Room 903

 

Willie Mae Wood

Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.240-1)

 

In October of 1935, A Midsummer Night’s Dream would come to the big screen, enchanting audiences with Shakespeare’s tale of love and hate. That month would also see another tale of love and hate played out in front of a Washington D.C. grand jury.

 

Willie Mae Wood was a vivacious and pretty twenty-one-year-old newlywed. Marrying Horace Randolph Wood she thought would stabilize her life and give her the appearance of what was “normal”. Up to this point her love life hadn’t been so normal, you see she had been carrying on since she was seventeen with a married man.

 

William Henry Reaguer was the town’s funeral director. An upright member of the community in their rural town of Culpeper, VA.  Reaguer was madly in love with Willie Mae and was ready to give up everything for her. By everything I mean his very reputation, along with a wife of over 30 years, the long-suffering Bessie (Compton) Reaguer and two daughters, Helen and Elise.

 

Willie Mae had tried before to extricate herself from this affair. Marrying Wood was her latest act and an attempt to finalize things. Reaguer had become increasingly unpredictable since the death of his son in August and Willie Mae knew she had to untangle this complicated web. Reaguer had provided a certain lifestyle for her, lavishing her with expensive gifts and most recently had promised to buy a car for her mother, Dolores (O’Bannon) Fletcher.

 

Dolores had looked the other way for a long time. Sure, there were whispers around town and she knew about her daughter and this much older man.  He was 56 but she played it off in her mind that he was more of a mentor figure to her daughter; after all her own husband and Willie Mae’s father was 15 years older than her. She was torn; she wanted to keep it under wraps and not make too many waves, lest her own daughter be embroiled in a scandal. She had also benefitted from Reaguer’s kind gifts from time to time when he was a regular visitor to the Fletcher home.

 

Willie Mae had taken this all too far; she could have broken it off sooner but deep in her heart she had once had great love for him. Since she was 17, he had doted on her and made her feel like a sophisticated woman. She could learn to love Herbert the same way.

 

Herbert Wood was a man of means. Working for the Virginia Highway Commission as steamroller, he had steamrolled Willie Mae’s heart with his movie star good looks and quick wit. The two married on September 26, 1935 and quickly set up house not far from the Stoneleigh mansion in Stanleytown, VA. Quite a distance from Culpeper and the Reaguer Funeral Home.

 

Herbert knew she had a friendship of sorts with the undertaker. He didn’t give it much thought. He didn’t suspect his wife would in any way be attracted to that old man. She had once wired him to send some money while they were on a trip which he did with no issue, but Herbert didn’t question her about it. When Willie Mae’s cousin Annie O’Bannon came to visit, taking time off from school and the girls told him that they were travelling to Culpeper to visit her mother and help her buy a car. He told them to have a nice time.

 

Annie was a nervous sort. Always on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Life seemed to wash over her like a tsunami. She envied Willie Mae’s carefree and seemingly independent nature.

 

After spending some time at the Fletcher home in Culpeper, Annie and Willie Mae were at the bus depot headed to Fairfax. Reaguer pulled up in his car and began to hassle Willie Mae. The argument caused them to miss their bus. Reaguer then offered a ride which the two took. During the trip Reaguer laid it on thick. He told Willie Mae that they would both go to Reno and get divorced, which she refused. Annie said he was drinking and became increasingly agitated. He drove passed Fairfax and insisted they stay in a Washington D.C. Hotel.

 

The three checked into the Houston Hotel as Mr. Thomas and family. Reaguer would stay in one room and the girls another. Around 1 AM, Annie remembered that Willie Mae kissed her goodnight and went to Reaguer’s room. Annie fell asleep until the commotion started. Annie would later recount screams that “were so loud they came through my window and the door”.

 

The night clerk of the hotel busted into room 903 to find Willie Mae sprawled on the floor wearing only a brassiere and covered in blood. Reaguer was in a frenzy, blood pouring down his arms as he stood in his underwear exclaiming “have mercy on me” and mumbling about being “double-crossed”.

 

When the cops arrived Reaguer was laying beside Willie Mae. Willi Mae was dead, Reaguer incoherent. Taken to the hospital his wounds treated, he was placed under mental observation and was of little use to the police who had now charged him with murder.

 

Annie, on the verge of collapse wasn’t of much help either. Her story changing a few times. Perhaps to protect the reputation of her slain cousin. Annie later told the Grand Jury that Reaguer had forced them into the car at gun point; and the entire trip was under duress and fear that Herbert Wood would find out.

 

Speaking of Herbert Wood, he was obviously in shock to hear of his bride’s demise and fainted at the news. 

 Willie Mae and Herbert Wood

Reaguer declined to take the stand and sat stoically with bandaged wrists while a patrolman, Charles Burnett, revealed that Reaguer had admitted to knifing Willie Mae during in argument in which she threatened him with a pitcher. 

Reaguer hides his face in the hospital.

Reaguer was indicted for 1^st degree murder. His wife, Bessie, took over operations of the funeral home, but died a year later of sudden angina pectoris (a broken heart, perhaps). Reaguer ended up in  D.C. workhouse, where he died in 1945 of tuberculosis. He was buried next to Bessie in the Masonic Cemetery in Culpeper.

 

Herbert Wood eventually remarried and had children. A World War II veteran, he lived till the ripe old age of 88, passing away in 2007. His obituary stating that he “was blessed with many great friends, neighbors, and a loving church family.”

 

Annie O’Bannon went on to marry twice, but demons eventually caught up with her when she ended her life with self-inflicted stab wounds in October of 1982, almost 47 years to the date of Willie Mae’s murder.

 

Willie Mae’s modest grave lies alone in Fairview Cemetery. Resting in peace under a plainly marked stone as Sarah W. Wood 1913-1935.

 

For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth. (A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 1.1.134-36)