The murder trial that called John Wayne as a witness: “She was getting a better part in the movie”
Although it isn’t without precedent, Hollywood’s biggest stars don’t often get called to testify in murder trials where they aren’t being accused of the killing, so public interest naturally exploded when none other than John Wayne was summoned in front of a judge.
While several actors have been tried and occasionally convicted of murder, it was unusual for one of the industry’s most famous faces to be subpoenaed in a case they were only tangentially connected to, even if that tangential connection was cited as the driving force behind the death of La Jean Etheridge.
The aspiring starlet and her boyfriend, Chester Harvey Smith, had both been hired to work as extras on the set of Wayne’s feature-length directorial debut, The Alamo. Due to the length of the shoot, the Hollywood natives had decamped to digs in Spofford, Texas, organised by the A-lister’s Batjac company.
However, after impressing ‘The Duke’, Etheridge was awarded a much bigger part in the movie, which saw her salary increased from $75 to $350 per week. Having been upgraded from extra to featured actor, she was preparing to relocate ten miles north to Fort Clark, but she never got the chance.
While she was packing her things, Smith stabbed her through the heart with a Bowie knife in a jealous rage. The two had only met when they were both assigned to the same lodgings before The Alamo entered production, but their four-week romance had ended in her murder, with Smith telling the police, “I couldn’t live without her,” when they arrived on the scene and took him into custody.
What may have been ruled a crime of passion subsequently gained nationwide publicity when Fred Semaan, the lawyer defending Smith in the courtroom, subpoenaed Wayne. Inevitably, once word broke that ‘The Duke’ himself would be appearing in front of the judge, the press descended upon the courthouse in their droves, forcing a closed hearing out of necessity to avoid the prying eyes of the media.
When he emerged having given his statement, Wayne refused to divulge any details when the microphones were thrust in front of his face for comment. “I’m bound by the court’s order not to reveal my testimony,” was all he’d give them, and it felt more like a publicity stunt more than anything else for Semaan to get him involved in any capacity.
In fact, the case never even made it to trial after Chester pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years. “She was getting a better part in the movie, and she was moving out on Smith and the others,” Sheriff John Sheedy explained after apprehending the suspect. “He thought he was going to lose her.”
Tying one final tragic bow around Etheridge’s murder, her scenes from The Alamo weren’t included in the final cut of the film, in a decision that was based on either respect for the dead or a concerted effort to avoid bringing the case back into the public consciousness, or perhaps a combination of both.
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