True crime is the most popular category in the podcast world. We have programs like Dateline and 20/20 that take us through crimes and their resolutions. Entire networks feature exclusive crime-oriented programming. With most of the crimes covered happening in the last thirty years or so, it would be easy to think that many criminal types, like Black Widows, are relatively new, but these twisted killers have been around for quite some time. Anjette Donovan-Lyles is one of those.
Anjette was born in Macon, GA, in 1925. She was the daughter of William and Jetta Donovan. As a child, she was described as having a charming personality that usually ended up getting her whatever she wanted.
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When Anjette was twenty-two, she met and married Ben Lyles, Jr. He owned Lyles restaurant on Mulberry Street in downtown Macon, a business that had been in his family for years. Anjette became involved in the restaurant’s day to day, was described as charismatic, and it seemed the customers loved her. She was called an attractive woman with striking features who took advantage of her looks and “buxom figure” by dressing in tight-fitting clothes. The business thrived. The couple had two daughters, Marcia and Carla.
After around three years of matrimony, Ben began to suffer from physical ailments, including nausea, fatigue, and stomach pain. Doctors tried various treatments, but Ben’s condition continued to deteriorate. The couple’s life together wasn’t very positive, with friends and neighbors reporting frequent disagreements.
With his health becoming an ongoing concern, Ben sold the business but did not consult with Anjette before the decision. It was evident that Anjette never forgave Ben. By the following year, his condition required hospitalization, and he died from his mysterious ailment. On the death certificate, encephalitis was stated as the cause.
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Anjette and her daughters moved in with her mother and began saving money from her waitress job. By April 1955, she could purchase the former Lyles restaurant, which she renamed Anjette’s, serving Southern-style food. Her personality quickly turned the new spot into a major success. Anjette soon began enjoying the trappings of her success. She dressed quite fashionably, bought a new sports car, and was rumored to enjoy liaisons with various local men. A newspaper article at the time referred to her clientele as “the brass hats of Macon,” an assortment of prominent businessmen, attorneys, and politicians.
Later that year, Anjette met and began dating a pilot and Korean War veteran, Joe Neal “Buddy” Gabbert, a man she had met in her restaurant. In short order, the pair were married. A few months after returning from their surprise wedding, Joe had a minor surgery on his wrist but developed serious post-surgical symptoms soon after. Doctors were confused as to the cause of his skin rash and fever. Buddy died just a few weeks later. He was only twenty-six years old.
There was a new wrinkle in Anjette’s second chapter in widowhood, a hefty life insurance payout of $20,000. She went to court and changed her name back to Lyles, purchased a new car, a Cadillac, and a new house, and soon began dating again. Ironically, her new interest was also a pilot. The wealthy mother of her first husband, Julia Lyles, moved in with Anjette and her family and started working in the new restaurant. One of her objectives was to spend more time with her grandchildren. When Anjette discovered the extent of her former mother-in-law’s wealth, she started pressuring her to write a will, but Julia refused.
Not surprisingly, Julia Lyles soon became ill, suffering from nausea and edema. She was hospitalized, and Anjette created the appearance of a good custodian, staying with her and bringing her meals. Just over a month later, Julia passed away without her medical team ever determining the cause of her illness. Julia soon produced a will that was favorable to her and her children. It was probated, and Julia Lyles’ assets were distributed accordingly.
Anjette soon began practicing voodoo. The relationship with her eldest daughter, Marcia, began to turn sour and often became physical. She even threatened her daughter in front of patrons at the restaurant, telling her, “I’ll kill you if it’s the last thing I do.” The year after Marcia’s grandmother passed away, nine-year-old Marcia became ill, citing stomach pains and nausea, and could find no relief. Coldly, Anjette started making funeral arrangements for her two weeks before she died.
Just before Marcia passed away, her great-aunt, Julia’s sister Mrs. W.F Bagley, received an anonymous letter with a Macon postmark. Its copy was short. “Please come at once. She is getting the same dose as the others.” Mrs. Bagley shared the letter with various authorities, which discounted its validity. After Marcia’s death, those same authorities reconsidered the threat. Marcia’s organs were sent to the state crime lab to try and find some answers.
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The lab’s deputy director, Larry Howard, was also an expert in poisons. He quickly determined that Marcia’s cause of death was arsenic poisoning. Police initiated an investigation, interviewing Anjette’s employees, family and friends. Perhaps feeling the heat, Anjette insisted that her maid help her find a letter from her late mother-in-law. The search was unsuccessful, but the following day, Anjette produced the “letter” from Julia, which exonerated her in the deaths of herself and her son Ben.
In a search of her home, investigators found voodoo paraphernalia, photographs of her current boyfriend, and four bottles of rat poison containing large doses of arsenic. Without public disclosure, authorities exhumed the bodies of Ben Lyles and his mother, Julia. The organs of Buddy Gabbert were removed during his autopsy and retained. Dr. Herman Jones of the State Crime lab examined the organs of the three deceased.
As with Marcia, they showed signs of acute arsenic poisoning. Anjette, thirty-two years old, was hospitalized at the time for phlebitis. She was arrested, charged with four murders, and placed under guard at the Macon Hospital. Her youngest daughter, Carla, was placed in the custody of the Bibb Juvenile Court.
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The only statement Anjette issued after her arrest was a simple one. “I have committed no crime,” she said through her attorneys, William K. Buffington and Roy Rodenhiser.
Anjette’s trial began in early October of 1958. She was tried only for the murder of her daughter, Marcia. Her attorney’s protested, but since the cases were similar, evidence from the three other murders was allowed in. The anonymous letters to Mrs. Bagley were found to have been sent by Carrie Jackson, a long-term cook in the restaurant. Her observations had convinced her that Anjette was doing more than providing care for her sick relatives.
Experts who testified in the trial found that the will presented as Julia’s, as well as the letter exonerating Anjette in Julia and Ben’s deaths, were forged. Witnesses tied her to the crimes when they testified that she had served meals and drinks to her daughter and mother-in-law during their illnesses.
