Grace Goode

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Grace Goode

Betty Grace Goode (born November 12, 1913 in Tarrant) was a repeat killer who compiled an impressive criminal record from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s.

Grace was the second daughter of Frank Goode, a foreman for the National Cast Iron Pipe Co., and his first wife, Lula. She attended Jefferson County High School with the class of 1927. She was a member of the school's Amica Literary Society, and was chosen to present a speech on "Franklin and the Constitution" to a panel of judges which included Hugo Black, George Bailes, and Wyatt Hale. Her mother died in 1928 and she moved with her family to Oneonta.

Grace married Joseph Kennedy on October 28, 1928 as a way to get out of the house, but separated from her husband in July 1929 and returned to using her maiden name, with the exception of an incident in which she signed her name to a check as "Grace Kennedy" in 1931 and was charged with forgery. She paid a $35 fine and received a suspended sentence.

She took a job serving at a café in downtown Birmingham and resided at 601½ 23rd Street North. She and a sister became regulars at a dance hall on 2nd Avenue North, between 23rd and 24th Streets.

1932 Dance Hall stabbing

It was there on Monday February 1, 1932 that, according to Grace's story, another teenage girl, Margaret Allen picked a fight with her by repeatedly stepping on her foot. Other witnesses say that Allen's younger sister, Katherine Maddox, accidentally stepped on Goode's foot, and that Goode responded by slapping her face, and that Goode had been asked to leave the premises. Later, according to witnesses, Goode and a male companion met Allen with her sister and another male outside and renewed their dispute. One of the males was knocked to the ground and Allen was stabbed in the abdomen with a pocket knife. She was taken to Hillman Hospital for treatment.

Goode was arrested by officers Propst and Ratliff later that same night, and charged with assault with attempt to murder. She was indicted on that charge on Friday February 5 and subsequently released on $300 bond. Though initially expected to recover, Allen, who had two young children, developed an abscess. She died on March 21. Goode was taken back into custody to face a murder charge. Judge H. B. Abernethy ordered her held without bond at the Jefferson County Jail. She began serving her time on Easter Sunday, March 27.

On April 12 another suspect, Wallace M. Meshad, who had been picked up on suspicion of passing a bad check at a hotel, was identified as Goode's companion on the night of the assault and was charged with Allen's murder. He was accused by homicide detective Conrad Austin of giving Goode the pocket knife used. He denied being present. Both were indicted by a grand jury empaneled in May, with trial set for the first week of October. During her detention she was visited weekly by a boyfriend from Coalburg. Her father brought her magazines, which she read through along with two Zane Grey novels. She exercised daily and enjoyed the music from the rooftop dances on the nearby Ridgely Apartments.

In late August she sent a request to Sheriff James Hawkins that she be allowed out under supervision to buy new clothes for her court appearance. Hawkins denied the request. A woman she befriended in the jail was released earlier and bought clothes for Goode, such that she managed to appear "prettily attired in a blue dress and modish black hat" for her arraignment on September 24. She pleaded not guilty.

The day before her trial began, Goode was interviewed by Birmingham News reporter Ralph Hurst, who described her as "probably the youngest white girl to face a first degree murder charge in the county," and "certainly...the most attractive." She told him that she expected to be acquitted and promised to waste no time getting out of town to her father's place in Oneonta.

Trial

Judge John McCoy presided over Goode's murder trial on October 4–5, 1932. The lead witness for the prosecution was Allen's sister, Katherine Maddox, 16.

Maddox recalled encountering Goode and Meshad again outside the dance hall. She said Meshad asked Harrison for a cigarette, and then knocked him senseless, after which Goode attacked Margaret. She began to chase Goode and Meshad down the street, but was called back by her sister, who was wounded. They revived Harrison and walked to the L & N Station where they hailed a taxicab for Hillman Hospital.

Goode was represented at trial by Thomas McDowell and Tom Rowe who brought character witnesses to draw a picture of Goode as "a Sunday School and church-goer, perhaps a step from the conventional path long enough to taste the bitter sweets." News reports described her appearance as "smart, in a new green ensemble, brown shoes and hose, and a chic brown hat and veil half hiding her newly-dressed blond hair."

Taking the stand in her own defense, Goode denied stabbing Allen, and said that Meshad was not present. She acknowledged having an argument with Allen inside the dance hall, but said that after being asked to leave she went to a hotel on 24th Street to make a call to a friend in Fairfield. When he didn't answer she returned toward her home, but passed back by Allen and her companions on the street. Goode said that Harrison appeared intoxicated and called her "a vile name", and that the two sisters then came after her. She said they fought on the street for several minutes before Harrison pulled one of them off and broke up the fight. She said that she stopped by her house, and then visited Hillman Hospital to see another friend, not knowing that Allen had been injured or was there. She returned home and was awakened hours later by police.

For the second and closing day of trial, Goode was described as wearing "a chic blue hat with dark shoes, hose and suit," in contrast to the brighter colors she wore on the stand the first day, which the prosecution labeled "glad raiment."

In his closing argument, assistant solicitor Jim McK. Long countered the image of Goode as an innocent young woman, saying "She has been up and down the line. She's as brazen and bold and cool as any moll that ever congregated at a public dance hall." He closed by shouting "Birmingham—the homicide capital of the world! Human life—the cheapest commodity in Birmingham!"

Answering for the defense, McDowell and Rowe reminded jurors that the prosecution's "loose-jointed attack" rested mostly on the testimony of the victim's sister, which they claimed was inconsistent.

After four hours of deliberation, the jury found Goode guilty of 1st degree manslaughter and recommended a sentence of 10 years in prison. Judge McCoy affirmed the sentence and remanded her to the custody of the state.

Appeal

Two weeks later attorney Albert Boutwell, now representing Goode alongside McDowell, field a notice of appeal. Her sentence was suspended and she was released on November 7 on a $2,000 bond pending the outcome. On October 22 The Birmingham Post published her letter to the editor complaining of seeing her "name and character molested and degraded beyond belief." She made reference to the higher judgement of the Almighty as the source of her assured smile, and expressed that she would not suffer even if kept in prison, because she was sure of her innocence. In a second letter to the editor, published on November 9, she expressed a wish that the suffering of others emanating from the case could be borne by her alone. She said she was relieved that her mother had not lived to see her imprisoned and hoped that time would be merciful to her aging father.

Meshad's trial, meanwhile, was also delayed. Judge H. P. Heflin presided at that proceeding beginning on January 18, 1933. Though he had earlier told police he was at a different dance on the night of the incident, his defense brought a witness to testify that he was at his home in Avondale that night. Nevertheless, the jury found him guilty of 2nd degree manslaughter and he was fined $500 and sentenced to 1 year at hard labor on a county road crew.

Goode's application for appeal was dismissed in May, and Boutwell filed for a rehearing before the Alabama Court of Appeals. At the rehearing, Judge James Rice agreed to hear Goode's appeal in the fall. The appeal was then dismissed a second time by the Alabama Supreme Court, and Goode surrendered to Kilby Prison on January 30 to begin serving her original sentence. She was soon transferred to the Wetumpka State Prison. Her former boyfriend from Coalburg, whom Goode later described as her only true love, married another woman.

Paroles

In February 1935 Goode's father, described as "a Tarrant foundryman," petitioned assistant solicitor Jim McK. Long to recommend that Grace be granted parole. He argued that Meshad, whom he believed to be just as guilty, had only served 1 year. Her parole was granted, but then revoked in July by order of Governor Bibb Graves. She was arrested again in Tarrant and returned to prison. She applied again for a parole in November, but was unsuccessful. In January 1936 Joseph Kennedy filed to formally divorce from Grace.

Goode was granted her parole on October 2, 1936. On January 11, 1937 she was married to Roy Scott, a welder, before Probate Judge L. C. Walker in Shelby County.

Soon she was hired as a waitress by Nick Mailliway at the New Deal Cafe at 320 20th Street South. In June Mailliway swore out a warrant against her for grand larceny, accusing her of stealing $30 from the cafe.

A month later, Grace was again taken into custody to answer for a letter she had sent to a friend in which she implicated her husband and two accomplices in a robbery and murder of a night watchman at the Howard Cleaning Co. plant at 907 3rd Avenue North, which detectives believe was accomplished by the same group that broke into the Fairfield Bakery on June 30. In a lengthy confession, Roy Scott insisted that his wife had not been involved in the crime. Detectives questioned her further, but she was released from the Fairfield City Jail without being charged.

In January 1939 Goode was living at 1313 19th Street North. Neighbors reported a disturbance and she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct aggravated by drunkenness. She was represented by Roderick Beddow at a bench trial and was fined $5 by Judge Henry Martin. A review of her police file then showed several other arrests for vagrancy and disorderly conduct. She was brought back before Martin two weeks later on another disorderly conduct charge after a waitress at a downtown restaurant accused her of throwing glasses at her. She was given a 30-day jail sentence and she and her companion, Ross E. Hicks, were each fined $25. Birmingham Police Chief T. A. Riley notified Governor Frank Dixon of her growing list of violations, and he revoked her parole again on February 20.

On April 5, 1943 Grace married Walter Owen Wright and moved with him to Chicago, in violation of the terms of her parole. She waived an extradition hearing and submitted to being returned to Alabama to serve out her sentence at Wetumpka Prison. While there she founded a magazine entitled The Walled Off Editorial, featuring her own poems, stories, jokes and illustrations. She mailed a complimentary copy to officers Propst and Ratliff who had first arrested her in eight years earlier. In 1941 her husband, Roy Scott, who was serving a 15-year sentence for the night watchman's murder at Speigner Prison, escaped from a construction detail near the Wetumpka prison where Grace was held.

Grace Wright was granted parole again on March 26, 1943, having served 7 years of her original 10-year sentence. She and her husband made their home at 112 Tuscaloosa Avenue.

Assault case

On September 22 of that year she was arrested again. Walter and Grace Wright and Ted and Evelyn Bailey, described as old friends, had dined in adjoining booths in a nearby restaurant. About 2 hours later, when they encountered each other near the Brown-Marx Building, Ted Bailey accused Grace of stealing his wife's purse from the restaurant, touching off a melee in which the Baileys both suffered knife slashes.

After her arrest, Grace was declared delinquent again and held at the Jefferson County Jail. She, Mr Bailey, and Mr York were bound over to a grand jury by Judge Grover Boner. When Walter Wright came to visit Grace at the county jail in December, he was handcuffed himself on a warrant for the theft of a leather jacket. The assault trial opened on January 31, 1946 before Judge John Morrow. She was initially charged with assault with intent to murder, but was convicted on a lesser charge of assault with a weapon. She was fined $100 and sentenced to 191 days in jail. While she was in the Birmingham City Jail, Wright was accused of assaulting to other detainees. She was released on August 5, 1946.

2nd manslaughter case

In 1947 Grace asked Wright for a divorce, but he refused. She claimed that he had beaten her, and threatened to continue. They fought in a booth at Nick's Grill at 5th Avenue North and 21st Street on the evening of October 4. According to her version of events, he pulled a gun which went off when she grabbed for it. A waitress who grabbed the gun from her said she appeared to be preparing to shoot again. He was taken to Hillman Hospital with a wound to the upper chest, and later transferred to T.C.I. Hospital, where he died from his injuries the next night.

Grace was represented by George Traywick before trial. In court she was represented by Joe Burnett and Tom Skinner, while assistant solicitor Cecil Deason led the prosecution. She was denied bond and held for trial, again before Alta King. On the first day of trial, January 22, 1948, she changed her plea from "not guilty by reason of insanity" to "not guilty by reason of self-defense." Police officer W. M. Prier testified that Grace had said to him, "I told him I was going to shoot him. If he don't died I'll be the most disappointed woman in Birmingham, because I intended to kill him." The proceeding was marked by heated remarks between the attorneys and several calls for mistrial, all of which were overruled. In his closing, Skinner told the jury "give this woman the electric chair if you believe her to be guilty as charged," adding that, "Grace told me to tell you gentlemen that." She did not take the stand in her defense, and was described as wearing "a smart green suit, black hat, gloves and shoes." on the last day of trial.

On January 24, 1948, after eight hours of deliberations, the jury found she was guilty of 2nd degree murder. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison. After the trial, Judge King found attorney Tom Skinner in contempt and fined him $25, which he suspended after he apologized for his behavior. King received an anonymous threat on his home telephone the next week from someone complaining that Wright didn't get a fair trial.

The Alabama Supreme Court reversed that conviction on March 17, 1949. They found that the court improperly prevented the defense from bringing evidence regarding Mrs Wright having "instituted divorce proceedings against her husband," which could have supported her self-defense claim, and that King's charge that "Malice is presumed from the use of a deadly weapon" was improperly prejudicial. She was released from the Jefferson County Jail on $5,000 bond on April 7. Wardens described her as "one of the most model prisoners County Jail ever had."

At her second trial on March 12, 1951 she pleaded guilty to 1st degree manslaughter, and was sentenced by King to 5 years in prison. In June of that year, State Prison Commissioner Frank Boswell related, during a legislative hearing on improving pardon and parole procedures, that Frank Goode, Grace's father, had once handed him a letter from her daughter claiming that her father had $1,000 for him. He refused the bribe, but did not seek to prosecute them.

Medical parole

In 1952 Wright was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She was transported for regular treatments at the Montgomery Tuberculosis Sanitarium, but physicians argued that the effects of frequent transport undermined the effectiveness of the treatment. On April 28 she was paroled from prison in order to receive full-time treatment at the Jefferson County Tuberculosis Sanitarium.

During her time in prison, Wright corresponded with Alabama Review columnist Allen Rankin about collaborating to tell her story in a book. Allen visited Wright at the Jefferson County Sanitarium. In an August 1952 newspaper column he credited her with helping protect other inmates at Tutwiler Prison from mistreatment by guards, and tending to their pains when they were beaten. During another visit in September he offered Wright some whisky, or obliged her request for some. She left the Sanitarium without permission that evening, and it was Rankin who alerted Tutwiler warder Edwina Mitchell that she had done so.

Jefferson County Deputies tracked her down after "a day of taxi rides" and returned her to the custody of the state prison system pending a hearing of the Pardon and Parole Board. After her petition to reinstate the parole was denied, she lashed out at the columnist, accusing him of trying to steal her life story for his book. In September attorney Matt Murphy Jr petitioned the Elmore County Circuit Court to restore Wright's parole, and to rule on whether all state inmates with tuberculosis should be released to treatment outside of prison based on a state law requiring segregation of prisoners with infectious diseases. Judge Oakley Melton denied the petition in an October 8 ruling.

After being released again, Wright returned to Birmingham. On December 13, 1954 she was arrested after she was seen leaving a man's room at a downtown hotel and charged with vagrancy and disorderly conduct. A bellhop at the hotel was also arrested and charged with abetting prostitution. Judge Ralph Parker adjudicated the case in Recorder's Court. He fined her $100 and sentenced her to 180 days in jail.

References

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