On the evening of August 6, 1983, Betty Lou Beets reported her husband, Jimmy Don Beets, missing. He had embarked on a fishing trip near Cedar Creek Lake in Texas and failed to return.

Just six days following his disappearance, Jimmy Don’s boat was discovered adrift. Inside, his nitroglycerine pills were scattered, but there was no sign of Jimmy Don himself, a firefighter by profession. As weeks passed, Betty Lou shifted her attention to claiming his pension, raising eyebrows among investigators.

So, what really became of Jimmy Don Beets? The series Killer Grannies on Oxygen delved into the nearly two-year investigation that eventually led the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department to uncover a disturbing truth hidden right beneath their noses—inside a decorative wishing well.

Betty Lou Beets’s turbulent marital past

Betty Lou and Jimmy Don had been married since 1982. According to investigative reporter Glenna Whitely, “Once they got together, they were like glue,” highlighting the seemingly inseparable nature of their relationship.

Remarkably, Jimmy Don was Betty Lou’s fifth husband; she had tied the knot seven times in total, marrying two of the men twice. Investigators soon discovered a troubling pattern: Jimmy Don wasn’t the only man linked to Betty Lou, a mother of six, who had mysteriously disappeared.

Interestingly, investigators learned that Jimmy Don wasn’t the only man who married Betty Lou—a mom of six—to vanish into thin air. 

Doyle Wayne Baker married her twice, first in 1979 and once again the year after they divorced. And while he disappeared in 1981, Betty Lou claimed she had no information. 

Sheriffs get a case-changing tip

After chasing leads that turned into dead ends, sheriffs finally got a break in June 1985. 

A man who’d had an affair with Betty Lou informed officials what she’d told him after a night of heavy drinking.

“She said, ‘The last guy I screwed,’” Whitely shared, “‘I killed and buried in my front yard.’”

Investigators turned to Betty Lou’s adult children to corroborate the tip. Her daughter Phyllis said she knew that her mother killed Jimmy Don and her sister, Shirley, helped dispose of him as well as another man’s body. 

Officials were told that Jimmy Don was buried under decorative outdoor wishing well he built for her and the other body was in the ground under a shed.

Betty Lou Beets arrested for murder

Before investigators could arrest Betty Lou, they responded to an incident involving her younger son and her current boyfriend, Ray, a convicted felon on parole.

After an argument, the teen grabbed guns at the house and shot out the tires on Ray’s vehicle. Officials collected a few firearms, including a .38 special. 

Meanwhile, Betty Lou was informed that police were headed to her property to dig for bodies.

“That scared her,” said County Sheriff’s Office former chief investigator Michael O’Brien. “She turned from a smiling grandma to a snarling wolf.” 

Two bodies were recovered and identified through dental records as Jimmy Don and Doyle. 

Bullets found in the men’s remains were a match for the .38-caliber gun seized from the Beets residence during the incident between Ray and Betty Lou’s son. 

Investigators determined that Betty Lou’s daughter Shirley helped bury Doyle while Betty Lou’s son Robert helped bury Jimmy Don. The two were charged for their roles in the crimes.

Sheriffs also learned that Betty Lou had tried to take out a $10,000 life insurance policy on Jimmy Don without his knowledge.

“Betty Lou killed Jimmy Don for the insurance money,” said O’Brien. “This is a capital murder case.”

As such, Betty Lou, dubbed a “black widow” by the press, faced the death penalty in what became a high-profile case.

For more gripping cases like this one, watch Killer Grannies on the Oxygen app.