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Two weeks later an inquest cleared Louise's husband, but not Louise. Shy little Lee Judson, walked from the hearing straight to a downtown office building, plunged eight floors down a stair well.
Amazing, But . . . Thrice-widowed Louise, once again the defendant at a murder trial, saw the District Attorney slip the Denton trial transcript into evidence against her. She heard him describe the deadly parallel, noted that the jury —eleven women and one man — appeared to find it amazing but not incredible. This time, Louise decided to testify.
She had a logical story: Arthur Logan had killed his wife in an insane fit; Louise had buried the body because — she smiled a little cynically — the world certainly would unite against her in disbelief if she reported the death. She spent four days on the stand. In the county jail, her fellow-prisoners rallied to her support: throughout the six-week trial they kept her hair dyed and waved, tidied her cell, washed her nylons. Halfway through her ordeal they bought her a new spring hat to wear to court. While the jury deliberated, she read Lin Yutang's The Importance of Living.
But once again Louise Peete was convicted of first-degree murder. This time there was no recommendation for mercy. Last week, on the 25th anniversary of Jake Denton's death, Louise Peete was sentenced to her own in California's gas chamber. Back in jail she smiled sadly, told her adoring friends: "It goes without saying ... I have never killed or even harmed a human being. . . . But truth is elusive. . . ."
*Chanel No. 5.