Betty Lou Beets was born Betty Lou Duevant on March 12th, 1937.
When she was 15, she married her first husband.
She would marry five more times, including two marriages to Billy York Lane, who she once shot in the stomach.
In a separate incident, she shot him twice in the back, but she got off when he admitted to threatening her.
In 1978, she tried to mow down her third husband with her car, but he survived.
She married her last husband, Jimmy Don Beets, in 1982, but the marriage didn’t last long.
On August 6th, 1983, she reported him missing. Two years later, police got a tip pointing to Betty. They found Jimmy’s body in a well and her fourth husband, Doyle Wayne Barker, buried in a garage. Both had been shot with a .38 caliber handgun.
Betty went to trial for Jimmy’s murder and blamed it on her kids. She was convicted and sentenced to death.
She later claimed she had been a battered women in all of her relationships, but that didn’t help her get off death row.
She was executed by lethal injection on February 24th, 2000 at the Huntsville Unit in Texas. She did not have any last words before her death.
DOB:
March 12th, 1937Conviction(s):
- Capital Murder
Date of crime:
August 6th, 1983Location(s):
Henderson County, TXDate of arrest:
1985Details:
She had a history of being violent toward her lovers and killed her 4th and 5th husbands.Confirmed Victim(s):
- Jimmy Don Beets
Suspected Victim(s):
- Doyle Wayne Barker
Method:
ShootingSentence:
DeathCurrent whereabouts:
Executed by lethal injection on February 24th, 2000Last Updated on 03/20/2026
