She once madamed a San Francisco "massage parlor." She was, at one time or another, involved in abortion, forgery, check-kiting and theft. She married something between eleven and 20 men, tried to con other men for make-believe pregnancies. But Elizabeth Duncan, 54, was on trial for murder in a Ventura, Calif, courthouse last week because she was a motherwith a vengeance (TIME, Jan. 5).
Witness after witness took the stand to tell how she had conspired to have her daughter-in-law killed to reclaim the affections of her son Frank, an owl-eyed, 30-year-old lawyer who held hands with her in public,...