Lynn Turner, a former 911 operator from Dalton, GA was found guilty this past weekend for killing her boyfriend with antifreeze. She included it as an ingredient in the Jello. She is already serving a life sentence for poisoning and killing a former husband with the same stuff. I think they figured out she had killed her boyfriend after she was convicted of killing her husband.
The prosecutors said she killed both for the insurance money.
In light of that news my brother called me today about another matter and mentioned the story in the news about Lynn Turner, the anti-freeze killer. He asked me if I remembered Anjette Lyles. I had no idea who he was talking about. He is only a couple of years older than me but he remembers our mom pointing out the house where she lived when we drove to Macon. And he remembers Mama not wanting to talk about her because she was so evil. Almost like the devil himself she would say.
I must have been asleep on the backseat when we were having those conversations. I decided to go online tonight to find out who he was talking about. I learned just enough to arouse my curiosity. I just ordered a book about this lady devil. She was called Georgia’s most notorious murderess. And 40 years later there is probably not a whole lot of people in Macon, GA who even remember her name or anything about her.
In the 1950’s Anjette Lyles owned and operated a restaurant on Mulberry Street in Macon. Her restaurant was a popular gathering place and eatery for lawyers and businessmen. She hugged everybody’s neck when they walked in the door and everybody loved her.
Miss Congeniality she was.
The people of Macon were stunned in 1958 when this popular restaurant owner was arrested for murdering two husbands, a mother in law and a nine year old daughter. She poisoned each one of them with a form of arsenic over a period of six years. Anjette would take food and drink to her victims when they were hospitalized because of her poison. She was seen to go in the bathroom with the drink and her purse before giving the drink to her loved one who was in the hospital. When Anjette’s daughter was in the hospital having hallucinations apparently induced by her mom’s poison, Anjette would be standing nearby and instead of comforting her child, she would laugh at her. Two weeks before her daughter died, when the doctors were telling Anjette than her daughter would be okay, Anjette ordered a coffin for her daughter.
The evidence in the trial also showed that Anjette was obsessed with magic and the occult. She visited fortunetellers and had roots, powders, potions and other voodoo paraphernalia in her house. She would burn candles and tell them what she wanted. Black candles were burned when she wanted someone to die. Red candles were for love. Green candles brought luck or money.
Anjette was found guilty and was sentenced to die in the electric chair. The Supreme Court later affirmed the court’s decision. Afterwards six doctors including four psychiatrists examined her and determined she was crazy.
I wonder how many years they had to go to school to figure that out.
Anjette died in 1977 in a state mental hospital at the age of 52 of heart failure. Her trial was one of the most widely publicized trials in the history of our state. Lynn was spared the death penalty today in Dalton and will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Arsenic in the Kool-Aid in 1958. Anti-freeze in the Jello in 2007.
There are some mean crazy folks in this world. It was true in 1958 and it is true in 2007.
Mama was right.
Almost too evil to even talk about.
5 comments:
I was just a little girl but I remember Anjette . We had lunch at her place on a back to school shopping day. We just never know who we are dining with.
I just finished the book "whisper to the black candle" and I gotta tell ya after looking at her pictures, i just get a chill. The devil definitely walks among us.
Was 13 & living in Warner Robins Ga.
My mom knew Anjette well. I grew up in Macon but now live in the Chattanooga area. My family knows Carla very well. I still have pictures of my mom and Anjette hanging together well before this all happened. My mom would get a call from Anjette several times a week. When people around Anjette started dying my grandmother cautioned my mom to stay away from Anjette by telling her that when 3 people die that fast around one person. Either she is cursed or the cause. My mom lived on Pio Nono Ave during this time. She would keep Marcia at times to give her time away from the restuarant. She often kept both kids from time to time. Whenever anything was in the paper about the restuarant, Ben or Anjette mom kept the papers. Now that mom is gone I have everything she kept. Anjette was just pure evil.
One does not have to be crazy to be evil. Greed can be a catalyst, as it obviously was in both this cases.
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