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Women and Crime - TPR's In Focus - August 27, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Janice Hawkins Cultural Arts Park
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  on the main campus of Troy University, featuring the International
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  Arts Center, the Fred Noll Hollis Museum,
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  and the Hua Bao Zhu Gallery. More information at troy.edu/artspark.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
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  And I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Some of Alabama's most
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  intriguing criminal cases involve
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  women.
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  When he was a night reporter for the Birmingham News,
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  Jeremy Gray began tracking down stories about
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  women in Alabama's criminal history. He compiled
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  the stories into a book, Wicked Women of Alabama,
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  published by the History Press.
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  Today we talk with Jeremy, who introduces
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  us to a woman who claimed to be the lover of
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  John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin.
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  Jeremy Gray, thank you so much for joining us by Skype from Moody,
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  Alabama. Hi, glad to be here. Jeremy,
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  you're a former night reporter for the Birmingham News, and you're now
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  a managing producer for Alabama Media Group, which includes
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  several newspapers as well as AL.com. I take
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  it you've been chasing crime stories for many years?
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  Correct. I was based in Birmingham
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  and would go out on calls, had the police scanner, all that.
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  And now I oversee crime coverage across Alabama for
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  the different papers and AL.com. You've written an eye-opening
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  book about women criminals, and the book's
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  title is Wicked Women of Alabama.
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  What made you want to tackle women criminals in
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  literature? Well, obviously, men commit
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  the vast majority of crimes. And, and violent crimes at that.
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  So these cases were fewer and far between, and they were
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  just so interesting. Um, we had the poisoners of the 1950s.
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  Uh, we had, uh, Marie Hillie,
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  obviously, in Anniston. There was a connection to the
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  Manson family. Virginia Hill, uh, who I've always been fascinated
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  with, uh, for her association
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  with Bugsy Siegel, the Prohibition-era gangster.
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  So, I mean, there were just some really notable cases. They were very different
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  from each other, but just some really
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  interesting stories behind these women and the notorious crimes
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  they were linked to. Briefly, why do women
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  choose poisoning rather than guns when they're
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  doing these murders, these women criminals? Well, in the '50s
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  and before that, there weren't really a lot
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  of autopsies. There were a lot of chemicals that were cheap,
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  readily available.
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  Women in that particular era were
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  largely responsible for taking
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  care of home, preparing meals. People trusted them to bring
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  them their coffee or their milk or their whiskey
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  or whatever, and And people got sick, uh, and died
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  of a wide range of illnesses. So it
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  didn't really raise a lot of questions. I mean, you go back to the
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  19th century in Europe and other parts of America,
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  these kinds of cases happened a lot more frequently than they
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  do now because if you die under suspicious circumstances
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  now, you're more likely to get tested and then somebody will get found
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  out. But Back then, it was just a— it was easy to get away
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  with it. Rat poison, arsenic,
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  those were some of the poisons of choice. But let's
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  drop back and talk about a case that you covered
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  in your book, Wicked Women of Alabama. Louise Worcester,
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  the madam who saved Birmingham from cholera,
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  claimed that she was the love of John Wilkes
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  Booth's life. Can you explain that?
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  Right, and I'll just say that all of her
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  accounts should be taken with a grain of salt.
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  She's a fascinating figure in Birmingham history. She came to
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  Birmingham not long after the city became
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  a city, and there was a cholera epidemic,
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  and when the people fled Birmingham,
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  she turned her house of quote-unquote
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  ill repute into a hospital. She tended to sick people and
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  she to this day is a very beloved figure in Birmingham.
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  She started off her life in Mobile, just a life of tragedy,
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  parents dying, her and her sisters were being passed around,
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  and like a lot of young women in unfortunate
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  circumstances, she turned to sex work.
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  And she lived in Montgomery before the
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  start of the Civil War, as did John Wilkes Booth, who was an
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  actor, and she claimed
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  that they had a love affair and she seemed to
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  believe that he was driven largely by his alcoholism,
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  which he was, I believe, very well known
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  to have had an addiction to alcohol.
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  But yeah, so she claimed that it
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  was sort of an ill-fated love affair with one of the most notorious figures in
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  American history. Well, on page 23 of
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  your book, she explains further. Can you share that paragraph?
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  Right. She wrote that Booth loved the Union and said
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  his strange erratic nature that
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  fateful night he gunned down President Lincoln at the Ford's Theatre was
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  the result of him being crazed by drink. She said that he believed
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  his terrible act would end the war and save the South.
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  Had the devil not tempted him at that fatal moment, what a bright star
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  would he have been. I knew he was impulsive, erratic,
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  but I never believed him capable of murder. I do not believe he ever
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  intended murder. Though the world may condemn him, I love him still.
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  I think some of that's doubtful. There was obviously a a
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  bit of a conspiracy around the assassination
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  of the president and attempts on other federal officials around
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  that same time. But she made this claim through years.
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  She said she kept a scrapbook full of mementos.
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  She said she had a monogrammed handkerchief and letters he wrote.
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  As far as whether that's all true, I don't know, but it
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  is known that she did live in Montgomery around the same time he did.
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  So could their paths have crossed? Could they have had a relationship?
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  Quite possibly. And she may have had some insight into
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  him that others may not have had. And Jeremy,
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  she weighed the events of her life and she weighed
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  her sins against redemption, and her redemption
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  apparently was through helping those who needed help during
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  this cholera epidemic. Right. And even after,
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  she tried to live a little bit more of a quiet life. She wasn't
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  always successful, but she would take care of the women
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  who worked for her as sex workers in her later years and tended
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  to them and their health and took care of their children. And there's
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  a public health award given out in Birmingham in her honor every
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  year. There's loft apartments in Birmingham named
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  after her. So for someone who was a sex worker in
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  the late 19th century, early 20th
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  century in the Bible Belt, she's held
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  in quite high regard even today. Well, Jeremy, we're out of
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  time for today, but let's talk again more about
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  your book, Wicked Women of Alabama. This is fascinating
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  and it's an eye-opening Well, I really
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  appreciate it, and I look forward to it. Joining us by Skype was reporter
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  Jeremy Gray of Moody, Alabama. His book is Wicked
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  Women of Alabama, and we'll look forward to bringing you more
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  of the stories he's collected.
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  Thanks for joining us today for In Focus, which is now a podcast
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  on NPR One or wherever you get your
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  podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this
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  is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.