successful clothing and general stores that made the Cronins very wealthy. Paul junior was in line to take over the company one day. He asked Elizabeth to marry him, and she agreed.
After graduation from college, Elizabeth and Paul moved to Houston, Texas, in late 1979. The plan was to take jobs working for the Houston-based clothing store Palais Royal so they could learn the ropes of running a major successful business and then return home to Massachusetts and run the family business. Paul also allegedly offered to purchase a horse ranch for Elizabeth as an en-ticement to travel halfway across the country.
Once they arrived, Elizabeth learned that the horse ranch deal had fallen through. Instead, she simply was hired at Palais Royal and also enrolled in graduate school at the University of Houston.
Elizabeth spoke with her mother every week. During one phone conversation, after she had been in Texas for a while, she told her mother, “Texas is great! Texas is wonderful! I love it here!”
Her mother, a tried-and-true Bostonian, asked her in a gruff manner, “What the hell is so great about Texas?” Elizabeth, with a hint of a smile in her voice, replied,
“A Texan stands tall in his boots!”
Not long after Elizabeth and Paul arrived in Texas, Elizabeth knew something was wrong. Official police reports indicate that Paul had a severe drinking problem. It was so bad that Elizabeth broke off the engagement and kicked her fiancé out of their apartment. Paul eventually packed up his bags and returned to Massachusetts. He checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic in an attempt to sober up.
By 1981, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Montgomery was finally starting to realize that things in her life were all
72 Corey Mitchell
right. She met another man, and much to her mother’s chagrin, she got engaged to him as well. She and her fiancé, thirty-two-year-old truck driver Willis “Bill” Daigle, shared an apartment together at the Pasada del Rey Apartments on the 6200 block of Marinette Drive, near Sharpstown Mall. They were engaged to be married the following summer. While it would be Montgomery’s first marriage, it would be Daigle’s third.
According to Elizabeth’s coworker, Elizabeth and Bill’s relationship was a tempestuous one. Elizabeth believed that Bill had cheated on her several times while he was out on the road. In retaliation, Elizabeth allegedly slept with three or four men while Bill was away. It was not the healthiest of relationships.
On Saturday, September 12, 1981, Elizabeth was at her apartment with Bill. She decided to slip outside and walk her two white dogs. She had the larger dog on an eighty-five-inch leash. The smaller dog was not restrained.
It was just after midnight.
She spoke with a neighbor in the parking lot, who complained about her letting the dogs take care of their business in the apartment courtyard. Daigle heard the encounter and stepped outside. He told Montgomery to take her pets over to a nearby grassy knoll near the street.
Daigle walked back inside and left the door open. He wanted to get ready for a good night’s sleep. Suddenly he was startled by a shrill noise of “Bill! Oh God, Bill!” Then he heard a piercing screech of “He’s got a knife!” “I heard her scream when she got into the courtyard and
I ran out there,” Daigle recalled. Montgomery stumbled toward him. At first Daigle noticed she did not have the smaller dog with her. The next thing he noticed was the color red. Elizabeth clutched her throat as blood seeped
EVIL EY ES 73
through her lithe fingers. He grabbed her and pulled her into their apartment. The large white dog and Daigle’s weimaraner began to attack each other. Daigle separated the dogs but stopped when Montgomery slumped onto him.
“She finished bleeding to death in my arms.”
Elizabeth Montgomery had been stabbed in the heart with a knife. The single infliction killed her.
Suzi Wolf, born in 1959, was the third
After graduation from college, Elizabeth and Paul moved to Houston, Texas, in late 1979. The plan was to take jobs working for the Houston-based clothing store Palais Royal so they could learn the ropes of running a major successful business and then return home to Massachusetts and run the family business. Paul also allegedly offered to purchase a horse ranch for Elizabeth as an en-ticement to travel halfway across the country.
Once they arrived, Elizabeth learned that the horse ranch deal had fallen through. Instead, she simply was hired at Palais Royal and also enrolled in graduate school at the University of Houston.
Elizabeth spoke with her mother every week. During one phone conversation, after she had been in Texas for a while, she told her mother, “Texas is great! Texas is wonderful! I love it here!”
Her mother, a tried-and-true Bostonian, asked her in a gruff manner, “What the hell is so great about Texas?” Elizabeth, with a hint of a smile in her voice, replied,
“A Texan stands tall in his boots!”
Not long after Elizabeth and Paul arrived in Texas, Elizabeth knew something was wrong. Official police reports indicate that Paul had a severe drinking problem. It was so bad that Elizabeth broke off the engagement and kicked her fiancé out of their apartment. Paul eventually packed up his bags and returned to Massachusetts. He checked himself into a rehabilitation clinic in an attempt to sober up.
By 1981, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Montgomery was finally starting to realize that things in her life were all
72 Corey Mitchell
right. She met another man, and much to her mother’s chagrin, she got engaged to him as well. She and her fiancé, thirty-two-year-old truck driver Willis “Bill” Daigle, shared an apartment together at the Pasada del Rey Apartments on the 6200 block of Marinette Drive, near Sharpstown Mall. They were engaged to be married the following summer. While it would be Montgomery’s first marriage, it would be Daigle’s third.
According to Elizabeth’s coworker, Elizabeth and Bill’s relationship was a tempestuous one. Elizabeth believed that Bill had cheated on her several times while he was out on the road. In retaliation, Elizabeth allegedly slept with three or four men while Bill was away. It was not the healthiest of relationships.
On Saturday, September 12, 1981, Elizabeth was at her apartment with Bill. She decided to slip outside and walk her two white dogs. She had the larger dog on an eighty-five-inch leash. The smaller dog was not restrained.
It was just after midnight.
She spoke with a neighbor in the parking lot, who complained about her letting the dogs take care of their business in the apartment courtyard. Daigle heard the encounter and stepped outside. He told Montgomery to take her pets over to a nearby grassy knoll near the street.
Daigle walked back inside and left the door open. He wanted to get ready for a good night’s sleep. Suddenly he was startled by a shrill noise of “Bill! Oh God, Bill!” Then he heard a piercing screech of “He’s got a knife!” “I heard her scream when she got into the courtyard and
I ran out there,” Daigle recalled. Montgomery stumbled toward him. At first Daigle noticed she did not have the smaller dog with her. The next thing he noticed was the color red. Elizabeth clutched her throat as blood seeped
EVIL EY ES 73
through her lithe fingers. He grabbed her and pulled her into their apartment. The large white dog and Daigle’s weimaraner began to attack each other. Daigle separated the dogs but stopped when Montgomery slumped onto him.
“She finished bleeding to death in my arms.”
Elizabeth Montgomery had been stabbed in the heart with a knife. The single infliction killed her.
Suzi Wolf, born in 1959, was the third
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