OREGON DIVORCEE AGNES Anne âAnnieâ LeRoi arrived in Phoenix in the first few months of 1931 with her best friend and roommate, schoolteacher Hedvig âSammyâ Samuelson. They were climate refugees: Sammy had tuberculosis, and at the time the only cure for âconsumptionâ was a dry climate and rest.
Back then, many patients with TB waited until they were so far gone that the climate couldnât save them; essentially, they moved to Arizona to die. Sammy wasnât one of them; her case was mild. But, although she didnât know it, she, too, was moving to Arizona to die. She had less than nine months to live. So did Annie.
Briana Whitney, Serjio Hernandez
Back then, Phoenix was a small city in the desert, in the middle of the great depression. Those with status were in power and control.
âThat was the mentality of that time. It was a manâs world,â said former newspaper reporter Jana Bommersbach.
Bommersbach would find herself obsessed with a murder investigation, but 40 years later.
âYou put a woman away for 40 years, and youâre not sure she committed the crime?â She said.
Winnie Ruth Judd was just 26 years old. She worked as a medical secretary by day. By night, she was in a whirlwind romance with prominent Phoenix businessman Jack Halloran.