Margaret Ledbetter Dewey

Margaret Ledbetter was the daughter of John Jackson Ledbetter Sr. and Lucy A. Ledbetter, and the sister of Col. John Jackson Ledbetter Jr. and Alvin Ledbetter. She married Rico Dewey and lived near Live Oak, Florida.¹

Death

On February 3, 1936, a telegram reached JJL in El Paso from his mother: “Margaret had fatal accident shipping body home.” Margaret had been found dead of a gunshot wound on the night of February 1.²

Over the following days, the story arrived in fragments. A second telegram from C. M. Baxter on February 5 stated the death was “caused by self inflicted gunshot wound in her home.” JJL drove from El Paso to Blytheville, Arkansas, for the funeral — through Dallas, Texarkana, and Little Rock on ice-covered roads. Margaret was buried on February 5.²

On February 7, JJL confronted his brother-in-law and recorded Rico’s version in his diary:

Had Rico go over his story of Margaret’s accident in detail. According to Rico Margaret was shot about 11:00 p.m. Feb 1. Rico’s mother was in bed, Rico was lying in front of the fireplace, and Margaret was in her gown and standing in the kitchen door when the shot was fired. No one saw her get the gun.²

JJL did not believe it. He wrote the Sheriff at Live Oak, corresponded with an attorney, and filed an insurance claim with Metropolitan Life, stating plainly: “I do not believe that the gunshot wound which caused my sister’s death was self inflicted.”²

Justice

On June 10, 1937, the case was resolved. JJL received a certified copy of court papers from the Circuit Court Clerk at Live Oak, Florida: Rico J. Dewey had been convicted of Margaret’s murder and sentenced to twenty years at hard labor.²

Margaret’s death cast a long shadow over the family in 1936, a year already marked by the stresses of the Depression and a winter that put nearly every family member in bed with pneumonia.