ANJETTE LYLES
Anjette Lyles' restaurant on Mulberry Street in downtown
Macon, Georgia was a favorite lunch spot for the town's lawyers, judges
and businesspeople in the 1950s. The food was okay, but what attracted
the menfolk was the restaurant's owner, Anjette Lyles. What puzzled Anjette's
patrons was how she could remain so cheerful and outgoing with all the
tragedy going on around her life. Her husband, Ben Lyles the original owner
of the restaurant, had died unexpectedly in June of 1952. In 1955 her second
husband, Joe Neal developed a "weeping rash" and died in agony
in December. Two years later, Mrs. Julia Lyles, Anjette's mother-in-law,
died after a mysterious illness. Then on top of all the past Anjette's
nine-year-old daughter, Marcia suddenly became very sick and died April
5, 1958. Only one person seems to have suspected foul play in this incredible
string of deaths. About three weeks before the death of Marcia, Carrie
Jackson, a cook in Anjette's Restaurant, wrote an unsigned note to Mrs.
Julia Lyles' sister in Cochran, Georgia. The note warned that Marcia was
in danger. The cook was concerned because she felt Anjette was feeding
her child poisoned lemonade and other drinks in the hospital. The sister,
Mrs. W.K. Bagley, went to Macon, Georgia to see authorities immediately.
Nothing was done then and Marcia died. However, Mrs. Bagley's visit had
raised suspicions of Bibb County coroner, Lester Chapman, and others. Chapman
ask the medical examiner, Dr. Leonard Campbell, to do an autopsy on Marcia,
Campbell sent samples of Marcia's organs to the State Crime Lab in Atlanta.
The lab reported that Marcia died of multiple doses of arsenic, most likely
from Terro ant poison, a common insecticide. Anjette maintained her innocence
throughout the trial, but the jury had heard enough. In mid-October, the
jury returned a verdict of guilty and sentenced Anjette to the electric
chair. A series of appeals and sanity hearings followed and they eventually
declared Anjette insane. On December 4, 1977, Anjette Lyles died of natural
causes at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville.
OTHER GEORGIA SERIAL KILLERS
John
Williams and Clyde Manning, "The Murder Farm killings"
Lendell
Hunter
Junior
Pierce
Carlton
Gary, "The Columbus Stalking Strangler"
Wayne
Williams, "The Atlanta Child Murders"
R.L.
Hunter
John
Latham and George York
Paul
John Knowles
Henry
Lucas and Ottis Toole
Janie
Lou Gibbs
Terri
Rachals
Anjette
Lyles
Billy
Sunday Birt
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