Exhibits and Events

The First Bank

Regions Bank

*Box will be placed on Customer Service Desk, Located directly in front of Belk's-inside the mall

The First Bank-

Charter Bank

The Peoples Bank

11 branches

Other locations:

The Friends are delighted to announce its first event!

On April 11th at 6pm in Room 123 of Cook Library on the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus, author Hunter Cole will talk about his work The Legs Murder Scandal which relates the full story of "Mississippi's Lizzie Borden" and the sensational matricide that mystified the nation

In Laurel, Mississippi, in 1935, a daughter in a wealthy and troubled family stood accused of murdering her mother. On her testimony, authorities arrested an equally prominent and well-to-do businessman, her reputed lover and accomplice. Ouida Keeton apparently shot her mother, chopped her up, and disposed of most of the corpse down the toilet and in the fireplace, burning all but the pelvic region and the thighs. Attempting to dispose of these remains on a one-lane, isolated road, Ouida left a trail of evidence that ended in her arrest. Witnesses had seen her driving there, and within hours, a hunter and his dogs found the body parts and the cloth in which she had wrapped them.

Touted as the most sensational crime in Mississippi history at the time, the Legs Murder of 1935 is almost entirely forgotten today.

The controversial outcome, decided by an unsophisticated jury, has been left muddled by ambiguity. The Legs Murder Scandal presents an intricately detailed description of the separate trials of Ouida Keeton and W. M. Carter. Having researched trial transcripts, courthouse records, medical files, and vast newspaper coverage, the author reveals new facts previously distorted by hearsay, hushed reports, and misinformation. He pursues many unanswered questions such as what, really, did Ouida Keeton do with the rest of her mother? The Legs Murder Scandal attempts to provide the reader with clarity in this story, which at once is outlandish, harrowing, and intriguing.

Hunter Cole, Brandon, Mississippi, was associate director and marketing manager of the University Press of Mississippi at the time of his retirement in 2003.