BEHIND THE PRETTY DOORS: Ann Woodward

One of the stories that circulated in Truman’s social  circle involved socialite Ann Woodward, who shot and killed her husband William on October 30, 1955. She claimed that she had mistaken him for a prowler. The Woodward marriage was reportedly turbulent. Both had affairs, drank frequently and often argued in public. Ann also began abusing prescription drugs. Her husband had asked for a divorce in 1947, but Ann refused, unwilling to give up her wealth and social status.

On the evening of October 30, 1955, Woodward and his wife returned to their home after attending a dinner party. Both were nervous about reports of a prowler roaming nearby estates, including their own. A few hours later Ann supposedly heard a noise on the roof and went into a darkened hallway with her gun where she saw a shadowy figure standing in front of William Woodward’s bedroom door. Believing the figure to be a prowler, Ann fired the gun, killing her husband.

Upon arriving at the home, police found Ann Woodward holding her husband’s body and sobbing. She immediately confessed that she had shot her husband because she thought he was a burglar. Police later arrested a man named Paul Wirths who admitted that he had attempted to break into the Woodwards’ house on the night of the shooting. Wirths claimed that he had been scared by the sound of gunshots, and then left.

Woodward’s mother Elsie, however, believed that the shooting had been deliberate but publicly supported her daughter-in-law in order to avoid further scandal. Rumour had it that her mother-in-law used her money to get the case swept under the carpet. 

There was speculation that Elsie Woodward had paid Paul Wirths to say he had attempted to break into the home in an effort to exonerate Ann. Three weeks after the shooting, Ann Woodward testified before a grand jury and maintained that the shooting was an accident and she thought her husband was an intruder. The grand jury determined that no crime had been committed. The shooting of William Woodward Jr. immediately became grist for the gossip mill and was detailed extensively by the mainstream media and tabloid newspapers. Life magazine called the episode “The Shooting of the Century”.

The story was also hot gossip amongst the Woodwards’ high society friends who speculated that Ann Woodward intentionally shot her husband to get his money. 

Ann’s case was brought back to public attention when, in 1975, chapters of author Truman Capote’s novel Answered Prayers were set to be published in Esquire magazine’s November issue.  Capote was an acquaintance of Ann’s and had become convinced that she was guilty of murder, even nicknaming her “Bang Bang”.

Capote created a character based on Ann Woodward named “Ann Hopkins”. He described her as a bigamist and “cold blooded murderess” who shoots her husband after the two arrive home one night from a party. Ann Hopkins also tells police that she mistook her husband for a burglar when, in reality, she kills her husband because he confronted her with evidence that she was having an affair and asked for a divorce.

Upon learning of the impending publication of Answered Prayers, Ann Woodward committed suicide by consuming a cyanide pill on October 9, 1975.

Both of her sons would eventually die by suicide as well, each jumping out of a window in Manhattan on different occasions, the younger Jimmy in 1976, a year after his mother, and William in 1999.