TX - Odessa's "Kiss and Kill" killer dead at 75; shotgunned high school sweetheart, found not guilty

[yabbyyou]

‘Kiss and Kill’ killer dead at 75 .. Odessa American
An Odessan who was the gunman in the infamous “Kiss and Kill” case that titillated Odessans during the early 1960s has died at age 75. The “Kiss and Kill” murder trial was made for headlines.

A Kiss Before Dying .. Texas Monthly
Betty Williams was a fast girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Mack Herring was a handsome football player with all the right friends. When he broke up with her during her senior year at Odessa High School, her world fell apart. But she asked him for one last favor: to kill her.

 

[TexasEx]

Awful, including "fast girl." How about rebel, instead? This was a West Texas girl who read Kerouac and Ginsberg and listened to Lenny Bruce in 1960.

 

[Elainera]

Welcome to WS and thank you for posting this yabbyyou!

Never heard of the case, and yes, she was rebel and very intelligent.

Sad story on more than one level.

 

[yabbyyou]

Betty Williams lives on in the folklore of Odessa. Mack Herring is dead forever.

 

[flute4peace]

Wow. That was a compelling read. Things are so different now.

 

[CocoChanel]

Reads to me like he pretty much got away with murder.

 

[TexasEx]

Welcome to WS and thank you for posting this yabbyyou!

Never heard of the case, and yes, she was rebel and very intelligent.

Sad story on more than one level.

Very sad story. Says so much about socioeconomic class and the way teen girls, even smart ones, so innocently believe they'll win a boy's love and devotion by behaving a certain way. Reminds me of that terrible line, "If her daddy's rich take her out for a meal, if her daddy's poor, then do what you feel."

If you read the stories a few months ago about the social environment surrounding Brett Kavanaugh's school and the sister schools, that attitude came into play. Girls from the "right" circle received different treatment from those at the periphery who showed up at the parties.