Helen Ruth Spence

     Ruth Helen Spence was born February 23, 1912. She called home a river boat situated on the White River which is an offshoot of the Arkansas River in the Southeast corner of Arkansas. Her father’s name was Wilburn Cicero Spence but he was known as Cicero. Her mothers name isn’t mentioned in any of the newspaper articles I found but it is written that she died when Helen was young.  

     There was an entire community of people on the White River living on houseboats eking out a life from what they hunted, fished for or found in and around the river. They were known by the townspeople as river rats. This was obviously not meant as flattery.  

     Helen had a stepmother who would play a big role in this story but sadly, all the articles I read only called her Mrs. Spence. I wanted to give her her name back so I checked ancestry.com and according to his death certificate, at the time of his death, Cicero was married to a woman named Clara. So I’m going to assume that her name was Clara. 

     The area of the river they called home was a fair distance from regular law enforcement so it wasn’t uncommon for the river people to handle disputes themselves. They called this river justice and it would lead to more than one problem in this story.

     The situation that led to Ruth becoming a murderer didn’t really seem to become newsworthy until the killing happened but there were a few short mentions in the papers. 

     So here’s how it started:

     Cicero and Clara had gone out on the river with two other men, Jack Worles and Jed Mixon. During the course of their trip, one of the men started making advances towards Clara. Cicero was obviously not having this and attempted to defend his wife. According to Clara, Jack drew his gun and shot Cicero. This had not killed him instantly and, perhaps in an act that would haunt Helen the most, Jack proceeded to shove him overboard while still alive. 

     If things could get worse they did. With Cicero no longer there to defend her, Clara’s fate was in the hands of the two men who had already shown ill-intent towards her. After what was said to be an extremely vicious attack, she too was tossed into the water alive but she would survive and go on to tell her story to police. Jack and Jed immediately turned themselves into the sheriff and of course denied Clara’s story claiming Cicero had been shot in self defense as he and Jack struggled for the gun after a quarrel.  

     Local law enforcement searched the river for days but did not find Cicero’s body. Suspicions began to rise that possibly this entire tale was concocted by the four of them to protect Cicero. You see, Cicero had already been convicted of killing another man. Perhaps the killing was an act of river justice but the law of the land would prevail and Cicero was set to begin serving a nine year jail sentence shortly.

     If only that had been the case then none of the things that followed would have happened. That was not to be though. The attack on the boat occurred April 19th, 1930. Cicero’s body would finally be found June 4th. The following January 1931, Clara would pass away as well. According to her death certificate her cause of death was peritonitis. Many believe it was due to the attack she had suffered.

     Jack Worls went to trial at the end of January 1931. Helen, dressed in pretty dresses with her hair styled in a short bob, attended everyday sitting quietly as the jury heard the evidence. She was there to make sure her father and stepmother were given the justice they deserved. 

     The jury would never be given the chance to do their job though. As the lawyers wrapped up their final arguments and the jury was to be sent to deliberate, Helen stood, took aim and fired four shots at Worls. Three would strike him causing his death shortly after. River justice had prevailed again. 

     I wish I could say that the law of the land did not apply to the river people. At least this once, but of course it did. You can’t just stand up and shoot someone in the middle of a crowded courtroom and not be punished.

     So now it was Helen’s turn to face the music. Two months after the courtroom slaying of Jack Worls, Helen would stand trial in the very same room. 

     There was no way she could deny what she had done. A room full of witnesses could testify to that. No, she would have to use the only defense she could, that she was “unbalanced” at the time of the shooting. The prosecution was asking for life in prison, a very harsh sentence for a girl so young.     

     The prosecution only presented two witnesses to support their case but they were doozies. The first person to take the stand and describe what he saw that day was the judge from the first trial. 

     It would be difficult to impeach the integrity of someone who held such high honors. Then they questioned a second person who had been in the courtroom that day. That was it. They must have felt their case was pretty solid.

     The defense called several people including many members of Helen’s family. They all testified that Helen had always been a little crazy. Helen’s grandmother, Margaret Spence, went so far as to say that at 18 months old Helen had an attack of brain fever and ever since had shown tendencies towards a mild form of insanity. 

     Her sister Edna and her Uncle Pless backed her up on that. Of course, if I shot someone in the middle of a crowded courtroom I’d hope every member of my family would call me crazy too!

     The next to testify for Helen was Dr. R.L. Brown from the state hospital for mental disease in Little Rock. He testified that Helen was definitely insane. He didn’t just base his opinion on his examination of her but also on observations he had made of her family. 

     That seemed a little insulting to me. I can’t help but wonder if this was a biased opinion based on their living conditions. But regardless there was no shortage of testimony that she was not in her right mind even before the shooting. 

     By April 3rd, 1931 both sides had rested their case. The jury came back quickly with their verdict and it was not good for Helen. They found her guilty of second degree murder with a recommendation of a sentence of five years. Helen took the news well. She simply smiled as her lawyer immediately announced they would be appealing.

     While waiting for her appeal to be heard, Helen was allowed out on bond. She was working as a waitress at the White House Cafe in Dewitt, Arkansas, a town not far from the spot on the river where she grew up. And living with a family named Fernaldo. 

     It sure would have been nice if she just could have kept her head down and stayed out of trouble but she didn’t. But in all fairness it seems trouble may have gone looking for her.

     In the early morning hours of February 5th, 1932 Jim Bohotts, who was the owner of the cafe where Helen worked, and Helen’s boss, was found shot to death in his car. Helen was quickly brought in for questioning. You might think it was because of her history of shooting people but no, there was more. There was a letter in Bohott’s coat pocket addressed to him and  signed by none other than Helen.

     Unfortunately for Helen, in 1932, that’s all it took. She was arrested and put in a jail cell.  But honestly, Bohotts was just not a very popular guy and there wasn’t a shortage of possible suspects. 

     By the time a retrial for the shooting of Jack Worls had been granted in October, Helen had been sitting in jail since the death of Bohotts in February. This girl who was used to running around on the banks of a river was desperately unhappy being locked up. Instead of going to trial she took a plea deal. The case against her for the shooting of Bohotts was dismissed for lack of evidence.

     She would receive two years at the state farm for women in Jacksonville, Ar., better known as the pea farm. Not P-E-A like the vegetable but the letter P for penal. Maybe that’s not too bad for shooting a man, even if he wasn’t a good man, in front of God and everybody. When the reporters asked her how she felt about going to prison, all she could say was she just wanted to start so she could get this done and get her life back. 

     While at the pea farm Helen would be taught sewing, cooking, farming and cleaning amongst other womanly jobs. The pea farm was actually supposed to be better than the past system of being sent to the men's prison. Better, that is, if you were a white female prisoner. Black women were still sent to the men’s prison.

     It should have been easy for her. Learn how to cook, sew etc. These were things Helen no doubt already knew how to do. Helen was a model prisoner and was actually made a trustee. She would be in charge of supervising other women in the prison. Helen was a matter of months away from parole.

     I don’t know what was going through her head then when Helen and another inmate escaped one night after stealing some clothes. This was a bad choice. And for what? She was recaptured by the next day.

     Luckily, this mistake didn’t seem to do her too much harm because she was paroled the following June 8th, 1933. Helen was free. She had served her time behind bars. So how do you explain what happened next?

     Within eight days of her parole, Helen walked into the Pulaski county sheriff's office and confessed to killing Jim Bohotts. This was not expected. The grand jury had let it go for lack of evidence. Now they had evidence because she confessed!

     I felt like something more had to be going on then what the newspapers were saying and, sadly, I was right. According to the encyclopedia of Arkansas, parole was not the same then as it is now. It was a peonage. This was a term I was unfamiliar with so I had to do a little research. Now I wish I hadn’t.

     A peonage was a way an inmate could work off a debt. So say a wealthy person who needed labor, maybe to work a farm or clean their house or whatever, could “buy” I put that in quotes, an inmate. It was indentured servitude or worse because many of these women were abused both physically and sexually. It would actually be the thing that would get the pea farm shut down not long after Helen was gone.

     So, I guess in Helen’s eyes, going back to prison for murder was easier than being a servant in the household of some dirty man who paid for her “services”.  

     The law would not look so kindly on her a second time though and she was sentenced to ten years hard labor. It was back to the pea farm for Helen.

     Helen must have had second thoughts. Within three months she made her first escape attempt. That’s right. I said first. She was free for only 4 ½ hours.

     Then there was escape attempt number two. As soon as she was returned from her first escape attempt, she turned around and escaped again. She was found hiding in some brush near the prison by the next morning.

     Escape attempt number three. She hid in the attic of the prison. She was caught before she left the grounds.

     Escape attempt number four. Two months later Helen and another inmate stole a truck. Helen was found the next day in Conway, Arkansas.

     I’ve counted four so far but this isn’t even counting the first time she escaped when she was originally sent to the pea farm. So technically, that’s number five!

     This time, upon her return, she would be sent to the State Hospital for Mental Disease. There were no articles that covered her time there nor are there any medical records that survive. At least none that I’m aware of, but I am aware that this was the time of lobotomies, electric shock treatment, insulin shock therapy, and induced convulsions. I don’t think this would have been any kind of a respite for her even when compared to her life on the pea farm.    

     The heat was starting to come down on the Arkansas prison system. How could one mere woman escape this many times? And every time it was front page news and surely a huge embarrassment to those in charge. Did this embarrassment lead to what happened next?

     In July of 1934, Helen was back at the pea farm. The guards had her and other inmates working in a strawberry field. July is one of the hottest months of the year, so I’m sure it didn't seem suspicious when she claimed she felt sick.  But this was just an excuse for Helen to escape again. That’s right, escape number 6. This time on her way out she stole the gun of a guard. 

     This was a grave mistake. This time she wasn’t just running. The guards knew she was armed and they would treat her as such. This time Helen made it only eight miles down the road. 

     According to the Paragould Soliphone Newspaper, Helen had invaded a farmhouse, held the farmer's wife at gunpoint, and demanded she give her a ride out of town.

     She apparently wasn’t very worried about Helen shooting her though because she immediately ran from the house to summon help from her husband. The farmer called the police.

     If not for this phone call, maybe she would have made it this time, maybe she could have lived out her life, it would have been a life in hiding, but at least it would have been a life.

     It wasn’t to be, no, she was spotted walking down a dirt road near the farm. When Helen realized they were close, she ran as hard as she could through an adjacent field. 

     The guard chasing her claimed he shouted for her to stop as he drew his weapon but in turn she reached for hers. At that what it. With one shot Helen Spence was gone. 

     The beautiful girl who had avenged the shooting of her father by shooting the man who did it, now lay shot herself. The pretty dresses she had once worn had been replaced with mens overalls, shirt and shoes. Her cute brown bob now soaked in blood.

     In death she would get what she wanted in life, to spend the rest of her days near the river she loved. She is buried beside her father in the St. Charles cemetery. 

     Her last words were found written on a piece of paper in her cell. It read: To whom it may concern, you’ll never take me alive.