, definitely. Often she would have moments where she was physically trying to fight off the demons that only she could see, and with that came many people believing that Margaret was out of her mind and crazy when she needed mental help. Betty witnessed a lot of her mom's mental state and she became terrified whenever she saw her mother acting strangely and violently, and after seeing this, Betty wondered if this
illness was hereditary. Well after her mental illness got worse, roughly a year later, Margaret was sent to live at Eastern State Hospital located in Williamsburg, Virginia, about two hundred miles east of Danville. While she was institutionalized, she was for three months and while she was there, she went through some pretty tough treatments such as shock therapy and insulin coma therapy.
Wow Yeah.
Insulin coma therapy was used between the years nineteen thirty three in nineteen sixty and This concept was used to help mental patients deal with severe mental problems. This form of treatment consisted of patients getting injected with a very large dose of insulin to create a medically induced coma. It was considered to be crucial throughout the development of
psychiatry in the United States. This was eventually phased out when antidepressants had been invented in a pill form and they were able to help patients without administering incredible amounts of Although this technique was considered to be monumental, it was also discovered to have no real effect on mental patients.
Oh that's great. So making people go into these medically induced comas and they didn't help at all.
Oh my god. You know how many time I would be like, I need to go into a coma. I need to fucking go into a coma. I have an appointment to go into a comma. You know that would be nice.
This is just crazy, though, that really is.
What nineteen thirty three. Inineteen sixty we didn't know shit. Yeah, like that's gonna help.
Come on. Yeah, they put them to sleep.
That did help.
They didn't have to be watched, you know exactly.
It helped. Who worked there? Yeah, I give them off their backs?
Yeah right, they didn't care.
That was yeah. I would love to know the first like hypothesis of behind this experiment. Well, Sadly, Betty was not only bullied for having to repeat the fourth grade, but she was also bullied for her mom's mental capacity. Now, these little assholes would always fake having seizures when passing
Betty in the hallways at school. That's hilarious, Oh because yeah that I'm dealing with this at homes Thanks for yeah, Dix, And they would frantically waving their hands as if to flail while getting a reaction out of the rest of Betty's classmates. Clowns. Fucking clowns, right. This constant torment made Betty come to the realization that she hated school and would do anything to get away from it. She took on the mother role for the rest of her siblings.
She cooked and she cleaned up after everyone. She would often feel too exhausted to go to school, and she missed a lot of class because she had other priorities she felt more more important than getting bullied every day. I hear your sister. She eventually weighed only eighty pounds. Yeah, with all the shit she was going through with her mom. Betty's father would often come home from work completely drunk because he had fallen into a depressed state due to
Margaret's mental state. Whenever her father, James, was drunk, Betty would become scared of him. One wrong move could get her beaten with the leather belt that he had just taken off after having a long, strenuous day at the Cottinals. After Betty was beaten, she would obey her father, but this created hostility within Betty, as it would, she came to the understanding that if she obeyed him, there would
be no beatings. It's truly heartbreaking to see how Betty suffered as a young child, and here is yet another example of feeling sorry for the child, but not for the murderous adult. You know, yeah, we feel sorry and I do. This is hard, this is a hard upbringing. These years felt like an eternity to Betty, so at her first chance of freedom, she jumped. So Betty, when she was fifteen years old, she got married to an
eighteen year old man named Rob Franklin Branson. Now, when the two first met, he was quiet and she was hard working at the local zipper factory. Sometimes life it's so scripted. Let's make him work at the local zipper factory. Even though he didn't have much money and the future didn't look pretty, she didn't care one bit. Margaret forced Betty into marrying him because she thought Betty was pregnant. The reasoning behind this thought was because she had not
gotten her period yet. And when a girl hadn't had her period at the age of fifteen while, then she must be pregnant, right.
Yeah, not male nourished or anything.
Yeah, not like he's eighty pounds or something else. No, it must be pregnancy. The truth of the matter was that Betty was a virgin who just hadn't gotten her first period yet. So after Margaret's strong encouragement, Betty and Robert were married on July eighteenth, nineteen fifty two, and this was only a month after she finished her freshman year of high school. Whoa a year after their marriage,
Betty became pregnant with the couple's first child. Thing. According to reports, the marriage between Betty and Robert was abusive and she still wanted freedom that comes along with being a young teenage girl. At one point, Betty said to her husband, I'm no better off now than when I had to cook and clean from my parents, and having this baby is just like being saddled with my brother and sister. Yikes. She was a wife and new mother,
but the couple separated. You to the abuse, Robert thought that maybe more money would make his complaining wife happier, so he went to Norfolk, the shipyard to find a better paying job. He was making a lot more money, so he tried to shower his new little family with gifts and luxuries that Betty never had before. Rather than being happy that she could live as comfortably as she ever had, Betty was pissed about being at home with the baby instead of having her freedom. She would often
say at the time, I'm only sixteen. That does yeah, I hear you right what? I am only sixteen.
I am only sixteen. Jesus, give me a break.
It also didn't help that whenever she would run into her former classmates, they would always brag about the best high school events that they knew she was missing out on, like proms, homecoming dances, football games, pep rallies. The couple constantly argued, and due to this they separated for a happy year. When the separation happened, she had to move herself and faith back home to live with her parents, and this crushed her more than anything else, so she
fell into a severely depressed state. He knew that she didn't want to be in her current situation, and she tried to kill herself by swallowing two whole bottles of aspirin. Yikes, yes yeah. After her parents found her unconscious next to two empty bottles, they called her husband and told him exactly what happened. Robert rushed to her bedside and convinced
her to get back together with him. Not long after the two got back together, their daughter, Connie was born, and with a new baby came a brand new start. Robert found a new job in Texas working construction, and this job offered a lot more money than he was making at the shipyard. The family of four packed up and moved to Mesquite, Texas, and this small town is located about eighteen minutes east of Dallas. While Betty began to fall in love with being a full time mother,
Robert did very well at his new job. The family began to blossom into a family of five when their daughter surely came into the world the beginning of nineteen fifty nine. She and Robert would have three more children together. Their third daughter, Phyllis, was born in nineteen sixty two. Their first son, Robert Franklin, the second he goes by Robbie, was born in nineteen sixty four, and their second son,
Bobby was born in nineteen sixty six. Whoa right, Well, she went from not being lying to be a mom to being a mom a nice brood of kids you know, I mean yeah, pretty cool. Within their fourteen year long marriage, Robert and Betty parented six children. Betty was only twenty nine years old and she was considered to be very attractive. She knew how to dress to her body type, and her body type was very unusual for a woman who
had given birth to six children. She had a tiny waist, large boobs, and she wore makeup that looked to be applied professionally, but she would do it herself. She would also spol four inch high heels since she was only
five to two inches tall. She bleached her hair out blonde since that was the color of her hair when she was young, and she would give herself perms to keep her hair as high as heaven and asinous closer to God girl yes, and as voluminous as she possibly couldn't and this was very in style at the time, especially for women who were looking for a man in
the local bars. Saying, staying home raising six kids was something that she was getting over, and she began to crave a man who would make her feel sexy and wanted. You know, I did not pick a body in this incarnation that would rebound so robustly after pregnancy, after one, let alone six.
Yes, but when I tell you, you know you weren't sixteen fast?
What that's true? You know? Yes, I was almost double that I was thirty one. Yeah, she're just older. But yeah, I mean just that when I see women who are like and I'm like, and you're amazing, even though I know it has nothing to do with them or else we'd all be doing it right. But like, your body just has its own running system which is so much more different than mine. So now, Betty, she began to go out late at night to see two things, a man and a good time, oh, which are the same
faith as they are two sides of the same coin. Yes, So she began to recruit her older kids to babysit the youngest ones, and after she dressed herself to the nines, she drove to a bar located in East Dallas called the Silver Slipper. Betty was a smashing success at the bars as men began to fight over her, and she realized that this was the life she never got to live right you are, and according to her, it wasn't too late. She was going to grab life by the longhorns.
When this became a usual thing at home, her kids began to become angry with her. She would literally do anything to get out of that house and away from her reality. The home that she once kept tidy was falling apart quickly. Robert even said to her, Betty, I'm not going to put up with this. I always thought you were a good wife, and I know the kids love you, but I can't handle how you're acting while
I'm out trying to support our family. Robert, by all accounts, was considered to be quite a handsome man, and women really seemed to find him attractive. In nineteen sixty nine, he demanded a divorce from Betty after the two had been married for seventeen years, and once the divorce was finalized, he quickly got remarried to a younger woman. I'd like to hear his side of the story.
Yeah, me too.
Yeah, you can blame Betty for going to the bars, but if you're doing a madman thing where you're always out and about. Yeah, So the ended marriage with Robert absolutely destroyed Betty both emotionally and financially. She got full custody of the six children. Now, this is a different time, and Robert was required to pay a court ordered monthly amount of three hundred and fifty dollars for child support, which is the equivalent a little over three thousand today.
It was decent money in nineteen sixty nine, but you split between six children. It wasn't enough, you know now, because this is covering all the bills and all the six kids for three hundred and fifty a month. You know, I don't know how much their rent would be or their mortgage. You know, there's things, but it wasn't enough, especially since Betty didn't work. Betty drank to help cope with the loneliness that she was experiencing, and she's spent most of her nights out on a town bar hopping.
As the children got older, they wasted no time, leaving Betty one by one. Betty even sent some of them away so that she could live her life the way she wanted. Now, Faye actually met a nice man and moved out after marrying him at the age of fifteen. Wow, Yeah, everyone's jumped and ship. You know, she jumped ship. Betty jumps ship for her family. You know, the cycle repeating.
Now her oldest is doing the same. So after Fay moved out to start a life of her own, Betty sent Robbie and Phyllis away to live with their father and his new bride. That's so bitchy, you know. Oh your father just got married.
Go yeah, you go live with your day go.
Yeah. Robbie is only eight years old and Phyllis was ten. These are crucial girling years for these kids. At this time too, when Betty was kissing Robbie goodbye, he had tears in his eyes and pleaded with his mom to let him live with her. And she just looked at him and said soon. Yeah. Why I know what. Yeah, Oh I couldn't even imagine. Oh this is where we part ways, the cool bar life, the fun bar life. But she did, she said soon. And then she went
five years without seeing him at all. Wow. Yeah, so we know Robbie's had hopefully good therapy.
Yes, hopefully.
Ah yes, And when she did see him, it was only for a couple of minutes. Ten years went by in total before he came back home to live with his mother. Now that's awkward h Connie eventually left the house and went to live with Fay. Shirley would sometimes live with Betty, but most of the time she lived with her friends. Now Bobby, he was only a toddler at three years old when his parents divorced, and he was Betty's favorite. He was the only child she actually
wanted to keep with her. Yeah, until he turns about six or seven, and that's when the week really fall away when it comes to adultings. Robert completely washed his hands with Betty once their divorce was finalized, and the money that Betty was able to get from welfare organizations wasn't enough to cover her everyday expenses. With my children, all of their children noticed that after their dad left
their mom, Betty wasn't truly happy with anyone else. Ever. Again, their children remembered the good times between their parents and their second daughter. Connie once told a friend, most of the good times I remember about my mother were before she and my daddy got divorced. Mama worked so hard to please him, and when Daddy worked nights, she would put on makeup before she went to bed, so when he came home around two or three in the morning, she's looking nice for him. Oh, oh fuck that I know.
Why is he coming fucking home two or three in the morning? What the fuck?
You washed my face before I go to bed? Just deal with it.
That's right, Yes, skincare is and it is very important. That's very dulting. The marriage with Robert did finally come to an end in nineteen sixty nine. In the following year, she married her second husband, named Billy york Lane when she was thirty three years old, and Betty thought that she had escaped abuse when she and Robert separated, but sadly, the same ensued with Billy, and shit got pretty wild when they were married. There were many mind games being
played by both parties along with jealousy and betrayal. Betty was actually excited to introduce him to her kids before they all moved out or were kicked out. She told her kids that they would love him since he was so nice to her. If only she would have spent more time getting to know him before they tied, not on July twenty eight, nineteen seventy, she would have seen how bad of the temper he had. Gaining weight rather quickly while with Billy, and even though she kept drinking.
She also took a drug called dexatrim. Remember dexatrin. Remember she took it regularly. Betty admittedly took more of this drugs than what the label instructed, and according to Betty, if she took more of it, the weight would just fall off. Yeah, because it's speed.
Exactly, because it's speed.
Cocaine's less aggressive.
Cousin, I remember dexat I remember the commercials and shiit.
Know, Gosh, if it would I don't even know where we'd be, I know.
So.
Sadly, the side effect she experienced were not exactly what she had in mind. She experienced insomnia, agitation, migraines, a bad temper, as you do. Didn't we call it roid rage? Yes, it was like a roid range. She was so. Her personality also changed drastically, and her children began to notice that their mom had more than one personality that would
come out due to the overuse of the weight loss drug. Yeah, my bets, she would be completely calm one second, and like a switch flipped in her brain, she would be screaming and cussing it out her kids. Even before the changes in Betty's moods, Billy's abuse was shown within the first week of being newlyweds. He loved slapping her around, but this quickly escalated into beatings and punching her. Her kids couldn't stand to see their mother covered in bruises
like that. Billy knew that she always did everything she could to look her best, so his favorite spot to punch and beat her was her face. He knew that would hurt more than just physically. It would kill her not to be able to cover the deep purple bruises on her face because the foundation wasn't enough to cover them. Eventually, in late October nineteen seventy, she filed a restraining order against Billy, and the two divorced two months later. This
never stopped him, though, and the fights ensued. It almost seemed like the two of them were addicted to one another. Yeah that trauma bond or yeah, toxic relation. On more than one occasion, Betty would come home from work to notice a car sitting a little ways from her apartment with the headlights off, and since she could see the silhouette, she knew it was Billy watching her from afar. She also said that while she was driving, she could see
him following her in her rear view mirror. Betty once told her doctor, I don't know what's wrong with me. I get so depressed because I can't pull myself away from this man and he keeps hitting me. The doctor took many notes of her bruising and injuries from the abuse and recorded them in her medical chart. Rather than telling her to go to the police to report this domestic elence, he prescribed her an antidepressant perfect don't yeah,
because endure and take this pill. Only a few months later, she made a trip to the emergency room because he hit her so hard in the eye that her skin busted open and she needed to get stitches to close the Wont so much for that Anni fucking depressant.
Yeah.
In May of nineteen seventy one, during one of their many arguments, Billy broke Betty's nose. And what does anyone do in that situation, Tanya, what do you think someone breaks your nose? You fucking grab a gun? Yeah? Shoot him? And she did. She didn't just shoot him once, she shot him two times in the back, in the back, in the back, so he was it's just I know, probably from all that abuse, and now you're gonna fucking run scurry and away. I have to bust my fucking
nose right. You know your sins are gonna find you, bitch. So not that I condone shooting in the back, but I can understand the situation unfolding. As such, the police came to the house and they arrested her. She was then charged with assault with in time to commit murder with malice. Billy told the police that he was completely blindsided by this attempt at his life, and of course
the police believed him. Betty claimed that she was defending herself and due to her shooting him in the back, authorities had a very hard time believing that she feared for her life. Connie was there when it all happened, and she was bawling her eyes out when the police responded to a nine to one one call to Betty's apartment. Connie told the police that Billy called the house and said that he was coming, and after Connie hung up the phone, she called the operator and told her to
call the police. Connie had been listening on her mother's call from Billy on the extension, so she heard everything that was said. Billy's daughter, Barbara had a different story to tell. She told the police that she had also been listening in when the phone rang at Billy's apartment, but her story was very different. She told the officers that Betty was the one who called Billy to come over and get his things from the apartment. Barbara said,
Betty called and Dad answered the phone. She was crying and asked Dad to come over to get his things. He asked, how many times are you gonna shoot me, and she said none. He also asked how many police would be there, and she said none. Dad wanted her to meet him at a different location, but she wouldn't do it. She told the police that her father left the house a little after one am that night, and he told Barbara that he would be back within a half hour, and she said at the time, I begged
him not to go, but he went anyway. Billy had to be rushed into surgery because his condition was critical. The surgeons went in to remove the two bullets that were lodged into his body and so defense Billy gave the police officers the run around before He later admitted that he threatened to kill her before she shot him, and the charges were eventually dropped. So he did threaten to kill her.
Well, you know, fuck around and find out I guess exactly, get a couple of bullets in your body.
Yeah, and nothn't like beating a woman, you know. Fuck. As I mentioned earlier, Billy and Betty were separated and divorced at the time of the shooting, but they actually got remarried to one another.
Oh geez ooh.
Toxic relationship right. A trial actually took place for the attempted murder, and that's what rekindled their romance. Believes or not, maybe I love you, I love you, I love you baby. The second time around only lasted for about a month before getting divorced for a second time in nineteen seventy two. I guess the second marriage was more of an annulment
than divorce. Betty wasn't really one to stay single for too long, so the following year, Betty began dating a man named Ronnie Threllcold, who was a pretty heavy drinker. After four years of dating, the couple finally became husband and wife in nineteen seventy eight. Ronnie's way of life really didn't jive with what Betty wanted out of a husband. The marriage didn't last long at all, and this was because Betty tried to run him over with her car.
That'll do it. So they separated after that, and they were only married for a year. Alexa, please play another one bites the dust. Ronnie was Betty's third husband for the listeners who are keeping count, and he would be the final man to leave a marriage to Betty with his heart still beating. Oh ooh, here it comes. Betty had a pretty rough year on her own and she was actually arrested for public indecency or lewdness. She was working at a topless at the time and she spent
thirty days behind bars for this offense. So once again, Betty wasted no time moving on and in the same year she divorced Ronnie. She married her fourth husband, whose name was Doyle Wayne Baker. In nineteen seventy nine, about two years into the marriage, Doyle was shot and killed. Betty killed her fourth husband and buried his body in
her own yard. Oh shit. Betty did what she could to keep up with the facade of the abandoned wife, and she went as far as telling all of her friend's family and neighbors that she and Doyle got into a pretty heated argument and after the argument, Doyle took off while also leaving his vehicle behind at the house, because that's what she'd do.
Because you're gonna storm off on foot.
I'm leaving and I'm gonna leave my car and disappear. Yes, never to be heard from ever. Yeah, that didn't add up at all. Did he walk away or hitchhike or get away from her? Unfortunately everyone believed her story because the couple were always fighting with each other. His disappearance was in October of nineteen eighty one. I've said it before. The eighties was a time to get away with shit, all the shit you could possibly get away with. The
late seventies early eighties, there was no technology. They were taking swabs that they wouldn't be able to test for another twenty five years exactly. His disappearance was in October of nineteen eighty one, and his body was later found on Betty's property. Betty's daughter later stated that she had helped her mother bury his body. Even though the bullets matched a gun that Betty owned. She was never tried for his murder. Wow, m h two years after shooting what was that?
I said? That's crazy?
It really is. Two years after shooting and killing Doyle. She married a retired fireman named Jimmy Don Beats, and he would be her last husband. Two years into their marriage, though, Betty called the police and reported Jimmy missing on August sixth, nineteen eighty two. According to Betty, he disappeared from their home located in Henderson County, Texas near the Cedar Creek Lake. Jimmy was a fisherman, so when Betty called the police, she told the cops that he had disappeared while out
on his boat. According to her, he should have been home, but he was just never came back. Unfortunately, Jimmy's boat was found six days later near the Redwood Beach Marina, which is only about fourteen miles from the home they shared. On the boat, the police found nitroglycerin, tablets and his life best along with his fishing license eerie. So, around ten pm on August sixth, nineteen eighty three, several people at the Redwood Beach Marina saw Jimmy's empty boat floating
out on the lake. Two people volunteered to go retrieve the empty boat and they were able to bring it to shore. The boat was served and that's when the license with the name Jimmy Don Beats was found. The Coastguard was called along with the Parks and Wildlife Service, and authorities came to the marina for further investigation. The owner of the marina looked up Jimmy's name in the phone book to see if they could get in touch
with anyone to notify them about the boat. Jimmy's number was listed and the owner finally called the phone number multiple times. Finally Betty answered the phone and she was notified that her husband's fishing boat was found, along with his license. Betty went down to the marina and identified everything to be her husband's, and she pretended to be worried about his safety due to the high Wednesday that night, a search was conducted for Jimmy's body in the lake.
The following morning, Oh my gosh, what.
What he's missing? Oh my god, you found his boat? What in the net?
Oh my gosh, did you find those? I'm not sure. I thought I thought I saw them have the pills. How stupid they lie?
Yeah.
The following morning, authorities went back to Jimmy and Betty's home to see if he had come back home after being reported missing, and Betty told them that her husband went out fishing the previous night and he had been experiencing problems with his boat. The deputy sheriff for Henderson County told Betty that Jimmy's body would likely be found by another person out on the lake since there would
be scheduled speedboat races taking place later that day. When nobody stumbled across Jimmy's body, many people came together to search for Jimmy, and these groups included people from the Coast Guard, the City of Dallas Fire Department. Since Jimmy had been a fireman for almost twenty six years and the search went on for three weeks, no luck. Now, the chaplain of the fire department went over to Betty's house to talk to her about after death benefit if
they did find Jimmy deceased. She asked if she would be taken care of what thems that came along with being the wife of a firefighter. The chaplain told Betty that he would check to see if she was covered
and he would report back to her as soon as possible. Now, after some digging, it was discovered that there was a life insurance policy worth one hundred and ten thousand dollars and Betty would be able to receive twelve hundred a month from Jimmy's pension with the Fire department, and that monthly amount is worth about thirty eight hundred a month today.
So Betty, she was pretty stunned after she found out that if Jimmy's body was never found, there would be a seven year long waiting period before any insurance moneys were paid out to her.
So let me guess his body.
His body. The case seemed to have gone cold for about two years until the spring of nineteen eighty five, when a credible confidential informant told the Henderson County Sheriff's office that they had some information into Jimmy's disappear prints. The informant alleged that there had been foul play and
that Jimmy was no longer alive. The investigators on Jimmy's case chose to talk to Betty's son, Robbie Branson, from her first marriage, and when the detective spoke to Robert, he had a lot to say, and what he did say was incredibly crucial to the case. He told the authorities that his mother actually confided in him. But this was not a run of the mill confession, she told her son in confidence that she was planning on killing Jimmy.
When she was going to carry the murder out, she told her son that he wasn't allowed to be in the house when she did kill him. Robert did as he was told and he left the house. When he returned home, he came home to find Jimmy dead and he had two bullet holes in him. He later testified. She said she wanted me to leave and she didn't want me to be around when she shot and killed him, and he was out of the house for about two
hours that day. What's even more crazy is that Robert also helped his mother get rid of Jimmy's dead body. Two of them hoisted his body over the opening of an ornamental wishing well that was in the front yard of the house. Oh my gosh, right there.
I know nobody wants to look down the fucking well.
Thank you. The satisfact about how his body was wrapped into the well was that Betty asked Jimmy to build the wishing well to make the yard look better, so she's dumping him in the well he built for her. Poor guy, he had no clue that he was building it. He was building his own burial place until his body was eventually found. Robbie had actually helped Jimmy build this so oh my goodness, oh man, so its stepson helps him build this thing for his mother, the Jimmy's wife.
After his body was placed, Betty planted flowers over the grave to conceal everything. His body was placed in a sleeping bag before it was buried for the next two years, and Robbie was only nineteen at the time he helped his mother hide her last victim. Betty obviously had thought through every step of this murder, and with all that we just said, she definitely premeditated the entire thing. Before carrying out the murder, she had taken out a life
insurance policy the hundred ten thousand. But this was all without Jimmy's knowledge. After the murder was completed, Betty and her son went to plant evidence on Jimmy's boat. Betty planted the nitro glacering tablets in his life jacket. I'm sorry, Betty, that's about the dumbest thing. How accessible is nitro glycerin in nineteen eighty four, You know what I'm saying. I don't even get I think people.
Used to take it for her conditions or something.
Oh you know what, I'm getting confused with folks do I'm like these stupid people. I think you of Syan night Dample. I'm like, Betty, how available are these tablets? Jesus Okay, that totally I have a clearer vision, Thank you, Tony. Betty planted that I drove gloss round tablets in his life jacket, and Robbie removed the propeller from the boat so that it would just float aimlessly. He then testified that he took the boat out into the middle of the lake before he abandoned it, and then he went
back to meet his mother. They both returned back home as if nothing happened. After the confidential informant talked to investigators about foul play being behind Jimmy's disappearance, Betty was arrested for Jimmy's murder on June eighth, nineteen eighty five, and she was booked at the Hunderson County Jail. A search werer't was then obtained and a search of Betty's property was carried out for the home and the surrounding premises.
So during the search, Jimmy's body was found in the well, and the remains of Doyle Wayne Barker were also found in a different area on the premises. Doyle's body was located buried under a storage shed in the backyard of the house. Both bodies were then taken to the Dallas Forensic Science Lab where they were formerly identified. Two bullets were recovered from Jimmy's body and a pistol words recovered from Betty's house previously, but this could have been the
gun used in shooting Billy years prior. The records don't specify. Betty was charged with the murder of Doyle, but sadly she was never tried. But don't worry, she gets hers on the end. So throughout the trial that took place on the fall of nineteen eighty five, Robbie was actually accused of being the actual killer of his stepfather, Jimmy Beets. Robbie did admit that he participated in getting rid of Jimmy's body, and the only person he ever told was
his common law wife at the time. She never took the stand to testify. Robbie stayed silent otherwise for two years, and he told the court that he only did this to protect his mother. After his mother was arrested, he had no other choice than to fully cooperate with the investigators. When he was asked about his mother's former husband, Doyle, he told the court that he did know of him and he had only seen him once. Robbie didn't live
with his mother when she was married to Doyle. So Betty's daughter also testified for the prosecution, and she told the court that she was called by her mother on the night of Jimmy's murder. Her mother had called her to ask if her daughter could come over to her house, and she agreed. While on the phone with her mother, surely asked if she had done anything like she said
she would do in a previous conversation. During this previous conversation, Betty was on the phone screaming that she was going to kill Jimmy and place his body on his boat, take the boat out, and Robbie would drop his body and the lake to make it look like Jimmy accidentally drowned.
Wow, she really had your whole plan right there, all.
Thing, Canary thing. Honestly, those are excellent bullet point. I mean, just told you how it laid out right.
There, exactly and that's exactly what happened.
Thank you, surely so. After Shirley asked her mother if she had followed through on the night of his murder, Betty replied that she had surely got all the way to her mother's house for Betty to tell her that she was no longer needed and everything had been taken care of. Shirley went back home as if her mother didn't just kill her husband and got rid of his body. All right, I'm out of here, pe tomorrow, Mama, Yeah,
I'll call you later. A few weeks later, Shirley was told by her mother that she and Robbie buryed Jimmy in the Wishing Mound. She also told the court that her mother never admitted that she killed him for any insurance money. After Shirley was finished testifying for the prosecution on Jimmy's murder, the judge held a hearing in which
Shirley testified about her mother and Doyle. Betty filed a motion to have all of her previous offenses thrown out in regard to Doyle's death, but the judge overruled the motion. Shirley remained on the stand to testify about Doyle's death and disappearance in October of nineteen eighty one. Betty and Doyle were married and living in the same home. One night, while Shirley and her mother were sitting outside around a campfire, Betty told her daughter that she was going to kill Doyle.
She really was really candid with her kids, you know, just the comfortableness that just let me just tell you how I'm feeling.
I'm gonna kill Doyle.
I'm gonna kill Doyle. You want to be here, I'm gonna kill Doyle. So when Shirley asked her mother why she wanted to kill him, Betty told her that she didn't want to put up with any more of his beating. Well that makes I can see this, so what but this also you can leave. You know what I'm saying. If you're also planning, I've been in that situation, so I'm not trying to tell. But it's going to end in killing someone. That's either way, you lose. You know
you're a loser. So the house was in Doyle's name, but Betty was a co signer, so if they were to get divorced, Doyle would have gotten to keep the house, and that didn't apply with Betty about Four days later, Betty met Shirley at her house and Betty told her that she had killed Doyle. She waited until Doyle was asleep and went out to get her gun and covered the barrel of it with a pillow. When when she went to pull the trigger, the gun didn't go off.
Betty was scared in that instance, and she was afraid that he was going to wake up, so she quickly gathered herself, cocked the gun for a second time, and pulled the trigger. He was shot in the head and killed instantly. Surely then testified that she helped him other get rid of Doyle's body. They both dragged his body from inside the house and they placed his body inside inside a pre dug hole. The scream prebeditated like nothing
screams that like the pre dug hole. Now, this hole had been dug for a barbecue pit, but Betty had other plans. Following day, Betty went out and purchased some cinderblocks and built a patio over the hole to cover Dennis's Well, that's a Freudian slip a name.
I was like, yeah, he's his asses and under the patio.
Shit, I know. That just tells on me okay, So she built a patio over the hole to cover Doyle's remains. This patio was a cement base to house the storage shed that she would put on top.
I see. Yeah.
So, while she was cross examined, Surely admitted that she was charged alongside her mother for the murder of Joe Barker, and her one million dollar bond was reduced to five thousand in exchange for her testimony against her mother, but she was never promised anything from the prosecution. There was no record of Betty killing Doyle for any financial benefit, nor did she admit anything of that sort to Shirley.
The medical examiner was then called to testify and doctor Charles Petty talked about the two skeletons that were recovered from Betty's property. He determined that the cause of Jimmy's death was two gunshot wounds, one in his skull and the other was found within the trunk area. Both bullets were shot from the same weapon, but he was unable to determine which gun fired them. Three bullets were retrieved from Doyle's body, and obviously his cause of death was
determined to be from gunshot wounds. Nothing else was specifically noted. A firearms examiner testified that the bullets were fired from a thirty eight kid hell of her weapon, and this was the same caliber of the gun sees from Betty's house when they searched the place, he was still nonetheless able to determine if the bullets came from that specific gun.
One of Jimmy's nieces, who worked for JC Penny Life Insurance Company, testified that her uncle, Jimmy personally came in to cancel a life insurance policy that was worth ten thousand dollars on May nineteenth, nineteen eighty three, and he canceled this because it had been done without his knowledge. Oh yeah, he only found out when he found the bill in the house. The thing that was odd about this was the fact that their address wasn't on the application.
It was the address of one of Betty's daughters, So Betty was having the bill sent to oh yeah, well girls's house, so Jimmy wouldn't be the wiser. Now, Betty was the sole beneficiary, and she signed Jimmy's name and returned it with the monthly payment. There was also another life insurance policy with the City of Dallas that was worth eighty six thousand, with Betty named as the sole beneficiary, and an employee at the insurance company testified to that.
A documents examiner also testified that he had been employed by the Secret Service for over two decades, but he had been working as a document's examiner at the time of his testimony in this trial. He testified that the signature on the JC Penny application was signed by Betty and that the signature for the cancelation was signed by Jimmy. Betty also sold Jimmy's vote roughly one year after he was reported missing, and the bill of sale was signed
with Jimmy's name but by Betty. Those two signatures were a perfect match.
Dumb ass.
According to reports, Betty got drunk one night and bragged about the two murders to a new boyfriend at the time. So I have a hard time believing that he wasn't the confidential informant who called in the tip to the Henderson County Sheriff's office night, right. Yeah. So, after the jury deliberated, Betty was found guilty of capital murder for the murder of Jimmy Beats And even though she was
never tried for the murder of Doyle Barker. She was sentenced to death by Lethland injection, which was carried out in February of two thousand and she died by lethaland injection sixty two years old.
Damn, wow, that is I would love, you know, in a different world, on a different plane, if she could have produced a memoir, I would have read it.
I would read this woman's life.
You know what I'm saying, like, yeah, she's got some shit to tell.
Exactly, Like how do you come to like the decisions we make all Like what what's that? What's the fuel that makes our decisions? You know, she feels threatened and she's getting beat and then she's planning. You know, she has a hole already, dug. The woman's a planner.
You know. She's like, oh, yeah, his little lass is gonna end up in that hole.
Yeah, and I've already done it before. And I go, you know, my relationships are with people who I said, oh, he got pissed and left and this is he's done this before, Like I won't even blink and I you guys are toxic. I'm not surprised. You know, plan on people's emotions like that. Now, my pleasure, my pleasure. I love bringing you these stories even it's interesting. I love human. What word am I looking for?
The human?
Conscious? The human? What makes humans tick? I do love it?
So you know, that's the fascinating part of true crime for me, Like it's.
Like why do these people do this stuff?
Like you know, like there's stories we've done where it's like mob mentality where like a bunch of kids will get together.
And kill like another kid or something, and right, you.
Know it's wrong and whatever. And then you know, husbands kill wives and wives kill husbands.
And whole crimes of passion.
Like we've done, like kids kill their whole family just for stupid reasons. It's like I would I wish I could like.
Hear the thought process something, Yes exactly, I mean just pop in your brain. What's going on here? Totally fascinating. So yes, my pleasure, my friend.
Yeah, no problems, So everyone, if you could hit subscribe or follow and whatever app you're listening to. Also, we have a website, Crimesanconsequences dot com. There's merch you can check that out. The holidays are coming, you might want to check it out and get your favorite ask for your sweatshirt or what have you, and then if you enjoy the episodes that we have, we also do one that is not released to the public. It's on our Patreon account. It's key a t R O N yes
dot com slash t n T crimes. You also can subscribe to it on the Apple podcast app. But we release one extra episode a week, so if you just can't get enough, you might ask you that we probably have over two hundred now, or roughly about that two hundred episodes. There's Shannon and I, and there's lots and lots of Tilly and I.
So lots of flavors that choose from.
Yeah, lots of so.
I like to consider myself chocolate, So if you want chocolate, that would be me.
And I guess they're like strawberry or maybe like Jacky Road or something. I don't know.
I like it. I love the sweep. All right, all right, Fannie, you have a great week. I love you. I missed you on until next time.
Until next time, we will see you all.
Bye.
Hi guys,