It’s the first day of February, 1929, Franklin, Louisiana. A woman walks down a narrow prison hallway. Her eyes are covered with a blindfold. Two men hold her arms because her legs are too weak to carry her. Her name is Ada Labou. In a few minutes, she will be dead. She stops at the wooden steps.

 Someone ties her hands behind her back. She begins to pray. Then she speaks. Her voice is shaking. Don’t let me hang there too long, she says. Don’t make me suffer any more than I have. She begs one more time. Don’t make the rope so tight. Minutes later, Adah Labou becomes the first white woman ever legally executed in the state of Louisiana.

 But here is the question that still haunts this case almost 100 years later. Did Ada Labou help murder her own husband? or did 12 men send her to the gallows simply because she fell in love with another man? Court records from her trial are still debated by historians today. And by the end of this video, you will understand why.

 Welcome back to the channel. If you love true crime cases lost to history, you are exactly where you need to be. Make sure you subscribe and turn on the bell because this story only gets darker from here. James Labou held one of the most respected jobs in Morgan City. He worked as the superintendent of the town’s power plant.

 This was steady work, good work, the kind of job that made a man trusted in his community. To most people in town, James looked like a solid citizen, a hard worker, a man with a title people respected. But inside his own home, the story was different. According to testimony given in court, James had a darker side. Family members later described him as jealous and controlling.

 Some testified that he was abusive toward Ada, his wife. This was not something people talked about openly in 1927. Morgan City was a small, tight-knit, deeply Catholic community. Marriage was seen as permanent. Divorce was almost unthinkable. A woman who tried to leave her husband risked losing her reputation, her family’s respect, and her place in the community.

 So, Ada stayed. Behind closed doors, the tension in the Labou household kept building. Neighbors saw a respectable family. Few knew what was really happening inside that house. This tension would not stay hidden forever. Because in a town where a wife could not simply walk away from a bad marriage, some people began looking for another way out.

 And that search would soon put James Labbuff’s life in danger. Ada Bonner grew up in a small, strict, deeply religious corner of South Louisiana. Like most girls in her community, she was raised to follow the rules of the Catholic Church without question. A woman’s place was in the home. A wife’s duty was to stay loyal no matter what happened behind closed doors.

 By her mid30s, Ada found herself trapped in a marriage marked by fear and control. It was around this time that she grew close to a man named Dr. Thomas Dreer. Dreer was a respected physician in the area. To his patients, he was a trusted healer. To the town, he was a man of good standing. His title alone made people believe he was above suspicion.

 But behind that trusted image, Dreer was carrying on a secret relationship with Ada Labou. For a while, the affair stayed hidden. Then someone sent an anonymous note straight to Dreer’s wife. The note exposed everything. Dreer’s wife did not stay quiet. She took the note directly to James Labou, Ada’s husband. Court records suggest this single moment changed everything.

 James now knew the truth about his wife and the doctor. And in a town where scandal spread fast and forgiveness was rare, this secret was now out in the open. What happened next would set three lives on a collision course that no one could stop. After the affair became known, life in Morgan City grew tense. Neighbors whispered.

Suspicion spread through the small community. James Labou now knew about Ada and Dr. Dreer. And the anger in the household did not fade. It only grew heavier. Dr. Dreer, feeling the pressure of the exposed affair, began confiding in a man named James Beetle. Beedle worked as a local handyman and trapper. He was a familiar face around town, someone used to hard, quiet outdoor work.

 According to testimony given later in court, Dreer spoke to Beetle about the growing trouble with James Labou. What exactly was discussed between them would later become one of the most important questions in the entire case. Around this same time, Ada sent Dreer a note. In it, she spoke of arranging a friendly reconciliation by the lake.

 On the surface, it sounded peaceful, a chance to smooth things over, a calm meeting near the water to ease the tension between everyone involved. But that single note would later be studied word by word in a courtroom with both sides arguing over what it truly meant. Ada also invited her own brother and his wife to join a boat trip planned for the same evening.

 It seemed like an ordinary night out on the water. It was not because on the first night of July 1927, that quiet lake would become a crime scene and nothing in Morgan City would ever be the same again. James Beetle was more than just a handyman. Court records name him as the man who fired the fatal shots that night.

 Beedle’s own family later gave testimony that would shape the entire case. His wife and daughter told the court that Dr. Dreer instructed Beetle to bring a shotgun with him before the boat trip. This single detail became one of the strongest pieces of evidence linking Dreer directly to planning the killing. But not everything about that night fits neatly into a story of cold, careful planning.

 Ada had invited her own brother and his wife to come along on the same parogue trip that evening. This detail would later become important to people who questioned her guilt. Would a woman planning to murder her husband really invite her own family to witness it? Her defenders argued no. They believed this single choice proved Ada could not have known what Dreer and Beetle were truly planning.

 To them, she thought this was simply a peaceful outing on the water, not a setup for murder. But the prosecution saw it differently. They believed Ada was fully aware of what was coming and that her invitation to family members was just another layer of the cover story. Two very different pictures of the same woman.

 One a killer, one a victim of circumstance. Before we go further into what happened on the water that night, let me know in the comments. Do you think Ada knew what was coming? And if you’re new here, hit subscribe because this story is about to take a dark turn. The evening of the 1st of July, 1927 started like any other night in Morgan City.

 But by the time it ended, a man would be dead. James Labou headed out to a flooded pasture near town. Court records say this meeting was meant to look like a peaceful gathering by the water. A parogue, a narrow wooden boat used all across the bayus of South Louisiana, was seen being launched that night. Witnesses later testified they saw two men pushed that parogue into the water. Those men were Dr.

 Thomas Dreer and James Beetle. Somewhere out in that flooded pasture in the fading light of evening, James Labou met the men his wife was tied to. What happened next took only seconds, but those seconds would echo for decades. Two shotgun blasts rang out over the water. Here is where the story gets even more important.

 Ada and Dreer would later claim that James fired his gun first. They said it was self-defense. They said James pulled his weapon and the men on the boat only fired back to protect themselves. But no witness ever came forward saying they heard a first shot. Only two shots were heard that night. Both came from the same direction.

 Both struck James Labou. If James really fired first, where did that shot go? Why did nobody hear it? This single detail would haunt the self-defense story for the rest of the case. After the shooting, James Labou’s body disappeared. There was no funeral to plan, no body to bury, just silence. and a family left waiting for answers that would not come easily.

 For five long days, nobody knew where he was. Then on the 6th of July, three fishermen were working the waters of Lake Pure. About one mile from where the shots had been fired, they found him. James Labou’s body had been resting in the water the entire time. What happened next would take this case somewhere nobody expected.

 The news of James Labou’s death tore through Morgan City within hours. This was not just a death. This was a discovery that shocked the entire town. James’ family was devastated. A man who had gone missing for 5 days was now confirmed dead. His body pulled from Lake Polard by strangers who had only come to fish.

 But grief was not the only emotion moving through Morgan City that week. Gossip moved just as fast as the news itself. People already knew about Ada’s affair with Dr. Dreer. That secret had been out for a while. Now, with James dead, the town connected the dots almost instantly. Two names came up again and again in kitchens, on porches, and outside the church doors.

 Adah Labou, Dr. Thomas Dreer. Suspicion did not creep in slowly. It landed immediately. Within days, both Ada and Dreer found themselves at the center of a murder investigation. Their affair, once a private scandal, was now the leading theory behind a killing. Morgan City wanted answers, and the police were about to go looking for them.

 Once the investigation began, police moved quickly on Ada. During questioning, officers told her that things would go easier for her if she cooperated. To Ada, this sounded like a deal. Court records suggest she believed cooperating meant leniency, almost like a promise. Under that pressure, she gave a statement to police.

 But here is the detail that would follow her all the way to the gallows. Ada never signed that statement. That single missing signature would become a major point of debate for years to come, raising questions about how the statement was taken and whether she fully understood what she was agreeing to.

 Meanwhile, James Beetle gave his own confession to police. In it, he named Dr. Dreer as the man behind the plan. He never once named Ada. Beetle did something else that shocked the town. Against the advice of his own lawyers, he began talking freely to newspaper reporters. In exchange for these interviews, he reportedly accepted chewing tobacco as payment.

 His words ended up in print across the region, shaping public opinion before the trial even began. One unsigned statement would haunt Ada for the rest of her life. And soon, all three suspects would be standing in front of a judge. Within days of the discovery, the case moved from town gossip to formal charges. Police arrested all three suspects.

 Ada Labou, Dr. Thomas Dreer, James Beetle. By today’s standards, the speed of this case is startling. There was no long drawn out investigation lasting months or years. Charges came fast. The wheels of justice in 1927. Louisiana moved with a speed that would shock anyone watching a modern courtroom.

 Witnesses came forward describing what they saw that night near the flooded pasture. Their accounts placed Dr. Dreer and James Beetle together, launching a parogue just before the shooting. This testimony gave prosecutors the foundation they needed. Add to that Beetle’s own confession naming Dreer and the note Ada had sent about a friendly reconciliation by the lake and the state believed they had enough to build a case against all three. Formal murder charges were filed.

What had started as a private affair and a family tragedy was now a full-blown criminal case with three people facing the possibility of the death penalty. Morgan City had its suspects. Now, it wanted its trial, and that trial would move just as fast as the arrests that came before it.

 The trial opened on the 25th of July, 1927. 12 men sat in the jury box. All of them were white. Not one woman was allowed to serve. In a case built almost entirely around a woman’s private life, no woman would ever have a voice in deciding her fate. Ada took the stand in her own defense. She told the court that her earlier statement to police was never made under oath.

 She insisted the only truth that mattered was what she was saying now sworn before the judge and jury. Dr. Dreer also testified. As the trial went on, he began adjusting parts of his own story to match Ada’s version of events. To some, this looked like two people finally telling the truth together. To others, it looked like a desperate attempt to save their own lives.

 The jury did not need long to decide. After roughly 90 minutes of deliberation, they returned with their verdict. Guilty. All three defendants guilty. But the punishment was not the same for everyone in that courtroom. James Beetle, the man who fired the shotgun, received a jury recommendation of mercy. Instead of death, he was sentenced to life in prison.

 Adah Labou and Dr. Thomas Dreer were not shown that same mercy. Both were sentenced to death by hanging. Court records from this trial are still studied today, not just for what was said, but for what the verdict seemed to say about who truly deserved punishment. What happens next is impossible to believe.

 The man who actually pulled the trigger, the one whose shotgun ended James Labou’s life, would walk free from prison years later. The two people sentenced to hang never fired a single shot. Ada and Dreer’s lawyers did not give up easily. Appeals were filed. Please for clemency reached the highest office in the state. Governor Huie Long held the power to stop the execution entirely.

 On the 5th of January 1929, he granted a stay of execution. For a brief moment, it looked like Ada and Dreer might escape the gallows. That hope did not last long. Just hours later, Governor Long reversed his decision. The execution was rescheduled for the 1st of February, 1929. On that morning, Sheriff Charles Picode and Deputy Sheriff Arthur Martell led Ada from her cell. She was blindfolded.

She leaned on their arms, her legs too weak to hold her steady. At the gallows, she prayed with her hands clasped in front of her. The sheriff had to gently move her hands behind her back so her wrists could be tied. Her final words were, “Please for mercy, for the rope not to be too tight, for her suffering to end quickly.

” Moments later, the trap was released. Roughly 20 minutes after Ada’s execution, Dr. Thomas Dreer was brought to the same gallows. Witnesses reported his final words included a farewell to Ada, saying he hoped to meet her again in the next world. Both were pronounced dead. Officials said their necks broke instantly, sparing them prolonged suffering.

 James Beetle, the man whose shotgun killed James Labou, was spared the noose entirely. He was released from Angola State Penitentiary in 1941, walking free, while the two people who never fired a shot were already gone. In the end, Ada Labou was buried beside the very man she was convicted of murdering.

 James Labou and his wife, resting side by side, forever tied together by a knight neither of them could take back. For decades, her family said nothing. When one young relative dared to ask questions after being teased at school, she was slapped and told never to speak of it again. Years later, Ada’s great nephew, Marcus Montet, broke that silence.

 He believes Ada was present that night. He believes she had the affair, but he does not believe she plotted murder. He believes 12 men convicted her for loving the wrong man, not for killing her husband. That is the haunting truth of this case. What moment hit you hardest? Tell me in the comments.

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