Keller - Deadly Women Volume 14: 20 Shocking True Crime Cases of Women Who Kill

The relationship between Ellen Booker and Paul Boehm was a difficult one for her friends and family to fathom. Ellen was just a teenager. Paul was a married man with children and a reputation as a womanizer. He was also old enough to be Ellens father. Still, the fresh-faced 18-year-old was besotted with her older lover, determined to lure him away from his wife and kids. She eventually succeeded in 1980, when the couple used money that Ellen had inherited from her paternal grandparents to put a down payment on a house in St Louis, Missouri.

In September of 1981, the Boehms welcomed a daughter, Stacy Ann, into their lives. Four years later, on September 22, 1985, Ellen gave birth to a son, Steven Michael Boehm. Within a month of his birth, Ellen was pregnant for a third time. By then, the marriage was already in trouble. The couple was taking more and more time apart. For Ellen, a considerable chunk of that time was spent attending professional wrestling tournaments with her friend, Deanne Smith. For Paul, it was spent in the arms of a new, younger lover. In June 1986, with Ellen eight months pregnant, he took off, abandoning her and their children. Hed show up at the hospital on the day that his third son, David Brian Boehm, was born. Thereafter, he disappeared again, moving with his new girlfriend to Tucson, Arizona.

Paul Boehm was the archetypal deadbeat dad. He never called, never inquired about his childrens well-being, never sent cards on their birthdays. He was also loath to pay the $105 per week child support that the court had ordered. Ellen eventually got tired of chasing him for money and gave up. Meanwhile, she was delivering pizzas at night to keep her children housed, clothed, and fed. Despite these efforts, she was swamped by debt. In 1988, she filed for bankruptcy. With her house foreclosed, she was forced to move her young family to more affordable housing at the Riverbend Apartments on South Broadway.

Ellens only solace, during this wretched time, was her love for pro wrestling. Despite her money troubles, she always managed to scrape up enough for a ticket, and still attended every event she could, with her friend Deanne. And her obsession ran deeper than that of most fans. She frequently wrote to her favorite performers, hinting not too subtly that she wouldnt be averse to some one-on-one time. Getting no response to these solicitations, she took to boasting about sexual liaisons anyway, telling her friends that shed slept with many wrestlers on the circuit. Few believed her and Deanne knew outright that she was lying.

But who would begrudge Ellen these flights of fancy? Who can blame her for wanting to escape the daily grind that was her life? At the time, she was having trouble paying for even her most basic needs; utility bills were piling up; the phone company was threatening to cut her off. And then there was the check that she couldnt avoid writing, her monthly payment to the bankruptcy courts. It was all getting too much for her, dragging her down, pulling her under.

Ellen was bemoaning this very fact to a friend during the Thanksgiving holiday of 1988. Then she suddenly broke off the conversation and said that shed have to hang up because something was wrong with her baby, David. A short while later, Ellen Boehm dialed 911 and said that her sons lips had turned blue and that he wasnt breathing. Paramedics rushed to the scene but found that they couldnt enter the apartment because the front door was locked. It would take several minutes of knocking before Ellens daughter, Stacy, let them in. She said that her mother was out. Then, as the medics were preparing to transport the toddler to the hospital, Ellen suddenly reappeared. She seemed oddly calm given the crisis, informing the paramedics that her son had been suffering from a cold over the last few days.

David Boehm was still alive when he arrived at the ER. He would remain on life support for the next few days, until the decision was taken to turn off the machines. He died on November 26, 1988, at the age of just 28 months. Cause of death was officially given as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS.