Miss Edith
Age 2920 Jul 1976
New Orleans, Louisiana (USA)
Shot
Miss Edith was shot three times in the head in a motel room.
Eddie Smith, 29, who performed in the French Quarter as female impersonator "Miss Edith," and Paulette Royal, 17, were each shot three times in the head on 20 Jul., 1976 in a motel room in New Orleans.
They were killed hours after appearing as witnesses at a pre-trial hearing in a narcotics case in an apparent effort to silence them.
David Joseph Sylvester, who was facing trial for intent to distribute heroin, Clarence Davis, 21, and his brother, Nelson Davis, were all charged with first degree murder in their deaths.
Informants Believed Shot by Dope Ring (Town Talk, Alexandria, LA, USA, 1976-07-22)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Police say they believe two narcotics informants shot to death two days before they were to testify in a drug trial were killed by an organization supplying heroin to addicts.
Eddie Smith, 29, who performed in the French Quarter as a female impersonator under the name of "Miss Edith," and Paulette Royal, 17, both of New Orleans, were each shot three times in the head Tuesday night.
Police said the shots were muffled through a pillow.
Both had been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of David J. Sylvester on charges of intent to distribute heroin. Sylvester also faced federal narcotics charges.
The state trial was scheduled to begin today, but defense attorneys said they would ask that it be postponed.
Sylvester had been held in the Orleans Parish Prison for more than a year until he was released on $30,000 bond last month.
An agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said he believes Smith and Miss Royal died for the government. "These people died for us," the agent said. "Some people may have not liked what they did..."
A third person in the motel room, Samuel Williams, 22, of Alexandria was wounded in the shooting, but he was believed to have been a bystander who got in the way.
Smith and Miss Royal had been living the past eight months in Alexandria, where the DEA sent them for protection. The two were brought to the. court of State 'District Judge Jerome Winsberg earlier Tuesday at the request of Sylvester's attorney, Robert Glass, who complained the state had denied him access to the witnesses.
Dist. Atty. Harry Connick confirmed his office had made arrangements for the two to stay at the motel, but said both refused police and DEA protection.
Police speculated someone followed the car carrying the witnesses from court to the hideaway motel, and "set up" a visit by three gunmen.
Connick criticized the order for the court appearance. "If we had not been ordered to produce them, we feel these people would still be alive," he said.
But Judge Winsberg called Connick's remark "obnoxious" and "a gross misstatement."
"More than anything else, I don't like the implications," Winsberg said. "The defense wanted the witnesses informed that they had the right to talk to defense attorneys as well as to prosecutors. It's called discovery," he said.
"The ruling was entirely legal and proper," the judge said. "It was made more than a week ago, and at the time the state didn't object. If they had felt it was wrong, they had the recourse of taking writs to the Louisiana Supreme Court."
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-town-talk-murder-of-female-impersona/75729288/