Penny For Your Thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker
Ada and the doctor
One of the stations I absolutely love to watch is Discovery’s ID Channel. I could sit in my chair and play arm chair detective all day. The stories on the ID channel are all true and include such shows as: Joe Kenda, Homicide Detective; Women Who Kill; Evil Kin; Evil Twins; Betrayed and many more “who done its.”
A few weeks ago I was watching Women Who Kill which was about the story of a lady, Ada LeBoeuf. The story itself took place in the 1920’s in Louisiana and told of a pretty lady with children, a husband and a typical housewife of those days.
Ada always had some kind of illness (or so she said) and her doctor, Dr. Thomas Drehan, made house calls to her house quite frequently. Soon talk began around town that Ada and the doctor were involved in more than medicine. After some time, this soon became the talk of the town; James LeBouf, Ada’s hubbie, heard about it and was not happy. It became such a spectacle, that it was believed that Ada and her lover wanted to get rid of (murder) Mr. Lebouf.
The doctor was also married with children, but his wife did not seem to mind, as either she was unaware or just didn’t care. The story goes on to tell how Ada asked her husband to go on a late night boat ride. LeBouf thought Ada was planning a romantic evening and was anxious to make up with her that he was delighted to go, However, that was not quite the case.
As Ada and her hubbie was cruising down the river in the dark, quiet, starlit night in two separate boats, another boat came upon them from behind and two shots rang out striking Labouf and killing him. Now who-done-it?
Ada took off in her boat, lickety-split and made her way home. In the shooters boat was the doctor and his henchman, Mr. Beadle who had supposedly fired the shotgun. The two men then wanted to get rid of the evidence, so they took LeBoufs body and basically removed his organs and weighed his body down with cement blocks. They thought they were done and all was well.
However, they made a mistake. The body got caught in a sand dune and someone found it the next morning. They immediately knew it was Mr. LeBouf. This indeed was a huge crime in 1927 and the residents were out for answers. They wanted to know who the killer was.
As it so happened, Ada and her Doctor became suspects and arrested. They were placed in separated jail cells and both adamantly said they did not kill the man. A trial was scheduled and in those days, people traveled miles to see the trial and made sure the duo got what was coming to them. After the trial, they were found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to hang.
Some people did not believe Ada had anything to do with it and she claimed her husband had been an abuser. Of course appeals were filed to no avail and it was on Feb. 1, 1929 that Ada LeBouf and Dr. Thomas Dreher were both hung, It was noted that Ada had her hands folded in prayer and she and the doctor both claimed they were innocent, but ready to go meet their maker. Ada LeBouf was the first Caucasian lady to hang on the gallows in Louisana.
With my armchair detective mind kicking in, I thought to myself, “I wonder if there is a book about this?” I researched and found out the there was an original book written which was out of print, but that another lady, Pam Hefner, took it upon herself to rewrite and revamp the book. I contacted her by email and we chatted about her efforts in writing this book.
The proceeds from the first 1000 books sold went to their local historical society. Author Pam Hefner said, “This is such a vital part of our state and local history, that I felt it needed to be told.”
She sent me a copy of the book which is called “Ada and the Doctor.” Credit on the book was given to Charles M. Hargroder, the original author. It is very good reading and I am glad I got to tell this story.
Do you ever watch the ID channel? Do you like to read “who done it’s?” Are you an armchair detective? Research this story and if you like it, I’ll give you a Penny for Your Thoughts.
