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In the spring of 1996, Calgary
witnessed its own version of a tawdry criminal trial in the case of
61-year-old socialite Dorothy Joudrie's attempted murder on Jan. 21, 1995
of her estranged business-magnate husband, Earl.
Despite the fact that she shot her husband six times with a .25-calibre
Beretta handgun, Joudrie would be found "not criminally responsible" for
attempted murder of her husband, the chairman of Gulf Canada Resources and
Canadian Tire. The jury was convinced by psychologists' testimony that she
was in a "robotic state" when she shot him. She would, however, spend five
months at the Alberta Hospital Edmonton mental health facility.
The couple divorced after the shooting.
Though Joudrie suggested she would write a book on the case and her
treatment at the hands of psychiatric health professionals, no such book
has appeared. However, in 1999, Calgary author Audrey Andrews published
the biography/memoir, Be Good, Sweet Maid: The Trials of Dorothy Joudrie,
from an article that originally appeared in NeWest Review. The book
recounts the events leading up to the trial, the trial itself and the
effect of Joudrie's trial on the life of Andrews. Be Good, Sweet Maid,
published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, was shortlisted for the
Alberta Literary Awards' Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction and the
Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book.
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News and Current Events #29
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