| rdfs:comment | - Wilhelmina Ducette, amicably referred to as "Billie" by those close to her, was a young, but spunky, habitué of Doc Windsor's bar in 1932, which been operating as an underground distributor of alcohol with almost exclusively African-American clientele. (At the time, the sale and possession of alcohol was illegal under the 18th amendment, which had taken effect in 1920, ushering an a 13-year "dry" epoch known as the "Prohibition Era". The 18th Amendment was entirely repealed in 1933 by the ratification and passage of the 21st Amendment). It was there that she met Rose Collins, sister of Curtis Collins, who provided the alcohol for the bar with his unsuspecting pickup. Though Rose and Billie initially feuded at the bar, which culminated in Billie callously chugging the beverage Rose had paid
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| abstract | - Wilhelmina Ducette, amicably referred to as "Billie" by those close to her, was a young, but spunky, habitué of Doc Windsor's bar in 1932, which been operating as an underground distributor of alcohol with almost exclusively African-American clientele. (At the time, the sale and possession of alcohol was illegal under the 18th amendment, which had taken effect in 1920, ushering an a 13-year "dry" epoch known as the "Prohibition Era". The 18th Amendment was entirely repealed in 1933 by the ratification and passage of the 21st Amendment). It was there that she met Rose Collins, sister of Curtis Collins, who provided the alcohol for the bar with his unsuspecting pickup. Though Rose and Billie initially feuded at the bar, which culminated in Billie callously chugging the beverage Rose had paid for and instructing her to leave, they eventually met after the bar incident and reconciled. Their friendship grew stronger, as evidenced by Billie reading her poetry to Rose outside her school, and Billie eventually revealed that she was Lesbian and attracted to Rose (though not in so many words). However, Rose was not averse to these advances and told her she felt the same. Curtis however, eventually unearthed their "unholy" romance, and was livid. This escalated into a violent confrontation between Rose and Curtis, and Rose and Billie were eventually forced to flee in the pickup to escape Curtis's unabating fury and aggression. An incensed Curtis soon followed suit and drove off, tailing them closely with a rifle in hand. Curtis relentlessly opened fire on their on their increasingly swerving vehicle. Soon enough the two taboo lovers were checkmated when Curtis cornered them into driving over a bridge that was closed for maintenance. Unable to drive forward or face an angry, armed Curtis, the two drove the pickup over the edge of the bridge into the unforgiving waters below and Billie unfortunately died. Rose apparently survived the ordeal unbeknownst to Curtis, and the two remained out of contact for over 70 years, until Billie's case was reopened (albeit as a Jane Doe at first). In 2005, the decades-old pickup was hauled out of the deep, and the detectives found an unidentified skeleton inside. Scotty expertly deduced that the car was made before 1935 by the make and design of the car's headlights, and the detectives first believed the corpse belonged to Rose Collins after hearing the testimony of the now geriatric Curtis Collins, as he was evidently unaware his sister had survived. With the help of forensics expert Dr. Frannie Ching, the homicide squad eventually determined Billie's true identity and closed the case 73 years later. No arrests were made and her death was presumably documented as accidental. When the case was solved, it was the oldest case to date (though this record was later shattered by the cases of Violet Polley, murdered in 1929, and Francis Stone, murdered in 1919).
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