KS - William, 50, Opal, 41, & Jennie Andrews, 20, murdered, Wolcott, 28 Nov 1958

This is a thread to discuss one of the most cold-blooded murders of all time. The horror and shock of the Lowell Andrews Case. Lowell was an honor student at the University of Kansas in 1958. When home for Thanksgiving weekend that year, he did the unthinkable:

While his parents and sister were relaxing watching TV, Lowell finished a book that he was reading, put on his best suit, went downstairs with two guns in his hand and shot his parents and sister multiple times to death.

Than he went through the house opening drawers and scattering contents, opening windows to make it look like a burglary had taken place. Lowell drove to see a late movie, chatting with the personnel at the theater, afterwords he left the movie theater, threw the guns into a nearby river, than went home, calling the police to report a "robbery."

When LE showed up, Lowell was outside petting his dog and showed no remorse for what had happened. When the coroner showed up he said, something like, "They are in there, I don't care what you do with them."

He continued to proclaim his innocence, until later that night when he confessed to the murders to the family's church pastor. He was arrested and charged the following day. Legal authorities tried an insanity defense, but it didn't work. Lowell Andrews was convicted, than executed via hanging on November 30, 1962.

He was on death row with two other inmates who robbed and killed another family in an unrelated case. (Richard Hickcock and Perry Smith) Authorities said that Lowell, in contrast to them, was always polite, very quiet, and withdrawn. To this day, what exactly set him off that night remains a mystery. However, authorities close to the case have said Lowell fantasized about killing his family so that he could inherit the family farm. I read that he thought about poisoning them, but was concerned that "What if that didn't work right?" All three murders were convicted of their crimes and hanged. are also mentioned in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which later became a movie, and I understand has been remade several times.

You can read more about Lowell's case here:

http://murderpedia.org/male.A/a/andrews-lowell-lee.htm

This is chilling!

Satch

Another article here,

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nic...ws-proved-cold-kansas-killer-article-1.198046

Only contradiction seems to be the time frame when "Lee" disposed of the weapons. (Lowell was nicknamed "Lee.")

I read that little of the town of Wolcott Kansas exists today. The Andrews' house I read conflicting stories on-line. Some say it was burned down by vandals. Others say that it was actually taken down because vandals removed part of the stairway in the home. The community at the time was very small, just over one hundred people. The Andrews' family owned farm land. However, I think the house where the tragedy occurred is now all farmland. Feel free to search on-line. Basically the only information that I have comes from the news archives.

One interesting bit is that the Granda Theature, where Andrews went to see Marti Gras still exists today. Here is their website:

http://thegranada.com/

The theater was in Laurence Kansas, about an hour away from the former town of Wolcott. You can't really find anything about the town of Wolcott, Kansas anymore.

Satch

Wolcott was flooded and the families were forced to move. There is a dirt track there were homes used to be. My childrens family lived there.

4SAM said:

Wolcott was flooded and the families were forced to move. There is a dirt track there were homes used to be. My childrens family lived there.

Click to expand...

That's what I heard as well. Was this around 1993? Did anyone in your family remember or know the Andrews' family or the case? It's hard for sources to go back, because there is literally nothing left of the town. People have asked if pictures of the Andrew's house are available archived anywhere?

I heard they owned quite a bit of farmland, and at least by 1950's standards were fairly well off financially. Lee's sister attended college in Oklahoma and Lee went to the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Satch

Yes this was in the 90's. It was before I married into the family (now divorced) but I can ask them. There are no houses. There are 2 businesses, a pallet company (family owned) and a concrete company. Plus of course the dirt track races are held there.

This is an article on Lowell Lee's execution:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...j4yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gOUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6199,4987520

Satch

This is another article on the case, followed by comments about the town and community. Some of the comments conflict. After all, it has been about fifty-five years. You have to answer one or two questions to read the whole article. This was published in 2005.

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/28/crime_all_time/

Satch

On Oct 17, 2010 the Kansas City Star Newspaper printed individual articles on several cases under the general heading of "Our Criminal Past" in the "The Kansas City Star Magazine" which came in the Sunday edition. The Lowell Lee Andrews case starts on page 14 under the title "Remorseless". There are some discrepancies from previous published information but probably nothing noteworthy that would directly effect the outcome of the case.


Wolcott is in unincorporated Wyandotte County, KS and was never really a town. It is located on Hwy 5 between Lansing/Leavenworth, KS and the I-435 loop which was not there in 1958. Crossing under I-435, Hwy 5 continues on into Fairfax, KS where the Fairfax Airport was at that time. During WWII bombers were built at a factory and flown out from that airport. The Fairfax Airport is no longer there. Directly across the Missouri River was the main airport at that time, known as Wheeler Airport today. Fifty yr old William Lowell Andrews was an aircraft mechanic and would have worked at one of those airports, and most likely the Fairfax Airport. Oddly, this article doesn't mention the Andrews family living on a farm but they very well could have. There is a large sod farm & nursery near Hwy 5 & I-435 today.


Lee had been cracking walnuts in the kitchen when he suddenly went upstairs opening one window and pushing out the screen, opening a dresser drawer and disturbing its contents and loading a .22 automatic rifle and a German Luger pistol. When he came back downstairs the rest of the family was together in the living room watching TV. When the shooting was over his sister lay face down in the living room with 3 shots, his mother lay face up nearby with 4 shots. She had been shot while still sitting in her easy chair.


His father managed to run to the kitchen where he died from 17 shots to the face and heart. So it would seem that Lee's passion was in the killing of his father.


Upon arriving in Lawrence Lee threw the weapons in the Kansas River as he crossed it on the north side of downtown, went to the home where he roomed and picked up a typewriter he was going to need for a class report, before going to the Granada Theatre.


Truman Capote did take an interest in Lee Andrews and his case later saying that, "Andrews was the most subtly crazy person you can imagine."