Cold and Hungry in the Hex House

Thelma Watson was an excellent nurse. She did a great job helping Virginia Evans recover from her mental and physical illnesses. Tom Evans, Virginia’s father, paid $31 a week for the nurse to care for Virginia.

Thelma worked with Virginia for a few years helping her to heal. When Mr. Evans would go visit his daughter, Mrs. Smith updated him on Thelma's progress with Virginia. The few times that he got to see his daughter, she looked exhausted like she had been up all night.

A couple of times Mrs. Smith appeared with patches of her hair missing. Mr. Evans was told that Virginia had struck out violently during a relapse and yanked hair from Mrs. Smith's head. Mrs. Smith was an excellent friend, Mr. Evans realized. Thelma was an excellent nurse. She could do no wrong. In fact, the only bad thing about the nurse Thelma Watson was that she never existed.

Mrs. Smith made her up and she also lied about Virginia's illnesses. She would force Virginia to stay up all night before her father's visit the next day. Mrs. Smith also had Willetta pull a wad of hair out her head so she could blame that on Virginia. Mr. Evans had spent nearly $17,000 for Virginia’s non-existent mental and medical treatments.

Andrew Milek lived in the other half of the duplex on 21st Street in the Maple Ridge neighborhood. Mrs. Smith did not like him. She wanted him gone, and she even once asked him to move. He refused and she outlined a strategy with Virginia and Willetta to get rid of him.

She created some lies that she ordered Virginia and Willetta to tell the police when the police would be called on Mr. Milek. Virginia and Willetta rehearsed their lies until late in the night. The next day Mrs. Smith told Willetta to go outside hit Mr. Milek with a stick.

Willetta hit him several times and then fell to the ground. Virginia called the police. Mr. Milek was arrested, charges were filed, and all three women testified in city court in front of Judge Tom Shaw that Milek was a peeping Tom who assaulted Willetta. Mr. Milek was found guilty, fined, and forced to move. Mrs. Smith had accomplished her mission.

The repairman thought he was alone in the basement. Virginia and Willetta watched him from a doorway. When he turned around and saw them, he jumped.

"I didn't know anybody was down here," he said.

The ladies were shivering, wore dirty clothes, and were extremely thin.

"Are you two, okay?" He asked.

They stared at him and said nothing.

"Do you need help?"

"They do not," Mrs. Smith said from behind the man. Startled again, he turned to see Mrs. Smith had come down to the basement.

"What's wrong with them?" The repairman asked.

"They just returned from a mission in South America," Mrs. Smith said. They would like to bathe, but without the furnace working it would be too cold for them to warm up afterwards."

"I see," the repairman said. "I will have the furnace fixed in a few minutes." "That will be greatly appreciated," Mrs. Smith said.

The repairman did not think about the incident again until he was subpoenaed several years later to testify in front of a grand jury.

The Mistress of the Hex House videos are based on a true story that occurred in March of 1944 in Tulsa, Oklahoma when Mrs. Carolann Smith was discovered by the police to have held two young women captive and forced them to work as slaves. The women lived in the base of a duplex at 10 E 21st Street in the Maple Ridge Neighborhood.

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.