Social Figure. Ann Woodward was born Evangeline Lucille Crowell in Pittsburg, Kansas to Jesse and Ethel Crowell. After changing her name to Ann Eden as a young adult, she moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and modelling. In 1940 she was voted "The Most Beautiful Girl in Radio." There she met and married William "Billy" Woodward, Jr., heir to a banking fortune and a prominent member of New York society. His family did not approve of the match. In the early morning hours of October 30, 1955, Ann shot and killed her husband; she claimed that she thought he was the prowler that had been terrorizing their neighbourhood. However, Billy's mother, Elsie Woodward, and many other members of their social circle, believed that Ann had killed Billy on purpose because he was about to divorce her. Life magazine dubbed it "The Shooting of the Century." Elsie stepped in to publicly stand behind her daughter-in-law, wanting to save her family from scandal, and so Ann was never charged with Billy's murder. In September 1975 she learned that Truman Capote had written a thinly disguised account of her life and her husband's murder; the article was published in "Esquire" magazine and later became part of Capote's book "Answered Prayers." Shortly before publication, she killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her story was also told in Dominick Dunne's novel "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and in the non-fiction book "This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward" by Susan Braudy. At her request, she was buried beside her husband in the Woodward family plot.
Social Figure. Ann Woodward was born Evangeline Lucille Crowell in Pittsburg, Kansas to Jesse and Ethel Crowell. After changing her name to Ann Eden as a young adult, she moved to New York to pursue a career in acting and modelling. In 1940 she was voted "The Most Beautiful Girl in Radio." There she met and married William "Billy" Woodward, Jr., heir to a banking fortune and a prominent member of New York society. His family did not approve of the match. In the early morning hours of October 30, 1955, Ann shot and killed her husband; she claimed that she thought he was the prowler that had been terrorizing their neighbourhood. However, Billy's mother, Elsie Woodward, and many other members of their social circle, believed that Ann had killed Billy on purpose because he was about to divorce her. Life magazine dubbed it "The Shooting of the Century." Elsie stepped in to publicly stand behind her daughter-in-law, wanting to save her family from scandal, and so Ann was never charged with Billy's murder. In September 1975 she learned that Truman Capote had written a thinly disguised account of her life and her husband's murder; the article was published in "Esquire" magazine and later became part of Capote's book "Answered Prayers." Shortly before publication, she killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Her story was also told in Dominick Dunne's novel "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and in the non-fiction book "This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward" by Susan Braudy. At her request, she was buried beside her husband in the Woodward family plot.
Bio by: Jennifer M.
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