Gladys

*Warning – The information you are about to read may include discussions of true crimes, graphic details, and crime scenes, this may be too graphic for some people, please use discretion when reading*

Today I wanted to talk about a case I had never heard about. I just recently learned of it and decided to bring it to life. Are you familiar with Gladys Lincoln? I wasn’t either. She’s a serial bride, bigamist, and murderer.

Gladys was born in 1906. Not much has been learned about her early life nor upbringing, Our story starts in 1945.

In 1945 Gladys was on the hunt for a new man. She set her sights on a wealthy Idaho doctor, Dr. Willis Broadhurst. She had known him most of her life and knew he had accumulated considerable wealth. Gladys, an attractive red-headed woman, concocted two stories in order to lure the good doctor to her. Both stories succeeded in attracting him, and in a passion filled weekend in Reno in 1946, Gladys and Willis were wed. Come Monday Willis returned to Idaho and his ranch and his blushing bride returned to California.

Gladys claimed she was returning to California to settle the estate of her late aunt and was set to inherit, $3 million. However this was untrue. Her aunt was very much alive and didn’t have an estate anywhere near that large. Gladys had returned to California and her fifth husband, Lester Lincoln.

Gladys was married to her fifth husband and sixth husband at the same time. She claimed that her fifth husband was deceased and she was being harassed by his sinister brother for the inheritance she was to receive. When in reality Lester was in the process of divorcing her.

In early 1946 Gladys became ill from an addiction to sleeping pills and her husband requested she rest at the ranch in Idaho with him. Gladys did and after four months was feeling better.

During her recuperation, she got to know a cowhand with whom she became close, Alvin Williams. So close that on a trip to California with Alvin they married in Reno. Alvin was now her seventh husband. And she was married to three men at the same time.

While in California with Alvin, Gladys and he plotted to cause an accident for the Doctor in Idaho. In September, as part of her intricate plan, Gladys was named the sole beneficiary of Doc’s estate. Now the lovers were able to finalize their plans.

In October 1946, Willis was traveling between his two properties, one in Caldwell the other in Jordan Valley. Waiting on the side of the road for Doc Broadhurst, Alvin Williams knew what Gladys wanted him to do. He had a wrench, a shotgun, and liquid courage. In the afternoon of October 14, 1946 Dr. Willis ‘Doc’ Broadhurst was dead.

The forensic evidence, shows that Doc Broadhurst was hit three times with the wrench and then shot once in the chest with the shotgun. His body was placed in the trunk of a car and left in an abandoned gulch.

Over the next few days, with Doc reported missing and a search party looking for him, Gladys and Alvin became the prime suspects. When Alvin was arrested, he immediately confessed to the crime, lead them to the body and ultimately was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

After Alvins’s confession detailing her role in the murder of Doc Broadhurst, Gladys joined Alvin in jail on October 19. She was also convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled nine years later, in 1956.

And that is the story of Gladys Lincoln Broadhurst Williams. Murderer, bigamist, and black widow.

Please be ever alert, make good choices and stay safe.