By Two and Two: The Scandalous Story of Twin Sisters Accused of a Shocking Crime of Passion

by Jim Schutze

Overview

In “a solid account of what appears to be a shocking injustice” an award-winning journalist uncovers the bias that led to a woman’s conviction for murder (The New York Times).

When a prominent Alabama doctor is brutally killed, his wife and her twin sister are charged with conspiracy to murder. But while her twin was acquitted of the crime, Betty Wilson was charged with killing her husband. 

Probing into a trial that deliberated on Betty’s promiscuity, her alcoholism and her adulterous affair with a black man rather than any physical evidence against her, critically acclaimed journalist Jim Schutze reveals how sex, politics and corruption could possibly have led to a scandalous miscarriage of justice that kept the real killer from facing full penalty for his cold-blooded deed. A fascinating true crime account, By Two and Two is a page-turning investigation into the harrowing details of a sensational murder case.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504081962
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Jim Schutze was a journalist for the Dallas Times Herald and the Dallas Observer, and was the former Dallas bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle. He currently writes a column for D Magazine. Schutze has earned many honors for his writing, twice winning the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ Award for best commentary, and winning the Lincoln University’s National Unity Award three times for his writing on civil rights and racial issues. Two of his books were Edgar Allan Poe Award finalists for crime writing. In 2011, Schutze was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters in recognition of his career as a journalist and author.
 

Editorial Reviews

On May 22, 1992, Jack Wilson, a prominent Huntsville, Ala., ophthalmologist, was bludgeoned to death with an aluminum baseball bat by James White, a schizophrenic alcoholic. When arrested, White informed the police that he knew Betty Lowe, who was married to Wilson, and her twin, Peggy. White convinced the police that he was involved in a murder-for-hire plot with the middle-aged sisters. The police ran with White's fantasy and practically concocted his scenario for him. The state would go for capital murder charges against the twins, who would be tried separately, Betty first. A former alcoholic, she had an unquenchable sexual appetite brought on in part by her husband's impotence. She had had many affairs-particularly with black men-which the prosecution played as motive. Betty was convicted and remains on death row-although her accuser has recanted much of his testimony. Peggy, tried with a more meticulous defense, was found innocent-on exactly the same evidence that had convicted her twin. In a chilling courtroom drama, we see how the police believed a psychopath over two prominent citizens; how prosecutors allowed themselves to be blinded by the media's bright lights; and how, according to the author, ``the law is a fool.'' Schutze (Preacher's Girl) has written a gripping, graphic book about a miscarriage of justice. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Betty Wilson and her twin sister, Peggy, were charged in 1993 with conspiring to kill Betty's husband. Two juries, hearing one set of facts, found Betty guilty and acquitted Peggy. Unlike Ken Englade's account of the same case, Blood Sister (St. Martin's, 1994), this volume concludes that both women are innocent and that the drunken, drugged James Dennison White was solely responsible for the murder. Throughout, Schutze points out inconsistencies, errors, lies, etc., in the case. What is perhaps even more ghastly than the the murder is the possibility that politics, corruption, sex, and race may have affected the outcome of a trial that focused more on Betty Wilson's faults than on the evidence. A well-organized, crisp, and fast-moving account; for popular true crime collections.-Christine Moesch, Buffalo & Erie Cty. P.L., N.Y.

Library Journal