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'Ada and the Doc'

Bicentennial Presentation held at the Teche Theatre

The second of Franklin’s bicentennial celebration events took place Wednesday night at the Teche Theatre for the Performing Arts amidst a packed house.
Fran Middleton, former academic and retired librarian shared a presentation entitled, “Other Times, Other Customs and the Dreher-LeBoef Case,” centered around and expounding on the infamous subject matter of the Ada Leboeuf-Thomas Dreher Murder Case.
Middleton’s sources were many and varied and were largely comprised of documents and records she managed to hunt down.
Middleton said that in 1927, James LeBoef, husband of Ada LeBoef, was shown a letter accusing his wife of cheating on him with a well-known doctor in Morgan City, Dr. Thomas Dreher.
According to Middleton, LeBoef began stalking Dreher, and even threatened to shoot his wife for her alleged infidelity.
“In the weeks prior to his death, James had grown increasingly more violent toward her (Ada), and was stalking an already paranoid Dr. Dreher,” Middleton said.
On July 1, 1927, Ada LeBoef sent a note to Dr. Dreher asking him to meet she and James later that night, to settle the situation between them.
At the meeting, James Leboef is said to have pulled a pistol and fired (though no shot was reportedly heard) at Dreher, who was accompanied by a comrade with a shotgun. The comrade, James Beadle, fired two shots into the chest of James LeBoef killing him instantly.
After Beadle mutilated and scuttled the body of LeBoef—he, Dreher and Ada carried on as usual. But, the body resurfaced from the depths of Lake Palourde, and was reported shortly thereafter.
All three, Beadle, Dreher and Ada Leboef were taken into custody by July 7, 1921.
On July 12, the three were indicted for the murder of James LeBoef, and by July 13 they were arraigned.
The trial took place from July 30 to mid-August and culminated in guilty verdicts for Ada, Dreher and Beadle.
Ada and Dreher were sentenced to death by hanging, but Beadle got a lenient life sentence with hard labor at Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Ada and Dreher’s appeal was denied, and newly elected Governor Huey P. Long scheduled the pair to hang on Dec. 21, 1928.
A pardon board was convened, and with a plethora of new evidence, witnesses and affidavits, a sentence of commutation to life in prison for Ada and Dreher was recommended by the pardon board. But Long would not comply.
Due to the possibility of a new trial necessitated by the pardon board’s recommendation, the execution date was changed, but the Louisiana Supreme Court refused a new trial. However, a stay of execution was granted by Long on Jan. 5, 1929; and then, after he changed his mind just a few hours later, the execution was set again to proceed.
“From mid-January on, writs and appeals were filed to no avail,” Middleton reported. “Ada LeBoef and Dr. Dreher spent most of this time meeting with their families, and in prayer.”
On Feb. 1, 1929, Ada Leboef and Dr. James Dreher were hanged at the St. Mary Parish Courthouse Square, in Franklin.
LeBoef was buried in the Morgan City Cemetery, and Dreher was buried at the Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, with these words on his gravestone: “A forgotten man.”
Ada Leboef was the first white woman to be hanged in the state of Louisiana.
A book was penned on the subject of the Dreher-Leboef case and published in 2000, titled, “Ada and the Doc: An Account of the Ada Leboeuf-Thomas Dreher Murder Case,” by Charles M. Hargroder.

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