She was born Lofie Louise Preslar in Louisiana in 1880 and moved through a series of marriages and names. Men around her died: a husband in 1906 by suicide, a Texas oil man named Joe Appel shot dead in 1912 in circumstances she said were self-defence, and further husbands by suicide afterwards.
In 1920, in Los Angeles, she was living in the house of Jacob Denton, a wealthy mining man. He disappeared in May; she stayed on, forged his signature, sold his property and told callers he had gone away. His body was found buried in the basement in September, shot. She was convicted of first degree murder on February 17, 1921 and sentenced to life.
She was paroled on April 11, 1939 after eighteen years, on the sponsorship of Jessie Marcy, a woman who had befriended her in prison work; Marcy died soon after. She then moved in with Margaret Logan, who had testified in support of her parole, and her husband. In 1944 Margaret Logan disappeared. Peete forged her cheques and told people she was ill. The body was found buried under an avocado tree in the garden, shot and beaten.
She was convicted again and sentenced to death on June 1, 1945. She was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin on April 11, 1947, aged sixty-six. Seven years to the day after her parole. She is one of four women executed in California.
The parole is the case. She was released on the recommendation of women who believed in her, and she killed one of them. Her own parole officer, to whom she had reported for years, was among those she deceived.