Chapter 3: 1933, Betrayal

Nebraska Perryman was a son of a bitch. He was a lecherous man who drank too much and beat the wife that was thirty-five years his junior every time he did.

2 That unfortunate woman was twenty-six years old at the time and still attractive. Nebraska and Beatrice had two small children together, Cecil and Elaine. They were a pleasant distraction for her, but they weren’t enough to fill the void that a loveless marriage had created in her heart.

3 Every day was the same. Nebraska would drink too much, and the verbal and physical abuse would follow.

4 Things began to change, however, when Clip Miller was released from prison. Almost immediately upon his return to Athens, Clip began to flirt with his attractive young neighbor and offered the compliments that never came from her husband. It seemed that the unemployed former convict and father of nine needed a distraction of his own. Under those circumstances, it didn’t take long for the relationship to develop into a torrid affair.

5 Nebraska was oblivious to his wife’s new interest, but Mittie was no stranger to her husband’s wandering eyes. She and Clip no longer shared a bed, and the Miller household had ceased to be a place of refuge for anyone.

6 “Why don’t you leave him, Mama?” Raymond asked. “I don’t believe in divorce,” she replied. “I don’t understand how you can put up with this,” he pressed. “It’s none of your business, Son!” Mittie exclaimed as she stormed out the back door to hang some sheets on the clothesline.

7 In the meantime, Beatrice had begun to envision a different kind of life for herself and her children. She was tired of her husband, his drinking and the abuse. In short, she was tired of her life as it was, and Clip represented the hope of something better. As a consequence, she was rapidly becoming desperate and dangerous. The obstacles to her happiness (Nebraska and Mittie) would have to be removed.

8 Beatrice was pacing back and forth in the yard between the two houses when Iva Todd noticed her neighbor’s strange behavior just outside her window. She hurried out the front door and into the yard.

9 “What’s the matter, hun?” Iva demanded. “Feel right here,” Beatrice replied with a wild look in her eyes. When Iva reached her hand up to touch the place indicated, she clearly felt a revolver under her friend’s dress.

10 “Lord have mercy, child. What are you gonna do with that?” she asked. “I’m gonna kill him,” came the reply. “Now you just calm down and get away from the house for a minute. Things will be much better tomorrow,” she lied.

11 Unnoticed by either of the women, Doodle was playing in the back yard with one of her friends and saw what happened next. Iva returned to her own home, and Beatrice went inside.

12 Nebraska had just got up from a nap and was still standing in the middle of the floor when his wife entered the room. Doodle could see them clearly through the window. Slowly, Beatrice raised the gun and fired it into her husband’s chest. He dropped, and she screamed and ran out of the front door. Doodle followed from a distance.

13 Mittie was sitting on her own front porch steps when Beatrice approached the house from the street. She stopped directly in front of Mittie and raised the gun. It was pointed directly at her face when she pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. She pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened.

14 “Mama!” Doodle cried out. Distracted, Beatrice dropped the gun to her side and turned to run back to her own home.

15 The other neighbors were beginning to stir now. She ran to the outhouse at the back of her home and dropped the revolver in the toilet. She was crying now.

16 She ran back into her house and grabbed the now screaming baby out of her crib. She began swaying back and forth and trying to comfort the child.

17 It wasn’t long after that until the city police arrived. Chief Wilson and Officer Hargrove knocked on the door. “Come in,” Beatrice shouted.

18 When they did, they saw Mr. Perryman slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. The chief bent down over the body and felt for a pulse. “He’s dead,” he said as he looked up at his patrolman.

19 “Why’d you shoot your husband, Miss Perryman?” Wilson asked. “I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t shoot him,” Beatrice stammered.

20 Chief Wilson nodded to Officer Hargrove and went out onto the front porch. Several of the neighbors, including Mrs. Todd, had gathered in the front yard.

21 “Did any of y’all see what happened here?” he began. Iva Todd stepped forward and told the chief about what had transpired between her and Beatrice just a few moments before.

22 “I saw her run to the outhouse and toss the gun into the toilet,” another lady offered. “Alright, alright folks, one of my officers will be back later to take statements from you ladies. The excitement’s over. You folks return to your own homes and let us see about this here,” he finished.

23 As the small crowd began to disperse, he returned to the interior of the house and spoke to Officer Hargrove. “Take Miss Perryman down to the jail and book her on a charge of first-degree murder,” he began. “Then send John and Robert down here to go over this crime scene and take the witnesses’ statements,” he finished.

24 Back at the Miller household, another kind of drama was playing out. “If you don’t leave him now, I’m going to take the kids and disappear,” Raymond announced. “You’re not being fair to them or yourself if you stay in this shit!” he proclaimed. Still stunned by what had just happened, Mittie just shook her head in agreement and continued to stare at the floor in front of her.

25 “We’ll move to Huntsville,” he suggested. “I’ve heard that there’s plenty of work in the cotton mills there.”