Gladys Broadhurst

Overview

Gladys Lincoln Broadhurst, also known as Gladys Elaine Broadhurst, murdered her husband Willis (W.D.) Broadhurst. She planned the killing with 23-year-old Alvin Lee Williams.

Timeline

• May 19, 1946 — Gladys Broadhurst and Dr. Willis D. (W.D.) Broadhurst were married in Reno, Nev.
• Early 1946 — Dr. Broadhurst proposed marriage to Gladys.
• February, 1947 — Gladys Broadhurst was tried for first-degree murder in Malheur County Circuit Court.
• March 13, 1947 — The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty of first-degree murder; Judge M.A. Biggs sentenced the 40-year-old Gladys Broadhurst to life in prison.
• July 1948 — The Oregon Supreme Court upheld Gladys Broadhurst’s conviction and life sentence.
• October 14, 1946 — Dr. W.D. Broadhurst was dead by 4 p.m.
• October 19 — Gladys Broadhurst joined Alvin Lee Williams in jail.
• 1956 — After serving nine years of her life sentence, Gladys Broadhurst was paroled from the Oregon State Penitentiary; she was 50 at the time of her release.

Background

Gladys married a young Army lieutenant named Leslie Lincoln. After the war ended, she was living in Taft, California when she tracked down W.D. Broadhurst from Burley.

In August 1945, his sister recalled that Doc replied in writing to one of Gladys’s letters: “In answer to your question, I am not married; therefore I have no heirs and dependents.”

Gladys continued to correspond with Doc and apparently met once in New Mexico. She set her trap on May 19, 1946, in Reno, when she and Doc were married. On the marriage license, Gladys admitted she was married previously, but stated that Lt. Leslie Lincoln had died in England during the war.

Gladys told her new husband that she was in the process of inheriting $3 million from her Aunt Mary from Hawaii. She also claimed that Leslie Lincoln’s evil twin, Lester, a brutal psychopath, had taken his brother’s place and was trying to get his hands on her inheritance. Explaining that she had to take care of the estate of her deceased aunt, Gladys sent Doc back to the ranch in Idaho.

Shortly after he returned to the ranch, Doc wrote to her expressing his fear for her safety. In his letter, Doc wrote: “I bet you had another mix-up with that brute. I want you to get out of that town,” Doc wrote to his “wife.” “Please honey, get away from there . . . get away from all that fear . . . I want you to get away as soon as possible, change address at postoffice… I wonder if I could get Sacramento to deputize me this fall and I’ll get that dirty brute.”

In fact, there was no “Lester Lincoln.” Lt. Leslie Lincoln was alive and well and in the process of obtaining a divorce from Gladys on the grounds of extreme cruelty. A week after Gladys married Doc Broadhurst in Reno, Lt. Lincoln learned of the ceremony and amended his complaint to include bigamy.

The report of Lt. Lincoln’s death was not the only news that Gladys was exaggerating. Mary Johnson of Honolulu, Hawaii — Gladys’s aunt — was hale and hearty and had nothing resembling an estate of $3 million.

During the late spring of 1946, Gladys became ill due to her addiction to nembutal, a prescription sleeping pill. Doc Broadhurst brought her to the Idaho ranch where she recovered.

During her rehabilitation, Gladys became acquainted with 23-year-old Alvin Williams, a ranch hand on Doc Broadhurst’s ranch. Williams and Doc were close and each considered the other to be a friend. Over time, Williams fell under the spell of Gladys Lincoln Broadhurst.

The offence

Gladys and Alvin Williams planned to kill Dr. Broadhurst on a lonely country road, make the death appear to have been committed by an unknown assailant, and claim that the killing was tied to her “evil twin” story.

They followed Dr. Broadhurst’s car along a lonely country road into Malheur County on Oct. 14, 1946, where Williams stopped the vehicle, slugged the physician over the head with a heavy wrench, and shot him with a shotgun.

Prosecutors presented key elements to the jury during Gladys Broadhurst’s murder trial in Malheur County Circuit Court in February 1947. The estate at stake was described as the doctor’s $200,000 estate.

Alvin Lee Williams testified that he and Gladys planned the murder. Williams later told police the plan involved stopping Dr. Broadhurst, hitting him, knocking him unconscious, destroying the body, moving it so it would never be found, and then shooting him or otherwise ensuring he would never come back. Williams also said: “She asked me if I couldn’t wait along the road between Caldwell ranch and the Jordan Valley ranch and have him stop and I was to hit him, knock him unconscious and then destroy the body, move him away some place where he would never be found, and after I had moved him, I was to shoot him or plug him or anyway to make sure that he would never be, that he would never come back,” he later told police.

Williams described getting liquid courage. Williams told police: “Well, I had told her that I didn’t know whether I could go through with that or not, that I couldn’t stand the sight of human blood and she asked me if whisky would help me,” Williams told police. “I said yes, that whisky would help settle my nerves and … so she went and …she got me some whisky.”

Williams said he awoke and prepared for the doctor’s drive, including using a bedroll, shotgun, wrench, and quart of whisky. He left the Caldwell ranch around 11 p.m. and waited.

Dr. Broadhurst arrived about 3:30 p.m. and offered assistance. Williams explained that the fuel line had become clogged, and said that he heard Gladys’s voice urging him on. Williams testified: “I tried to quit then, and I seemed to hear a voice saying, ‘Don’t fail me! Don’t fail me! If you do, for God sakes don’t come back,’ and I hit him,” Williams confessed.

After the blow, Williams stated that Dr. Broadhurst reeled around and asked: “What hit me, Al?”

The forensic evidence and Williams’s statement did not agree about what happened next. Williams later told police that he handed Doc his shirt to stop the bleeding and abandoned the plan to kill him. The record described that Doc came at Williams with a knife to defend himself and Williams was forced to use the shotgun to finish him off. The wounds on Doc Broadhurst’s corpse were described as indicating that he was hit three times with the wrench and then slain by a shot to the chest with the shotgun.

By 4 p.m. on Monday, October 14, Dr. W.D. Broadhurst was dead. Williams loaded Doc’s body into the trunk of his car and dumped it “in a lonely gulch” after nightfall. He drove Doc’s pickup with a horse trailer attached to a side road two or three miles away and rode the horse back to the Model A. Williams released the horse and returned to the Caldwell ranch.

Williams disposed of the shotgun and burned his bloody clothes, then went to bed. Meanwhile, Gladys laid groundwork to explain Doc’s disappearance.

Gladys told Dr. Adams and his wife, Broadhurst’s nephew, that Doc had been arguing with a man in Caldwell named Red Wells. She told them she was afraid Red would follow Doc and “do him some injury.”

Gladys had her story change after Doc’s disappearance. Monday evening, Doc’s horse turned up near the Succor Creek junction. A man who found the horse called Gladys. Gladys thanked him, expressed concern, and hung up. She did not mention the Adams until asked. Early Tuesday morning, the man found the pickup and trailer and called Gladys again. Instead of participating in the search, Gladys took an overdose of nembutal. The doctor who treated her addiction earlier found her “nervous and seemed to be somewhat anxious or worried, and she was lamenting, trying to tell me a story of Dr. Broadhurst being lost, a story which was incoherent.”

By later Tuesday, Gladys had apparently recovered but failed to join the search operation. Neither did Alvin Williams, who spent much of Tuesday repainting his Model A from green to black and replacing its tires. By Wednesday, Gladys and Williams participated to allay suspicion. Sheriffs of the two counties that constituted the Jordan Valley had been advised about the strange green Model A Ford loitering at Succor Creek Junction.

Investigation

Authorities suspected Gladys and Alvin Williams due to their actions before and after Doc’s disappearance. By Wednesday afternoon, Alvin Williams was in custody in Malheur County, Oregon.

In his first interview, Alvin told authorities about Lt. Lincoln’s evil twin story stalking the Broadhursts. While Alvin was held in the Malheur County jail, Gladys attempted damage control in Idaho. She told a neighbor that Oregon officials arrested the wrong man and portrayed Alvin Williams as Doc Broadhurst’s best friend. She blamed the killing on Lester Lincoln and showed a photo of Leslie Lincoln, claiming it was Lester. The neighbor recalled her saying: “I’ve have just been living in hell for fear.”

Gladys took the neighbor to the Canyon County sheriff in Idaho. She repeated her tale and embellished it with the imaginary threats Lester had made against Doc Broadhurst.

A note appeared at the Caldwell ranch on Thursday morning. The note said: “Your cowboy strongarm didn’t do it, but don’t start anything or I’ll get you same as I did Doctor. I warned you and I need some cash. Sweet Pea.” Gladys took the note to the sheriff in Idaho.

Gladys arranged for an attorney, Cleve Groome, to show up at the Caldwell place about 4 p.m. She and Groome left together and did not return until 11:30 p.m. During that time, they picked up a young man named Rufus Lanphear and took him to the Malheur County jail to meet with the sheriff. Rufus told the sheriff that Williams had been with him all day on Monday. The record described that Lanphear later recanted his claim.

While Gladys and Groome were looking for Lanphear, Alvin Williams broke down and told authorities the whole tale. He led Sheriff Glenn and the Oregon district attorney to the location of Doc’s body and to the location of the murder weapon, which he had dropped into a gopher hole.

When Gladys was advised that Williams had confessed, the record showed that Gladys “looked sad, and had quite a stare in her eyes.”

Investigators also obtained evidence described as damning against Gladys, including a note supposedly written by the fictitious twin brother of her deceased fifth husband, Lester Lincoln. Prosecutor Blaine Hallock introduced evidence that Lester Lincoln was still alive and had no twin brother; in fact, he had no brothers at all.

Arrest and custody

By Wednesday afternoon after Doc’s disappearance, Alvin Williams was in custody in Malheur County, Oregon. Gladys joined Alvin in jail on Saturday, October 19.

Trial

Gladys Broadhurst’s murder trial took place in Malheur County Circuit Court in February 1947 before a jury of nine men and three women. Special prosecutor Blaine Hallock portrayed Gladys Broadhurst as a greedy, self-indulgent, scheming woman who mined the lives of two husbands and plotted the murder of a third.

During the trial, the note connected to the purported “Lester Lincoln” story was introduced. The jury deliberated and returned a unanimous verdict against Gladys Broadhurst.

The jury verdict was returned on March 13, 1947. The jury found her guilty of first-degree murder. The jury asked the judge to be lenient.

The defense included Alvin Williams taking the witness stand and confessing to the murder, telling the jury he and the defendant planned the murder at the Broadhurst ranch near Jordan Valley.

Sentencing

Judge M.A. Biggs sentenced the 40-year-old defendant to life in prison. Alvin Lee Williams was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Willis Broadhurst.

Appeals

The Oregon Supreme Court in July 1948 upheld Gladys Broadhurst’s conviction and life sentence.

Outcome

Gladys Broadhurst was paroled from the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1956 after serving nine years of her life sentence. She was 50 at the time of her release.

Other details

Gladys had married multiple times and was described as married to her fifth husband Lester Merle Lincoln when she hatched a plan in the summer of 1945. She had been still married to Lester Merle Lincoln when she planned to snag Dr. Willis D. Broadhurst.

Alvin Williams described Gladys as providing stories and promises. Williams testified: “I said no I hadn’t,” he later testified. “I said, however, he might get lost while he was hunting for cattle, and, well, she said if he did get lost he would have to not never be found.”

Gladys and Alvin took a journey that included spending the night of August 6, 1946 at the Big Chief Auto Camp near Truckee, California. Williams testified about an effect of a kiss at the camp: Q. What effect did that have upon you, Mr. Williams? A. That didn’t have much effect, but the next one did.

At the Big Chief Auto Camp, Gladys and Williams were assigned to different cabins, but in the middle of the night Gladys came to Williams and said she was afraid to sleep alone. Williams agreed to sleep in her bed. Williams stated that from that point on they were lovers.

The record described that Gladys and Alvin watched “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (the Lana Turner-John Garfield version) and that Gladys said: “It’s too bad that something like that can’t happen to the doctor,” Gladys said. She then asked Williams about accomplishing the task.

Gladys and Williams passed through Reno long enough to get married and she used the alias “Elaine Hamilton.”

Doc Broadhurst visited his wife at the Big Chief Auto Camp for three days in early September and returned to Idaho without his wife. Gladys later wrote a letter that began “Darling Daddy Dearest,” and reported that things were going well and that Al was being a true gentleman. She wrote: “He has been very nice to me,” and “I’m glad you chose him as he is honest and decent.” To Williams, she portrayed Doc as “more animal than man and that he was cruel to her,” and she continually fed him a diet of lies and half-truths.

Williams described being smitten and later admitted he “would do pretty near anything to get her.”

A green Ford Model A coupe was purchased for the murder plan for $200 borrowed from Gladys to get Williams from Caldwell to the Jordan Valley. Williams later repainted it from green to black and replaced its tires.

Gladys warned Williams to be ready for the doctor’s arrival, and Williams swore Gladys told him: “‘Get up there, be there when he gets there,’” and “‘For God’s sake don’t miss.”

The record stated that Williams left the Caldwell ranch at about 11 p.m., waited with a bedroll, shotgun, wrench and quart of whisky, and awoke at 6 a.m.

A rancher whose place was about 2 miles north of the junction passed Williams’s car around 8 a.m., and another ranch hand checked again at 1 p.m. The record described that Williams declined assistance when asked.

The record said that Williams loaded the body and dumped it after nightfall, drove away with a pickup and horse trailer, and returned to the ranch, leaving again to dispose of the shotgun and burn bloody clothes.

Gladys told Mrs. Adams that she knew Alvin couldn’t have done it because she knew where he was every minute on Monday and said “anyway he isn’t strong enough.”

Gladys’s defense in trial and the prosecution’s case both referenced the “evil twin” story involving Lester Lincoln. The prosecution also introduced evidence that the supposedly deceased Lester Lincoln was still alive and had no brothers at all.

Alvin Williams later confessed and joined the legal process in custody and investigation in Malheur County.

Gladys Lincoln Broadhurst was subsequently convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.