Lillie Mae Curtis

Serial Killer

Lillie Mae Curtis: The Texas Family Murderer

Overview

Lillie Mae Curtis was a Texas woman responsible for the deaths of seven members of her immediate family between 1935 and 1938. Her victims were her husband, Robert Curtis, and six of their children. Curtis is sometimes included in lists of serial killers because the murders occurred during two separate episodes nearly three years apart. More precisely, however, her case is often described as one of family annihilation or multiple familial murder because six of the seven victims were killed during a single night. The Curtis family lived in rural Shelby County in East Texas, south of the town of Center. Lillie and Robert Curtis had a large family, and surviving contemporary reports described Lillie as the mother of nine children. Her first known murder occurred in June 1935, when she killed her husband. Despite being convicted, Curtis received a suspended sentence and returned to her children. Less than three years later, she carried out a far larger crime, shooting six of those children while they slept.

The Murder of Robert Curtis

On the night of June 3, 1935, 41-year-old Robert Curtis was asleep at the family home in the Haley's Store community, approximately twelve miles south of Center, Texas. Lillie Mae Curtis shot her husband in the head while he slept. The following morning, June 4, Sheriff J. B. Sample took Curtis into custody and authorities began murder proceedings against her. Contemporary reports initially noted that Curtis made no statement about the killing. Later historical accounts from Shelby County stated that she claimed Robert had been involved with other women and had used some of their children in the illegal sale of whiskey. Whatever the domestic circumstances leading up to the shooting, the evidence established that Robert was sleeping when he was killed. Curtis was eventually convicted in connection with Robert's death. Instead of being sent immediately to prison, she received a five-year suspended sentence. Accounts of the case indicate that the welfare of her large number of dependent children played an important part in the decision to allow her to remain out of prison. The leniency would have catastrophic consequences less than three years later. ...

Confirmed Victims: (7)

Thomas Curtis Age: (13), Date of Death: 1938-03-16

Survivors:

James Travis Curtis Age: (15), Date of Attack: 1938

Lillie Mae Curtis year 1938