Inside the Story of Kenneth Eugene Smith Execution By Nitrogen Gas Part 1

Pastor Charles Sennett Sr. was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield Church of Christ. However, his life was thrown into darkness when he started having an affair with a member of his congregation. Pastor Charles who had also taken a life insurance policy on his wife decided to get rid of her so he enjoy a new life with his mistress. Things didn't go as he had predicted, and what followed was a cascade of events that culminated in the death of Charles Sennett, and his wife, Elizabeth Sennett.

The Beginning

Charles Edward Sennett was born on October 23, 1942, in Henlawson, Logan County, West Virginia. He married his wife, Elizabeth in 1962. Liz as she was fondly called by those who cherished her was a wife and a devoted mother of two sons.

Reverend Charles Sennett came back to his home in Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama on March 18, 1988, after attending church as usual. However, instead of a lively home, he was met with an unusual silence. To his 'shock', he discovered his wife lying in a pool of blood.

Without hesitation, he promptly called the emergency services, but despite their efforts, Elizabeth tragically passed away shortly after at the Helen Keller Hospital, located a few miles away on South Montgomery Avenue, Alabama.

Sheriff Ronnie May was among the initial responders at the scene, and despite his inability to detect a pulse for Elizabeth, emergency medical technicians later confirmed that she did indeed have a pulse. May recounted that Charles was visibly shaken upon learning of Elizabeth's pulse. May accompanied Elizabeth in the ambulance, but unfortunately, doctors at the hospital pronounced her dead.

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It was clear she had been attacked. The autopsy report showed that she had been brutally beaten with a galvanized pipe and gruesomely stabbed eight times in the face, scalp, neck, and chest. The crime scene had been staged to look like a burglary gone wrong with the glass of one of the drug cabinets in the house shattered, a stereo, and a video cassette recorder missing from the house.

While Pastor Charles acted frantically: calling the emergency line and shedding crocodile tears; he was the devil behind the mask who orchestrated the death of his beloved wife.

The Sad End of Elizabeth Sennett

Despite the staged scene, investigators quickly learned that Charles had purchased a life insurance policy on his wife not long before her sudden and painful demise.

Despite Charles Sennett having a solid alibi, the officials could not ignore the undeniable evidence against him. He had been engaging in an extramarital affair and was facing financial difficulties. Adding to the above, those close to him could attest that he was very unhappy in his marriage, he wanted another start.

It was then revealed that the reverend had reached out to one of his tenants, Billy Gray Williams, and offered him $3,000 to kill his wife. Billy trying to play smart reached out to John Forrest Parker and Kenneth Eugene Smith and offered them $1,000 each to carry out the act. The duo entered the Sennett family home in Sheffield, Alabama, and brutally took her life.

A few days after the incident, a call from Crime Stoppers provided investigators with the names of the two primary suspects. When Charles was brought in for questioning on March 25 he maintained his innocence. However, when asked if he knew Kenneth Smith, he became inexplicably anxious. Charles left the interview and went to his church to meet his sons and family.

He confessed to having an extramarital affair and planning the murder that took his wife. Following his confession, Charles fatally shot himself in the chest.

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Available on Amazon

Horrific True Crime Stories Volume 2: 17 Terrifying and Unimaginable True Crime Cases

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This story continues in Part 2