The woman in the
pink suit
The Life and Death of
Olive Ruth Tilotta (1926-1957)
With
help from her daughter Mary Craighead Nolte
Picayune
Mississippi.
All
images courtesy of Mary Craighead Nolte
 |
| Photo of Ruth Taken May or June of 1957 |
The weather in July of 1957 Louisiana was
its normal warm and humid. Temperatures were set to hit the mid 90’s and only
cool off to a sullen 75 overnight. The
skies were mostly clear but here and there fistfuls of clouds said the forecast
for scattered showers and small thunderstorms just might come true. Cars passed with their windows down to catch
every breath of breeze. Often blaring as they passed one of the top two songs
of the summer. The soft and sensuous
voice of Pat Boone crooned about “Love Letters in the Sand” and competed with
the rock-n-roll Elvis Presley as he sang “Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear.”
At Grand Isle south of New Orleans the
annual “Tarpon Rodeo” was getting started. It would run from July 18-20 and
bring in hundreds of fisherman and people looking for fun to fill the cooler
nights. Of course, New Orleans was a city where there was always a party or
some entertainment to be found. The
French Quarter, Pontchartrain Beach, dozens of restaurants and clubs added to
the effervescent environment defined by
the phrase ‘Laissez les bons temps rouler’
or ‘Let the good times roll!’ People
were ready for some fun by July of 1957. Just the month before one of the
deadliest hurricanes had come inland in western Louisiana causing tremendous
damage and loss of life; before Katrina in 2005 the worst hurricane had been
Audrey of June 1957. Over 400 people in Texas and western Louisiana had died in
that storm.
Olive
Ruth Tilotta, Ruth to all of her friends as she did not use the Olive outside
the family, was born to Walter Humphries and Minnie Griffith Humphries on June
28, 1926 in Uvalde, Texas. She married
Ronald Adair Craighead (1918-1947) and then Thomas Willard Tilotta
(1916-2011).
Olive Ruth Humphries was born on June 27, 1926 in Uvalde
Texas to Walter Emery (aka Emery) Humphries and Minnie Olive Griffith. Ruth was
the 5th of their 7 children. All of her siblings survived her: Kitty Lou
Huggins (Mrs. Fred) of Lufkin TX, Ella Mae Zingery (Mrs. Guy) of Dallas TX,
Willard Emery (aka Shorty, & his wife Reba) of Lufkin TX, William Bascom
(aka WB or Dub, & his wife Norma) of Stoy IL, Ida Lee Galloway (Mrs. J C
"Jack") of Houston TX, and Minnie Jeanne (aka Jeanne) Day (Mrs. R E
"Bob") of Kenner LA. Ruth's grandparents predeceased her, her
father's parents: Bascom Humphries and Ida Lee Mosley, both born in GA but
lived in TX all their adult life; her mother's parents: William Bragg Griffith
(born MS) and Mary Ella Moore (born TX, both lived in TX all adult life.
Ruth
was the mother of 14 year old Mary Agnes Craighead and the step-mother of 15
year old Thomas Samuel "Tommy" Tilotta and 12 year old Virginia
Louise Tilotta. She and her family lived in Houston, Texas. Ruth was loved by
all her family and many friends. Ruth's first husband was Ronald Adair Craighead;
her 2nd husband was Thomas Willard Tilotta. She was a very beautiful and
talented person, being an excellent cook, seamstress, and artist. She was
buried on Aug 9, 1957 near her mother; her father was later buried between her
and her mother. The difference in information
is explained by Mary Craighead Nolte: “When tombstone was ordered, her true
date of death was unknown so in my ignorance I ordered the date of her burial.
She was killed on Jul 19 or 20, 1957.”
She
willingly took on the raising of several step-children along with her own with both
gusto and affection. Prior to that summer she died there had been some discord
in the marriage. “Even before the summer
of Mother’s death there were problems in the marriage. At least once a month Daddy came home drunk
enough to hit Mama, once she was hospitalized.” Mary Craighead Nolte
noted. “They separated several times but
she always went back. That was the
reason she went to Louisiana that last time.
Her intention was to never go back to him. Before leaving she consulted an attorney
because she wanted to take Virginia with her.
She was advised not to take her as there was never an adoption. Daddy never gave Virginia any attention… Virginia suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
and was retarded. Mama and I adored
her!!!! Mother fought for Virginia’s
rights to go to public school. She was
very instrumental in getting Houston’s
public schools to start special education.”
That
spring, however, the low simmer of strife began to build. It was if in the home was a
mirror of the storm clouds of Hurricane Audrey that brewed and bubbled in the
Gulf of Mexico.
In
July of 1957 the tension in her marriage to Tilotta reached a tipping point.
She sent her daughter to grandparents and before long she was in her grey and
green 1950 sedan driving to Louisiana where her sister lived. The decision was not an easy one for the
loving mother but one made with a hope to make life better for them someplace
else. She sent a postcard to allay worries in her daughter (see image). She could not remain. A husband with a growing
attraction to alcohol and an out of control teenage step-son threatening
violence were the last straw.
In
her last communication to her daughter she wrote:
“Don’t worry honey, everything will be
alright. God saw to it that I made it over here, broke, no tires, old car,
up-set, and no license to drive (and I was caught, but let go). I just feel
that something GOOD will happen someday. I truly do. We will forget the
unhappiness of the past. Just remember the good things, grow stronger with our
wisdom and look to the future. It will surely be brighter…”
Like
those love letters in the sand Pat Boone sang about on the radio, a tide was
coming in. It would serve to wash away all those bright hopes and dreams of the
loving mother Ruth Tilotta, and carry them away off into a sea of mystery.
She
had gone to New Orleans to stay with her sister and start a new life. Her plans included sending for her daughter
as soon as she could. A police officer
had stopped her but instead of a ticket he took her name and phone number. While she stayed with her sister she received
many phone calls from the man she called “Trooper.” The
police officer made a date to take her out on Friday, July 19. The probable
target was the large fishing festival, the Tarpon Rodeo, held at Grand Isle.
From
family accounts it is known she went to this event. “Mother did not go to Grand
Isle alone, “ noted her daughter, “one of Aunt Jeanne’s neighbors went for the
week end, hence the 2 cars. Mother
followed Faye as she (Mother) was not going to spend the night.”
At
the inquest a man, Carl Cardinal or Gardinal, gave testimony he saw the woman’s
car stopped along a road and she was with a man. She was, he said, apparently
vomiting from alcoholic overindulgence.
Her daughter, however, adds significant information to this widely
accepted scenario. “I, Aunt Jeanne, and all my family never believed Mother was
drunk. If she swallowed even 2 swallows
of liquor, she would get very ill. She
might have tried to drink but could not drink enough for most people to become
intoxicated. I am the same, just one
swallow of any type of liquor and I am vomiting. She would not have willingly drank.”
On
Sunday, August 4, 1957, two men hunting wild hogs, were in a spot about two
miles from Barataria Blvd. It was only about a block from a so-called ‘lover’s
lane’ and two miles from Crown Point fitting nicely between Marrero and Lafitte
in Jefferson Parish and across from Estelle Bar in Barataria. As they walked the area they came across
something laying in the undergrowth. In
the nearby field was the body of a woman, clad only in her red underwear, her
body at the foot of an old oak and her head in the fork of a big limb knocked
down by strong winds. It was apparent she had been there for many days. Initial reports of the ‘headless body,’ identified the location only as an isolated wooded
area in the Crown Point area of Jefferson Parish.
After some search the mysterious
“Trooper” was identified as Barry Roberts an officer from nearby Luling. At first he denied meeting or knowing the
woman. Evidence soon came to light that
the man had been with the murdered woman on the last date anyone saw her alive,
July 19.
He was fired from his position on the
grounds of providing false information by denying he had met the woman and for
conduct unbecoming on on-duty officer. Charges would be brought against him but the Jefferson
Parish Grand Jury inquiry in December 1957 returned a verdict that implied not
enough probable cause or evidence had been presented to categorically charge
him with the crime (a “no true bill” verdict).
Strangely, a month after the woman’s body was
found, a witness who had provided information to the Grand Jury, Carl Cardinal,
committed suicide and left a mysterious note for the local sheriff. He had
testified to seeing Tilotti apparently drunk at the side of the road. As her
daughter affirms this could not have been the case and it calls into question
his whole testimony. “The letter Carl
Cardinal left was very incoherently written.” Her daughter added in an
interview. “It was read several times in my presence. I do not remember all the content, I do
remember it was written in a rambling manner and barely made sense. I think Carl saw Mother’s car near one of the
wharves but cannot remember if on east or west bank of the river.”
Despite
the potential impact of the death of a major witness in an unsolved murder, the
Sheriff refused to share the contents of the note. Instead, he indicated the
witness had made a statement but its release was tied to the final conclusion
of the Tilotta case. What could that
mean? Had the witness been incorrect in
what was seen? Was the witness, perhaps, overcome by guilt for committing perjury? What
could he have to say that was so important it had to wait till the crime was
finally solved? Did he really commit suicide, or, did someone with something to
hid silence the man? Most importantly,
where is that note today?
The
state of law enforcement, and government in general, in Louisiana during the
1950’s was a volatile one. Headlines informing of sweeping executive attempts
to clean up politics and do away with corruption vied with stories of business
as usual. Although, circumstantially,
the local trooper seems the most likely suspect it may be that he was totally
innocent. It may have been that the
dignity of the local law outweighed the career of one man and Roberts might
have been the sacrificial lamb to preserve the appearances for local civic
government and law enforcement.
It
is interesting to note that there was a 1950 murder of a housewife in the area,
the 1956 murder and disappearance of Thomas Hotard and Audrey Moate also in the
area, and in 1959 there would be another housewife who disappears from just
north of the region in Baton Rogue.
 |
| Ruth with Mary, ca 1947 |
Through
the gracious act of her daughter, Mary Nolte, the true nature of this lovely
and loving mother can be shared through images and memory. She was a woman of
joy, kindness, and great love. The world
was made less when she was taken from it in such a cruel manner. Despite the
attempts of the day to paint her in shades of scarlet, in truth, she was just an
ordinary woman who loved the world and
loved color. She was so much more than a woman in red underwear. She was… The
Woman in a Pink Suit.
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