Chapter 40 first quarter

Saturday, June 8, 1985, Cambono, Texas. In the evening, people saw several police officers using a yellow cordon to surround the garden of Betty Lou Pitts' home, including the surrounding blocks.A large flatbed truck pulled a bulldozer, and the fire brigade also sent a super lighting system.Soon, the brigade of police arrived, bringing with them countless reporters. The crowd of onlookers talked a lot.Betty's neighbors told everyone in an insider's tone that the police were going to dig up the well-shaped flower bed in the front yard, because Betty's fifth husband, Jimmy Petz, might be buried there.

The dig was directed by Detective Superintendent Rick Ruth of the Henderson Regional Police Department and Chief Detective Michael Oberlin of the District Attorney's Office.This afternoon, they had just obtained a search warrant signed by Judge Jack Holland.Contrary to the excitement of the people—including the combatants, on-site reporters and onlookers—they were more worried.It can be said that this search warrant was hard-won. There was no witness or physical evidence. All they used to convince Jack Holland were rumors.Besides, excavation is not the same thing as general search. If there are no dead bodies under the well-shaped flower beds, the judge will definitely not spare them.

Rick Roos hadn't slept a wink for three days, talking to people, sorting out recordings, and checking testimony.Still, he didn't need caffeine or anything to pick him up, as he put it in a self-deprecating way: "A hunting dog doesn't feel lice." The secretary of the police station joked: "Don't forget to leave a lice for your wife." A photo, otherwise she won't remember what you look like." At this moment, Rick Ruth waved helplessly to Michael Oberlin: "Okay, there is no turning back when you shoot the bow, let's do it." Betty's house is located on the Red Cliff Ring Road by Cedar Lake, covering an area of ​​half an acre, or more than 2,000 square meters, with no neighbors around.In fact, this home is not a real house, but a 70-foot (about 21-meter) large RV, also called a trailer-type mobile home, parked in a forest clearing.All kinds of flowers and plants are planted around the caravan, the well-shaped flower bed is in front, and there is a small wooden house used as a storage room in the backyard.One side of the garden abuts a brook that flows into Cedar Lake, and a winding path leads to the lake.

In the middle of the night two days ago, a mysterious fire destroyed half of the trailer.Since then, there have been police officers on duty monitoring the garden 24 hours a day. After the bulldozers chipped away the upper half of the wooden enclosure of the well-shaped planter, on-site crews began digging in the remaining two-foot-high brick foundation.This is an archaeological excavation.Wearing gloves, the police officers carefully planed off the wet reddish-brown soil, and from time to time used brushes or small brooms to clean the soil layer on small stones or broken bricks to see what happened.The police photographer kept pressing the shutter, and the stenographer quickly wrote down all the findings and the text description of each photo in his notebook.

At a depth of about 1 foot, the officers' fingers touched something cloth-like through the glove, which was a camping sleeping bag.Although it has been soaked and corroded by muddy water for nearly two years, the color of blue on the outside and red on the inside can still be vaguely recognized. Medical examiner Charles Lynch, who traveled 60 miles from Dallas, knelt before the opened sleeping bag.The shape of the skeleton, which has turned dark brown, makes it easy to imagine that the deceased was curled up like a baby in the sleeping bag, apparently buried in the ground before the body became rigid.A few strands of brown hair were still attached to the skull, and the rotten skin remained where the nose used to be, as well as the two rows of rough teeth and gums, which made the skull face look scary. Smile.

Charles Lynch looked at it for a long time, pointed to a small round hole above his left eye, and said two words softly: "Bullet hole." A few days later, a forensic autopsy confirmed that it was indeed the remains of 46-year-old Jimmy Don Pitts. Betty married seven times in her life and had five husbands before and after.Her full name should be Betty Lou Donovan Branson Long Snook Buck Pitts. Betty was born on March 12, 1937, and her earliest name was Betty Lou Donovan. Before she was 5 years old, she lived with her parents and brother in a small village in the "tobacco country" of North Carolina.There is a large tobacco company there, and the surrounding fields are planted with tobacco leaves.In Betty's childhood memories, she hardly ate milk and fresh vegetables.The dilapidated and unheated house made Betty suffer from cold and fever all winter.Struggling in poverty, Betty longed for another life, which was a velvet world described to her by her mother who went to work as a servant in a rich family during the slack.Years later, when she had her own house, the RV, Betty was able to remove a corner from the clutter and put a small round table covered with a heavy blue velvet tablecloth, and put it on. A vase and perennial flowers.

When the Donovan family moved to Danville, Virginia, Betty's parents found work in a cotton mill, and the family finally moved into a heated house.That winter, Betty suffered from measles, and the continuous high fever made her deaf in both ears, and her hearing loss seriously affected her later grades in school, so that Betty stayed in the fourth grade for a year. When Betty was 8 years old, her mother gave birth to her younger brother Kimi, and two years later, her younger sister Kitty was born one after another.Another four years later, without any warning, my mother suddenly lost her mind.Before long, my father started drinking heavily.

This series of changes made Betty no longer want to stay at home.So when she met 18-year-old Robert Franklin Branson at the age of 15, she married herself without hesitation.At that time she had just finished ninth grade (third grade). A year later, shortly after the birth of their eldest daughter, Faye, the happy and gentle bride of the Branson family was gone, replaced by a woman who was always complaining and angry.Especially when Betty saw that her former classmates and friends were still going in and out of the ballroom, theater, and party games. While sighing for the youth that died young, she poured all her grievances on her husband.In order to please his wife, Robert left the zipper factory where he worked and went to the shipyard to find a job with heavy physical strength and high wages.However, this still failed to tie Betty's heart, and the young couple soon separated.

Betty, who brought her daughter back to her mother's house, was depressed all day long. She only knew what she had lost, but she didn't know what she wanted.One day six months later, Betty swallowed two bottles of sleeping pills, but attempted suicide.The natal family hurriedly informed the son-in-law to take Betty away. The following year, the second daughter Connie was born, and Robert also found a job in the construction industry in Texas, so the family moved to Mosquet, a southeastern suburb of Dallas.Here, the Branson family expanded rapidly, and four children came one after another: in 1959, the third daughter Shirley, in 1962, the fourth daughter, Fei Li, in 1964, the eldest son Robert Jr., nicknamed Robin, in 1966, Youngest son Bobby.

At this time, Betty was only 29 years old, and she was still beautiful, especially her waist, and it was not at all obvious that she had given birth to six children.Betty trained her two eldest daughters as babysitters at home, while she went out to have fun more and more frequently.Finally, after many warnings, one day in 1969, Robert Branson officially filed for divorce, and soon formed a new family with a young woman. Betty regretted it.She repeatedly told the children she still loved their father and kept a picture of Robert on her nightstand. Later, her children also said that although Betty remarried many times, she was never as happy as she was with Robert before.

My second daughter, Connie, said: "My fondest memories of my mother are before my parents divorced. At that time, my mother really tried hard to be a good wife and mother. Whenever my father worked night shift, she would go to bed before going to bed. Re-make up, so that even if my father comes home at two or three o'clock in the morning, what he sees is still a clean and beautiful face." After the divorce, all six children belonged to Betty, and Robert paid $350 a month in child support.Financial constraints made Betty worry all day long, but this did not prevent her from going to bars and dancing halls with heavy makeup and fashionable clothes.Soon, Fei Yi followed Betty's footsteps and got married in a hurry at the age of 15. A few years later, Betty sent 10-year-old Feili and 8-year-old Robin to their father and stepmother's home. When parting, Robin cried and said, "Mom, when will you pick me up?" Betty said: "Soon." No one expected that this "soon" would be 10 years. Betty's family continued to disintegrate.Connie moved to the residence of her sister Fei Yi, while Shirley fought guerrillas for three days at the host's house and five days at the west's house.Only the youngest son, Bobby, has been with his mother, and he looks exactly like his mother. In early 1970, Betty met Billy York Long, a painter who was 7 years older than her, and the two soon talked about marriage.At this time Betty began to gain weight.In order to look beautiful at the wedding in July, she asked the doctor to prescribe weight-loss drugs for her, and took overdose, thinking that the more drugs the better the effect.As everyone knows, while this brought her side effects such as insomnia and headaches, Betty's temper became worse and worse. The couple started fighting within a few days of their marriage, and Billy often beat her with black noses and swollen faces.In less than half a year, Betty's second marriage ended. However, the love-hate relationship between her and Billy didn't end there.Betty often saw Billy trailing her in the rearview mirror while driving, or found Billy waiting for her in the car across the street when she came home in the middle of the night.Meanwhile, the violence between the former couple is escalating. In May 1971, Billy broke Betty's nose.A few months later, he punched Betty in the left eye again and went to the hospital for several stitches.Although the hospital did not call the police as required, the photos taken by the doctor became famous all over the country a few years later. Betty and Billy also continued to go to the nightclub where they first met, deliberately making out in each other's presence. On January 17, 1972, Betty picked a man Billy didn't like to dance to.Billy was so jealous that he rushed to Betty to leave immediately or kill her.Betty stopped a police car on the way home. She told the patrolman: "My ex-husband is following me. If you see a 1957 white Ford car, it is him." 〓 At 1:45 a.m. the next day, the Dallas Regional Police Department received a call from Betty.Police officers who arrived on the scene found Billy at the back door of Betty's apartment, shot twice before rolling down three steps. Betty told the police that when she came home from the nightclub, her second daughter, Connie, told her that Billy had called several times, and then Billy called again and said he would come over to clean her up.Terrified, Betty tells Connie not to open the door, and goes to the bedroom to find the pistol.Ten minutes later, Billy did come, and he knocked on the front door to the back door, threatening to smash the door if he didn't open it.Betty asked Connie to call the police while opening the door.Billy rushed in and shoved her onto the kitchen bar.Betty raised his gun, but Billy ignored Betty's warning and continued to approach Betty.In desperation, Betty pulled the trigger.She couldn't remember how many times she had fired, but she kept knocking Billy out the door. The police said, since it was Billy who was approaching you, why both shots were in the back? Betty was speechless. The police arrested Betty for "intentional injury". Connie's testimony agrees with Betty's, but Billy's daughter, Barbara, tells another story.She said it was Betty calling to find her father, and Betty was crying on the phone, asking Billy to come over and take all his things right away.Billy asked, how many times are you going to shoot me?Betty said, I will not shoot.Billy asked again, how many police are you going to call?Betty said, I will not call the police.Billy said, let's talk in another place, Betty is not happy.Billy left at 1:10. Before leaving, Barbara advised him not to go, but Billy went anyway. As if by appointment, both Connie and Barbara said they overheard Betty and Billy's conversation on another extension at their home. Billy was sent straight to the operating table to have two bullets removed, and it took him a week before he could speak.This is the statement recorded by the police next to his sickbed: Betty called him and asked him to come and talk, Billy said, it was too late, let's talk tomorrow.Betty said, if you don't come now, you never will.Billy gets to Betty's back door, but Betty tells him to fuck off.Billy thought she might have changed her mind, and turned away.Just then, Betty opened the door and shot him twice. Billy was released from hospital three weeks later, but a long recovery still awaited him - he had to learn to walk again.Betty returned to Billy's side again, and patiently accompanied him every day to learn to walk in the nearby streets. The scene moved many neighbors and passers-by. Before Betty's "intentional injury case" started, Billy rushed to the court on crutches to withdraw the lawsuit, and paid a total of $150 in fines and handling fees for her. Betty also took the opportunity to ask the police for the pistol she used as the murder weapon.A month later, Betty and Billy remarried. Some people say that Betty remarried in exchange for Billy's withdrawal.Whether that's accurate or not, Betty and Billy's second marriage lasted only a month.Later, in order to completely cut off Billy's thoughts, Betty left Texas and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas with her youngest son Bobby from her ex-husband.At this time Billy is already a disabled person. Five years later, Billy York Long died of gunshot wound syndrome at the age of 47. Betty became a cashier at a "7-11" store in Little Rock, and soon met Ronnie Snoko, an auto parts salesman at a bar.After living together for four years, Little Rock native Ronnie moved back to Dallas with Betty, who said she missed her children in Texas. Betty and Ronnie were married in Dallas in February 1978. Many people speculated that Betty moved back to Texas after learning that Billy Long had passed away and was sure that there would be no more trouble. Betty continued to take diet pills, even though she was very thin.Her personality has become more and more weird, suspicious, and changeable, and she can often be a different person in an instant, turning her face when she says it is wrong.A minute ago, she was soft-spoken and tender and affectionate, and a minute later, her eyes were full of murderous looks.Betty has always suspected that Ronnie, who is three years younger than her and well-dressed and well-mannered because of the nature of her job as a salesman, is seducing her daughters.She had a fit of rage one night when she saw Ronnie alone in the kitchen with one of her daughters.An emotionally tearing battle makes Ronnie make up his mind to break up with Betty. On the morning Ronnie was about to leave for Arkansas, he was loading luggage into the trunk of his car when he heard a hiss, and saw Betty driving the car slamming on the accelerator and hitting him at full speed.It was too late to escape, Ronnie clung to the car body, Betty's car passed him... When Ronnie Snowco finally hit the road, he was glad he made it out of Dallas alive. Ronny didn't know at the time that Betty had shot and wounded her second husband. In August 1979, Betty, who lived alone after divorce, had a whim and wanted to be a stripper.She found the manager of the "Charlie's Angels" nightclub, and the manager asked her to go to the test stage on Tuesday night, August 23. There were many guests that night.Regular customers all know that the test bench is the most enjoyable.Those first-time girls always make all kinds of unexpected little mistakes, which is hilarious. Betty arrived early and she had to get ready.Although the 10-year-old age was concealed, the vicissitudes of life on his face were there.She has to show the air of someone who has experienced it, and pretends to understand even if she doesn't know it. So when the head waitress explained to her how to use the metal nipple ornaments, Betty said she knew how to do it.As it turned out, she didn't know it.