William Woodward, Jr. - The Shooting of The Century

The Shooting of The Century

After attending a dinner party for the Duchess of Windsor on October 30, 1955, the couple returned home, nervous about reports of a prowler roaming nearby estates, including their own. The Woodwards were both avid hunters, although Ann was considered a terrible shot, and each went to their separate bedrooms that evening with loaded shotguns. A few hours later Ann heard a noise, went into a darkened hallway with her gun and shot and killed her husband, believing him to be a prowler. Subsequent investigations determined that there had indeed been a prowler in the house that evening. Woodward's mother, however, believed that the shooting had been deliberate, yet stepped in to prevent further scandal. Ann was never charged in the matter. Life Magazine called the episode "The Shooting of the Century".

The story became a cause célèbre. Ann was banished from high society and her sons were sent to boarding school in Europe. The tale, which followed Ann everywhere, was thinly disguised and retold in Truman Capote's novel, Answered Prayers, and Dominick Dunne's novel The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, and in the non-fiction book This Crazy Thing Called Love by Susan Braudy.

Ann learned of the impending publication, in Esquire magazine, of Capote's initial version of the story and killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills in 1975. "Well, that's that", said her mother-in-law, "she shot my son, and Truman just murdered her, and so now I suppose we don't have to worry about that anymore."