The Mistress and Nell Willetta Horner

Mrs. Carolann Smith met Nell Willetta Horner in a grocery store. A friendship soon developed, and Willetta often visited Mrs. Smith. Willetta confided in Mrs. Smith that she hated her home life and that she had managed to escape with the help of a friend.

Willetta had a job in the city of Tulsa as an office worker and was living with a friend. Willetta met Virginia Evans, a roommate of Mrs. Smith's, but the two did not speak directly to each other, because Mrs. Smith did most of the talking. At the depositions given by Willetta and Virginia in 1944 they both claimed that Mrs. Smith at first appeared to be a kind, caring woman.

It was later, when they learned of her cruelty. Something that Willetta did not know in 1938 after meeting and becoming friends with Mrs. Smith was that Mrs. Smith was telling lies about her to Virginia. Mrs. Smith told Virginia that Willetta was a prostitute that she found on first street in downtown and that Mrs. Smith planned to save her soul.

"She has participated in a lot of unhealthy sinful sex with both men and women," Mrs. Smith said. Mrs. Smith in 1944 claimed in her deposition that Willetta had asked to move into the apartment, but Willetta testified that she was encouraged and invited by Mrs. Smith to move in.

Either way, Mrs. Smith, at first, treated Willetta like a daughter after she did move in and at one point told Willetta that she had legally adopted her. Shortly after Willetta moved in Mrs. Smith began to tell her lies about Virginia. Mrs. Smith told Willetta that Virginia was absolutely pure even though she had been married for six months.

She also said that Virginia was mentally unstable and wanted to kill her father and that Virginia’s mother hated her for this. According to Mrs. Smith it was the responsibility of her and Willetta to save Virginia's soul. Mrs. Smith took on the role of being a protective mother. She allowed Willetta and Virginia to keep their jobs but expected them to return home immediately after work.

She also had Willetta and Virginia cutoff contact with their family and friends. When Willetta's brother, Jack Horner, attempted to contact his sister Mrs. Smith had Virginia tell him that Willetta no longer lived there. Mrs. Smith created a community pot which Willetta and Virginia were expected to fund with their paychecks.

From the community pot Mrs. Smith paid expenses. Willetta and Virginia began to get less and less of the money from their paychecks. Mrs. Smith began to routinely perform purification rituals by reading quotes from the Bible and providing sermons.

Willetta and Virginia were expected to attend and listen. These rituals often got loud when Mrs. Smith gave an impassioned sermon. The managers of the Sophian Plaza already disliked Mrs. Smith but when they began to get compliments from other tenants, they raised her rent.

Mrs. Smith blamed Willetta and Virginia by telling them that they were being evicted from the apartment building for being working class women. Mrs. Smith then assigned Willetta the task of finding a new place to live. Willetta found a small rent house in Tulsa near 25th Street and Boston Place that was behind a larger primary residence.

They moved in, lived there for a year, but Mrs. Smith wanted a bigger place to live. And she found it: a duplex at 10 East 21st Street in the luxurious neighborhood of Maple Ridge. This is the home that would later become known as the hex house.

Note to readers: We have made our best effort to provide the most accurate information about the history of the Hex House of Tulsa. We collected newspaper articles, researched genealogy, and historical documents like marriage licenses, census information, city directories, and draft cards. However, there may be errors in the information provided. Nevertheless, the arc of the story is true and documented history even if some details may be incorrect.