{"id":283602,"date":"2026-07-01T14:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/283602\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:31:16","slug":"the-socialite-new-york-never-forgave-ann-woodwards-story-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/283602\/","title":{"rendered":"The Socialite New York Never Forgave | Ann Woodward\u2019s Story | Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"Just before tragedy struck. William Woodward, Jr., with his wife, Ann, days before he died of gunshot wounds at his Oyster Bay Cove, Long Island, estate. The picture was taken at the Embassy Club in the Ambassador Hotel in New York. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Ann Woodward<\/a> killed her husband, William Woodward Jr., in cold blood. Didn\u2019t she? If you recognize her name at all, you know her as the woman who shot her banking heir husband in the middle of the night and got away with the (purported) crime by claiming she thought he was a burglar. Truman Capote<\/a> called her \u201cBang Bang\u201d and referred to her as a \u201cjazzy little carrot top killer\u201d who had been \u201cbrought up in some country slum way.\u201d Truman Capote remains positively unmatched for bitchiness but, like many others, may have somewhat overstated the horrors of her origin. <\/p>\n

Born Angeline Lucille Crowell in 1915, she came from a farm in Kansas. Her mother, Ethel, was a schoolteacher, and her father, Jesse, would later leave farming to become a streetcar conductor. The couple divorced during Ann\u2019s childhood, after which Ann had little to do with her father. She was remembered as being a \u201csweet, quiet little girl\u201d who spent an inordinate amount of time eating ice cream sodas in her cousin\u2019s drug store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Mrs. William Woodward Jr. in 1938, when she was known as Ann Eden, and was a dancer at the Copacabana and also a Broadway Showgirl. The photograph is from the files of Murray Korman, Broadway Photographer. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Fortified by this diet, she grew into a willowy fashion model. She moved to New York City in 1937 to work for the John Robert Powers agency and was soon gracing magazine covers. She then turned to radio acting, playing roles in CBS soap operas like \u201cJoyce Jordan, Girl Intern\u201d and \u201cLincoln Highway.\u201d She was called \u201cthe most beautiful girl in radio.\u201d Ann also took on some small roles in the theater, appearing in a Noel Coward play, Set to Music, where she was reviewed as \u201cone of the ten most beautiful girls in New York.\u201d And she danced at the Copacabana nightclub, where uncharitable people would often describe her not as \u201cbeautiful\u201d but as a \u201cshowgirl\u201d or, just as often, \u201ca hooker.\u201d<\/p>\n

During these years, she was remembered as being extremely ambitious. She studied French, copied the mannerisms of the English actors in Coward\u2019s plays, and, according to her biographer<\/a> Susan Brandy, \u201cbelieved no one was truly unhappy on the French Riviera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Ann Woodward. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

In 1943, when she met William Woodward Jr., her life was going fairly well. Though the press billed their marriage as a Cinderella story, Ann wasn\u2019t quite the country mouse rescued from her servile chores by one of America\u2019s richest men.\u00a0 Though it is true, they came from different worlds. William Woodward Jr. (\u201cBill\u201d) was as true a blue blood as Groton and Harvard could produce. His father was the chairman of the Central Hanover Bank and Trust. They were a family that loved horses and had produced three Kentucky Derby winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

22-year-old Bill had also never been with a woman when he met Ann. His friends thought he was gay. He was not. He was shocked and delighted when she welcomed him to her apartment in a blue negligee, seducing him with lines she had memorized from movies. He was immediately sexually obsessed. Bill\u2019s father liked her, though he thought Bill should give her an allowance and an apartment, not marry her. His mother did not approve\u2014a feud which would eventually birth the Dominick Dunne<\/a> novel The Two Mrs. Grenvilles<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"(Original Caption) William Woodward Jr., one of the top figures of New York Society and the racing world, was shot to death accidentally in his plush Long Island home on October 30th by his wife, the former Ann Eden Crowell. They are shown here together, as they received the Cup for the victory of the Woodward horse \u201cNashua\u201d over \u201cSwaps\u201d in a $100,000 match race at Washington Park, Illinois, on August 31st. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Their speedy marriage was likely spurred on by the war. Everyone wanted someone waiting at home. When Bill shipped out as an ensign with the Navy in 1943, the two were married. Happily, Bill returned home unscathed, and the couple went on to have two children, breed racehorses, and travel the world, including going on safari. \u201cAnn developed into a dead shot and in India bagged two Bengal tigers and two leopards.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that Ann and Bill seemed to have marital difficulties and apparently multiple affairs. They were extremely jealous, and each hired private detectives to spy on the other. Bill resented Ann\u2019s flirtatious nature and was enraged whenever Ann teased other men. Conversely, in one nightclub, Ann slapped Bill until he bled after she saw lipstick on his handkerchief. This scene metamorphosed into a rumor that he was \u201chaving an affair with Marilyn Monroe<\/a>.\u201d Some sources claimed that Bill had asked Ann for a divorce, but she \u201calways refused or asked for a $3,000,000 settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"William Woodward Jr., owner of the famed Horse Nashua, with wife Ann Woodward at Gulfstream Park in Miami, Florida. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Truman Capote\u2014who had very little nice to say about anyone\u2014wrote in La Cote Basque, where he described her under the pseudonym Ann Hopkins, that, \u201cSurely it was then she decided to kill him: a decision made by her genes, the inescapable white-trash slut inside her, even though she knew the Hopkinses [aka Woodwards] would arrange a respectful \u2018divorce\u2019 and provide a very good allowance.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m going to point out that Truman Capote came from a very small Southern town himself, a fact he seems happy to forget whenever it\u2019s not profitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On October 29, 1955, the couple drove to a party in Locust Valley being held for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. By this time, Ann was well established in all of Bill\u2019s social circles and described by the Daily Mirror as one of \u201csociety\u2019s box-office beauties.\u201d As biographer Susan Brandy notes, \u201cAnn led the list of the rich ladies who were invited to charity balls to promote tickets.\u201d None of this admiration stopped Ann and her husband from constantly fighting, which they reportedly did, once again, at the Locust Valley party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Circa 1955: American high society couple William Woodward Junior and his wife, Ann, at Southampton. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Back home, the couple went to their own bedrooms, across the hall from each other. Ann took sleeping pills.\u00a0At some time in the night, Ann claimed she heard a burglar. She grabbed her gun, wandered into the dark hallway, and shot twice.\u00a0The \u201cburglar\u201d turned out to be her husband, who died fifteen minutes later, as Ann embraced his bleeding body and screamed at the night watchman to get help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newspapers marveled that \u201cshe didn\u2019t think it could be one of the children, or the cook, or, least of all, her husband, even though the shadowy figure was standing by her bedroom.\u201d Socialite Liz Fondaras declared,<\/a> \u201cThere was no prowler. Ann made him up.\u201d\u00a0The general sense was that Ann, unhappy with the terms of her potential divorce, decided to take the matter into her own hands. It is possible Ann was a cold, calculated spousal murderer; women in male fields exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is less discussed, however, is that there actually was a burglar on the Woodward roof that night. A young German refugee named Paul Wirths admitted that he was directly above Ann\u2019s bedroom the night she shot Bill. He was scared away when he heard the shots. When Ann heard this, she sobbed that even with his confession, \u201cnothing can do any good now.\u201d She knew that, in public opinion, if not in a court of law, she was damned. The stories about her and her husband would only grow more outrageous with time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Police are shown carrying out the body of socially prominent William Woodward, Jr., from his Oyster Bay, Long Island, estate, where he was accidentally shot to death during a hunt for a suspected prowler. In the background at left, (wearing glasses), is Nassau County District Attorney Frank Gulotta, who said Woodward died as a result of gunshot wounds inflicted when Woodward\u2019s wife, Ann, accidentally fired a shotgun during the search for the prowler. Woodward was the owner of the famed racehorse Nashua and Belair Stud Stables. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

Throughout the investigation, Ann appeared distraught. She appeared to be genuinely mourning her husband. The Danville Register noted that \u201cthe once beautiful blonde was a haggard, tearful figure.\u201d In the turmoil, she sent her two children, 11-year-old William Woodward III\u00a0 and 9-year-old Jimmy, away to Le Rosey, the Swiss boarding school. While William went on to have a stable life, working as a reporter. Jimmy never recovered from the trauma<\/a> and wrote \u201cletters to his mother, accusing her of being a cold-blooded killer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Jane Olden, a psychiatrist who treated Ann, noted that Ann\u2019s entire sense of identity revolved around her marriage and her position as Mrs. William Woodward. \u201cI don\u2019t buy her shooting him as a conscious decision,\u201d she stated. \u201cOnce he was gone, she was destroyed. Still, subconsciously, she had to hate his hold over her. Studies of battered wives show that fatal accidents do occur after fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Ann Woodward weeps bitterly as she leaves the District Attorney\u2019s office after three hours of questioning. She broke down repeatedly, as she was plied with questions about the accidental shooting of her husband, William, on Oct. 30th. She signed a Waiver of Immunity. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

The incident being ruled an accident, Ann was never charged\u2014but her exoneration didn\u2019t put an end to her difficulties. If Bill was dead, Ann\u2019s life as she knew it also ended. Banished from New York society, she traveled the world hoping to find someone, anyone, who had not heard of her. Her biographer recounts Ann meeting a handsome man in Tahiti. They bonded over being from the United States and spent a pleasant afternoon chatting. The next morning, Ann watched as person after person pulled the man aside and whispered to him. Finally, Ann asked, \u201cYou know, don\u2019t you?\u201d He replied, \u201cSo many people went out of their way to tell me.\u201d In such a manner, Ann, who had been one of the ten most beautiful women in New York, \u201creeled from one romantic disappointment to another.<\/p>\n

It only got worse. Truman Capote began telling a story wherein Ann had to shoot Bill because she had never divorced her first husband. Bill, therefore, could have divorced her without paying any alimony as she was a bigamist. This was fiction, though one that enthralled many dinner party guests as Truman opined that he was the only one who knew the real reason that Ann shot Bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"James \u201cJimmy\u201d Woodward, the younger of Ann and William\u2019s two sons, holds up his hands as he is photographed in front of the home of his grandmother, Mrs. William Woodward Sr., on East 86th Street in Wisconsin. James and his older brother William III, 11, were in the house asleep at the time of the shooting. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

By 1976, Capote had decided to publish his story in Esquire magazine. Ann\u2019s friends informed her. The day before it was printed, Ann committed suicide. She left a note behind begging people to \u201cremember Ann Woodward.\u201d In her will, she expressed her wish \u201cto be buried next to my late husband.\u201d Her son Jimmy, who had been a drug addict, jumped to his death a year later. William Woodward, III, waited until he was 54 to leap to his death<\/a>. One of his friends told The New York Post, \u201cAll the scandal, all the tragedy, had an effect on Woody. Toward the end, he was living the life of a recluse.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether Ann had her husband\u2019s blood on her hands. Only she knows for certain. But it sure seems Truman Capote was dripping in her blood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"This sketch by World-Telegram and Sun artist Bill Pause Shows, according to the police report, where Ann Woodward stood in her bedroom and fired the fatal gunshot blasts into her husband. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just before tragedy struck. William Woodward, Jr., with his wife, Ann, days before he died of gunshot wounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1804,108735,17,105087,1106,232,8455,9,24,55,54,108736,56,8092,2407,34838],"class_list":["post-283602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-america-united-states","tag-ann-woodward","tag-culture","tag-dominick-dunne","tag-features","tag-lifestyle","tag-marilyn-monroe","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-nou00ebl-coward","tag-ny","tag-socialites","tag-style","tag-truman-capote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}