Louise Peete

Louise Peete, one of only four women to be executed in California's gas chamber was, throughout her life, described by those who knew her as a refined and cultured lady. Indeed, Louise, born into a comfortably off Louisiana family in 1883 was brought up to be a classic Southern Belle and given the best education her parents could afford. Unfortunately Louise had other ideas and after being expelled from her expensive school for inappropriate behaviour with the opposite sex, took off on a crime-filled spree around America. In Waco, Texas, she stood trial for murder but was acquitted after explaining that she had killed the victim to protect her precious southern virtue. Later on she was not so lucky and found herself sentenced to life in California for the murder of an employer. A model prisoner, she served 19 years before being released in 1943. A kind, elderly couple who had visited Louise in prison offered her a home and after accepting, she repaid them by shooting the wife in the back of the head and burying her under an avocado tree. This time justice was not so lenient and on 11 April 1947 she elegantly installed herself in the gas chamber looking for all the world like a respectable Sunday School teacher preparing her class for scripture.