I Have Killed Him and I'm Glad I Did It: The Story of LaCulia Curry

On the night of Wednesday, July 15, 1931, Winston Edwards and his wife, Irene, came to the Deer Street Police Station in St. Louis about 11:30 p.m. to lodge a complaint that a young woman named LaCulia Curry had been harassing them all afternoon and evening in and around their apartment building on Adline Street.

Two beat officers were assigned to investigate Edwards’s complaint, and they rode on the passenger-side running board of his Ford coupe as he drove them back toward his home. As they approached the apartment building, Edwards spotted Miss Curry, pointed her out to the officers, and slowed to let them off. They started around the vehicle to question Miss Curry, but before they could reach her, she whipped out a .38 caliber revolver, jumped on the driver’s side running board, and fired two shots at Edwards. One struck him in the chest and one in the hip, and he sank down in the seat.

“You have shot him!” Irene cried out.

“Yes, I have killed him,” LaCulia retorted, “and I am glad I did.” She then turned the gun on herself and shot herself in the side, inflicting a serious wound.

Edwards died almost instantly, but Miss Curry was rushed to City Hospital No. 2, where she gave a statement before lapsing into unconsciousness. She said she had been associating with Edwards lately but that they’d recently gotten into a quarrel and he had beaten her up. She showed off some bruises on her face to back up her claim.

A coroner’s inquest determined that LaCulia had indeed been harassing the Edwards couple lately, and the jury ordered her held on a murder charge.

At LaCulia’s trial in January 1932, defense testimony confirmed that Edwards and Miss Curry had, in fact, been keeping company before the shooting and had gotten into a violent argument during which Edwards had shoved her out of his car and dragged her a considerable distance after her clothes caught on the car door. LaCulia also took the stand to claim that she only killed Edwards because she was afraid he was going to kill her.

Edwards's wife, Irene, who was the main prosecution witness, testified about the harassment that she and Winston had received from Miss Curry prior to the shooting.

Charged with first-degree murder, LaCulia was found guilty of second-degree murder with a sentence recommendation of ten years in the state penitentiary. Before after her conviction, she was interviewed by a St. Louis newspaper. She expressed remorse over what she'd done and sorrow for the pain her actions had caused her mother. She said she was ready to take her punishment and to try to better her life once she got out.

LaCulia was transported to Jefferson City to serve her sentence at the women’s prison farm. She earned merit time for good behavior and had her sentence commuted after serving only half of her ten years. LaCulia came back to St. Louis to live with her mother and aunt, and she seemingly continued her good behavior. She got married and became a devoted wife and remarried after her first husband's death. In 1967, Governor Warren Hearnes granted her a full pardon. LaCulia died in 1978 and is buried in Washington Park Cemetery in St. Louis.  

This story is condensed from a chapter in my latest book, Gangster Queen Bonnie Parker and Other Murderous Women of Missouri https://www.amazon.com/Gangster-Bonnie-Parker-Murderous-Missouri/dp/1467170925.