Many people believed her claim, even from the very start, and in recent years a number of groups and individuals, convinced of her innocence, had actively campaigned for her release. The prosecutors back in 1984 and 1985, however, seemed equally convinced of her guilt. Who was right?
Early Saturday morning, February 18, 1984, Patty drove with four of her children from her home north of Holden, Missouri, to a neighbor’s house, where she called authorities and reported that her husband, 35-year-old William “Bill” Prewitt, had been shot about 3:30 that morning while he and Patty were asleep in bed. Patty said she was awakened by what sounded like a thunderclap to find an intruder standing over her. He grabbed her and pulled her out of bed onto the floor. She did not get a good look at the assailant because of the dark, but she felt a knife blade against her throat. Her attacker fled when she started crying. Only then did she discover that her husband was still lying in bed—dead.
An autopsy revealed that Prewitt had been shot in the head with a small caliber weapon, and .22 caliber rifle was the only thing missing from the home. A telephone wire had been cut, but there were no other signs of a break-in. Patty Prewitt had superficial knife wounds.
On February 21, investigators found the missing rifle in a small pond on the Prewitt property, and Patty was arrested as a suspect but released shortly afterward. She was re-arrested a few days later and charged with capital murder. She was then released again on bond.
The people around Holden were stunned by Patty's arrest, and most could not believe she was guilty of the horrendous crime. She and Bill ran a lumber business in Holden and were prominent citizens. They had seemed like a perfect couple, and even Bill's family did not believe she was guilty.
At Patty’s preliminary hearing in early April, the prosecution presented evidence that bullet fragments from the victim's body matched test firings from the rifle fished out of the pond. Also, boot prints along the shore of the pond and leading out into the pond matched a pair of women's boots found at the Prewitt home. The prosecutor said it was inconceivable that an intruder had killed Bill with the rifle, used Patty's boots to take the rifle to the pond, and then returned the boots to the house.
Patty’s attorney countered that investigators had locked on Patty as a suspect early on and had then looked for evidence to confirm their theory without considering alternatives. Just because her footprints were found along the shore of a pond on her property did not mean she had killed her husband.
After the hearing, Patty Prewitt was bound over for trial but remained free on bond. Her trial got underway in Pettis County in April 1985. Most of her friends and loved ones still stood by her, but others, including her former father-in-law, were beginning to have doubts.
The prosecution claimed Patty's motives for the crime were financial gain and "sexual lust." According to the state, Patty had had at least three affairs, and she had offered each of the men money or other financial inducements to kill her husband. When they refused, she finally did it herself.
Patty’s attorney admitted that his client and her husband had had marital problems in the past, but he said their marriage had been on the mend in recent years. Patty, testifying in her own defense, admitted she'd had four affairs while married to Bill but that none of the affairs had been recent. She claimed her former lovers were lying and that she'd never offered them money to kill Bill.
The jury returned a guilty verdict, and Patty was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for fifty years. Her lawyer appealed, claiming that certain evidence was disallowed that should have been admitted. The court of appeals upheld the conviction, and Patty was taken to a correctional center to serve her sentence.
She quickly gained a reputation as a model prisoner. She earned several academic diplomas, worked as a computer programmer for the state, and performed thousands of hours of community service. More importantly, she served as a counselor, a mentor, and an inspiration to many of her fellow prisoners. Many justice system officials, religious leaders, and ordinary citizens began petitioning for clemency for Patty, and she was finally released in December 2024. Regardless of whether one believes Patty Prewitt killed her husband, if anyone accused of such a serious crime ever deserved clemency, it was Patty.
The story above is condensed from a chapter in my latest book, Gangster Queen Bonnie Parker and Other Murderous Women of Missouri https://amzn.to/4oPR7sK.
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