In “a solid account of what appears to be a shocking injustice” an award-winning journalist uncovers the bias that led to a woman’s conviction for murder ( The New York Times ).

When a prominent Alabama doctor is brutally killed, his wife and her twin sister are charged with conspiracy to murder. But while her twin was acquitted of the crime, Betty Wilson was charged with killing her husband.

Probing into a trial that deliberated on Betty’s promiscuity, her alcoholism and her adulterous affair with a black man rather than any physical evidence against her, critically acclaimed journalist Jim Schutze reveals how sex, politics and corruption could possibly have led to a scandalous miscarriage of justice that kept the real killer from facing full penalty for his cold-blooded deed. A fascinating true crime account, By Two and Two is a page-turning investigation into the harrowing details of a sensational murder case.

From Publishers Weekly

On May 22, 1992, Jack Wilson, a prominent Huntsville, Ala., ophthalmologist, was bludgeoned to death with an aluminum baseball bat by James White, a schizophrenic alcoholic. When arrested, White informed the police that he knew Betty Lowe, who was married to Wilson, and her twin, Peggy. White convinced the police that he was involved in a murder-for-hire plot with the middle-aged sisters. The police ran with White's fantasy and practically concocted his scenario for him. The state would go for capital murder charges against the twins, who would be tried separately, Betty first. A former alcoholic, she had an unquenchable sexual appetite brought on in part by her husband's impotence. She had had many affairs?particularly with black men?which the prosecution played as motive. Betty was convicted and remains on death row?although her accuser has recanted much of his testimony. Peggy, tried with a more meticulous defense, was found innocent?on exactly the same evidence that had convicted her twin. In a chilling courtroom drama, we see how the police believed a psychopath over two prominent citizens; how prosecutors allowed themselves to be blinded by the media's bright lights; and how, according to the author, "the law is a fool." Schutze (Preacher's Girl) has written a gripping, graphic book about a miscarriage of justice. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Betty Wilson and her twin sister, Peggy, were charged in 1993 with conspiring to kill Betty's husband. Two juries, hearing one set of facts, found Betty guilty and acquitted Peggy. Unlike Ken Englade's account of the same case, Blood Sister (St. Martin's, 1994), this volume concludes that both women are innocent and that the drunken, drugged James Dennison White was solely responsible for the murder. Throughout, Schutze points out inconsistencies, errors, lies, etc., in the case. What is perhaps even more ghastly than the the murder is the possibility that politics, corruption, sex, and race may have affected the outcome of a trial that focused more on Betty Wilson's faults than on the evidence. A well-organized, crisp, and fast-moving account; for popular true crime collections.?Christine Moesch, Buffalo & Erie Cty. P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

It is certainly not unheard of for a woman to pay someone to kill her husband, and that's what Betty Wilson was convicted of in 1993. After investigating the case, however, crime reporter Schutze became convinced that the Alabama native was wrongly convicted. Betty's husband Jack, a prominent Huntsville ophthalmologist, was brutally murdered in his home by "white trash rodent" James White. White often worked as a handyman for Betty's twin sister (who was acquitted of involvement in the murder), and although no evidence indicates he ever met Betty, the alcoholic murderer claims he was paid to kill Jack. Because Betty was a flamboyant recovering alcoholic and an occasionally unfaithful wife, police eagerly accepted White's claims. Schutze provides a vivid, albeit one-sided, account of a murder case that received national media attention. Sue-Ellen Beauregard

About the Author

Jim Schutze is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including By Two and Two: The Scandalous Story of Twin Sisters Accused of a Shocking Crime of Passion; Cauldron of Blood: The Matamoros Cult Killings; and Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore.