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The 1950s were called the “Happy Days”. The war was over. The economy was booming. The American Dream was in full swing.
In 1957 it was estimated that one baby was being born every second. The Lone Ranger was a hit TV show. Little boys acted out their mythical western adventures on stick horses.
But the dream became a nightmare for two brothers in Texas. Their murders at the hand of their knife-wielding mother shocked the nation.
This is the story of how Annie Williams was supposed to spend the rest of her life in prison for dismembering her boys.
But contrary to what her sentencing jury was told, Williams was set free on parole. She then jumped parole and disappeared for sixteen years until fugitive hunter Louis Fawcett got on her trail.
This is the 57-year long account of a mother who murdered her sons with malice.
Until now, the tragedy of her two sons has been long forgotten.
A pair of large ornate pink granite headstones mark their graves at the Oak Park Cemetery located in Alvin, Texas.
8-year old Conrad S. Williams. 9-year Calvin H. Williams were laid to rest side by side.
In 1955, the shocked and grief-stricken community took up a collection to bury the murdered brothers.
Years later, green mold grows on Calvin’s headstone. Vandals have tipped over Conrad’s headstone. It lies flat on the ground.
Piles of scattered brown leaves and broken tree limbs cover the boy’s graves.
Few remember the terrible end to their short lives that made front-page headlines across the world.
But veteran Texas lawman Louis Fawcett, the fugitive hunter who always got his man or woman, says it is the one case out of hundreds that will never fade from his memory.
This woman was my grandfather’s sister. She was disowned by him and no one spoke about her. I learned about her through my mother and only started researching her after his passing. My mother remembers playing with her cousins and then never seeing them again – only to learn about what happened to them years later.
I knew Annie very, very well. Believe it or not, despite what she did she was really a very nice lady. She was paroled to my best friend and she lived in the house with us. Annie and I used to talk about poetry, books, old movies and she shared stories of how she helped make airplanes during WWII. I took her to do her shopping, doctor appointments and out to lunch. She needed help shopping and various tasks because she was legally blind. All she could see was outlines of people, but not faces. She fascinated me so much because because she was highly intelligent with a well above average IQ. My friend and I had to put her in a nursing home in Hearne, TX back in 2007 or 2008 (somewhere around that time) because she became confused and somewhat combative. My friend began to experience failing health and was unable to take care of herself much less someone else and that’s when we decided to place her in the nursing home. I think Annie died around 2012 at the age of 90. At least that’s what I heard on a podcast I listened to recently. It was hard to believe she committed a crime so heinous because the Annie I came to know was not capable of such a crime. She was a different person after she did all that time in prison or maybe she had multiple personalities. I didn’t see any evidence of that, but I’m not a doctor. I read somewhere that her brother disowned her along with some other members of her family. I’ve been trying to find old TV newscasts from that time, but I finally realized that in 1955 TV was still in its infancy at that time.