Before becoming the last woman ever executed in California in 1962, the convicted murderer Elizabeth Duncan was far from repentant. The night before she was sent to San Quentin’s gas chamber, Duncan told a jail matron she had no qualms about hiring two ex-cons to murder the pregnant daughter-in-law who’d recently married her lawyer son Frank. , when the prison guard asked Elizabeth if she’d commit the crime again knowing its consequences, Duncan didn’t bat an eye.
Elizabeth Duncan showed little emotion at the end of her 1959 murder trial, when the jury announced her sentence: Death in the gas chamber.in 1957, Mrs. Duncan wouldn’t have it. She told a friend that Olga was “unfit” to date her son, not to mention a “foreigner.” When Frank began spending nights at Olga’s apartment and the relationship turned serious, Mrs. Duncan immediately began a reign of terror toward her son’s paramour. Elizabeth asked an ex-boyfriend to “beat up” Olga, and when he refused she began to harass her by phone. She called so frequently to convince Olga to leave Frank that the young nurse changed her home phone number. Then Mrs.
Finally, she hired a drifter to accompany her to a courthouse in the neighboring county to get the marriage revoked. Mrs. Duncan and her hired man swore they were Frank and Olga and signed some paperwork, officially annulling the marital union as if it never existed. Moya and Baldonado were no criminal masterminds, being seen the night of Olga’s disappearance covered in blood. Plus, when they returned the car they’d borrowed on the night of the murder, its backseat was ripped and burned. Dried blood blotted the vehicle as well.