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.
The Night of March 16, 1938
By March 1938, Curtis was approximately 38 years old and living with several of her children at a rural home in the West Hamilton community south of Center. On March 15, according to testimony later presented in court, she purchased a .22-caliber pistol from a local hardware dealer named Fred Hudson.
On the evening of March 16, Curtis put the younger children to bed. According to statements attributed to her after the murders, she waited for them to fall asleep. Six children, ranging in age from five to thirteen, were ultimately gathered in or sleeping in the same room of the farmhouse.
Curtis subsequently admitted that she had been thinking about killing the children as she went to bed. She said she believed she was physically and financially unable to continue caring for them. She also acknowledged that she understood killing them was wrong. Her actions were therefore not presented merely as an unexplained sudden attack; her own account indicated that she contemplated what she was about to do before carrying it out.
The Murders of the Six Curtis Children
Curtis began with her 13-year-old son, Thomas O. "T.O." Curtis. She approached the sleeping children one by one and fired the pistol at close range. Investigators later reported that the children had been shot near the heart and that powder burns indicated the weapon had been discharged from very close range.
According to Curtis's detailed statement, T.O. and seven-year-old Margie Ree were sharing a bed. She shot T.O. first and then Margie Ree. Billie Burke Curtis, approximately ten years old, was sleeping on a mattress near the foot of the bed and was shot next. Curtis then shot nine-year-old Robert, followed by 11-year-old Gloria Jean and finally five-year-old Marcie Jack.
Curtis told authorities that she kissed the children before shooting them and again after they were dead. The killings were carried out while the children were largely asleep and defenseless. Although some reportedly cried out or made sounds after being shot, the other sleeping children apparently did not awaken sufficiently to escape.
Victims
- Robert Curtis, 41 — Killed June 3, 1935, at the Curtis home in the Haley's Store community near Center, Shelby County, Texas. He was Lillie Mae Curtis's husband and was shot in the head while sleeping.
- Thomas O. "T.O." Curtis, 13 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the family home in the West Hamilton community south of Center, Shelby County, Texas. He was shot while asleep.
- Gloria Jean Curtis, 11 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the family home in the West Hamilton community, Shelby County, Texas. She was one of the six children killed during the same night.
- Billie Burke Curtis, approximately 10 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the West Hamilton family home in Shelby County, Texas. Contemporary reporting placed Billie on a mattress near the foot of one of the beds when the shooting occurred.
- Robert Curtis, approximately 9 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the West Hamilton family home in Shelby County, Texas. He was named for his father, whom Curtis had killed in 1935.
- Margie Ree Curtis, 7 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the West Hamilton family home in Shelby County, Texas. She was reportedly sleeping in the same bed as T.O. Curtis when the shootings began.
- Marcie Jack Curtis, 5 — Killed March 16, 1938, at the West Hamilton family home in Shelby County, Texas. The youngest of the six victims, Marcie Jack was the last child Curtis said she shot that night.
The Child Who Was Spared
One of Curtis's older sons, James Travis Curtis, survived. Contemporary accounts generally placed him at about 15 or 16 years old. Curtis later explained that she had deliberately spared Travis because she believed he was old enough to work and support himself. An older son and daughter were reportedly away from the farmhouse and therefore were not present during the killings.
After killing the six younger children, Curtis awakened Travis and sent him to summon Sheriff J. B. Sample. When the sheriff arrived, Travis directed authorities toward the area where his mother had gone. Curtis had left the house and walked into nearby woods.
Arrest and Discovery of the Weapon
Sheriff Sample searched the wooded area near the farmhouse and eventually called out to Curtis. She answered from a location reportedly several hundred yards from the home. She was taken into custody without a prolonged confrontation.
Curtis told the sheriff that she had left the .22-caliber pistol beneath the steps of the farmhouse. Authorities recovered the weapon there. Justice of the Peace Ben Eddins examined the scene and concluded that the six children had died at the hands of Lillie Mae Curtis.
The crime horrified the surrounding community. The six children were found in their beds inside the rural home. District Attorney Wardlow Lane quickly announced that murder charges would be presented, while District Judge T. O. Davis called the grand jury into session to consider the case.
Curtis's Explanation
Curtis repeatedly centered her explanation on her inability to support the children. She told authorities that she believed she was unable to care for them physically and financially. Her statements showed that she had considered the consequences and made distinctions between the children based upon who she believed could survive independently.
The decision to spare James Travis was especially significant. Curtis said she did not kill him because he was large enough to work for himself. That statement, together with her description of waiting until the younger children were asleep, became important evidence that the killings involved deliberate decisions rather than an entirely unconscious or accidental act.
Mental Condition
Curtis's mental state became an issue during the criminal proceedings. Health officer L. S. Oates testified that he did not consider Curtis mentally normal. At the same time, he believed that she was capable of distinguishing right from wrong.
This distinction was important under the legal standards of the period. Evidence that Curtis suffered from emotional or psychological abnormalities did not necessarily establish legal insanity. Her own statements included an acknowledgment that she knew killing the children was wrong, further complicating any effort to argue that she had been completely incapable of understanding her actions.
The April 1938 Trial
Curtis went on trial in Center, Texas, on April 6, 1938. Six murder charges had been filed because each child's death constituted a separate homicide. The initial trial concerned the murder of 13-year-old T.O. Curtis.
Curtis pleaded guilty. Prosecutors presented evidence describing the purchase of the .22-caliber pistol, the physical evidence found on the victims and the statements Curtis had provided after her arrest. Hardware dealer Fred Hudson testified that he had sold Curtis the pistol shortly before the killings. Health officer Oates described the close-range nature of the wounds and gave his opinion concerning Curtis's mental condition. District Attorney Wardlow Lane introduced written statements in which Curtis described what she had done.
Prosecutors indicated that they would not seek the death penalty. Instead, the proceedings focused on lengthy imprisonment.
A 495-Year Sentence
On April 7, 1938, the legal proceedings produced an extraordinary cumulative sentence. Curtis received 99 years in prison on each of five murder counts, resulting in sentences totaling 495 years. One of the six child-murder cases was left pending rather than producing an additional sentence.
The earlier five-year suspended sentence for killing her husband was also addressed during the proceedings. Despite the fact that Curtis had committed six additional murders while subject to that suspended sentence, contemporary reports stated that the earlier sentence was ordered continued.
Curtis was subsequently transferred into the Texas prison system. The combined 495-year sentence ensured that, at least as imposed by the court, the punishment extended far beyond a normal human lifespan.
Classification as a Serial Killer
Lillie Mae Curtis is frequently included in databases and historical collections devoted to female serial killers because she murdered seven people during two distinct periods, with approximately three years separating the murder of her husband from the murders of her children. Under stricter modern definitions, however, the classification is debatable because the six children were killed during a single episode rather than in separate murders divided by cooling-off periods.
For that reason, "family annihilator," "familial murderer," or "multiple murderer" may describe the structure of the crimes more accurately. Her case nevertheless has similarities to serial murder in that she had already intentionally killed a family member, escaped immediate imprisonment through a suspended sentence, and then intentionally killed again years later.
Burial of the Children and Later Years
The six children killed on March 16, 1938, were buried at West Hamilton Cemetery in Shelby County. The cemetery became the final resting place for numerous members of the Curtis family, including members who survived the 1938 massacre.
Lillie Mae Curtis survived for more than four decades after the murders. She died on February 3, 1980, at approximately 80 years of age. Historical records associated with the Curtis family indicate that she was ultimately buried in West Hamilton Cemetery, the same cemetery containing the graves of Robert Curtis and the six children she had killed.
Legacy of the Case
The Lillie Mae Curtis case remains one of the most disturbing family murder cases in Texas history because authorities had already prosecuted her for killing her husband before the massacre of her children. The 1935 court had chosen a suspended sentence partly because numerous children depended upon her. Those same family responsibilities that helped keep Curtis out of prison preceded the deaths of six of those children in 1938.
The verified chronology places Robert Curtis's murder on June 3, 1935, followed by the murders of Thomas O. Curtis, Gloria Jean Curtis, Billie Burke Curtis, Robert Curtis, Margie Ree Curtis and Marcie Jack Curtis on March 16, 1938. The six-child massacre occurred at the family's rural West Hamilton home south of Center, Texas, and was followed within weeks by Curtis's guilty plea and sentences totaling 495 years.
Beyond questions about whether Curtis should technically be labeled a serial killer, her crimes illustrate an exceptionally rare sequence: the murder of a spouse, a suspended punishment that allowed the offender to return home, and the later deliberate killing of most of the couple's younger children. Seven members of one family died, leaving the surviving Curtis children to live with the consequences of one of Shelby County's most notorious criminal cases.
