Ada LeBoeuf: Siren of the Swamplands
"Siren of the Swamplands" was just one of many titles Ada LeBoeuf was given throughout her trial, mostly by The New Orleans Times-Picayune. "The Lady of the Lake," "Small Town Celopatra," & "The Bucolic Lorelei" were a few other standouts. Bucolic Lorelei was my favorite and first choice for naming this series, but I think the terminology is a little dated (when’s the last time you’ve heard either of those words mentioned in casual conversation?), and the swamplands were a big part of Ada’s story, as told by the papers of the time. The writers, it would seem, wanted to set a scene for the tragedy that was about to unfold.
Newspaper reports of the trial could easily be confused with a fictional drama. Along with liberal use of opinion, journalists cum novelists went to great lengths to weave a compelling narrative, satiating their readers’ lust for scandal. Elaborate descriptions of scenery turned the small Louisiana town into a stage set for a lush southern drama. Fully fleshed depictions of each personality allowed readers to see their neighbors as inhuman, but familiar, archetypal characters. Mingling with the abundance of literary techniques were direct quotes and dramatic retellings of moments no one could have possibly witnessed.
Theatrical language and Shakespearean quotes were peppered throughout each article, as if to remind readers that these words and the trial unfolding before them were not about truth or justice, but a reprieve from mundanity, dramatic entertainment that would bring to Morgan City, LA the same notoriety that Ruth Snyder’s execution, a year earlier, had brought to New York.
It's difficult to separate fact from fiction in the case of Ada LeBoeuf, although I hear that Charles M. Hargroder did a pretty great job in a sadly out-of-print book on the crime. (More on this in a moment.) Nonetheless, there was no way that Ada and her cohorts could have received a fair trial. Media always plays a big role in high profile cases, but during the 1920s, in a small Louisiana town, with very limited sources of information, the reporters could essentially have people believing whatever they wanted. And, in this case, what the reporters wanted was a good ending to their story.
I was communicating with a lawyer in Louisiana who spearheaded efforts to re-publish Hargroder’s book, “Ada and the Doc,” in a limited run printing. Due to my own absent-mindedness, I lost contact with her and, unfortunately, I believe I missed my chance to pick up a copy. Still, I’m so happy to know that other people, with much greater knowledge and abilities than myself, are aware of this story and helping it live on. Of all the stories I’ve written, I feel that in many ways this is the most important — at least in terms of education, questioning what we’re told, and remembering the person at the center of any news story. The papers (or wherever you get your news nowadays) greatly manipulate and sensationalize stories like Ada’s, and we follow them, seemingly forgetting the person at the center of it all.
Sensationalist News, Nancy Grace, & the Rise in True Crime’s Popularity
It’s unfortunately becoming more grim, when you think about the rise in true crime’s popularity. I know, I know, like I’m one to talk! Still, there’s a staggering difference between a quest for knowledge, understanding, and oftentimes even justice for victims and their families and the alternative — a meaningless form of entertainment.
Ideas like this have been floating around my head for a bit now, but it all really wove itself together when I returned home from Crime Con NOLA last month. I learned a lot, everyone was incredibly nice, and overall it’s a fantastic idea. To fill you in, speakers (professors, PI’s, former law enforcement) give lectures about cases they’re working on, criminal psychology, interrogation techniques, etc. As much as I genuinely loved it, I couldn’t help but get a bit of a bad taste in my mouth at times.
I’m going to be completely honest here: seeing someone like Nancy Grace at an otherwise informative, open-minded event was jarring, to say the least. A part of me feels guilty for calling out her specifically, but she’s done the same to so many — publicly condemning innocent people, further tormenting victims and their families, even potentially aiding in some of their decisions to commit suicide.
Her work is the pinnacle of sensationalism. It ignores facts and law and, under the guise of “victim’s rights,” it slithers on by while stomping on the people who’s lives fuel its existence. It’s the sort of work that turns real events involving real people into a colosseum of grotesque entertainment. It is work that cares for no one, ignores human rights, and mocks tragedy.
I’m not talking about making light of tragedy either — I’m on board with that as a coping mechanism. I make jokes about depression frequently, not to undermine it, but so it feels less scary, so I can cope with it. Humor is a tool a lot of us use, and it’s a wonderful thing. Sensationalism is not. Sensationalist news definitively mocks tragedy, focused on its own singular mission, it cares only for itself, taking out anyone who stands in its way.
Sensationalism doesn’t care if it hurts people, if it kills people, it cares only about propelling itself forward. It doesn’t care about truth, because taking time to discover the truth is time that could be spent talking, concocting baseless theories, and pretending to be knowledge about things it knows nothing about.
And I know I’m calling her out by name here, but really, it’s everywhere. She’s just a face for it.
The Ethics of It All
I’ve struggled with my fascination with true crime, particularly as its risen from a niche interest to a marketable industry. But I see all the good that comes with that — people aiding in searches, digging up information, actually helping solve cases. That’s an incredible thing. Our desire for knowledge, to understand the motivations behind why people do what they do, these are the things that help us move forward as a society.
We learn behaviors, we learn to be more cautious. And, my hope anyway, is we learn to be more introspective, to recognize our own inner demons, and switch our behaviors. Because, as I’ve discussed with many of these women, crazy circumstances can fall upon us, and if our minds aren’t prepared for them, we can never really be sure what we’re capable of.
These, I believe, are ethical reasons to obsess over true crime. To find the truth. To know it in all the strange forms it takes. We mustn’t forget that there are actual people at the center of these stories. Condemning someone on a public forum, with no evidence but a gut feeling and a personality trait or two that you find unsavory, treating victims and all those close to the crime as mere props or background to the scandal — these behaviors are nothing short of wicked. We should explore the darkest recesses of the human mind, but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to succumb to them.
Recommended reading/where I found a lot of my info on Ada Leboeuf & the coverage of her trail:
The Penalty Is Death: U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women's Executions by Marlin Shipman