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Introduction
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Ann Woodward
"They
were an ideally suited couple", said all of the guests, when asked in the
aftermath of what Life magazine dubbed "The
Shooting Of The Century."
The guests in question had attended yet another dinner party at Peacock
Point, the estate of grande dame Edith
Baker on Long Island's prestigious, and socially impenetrable North
Shore. The guest of honor was her houseguest Wallis
Windsor, the American-born Duchess. After the dinner, one of
the fifty guests that evening, Mrs. Ann Eden Crowell
Woodward, had shot and killed her husband, the horse breeder and
sportsman, William Woodward Jr. with a
hunting rifle. That she did it there is no question, she admitted as
much, claiming it was an accident. The question burning in the minds of the
police and the scandal-loving public was "why
did she do it?" As it turned out, the question would never be
answered to anybody's full satisfaction.
The Official Version of events recounts a tragic accident that destroyed a
happy-on-the-surface-family; rumor and gossip tell a much darker story. But
one fact is not in dispute: she did shoot her husband in a darkened hallway,
standing only 5 feet from him, while he was naked and unarmed. But the
years leading up to that darkened moment say quite a lot.
Ann Woodward was not born to society and the facts of her birth have been
distorted over the years, possibly a lack of antecedents from Ann herself have
kept the past from emerging. She was born Evangeline
Crowell in Pittsburgh, Kansas in 1915 where her parents divorced
and her father took off for parts unknown. At the time of the shooting he did
resurface, as a streetcar conductor in Detroit. He mistakenly believed that
his daughter had become the actress Eve Arden,
so successful was Ann in her transformation. Evangeline's mother married
then divorced again. By this time Evangeline had grown to become an ambitious
beauty, so she changed her name to Ann and moved to Kansas City where the
young woman would have a chance to better herself. Around 1941 her mother died
and was buried in Kansas where Ann was never to return. The beautiful young
woman aspired to the stage and moved permanently to New York City. She soon
became a John Robert Powers model, a
prestigious first step up. Eventually, Ann sought and won roles on the stage
and as a voice on radio dramas. Now known as Ann Eden,
she carved a respectable career for herself and in 1940 won the dubious title
of "The Most Beautiful Girl in Radio."
To supplement her income Ann also showgirled at the fashionable New York
nightclub, FeFe's Monte Carlo. It
was there she allegedly met the senior William
Woodward. Here rumors swirl in that William Woodward
mistressed Ann and, in the English tradition, passed her on to his son.
However, the young man got much more than he bargained for.
The Woodwards were as socially acceptable as one could hope. Billy's
father, William Woodward Sr. inherited from his uncle Hanover
National Bank and Belair Farm
in Maryland, the oldest stud farm in America. After Harvard he was
appointed the secretary to the Ambassador of the Court of Saint James where he
befriended King Edward VII. The King
and the young American bought and raced horses together, thus beginning
Woodwards' equine legacy. He later married Elsie
Ogden Cryder, from one of America's oldest families. The
Cryders and their triplet daughters who all married "up" were
considered "top drawer." This was how a marriage was made
during the Gilded Age. It has been said that the Woodwards were part of
the infamous "400" but this is not true. The Astors
and Vanderbilts shunned their 1904
wedding, however, Elsie would one day reign supreme simply by outliving them
all.
In 1942, young Ensign William Woodward, Jr., Billy to his friends, took his
illustrious past for granted. Quiet and beautifully mannered Billy
Woodward was the last person one would think might fall into a tawdry
situation. But determined not to become like his parents, secretly, he
was ready for such an adventure. He craved excitement, not a bank job and
marriage to a "brown shoe" debutante. Watching four older sisters do
what was expected, he saw his future already mapped out. With his best
friend Bean Baker, Edith Baker's only son
who was also shot and killed a few years later, the two men frequented the
round of nightclubs and soon Ann and Billy crossed paths. Ann Eden seemed just
the right temptation.
Almost never with a girlfriend, it was assumed in his circle that Billy
harbored a homosexual lover, so when Ann
Eden appeared on his arm the stag line of rich debs were properly incensed.
When he married Ann in 1943, the ladies stepped in line and invited her to
dine at their tables and join their clubs but never really accepted the
showgirl, her obvious beauty was considered vulgar and no one knew whom she
was. Ann pretended to ignore the talk of her past and groomed herself to be
the socially unassailable Mrs. William Woodward, Jr. Older than her
husband by almost five years, Ann Woodward used sex appeal to keep her husband
interested.
Doing her duty, Ann gave birth to two sons, an heir and a spare. With William
"Woody" and James by
their sides, for all appearances the Woodwards seemed the perfect family.
With a townhouse on the Upper East Side and an estate on the North Shore, they
jumped right into the social swirl Billy had hoped to avoid by marrying this
temptress.
Ann didn't see it that way and wanted more than anything to be a part of his
world and fought hard to maintain her place. She took up horse riding,
shooting (obviously) and other masculine pursuits that endeared her to no one.
Many tolerated her position as Mrs. Woodward but felt she always over-reached.
Early in the marriage, Billy returned to the dictates of his class and fell
for Princess Marina Torlonia, a beautiful
rail-thin woman of Italian and WASP parentage. When Billy approached Ann
for a divorce in 1947 she became hysterical and asked him for so much money
that he eventually dropped the idea and Marina. People said Billy was
too much of a gentleman to divorce Ann because she wouldn't give him
permission.
Thereafter, the marriage resumed in tatters with an occasional
fistfight for good measure. Billy mentally tormented Ann,
fully aware of her aspirations and mocking her for it. Their shouting matches
were legendary even though no one blamed Billy Woodward as he was one of their
own. The public saw a stunning couple decked out in black tie and diamonds,
seen at the right seat at the right table at the right party. He
traveled to Belair Farm that he now inherited from his late father and bought
and trained Nashua, which became the
leading racehorse in the nation. The horse made the Woodwards famous.
Ann landed herself on the Best Dressed lists
and traveled the globe chasing royal titles. Their homes were decorated to be
photographed by magazines and were. There were chauffeurs, nannies,
maids and butlers to tend their needs. Ann popped pills to keep herself
beautiful and stable for an unstable marriage. She had her portrait painted by
Salvador Dali and he came closest to the
real Ann in a damning image that sent her reeling. Hating the painting,
she refused to pay. Dali sued and it became a cause celebre in all the papers.
Billy learned to fly and bought an airplane so he could get away from his
arriviste wife. The world saw Ann and Billy Woodward as perfect, but
were very much a Renoir, beautiful from a distance, a blurry mess up close.
Billy's parents and sisters disapproved of the marriage to the showgirl from
the start but never said a word about it to outsiders; they were a family that
closed ranks. By this time, Elsie Woodward
had emerged triumphant as New York's leading hostess. Her salon
consisted of the ubiquitous Social Register listees. Her daughter-in-law
followed suit, matching and often superceding Elsie by throwing exciting
parties inviting all the boldfaced names of the day, drenching her candles in
Chanel No 5 perfume. People came early and stayed late. No matter what
was said about Ann Woodward, everyone agreed she was a top hostess.
In the fall of 1955, a string of burglaries were spooking the residents of the
North Shore. The Woodward house, called the Playhouse,
had their poolhouse broken into. The estate, part of an enormous larger
estate owned by an aunt of Barbara
Hutton, was exposed to anyone who cared to attempt a break-in.
Both considered good guns, Ann and Billy both felt secure enough to defend
themselves. With that in the back of their minds, the Woodwards went to
the dinner party at Edith Baker's estate for the Duchess of Windsor. The fight
for that evening was the matter of Billy Woodwards' new airplane being
manufactured in Pittsburgh, Kansas, Ann's hometown. The irony of this
had unnerved Ann. She desperately wanted to remain Ann Woodward and
properly obliterated her past as if it never happened.
The dinner was another evening in an endless round of nights out with the same
people, but was uneventful. There was no fight as had been rumored. They
returned to the Playhouse and around 2:00am the Woodwards, sleeping in
separate bedrooms, were awakened by a noise. Ann grabbed the shotgun she
had taken to her bed and ran out into the tiny hallway. Seeing a figure
in the shadow, she shot twice without even asking, "Who goes there?"
even though her husband was next door and her two children were upstairs in
another part of the house.
Realizing her fatal mistake, Ann phoned the police, but not before phoning her
lawyer first. The lawyer took charge and with the estate swarming with
investigators, had Ann sedated and immediately taken to Doctors Hospital in
Manhattan, thirty miles away.
The police never really believed Ann's story of it being an accident, but they
saw evidence of a break-in and even managed to capture a suspect. What
eventually convinced them was the full support of Elsie Woodward, her
mother-in-law. Worried that her grandchildren might be further scarred
if their mother were sent to jail for murder, Elsie stood behind the showgirl
that killed her son. At an inquest that lasted less than a day, Ann was
brought before the grand jury. What they saw was not the hysterical
former model that fought with her cheating husband, but a very unhappy woman
who had accidentally killed the man she loved. She was not indicted and
received full vindication.
The funeral, which Ann did not attend, was one of the biggest New York had
ever seen. All the servants on the Upper East Side received the morning
off to attend. The flags at the Brook Club, Union Club and Jockey Club flew at
half-mast. Socialite CZ Guest remarked
afterwards, "It was the end of an era."
On her own, Ann sent her sons off to boarding school and traveled the globe
restlessly. When Billy Woodward died, he left an estate that remained in
trust until after his mother's death. Controlling the purse strings of a
forty million dollar fortune, Elsie ensured Ann had enough to live on but
never enough to be independent. Hoping to leap back into society, Ann
found all the doors that were once opened to her slammed shut. Always
considered an outside, Ann had killed one of their own and she was no longer
tolerated. The boys were sent to school in Europe to fend for themselves,
always having to explain to people that yes, they were in the house when their
mother killed their father, but no, they hadn't heard a thing.
Sometime in the 1950's Ann encountered writer Truman
Capote in St. Moritz. Supposedly he caught her necking with Claus
Von Bulow, who would later achieve fame when accused of attempting
to murder his rich wife, Sunny. Ann made a
disparaging remark about Truman and he swore vengeance. The meanest
gossip in high society, Capote was planning his opus during this time and now
it was to include Ann Woodward.
Always unhappy, Ann sought solace in travel and never again met a man that
could approximate the great Billy Woodward. Her youngest Jimmy
volunteered for Vietnam and became a drug addict. Her other son, Woody
took a more respectable route and ventured into business. Both young men
would commit suicide later on. In 1975,
after returning from another trip Ann received in the mail an advance copy of
Esquire magazine. Inside was an excerpt from Truman Capote's new book,
the long-awaited "Answered
Prayers." Entitled "Le
Cote Basque, 1965" it told several stories of highly placed
socialites and their filthy exploits, including a thinly veiled version of the
Woodwards story, outright accusing Ann of murder.
Capote had expected the story to leap him into the forefront of modern
literature. Rather, it backfired totally; he told tales out of school and it
caused him to lose his friendship with Babe
Paley, Slim
Keith and all the high society ladies he had counted on for
friendship and gossip. The story destroyed him and he never recovered
from the loss. What had been buried for twenty years, Ann Woodward now
had the entire story resurface. Seeing that she could never escape the
notoriety, she killed herself by taking a cyanide
pill, but not before having her hair and makeup perfectly done.
Elsie Woodward, an old, old woman by now had allegedly remarked after Ann's
funeral, "Well, Ann shot Billy and Truman killed
Ann, so I suppose that's that."
(Written by Blair
Schulman)
Let us know what you think!
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