Theora Hix wasn't the type of woman to take no for an answer. Besides wanting to become a doctor in the 1920s, when there were few female physicians, she also began an affair with her older boss, Dr. James Snook. But that same devil-may-care attitude may have led to her undoing. Theora was murdered in June, 1929... and many believed her lover was also her killer. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original. For more, follow us on TikTok and Instagram @crimehouse To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the story behind Theora Hicks' murder?
This is Crime House. Sex sells. It always has and always will. But sometimes our desire for salacious details and juicy escapades can come at a great cost. After 24-year-old Theora Hicks was killed in 1929, the news of her murder shocked the nation. But it wasn't just because of the brutal nature of her death. It was also because of what Fiora's killer said about her sex life.
For almost a century now, Theora's story has been told through the lens of the man who murdered her. He convinced the courts and the world that Theora was a drug-addled nymphomaniac who couldn't control her own desires. And because Theora wasn't able to defend herself against those accusations, that's what many believed. And for decades, she never got true justice.
People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories, a Crime House Original. Every Tuesday, I'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders.
I'll be bringing awareness to stories that need to be heard with a focus on those who are impacted. And for more true crime stories that all happened this week in history, check out Crime House The Show. Each episode covers multiple cases unified by the same theme. So every week, you get something a little different.
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You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. This is the first of two episodes on the murder of Theora Hicks, a promising medical student whose burgeoning career was cut short at only 24 years old when she was murdered by her much older professor and lover.
Today, I'll introduce you to Theora. I'll fill you in on her time in medical school and her years-long affair that eventually resulted in her murder. Next time, I'll walk you through the investigation into Theora's death And a trial that was so salacious, the details couldn't be published in newspapers.
Nearly a century later, Theora's story remains one of the most complex, fascinating murder cases in US history. All that and more, coming up.
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Chapter 2: How did Theora Hicks' past shape her ambitions?
As the only child of Melvin and Joanna Hicks, Theora was her parents' pride and joy. When she was born in a small village in upstate New York in 1904, Melvin and Joanna were already well into middle age. And although they loved Theora unconditionally, the large age gap between them and their daughter meant they viewed the world very differently.
Melvin and Joanna had come of age in the late 1800s and were raised with traditional Victorian values. While Melvin worked, Joanna chose not to pursue an education or a career. Instead, she was a housewife and homemaker. While her mother was content to stay home with her daughter, Theora didn't want to follow that same path.
When Theora was a little girl, her family moved to Flushing, Queens in New York and was exposed to a whole new world, one in which women had more opportunities. By the time Theora was in high school, she dreamed of becoming a doctor. At the time, only 4% of US physicians were women. Theora aspired to join their ranks. Melvin and Joanna couldn't quite wrap their heads around it.
But being the supportive parents they were, they gave Theora their blessing to pursue her goals. And in 1923 or 1924, Theora enrolled at The Ohio State University in Columbus, one of the few colleges that allowed women at the time. But even though OSU welcomed female students, they weren't given the same options as their male counterparts.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Theora face in pursuing a medical career?
They had fewer classes to choose from, and they also weren't allowed to live in the dorms, which meant Theora had to find off-campus housing. None of it deterred Theora. Although her ultimate goal was to become a doctor, she decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in business. But still, Theora didn't leave medicine behind completely.
She also worked as a stenographer in the veterinary department to help pay for her tuition. Despite the excitement of being away at college, Theora wasn't much of a social butterfly. Her roommates, sisters Alice and Beatrice Buston, said she was quiet and very private. She didn't share much about her life with them.
Eventually, they stopped asking her personal questions altogether because they knew Theora wouldn't answer. But they insisted she wasn't rude or mean-spirited. Theora just seemed like the kind of person who kept her cards close to her chest. Plus, Theora had a demanding job and a full course load. Beatrice and Alice assumed she just didn't have time for chit-chat.
According to the Buston sisters and Theora's classmates, she was straight-laced. She didn't drink or smoke and rarely went out on the town. She dedicated herself to school, filling most of her time with sports, studies, and work. And while Theora wasn't the most social person, she maintained a close relationship with her parents while she was at school.
They wrote letters to each other constantly, and Theora filled them in on her day-to-day life. At some point while she was at OSU, Melvin and Joanna had moved from New York to Florida. During school breaks, Theora would drive the thousand miles from campus to their home in Bradenton to visit. But although Theora kept in touch with her parents, she didn't tell them everything about her life.
including her unlikely friendship with an older man. In 1926, three years into her time at OSU, 21-year-old Theora met 46-year-old Dr. James Snook at her stenography job in the veterinary department. To Theora, it looked like James had it all. Before becoming a professor veterinary medicine at OSU, he'd invented the Snook hook, a tool that's still used today to spay and neuter dogs and cats.
As if that wasn't enough, he was also an Olympian. In 1920, James took home gold in the Antwerp Olympics as a member of the U.S. pistol team. His wife, Helen, supported all of his professional accomplishments. And by the time Theora met James in 1926, he and Helen had a two-year-old daughter.
Despite James's busy schedule, he still made time to attend church, play golf with his colleagues, and practice his shooting at a nearby range. To those around him, James seemed like a stand-up guy. But his behavior with Theora indicated otherwise. At first, their interactions seemed purely professional. He dictated information to Theora, and she wrote it down.
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Chapter 4: How did Theora Hicks meet Dr. James Snook?
But one evening, after a long day of work, James offered Theora a ride back to her apartment. It was raining and he figured she didn't want to walk. Theora agreed, and before long, their car rides grew more frequent. It's unclear if anyone at the vet's office noticed James was driving Theora home or considered it inappropriate. If they did, they didn't say anything.
And they didn't seem concerned that Theora might have felt pressured to say yes to his offers. Either way, their car ride soon turned into coffee dates. They were both progressive thinkers and spent hours discussing taboo topics like STDs and common law marriages. But it wasn't just their conversations that were intimate.
Within three weeks of that first rainy drive to Theora's apartment, she and James were sleeping together. Theora had no idea their affair would change the course of her entire life.
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Chapter 5: What was the nature of Theora and James' relationship?
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In 1926, 21-year-old Theora Hicks was close to accomplishing one of her many goals. She was just a year away from getting her undergraduate degree in business from The Ohio State University. After that, she planned to attend medical school. But while her roommates and family saw her as a docile, mild-mannered young woman, Theora was hiding a racy secret.
She was sleeping with a married professor named James Snook. What started out as casual car rides quickly turned into a full-blown affair. Before long, Theora and 46-year-old James were spending three nights a week together for hours at a time. And they weren't exactly secretive about it. They were seen out and about, going shopping and hitting the town.
Sometimes James would even take Theora to the shooting range. It's not clear where they went when they wanted alone time, but it seems like they were able to keep that side of the relationship a secret. When James' wife Helen asked why he was home late, he told her he was working or going shooting. Helen believed him, even when Theora called the house looking for James.
With no one the wiser about the affair, he and Theora continued seeing each other. By the time she started medical school at OSU in 1927, 22 year old Theora had been dating 47 year old James for about a year. Looking past the impropriety inherent in their relationship, the two of them actually clicked on multiple levels. Both of them were incredibly smart and ambitious.
They could talk for hours on end about science and politics, literature and music. But there was another very important aspect of their relationship that made things work. Unlike most other men at the time, James was happy to let Theora take the lead in the bedroom. Theora was more sexually adventurous than James. In fact, she was more adventurous than most people of the era.
In 1927, only half of women enrolled in college reported being sexually active. And not only was Theora having sex, but she was curious about it in a way that wasn't exactly acceptable back then. For example, she introduced James to oral sex. Now, keep in mind, oral sex wasn't just taboo at the time. It was illegal. But Theora viewed sex as something that should be celebrated and embraced.
More than that, she saw it as a topic that should be studied, the same as other disciplines. Fiora would even give James assignments, instructing him to read books like The Art of Love. She encouraged him to explore sex beyond what was deemed socially acceptable. James was happy to oblige. He had no issue admitting he had more to learn.
Beyond their erotic escapades, there were other parts of James and Theora's relationship that were unorthodox. At this time, James had no plans to leave his wife for Theora. In fact, it seems like James was having multiple affairs, and Theora didn't seem to mind, because she was seeing other people too.
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Chapter 6: How did societal norms influence Theora Hicks' personal life?
Once, they were even caught having sex by a local river and fined $20 each. James knew all about Theora's relationship with Marion and then some. According to James, she often compared his performance in the bedroom to Marion's. And although she used Marion's sexual prowess to shame him, the doctor didn't seem to mind. If anything, he seemed to encourage their relationship.
By June 1928, about two years after 23-year-old Theora and James first started dating, she was in New York taking summer classes at Columbia University. She asked James to come visit, but he couldn't make the trip without tipping off his wife. Still, he was worried Theora was lonely, so he got in touch with Marion and asked him to go instead.
Marion agreed, on the condition James stopped seeing Theora. And he did, for a while at least. But eventually she and Marion started fighting. Theora broke things off with him and got back together with James. If James was to be believed, it was Theora who started the arguments between her and Marion. He would later testify she started experimenting with drugs around this time.
which made her erratic and violent the drugs in question were mostly suppressants things like cannabis and an aphrodisiac called cantheridin well neither would cause the kind of behavior james described and no one else in theora's life reported her acting strangely because the only person she may have been using drugs with was james
The drugs he claimed Theora was using were available to him in his capacity as a veterinarian. Later, quantities of these medications were found missing from his office. Whether he pocketed the drugs and gave them to Theora, we still don't know. And despite his insistence that Theora was difficult to be around, James continued seeing her.
Once Theora finished her summer classes, she returned to Ohio. James rented them a room in a nearby boarding house under an alias. To explain why he wasn't there all the time, he told the landlady, Margaret Smalley, that he was a traveling salt salesman named James Howard. He said Fiora was his wife. Once their new secret meeting place was secured, he and Fiora used it to their full advantage.
They would enter through the back of the building and speak with Mrs. Smalley as little as possible. Despite their efforts at keeping things under wraps, they didn't get any more discreet about their public outings. By the spring of 1929, three years into their affair, 25 year old Theora started to develop real feelings for James. She asked him to leave his wife several times.
He always refused, claiming he didn't want to tear his family apart. He asked her to think logically about the situation they were in. But while James pretended to be a level-headed, clear-thinking partner, it soon became obvious he was a far more unpredictable man than Theora ever knew. And when Theora realized who he really was, it was too late for her to run.
How far would you go in your pursuit of the American dream? Would you put in the work? Would you take a big risk? Would you cheat? Would you lie? Would you kill?
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