The Introverted Detective: The Bridge Table Murder of 1929

I'll give you a hint; it never happened on a bridge. Let's talk about the woman who murdered her husband over a bad game of bridge, and if there was more to it than a slap in the face in the middle of a bridge game.

Courtesy of sonofabandit.net

We're in 1929. A woman and her husband are playing bridge with another couple. The woman makes a bad call and the husband slaps her across the face, despite an audience. The game ends. The other couple goes home. The woman shoots the husband and gets off with self-defense after a trial of national popularity (1931). She lives on into to the 90s and the whole event fades into obscurity. Bridge Table Murder? What's that?

Today we're talking about it, not only because I need to know headline events from the 1930s for my time travel research, but also because I'm fascinated. Shout out to Jim, my coworker, for putting this on my radar. Thanks, Jim!

Some Background

September 29 in 1929 John and Myrtle Bennett played rubber bridge in Kansas City. They played with their neighbors, Charles and Myrna Hoffman. John Bennett was in the habit of slapping his wife in moments of frustration. When they started losing the game a bad bid was made, causing John to do just that after an argument broke out between John and Myrtle. The neighbors promptly left. It got to the point that John said he was spending the night in a hotel and leaving.

Pendergastkc.org

Myrtle got the colt .32 from her mother's room after all this. John went to have a word with her to find her armed. He ran into the bathroom and bolted the door. She shot through it twice, missing both times. He took the second exit into the hallway, getting to the front door only to get shot twice - and she didn't miss this time. This is the Bennett Bridge Murder.

The Trial Itself

This was a case where the woman got off for the murder. She even gave statements that didn't match previous statements. "Tomorrow I'm leaving town" was spun as "I'm leaving forever". Her story? That her husband had told her to get his pistol for his suitcase, only she stumbled into a chair and wounded her husband. He grabbed her arm to regain balance and it mortally wounded him. She also claimed he was emotionally abusive and cheated on her. One of those I believe, yet somehow, I don't think this was an accident.

Despite two bullet holes in a bathroom door and a body by the front door without a suitcase, she was acquitted. Despite four shots, two direct hits, it was deemed an accident. She got 30,000 dollars in life insurance on her husband.

At the time bridge was a big deal. What the hand actually was is debated because the cards went flying, but my sources did have what it might have been. If you care about that you can go through my sources for it. The newspapers then certainly cared more about it, to the point that some thought his poor play was justifiable for homicide. The point is that John did not play as well as he could have, though that shouldn't lead to two bullet holes.

Courtesy of pendergastkc.org

Conclusions

I don't think a simple game of bridge was the reason for this murder. Emotional and physical abuse was probably the more likely reason. Everyone has a breaking point and hers must have been that night. Some abuse victims do kill their abusers. The most horrible Agatha Christie deaths, not to mention the cruelest, were victims killing their abusers. Even in fiction the fact that an abuser can be murdered by a victim is present.

That doesn't make a murder right, but I do think some of her story added up - just not the story about the accidental shooting. This was no accident. She'd had enough. A smart woman got away with murder to ensure she'd never be abused again.

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