Post by san⋅guine on Sept 19, 2010 13:48:54 GMT -5
Name: Beulah May Sheriff
Alias: Beulah Stephens, Beulah Annan, Roxie Hart
Clan: Ravnos
Sect: Independant
Sire: Lemminkäinen / Mark Lemming
Parents: John and Mary Sheriff
Siblings: --
Children: Owen Jonathan, Roxton (unknown), --, Marcus Cole, Francesca May, --
Love Interest: Frans Bergen
Past Relationships: Perry Stephens (1st husband - divorced), Albert Annan (2nd husband - divorced), Harry Kalstedt (murdered), Edward Harlib (3rd husband - divorced), Able Marcus (4th husband - deceased), Finnegan Bell, Frederich Kruger
Childers: Envy Adams
Ghouls : --
Year Born: November 1899
Year Embraced: March 10, 1928
Heritage: Irish, German, and French
Place of Birth: Owensboro, Kentucky
Residence: Chicago, Agricola
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 135 lbs
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Distinguishing Features: --
Possessions: --
Properties: the Cicero Hotel; 1920's themed complete with casino and nightclub
Occupation: Entertainer / Thief
Vice: Subterfuge
Animal Forms: Miniature Poodle and Pigeon
Disciplines: Chimestry, Fortitude, Animalism
Out of Clan: Protean, Potence, Celerity, Obfuscate, Dominate, Presence, Auspex
Merits & Flaws: --
Personality: Charismatic, Daring, Cunning, Sly, Vengeful, Survivalist, Treacherous, Trickster, Fearless, Passionate, Sensual
Brief History: She was born Beulah May Sheriff in Owensboro, Kentucky to John Sheriff and Mary Neel. While living in Kentucky, she married her first husband, Perry Stephens, a newspaper linotype operator. They were divorced and she moved up to Chicago.
In Louisville, Kentucky, she married Albert Annan, a car mechanic. Shortly afterward, they moved to Chicago. In Chicago, Annan found work as a mechanic at a garage and Beulah decided she wanted to work as well, eventually becoming a bookkeeper at Tennant's Model laundry, where she met Harry Kalstedt. It apparently wasn't long before she and Kalstedt, who also worked at the laundry, began having an affair.
On April 3, 1924, in the married couple's bedroom, Beulah shot Kalstedt in the back. According to her initial story, they had been drinking wine Kalstedt had brought over and got into an argument. There was a gun on the bed and both reached for it, but Beulah got it first and shot Kalstedt while he was putting on his coat and hat. She then sat drinking cocktails and playing a foxtrot record, "Hula Lou," over and over for about four hours as she sat watching Kalstedt die. She then called her husband to say she had killed a man who had "tried to make love" to her.
Beulah's story changed over time: first, she confessed to the murder; later, Beulah claimed she had shot Kalstedt in self-defense, fearing rape. According to one of her later versions, he told her he was leaving her, she reacted angrily, then she shot him. Prosecutors surmised that Kalstedt had threatened to leave Beulah, and she shot him in a jealous rage. Her final story, at trial, was that she had told Kalstedt she was pregnant, they struggled, and they both reached for the gun.
Albert Annan stood by her, pulled his money out of the bank to get her the best lawyers, and stood by her throughout the trial. The day after the trial ended in acquittal, on May 25, 1924, his wife announced, "I have left my husband. He is too slow." She then divorced him in 1926 on the charge he deserted her.
In 1927, after her divorce from Annan was finalized, she married Edward Harlib, a boxer. She filed for divorce after only three months claiming cruelty. In the divorce settlement, Harlib paid her $5,000.
After her divorce from Harlib, she was involved with a fourth man, Able Marcus.
Beulah "died" of tuberculosis at the Chicago Fresh Air sanatorium, where she was staying under the name Beulah Stephens in 1928, four years after her acquittal on charges of murder. She was "returned" to her home state for "burial" in Mount Pleasant Cumberland Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Daviess County, Kentucky.
---~*~---
Naive Beulah Annan visits a nightclub, where star Velma Kelly performs, with Harry Kalstedt, a lover she hoped would get her a vaudeville gig. After the show, Velma is arrested for killing her husband and sister, Veronica, after finding them in bed together. Later, Harry reveals that he lied about his connections in order to sleep with Beulah. She shoots Harry three times. Beulah convinced her husband Al to take the blame, telling him it was a burglar and that he needn't worry, he'll get off. When the officer points out that the victim is Harry Kalstedt, who sold the Annan's furniture, Al abandoned his lie and says Harryy was dead when he got home. Beulah was sent to the Cook County Jail.
Upon her arrival, she is sent to Murderess' Row to await trial — under the care of the corrupt Matron "Mama" Morton, who takes bribes and supplies her prisoners with cigarettes and contraband. Beulah met Velma, and learns the stories behind the other women in Murderess' Row.
Beulah decides that she wants to engage Velma's lawyer, Billy Flynn, and convinces her husband to talk to him. Flynn and Beulah manipulate the press at a press conference, reinventing Beulah's identity to make Chicago fall in love with her. Beulah becomes the new infamous celebrity of the Cook County Jail, much to Velma's disgust and Mama's delight.
Velma, desperate to get back into the limelight, tried to talk Beulah into opening a vaudeville act with her once they get out of jail. In revenge for an earlier mocking, Beulah haughtily refuses, and Beulah and Velma become locked in a rivalry to outdo each other in stardom.
Beulah managed to steal back the limelight by claiming to be pregnant, which is falsely confirmed by a doctor (whom it is implied she seduced). Beulah witnesses the execution by hanging of another inmate who has lost her last appeal, which fueled Beulah's desire to be free. Beulah and Billy plan their strategy to find her innocent using her star power and sympathy vote. Her trial becomes a media spectacle, fed on the sensationalist reports of newspaper reporter and radio personality Mary Sunshine. The trial goes Beulah's way, until Velma shows up with Beulah's diary and, in exchange for amnesty, reads incriminating entries that Beulah claims not to have written. Using some quick talking, Billy manages to get Beulah off the hook and she is proclaimed innocent. However, Beulah's publicity is short lived: as soon as the trial concludes, the public's attention turns quickly to a new murderess. Beulah leaves the courthouse after discovering that Billy wrote the false diary entries, and sent the journal to Velma to get her off death row. Beulah reveals to Harry she faked her pregnancy for the fame and leaves him.
With nothing left, Beulah once more sets off to find a stage career, with little success. However, she is soon approached by Velma, also down on her luck, who is willing to revive a two-person act with Beulah. Beulah refused at first, still not over the hate they shared for each other while in prison, but relents when Velma points out that "there's only one business in the world where that's not a problem" - show business. The two murderesses, no longer facing jail time, finally become the enormous successes they have been longing to be..
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