Husband Killer Patricia Wells Jennings: An anthology of True Crime

By Jessi Dilman

In 1990, Patricia Wells Jennings received a sentence of capital punishment - condemned, by a jury vote, to live out the remainder of her limited days on Death Row. She'd been on trial for murder, after she'd killed her 80 year old husband by fatally beating him at a local motel. The jury had found her worthy of a death sentence, despite her persistent denials while on the witness stand.But 23 years later, the then-70 year old Jennings managed to evade the punishment that had been handed down to her by that jury, decades ago - one third of her life. Spared by what reporters described as "legal foul-ups," Jennings will now serve the rest of her life in prison. With Jennings off the list, just two female inmates remain on Death Row - Blanche Taylor Moore and Carlette Parker. The initial trial had already created enough of a stir. Over the course of the four weeks in 1990, women flocked to the courtroom to follow what they described as a soap opera type of crime."One of them said it was better than watching 'The Young and the Restless, '" a bailiff was quoted as saying at the time, in the News & Observer.The May-December marriage between Jennings and her husband, Bill - at the time of their wedding, she was 44 and he was 77 - allowed the prosecution to portray the younger woman as a manipulative gold digger, only interested in stealing an elderly man's savings. Witnesses were brought in who testified that they recalled how Bill had transferred half of his assets to his new bride, an amount valued at approximately $150,000. They'd also claimed that the tone of voice Jennings used to address her husband was cold and unloving, and could occasionally even escalate into physical abuse.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08DC6GSGB
• ISBN13: 9798667969792
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0"