Beulah Annan
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Beulah Sheriff Annan (about 1901 - 1928) was an American murderess. She is the subject of Maurine Dallas Watkins' play Chicago.
Beulah Sheriff, of Daviess County, Kentucky, married car mechanic Albert (Al) Annan and moved to Chicago, Illinois. They went shopping for a car, and met salesman Harry Kalstedt in the process.
On April 3, 1924, in the married couple's bedroom, Beulah shot Harry Kalstedt in the back. She sat drinking cocktails and playing a fox trot record, "Hula Lou," over and over for about two hours as she sat watching Kalstedt die. She then called her husband to say she had killed a man who had "tried to make love" to her.
Beulah's story changed over time: first, she confessed to the murder; later, Beulah claimed she had shot Kalstedt in self-defense, fearing rape. According to one of her later versions, he told her he was leaving her, she reacted angrily, then she shot him. Prosecutors surmised that Kalstedt had threatened to leave Beulah, and she shot him in a jealous rage. Her final story, at trial, was that she had told Kalstedt she was pregnant, they struggled, and they both reached for the gun.
Albert Annan stood by her, pulled his money out of the bank to get her the best lawyers, and stood by her throughout the trial. The day after the trial ended in acquittal, on May 25, 1924, his wife announced, "I have left my husband. He is too slow." And she divorced him.
She married three times:
- Perry Stephens.
- Albert Annan, divorced 1926. In 1934, he was implicated in the murder of his common-law wife. He played the radio while waiting for the police to arrive.
- Edward Harlib, married 1927, divorced (this marriage was bigamous, as he was still married).
She also was involved with a fourth man, Able Marcus, before her death.
Beulah died of tuberculosis in a Chicago sanatorium in 1928, four years after her acquittal on charges of murder. She was returned to her home state for burial in Mount Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Daviess County, Kentucky.