GeorgiaIn October 1958 this courthouse hosted what remains the most sensational criminal trial in Macon's history, that of restaurateur Anjette Lyles, a widow charged with poisoning four family members with arsenic to collect insurance money. Though indicted only for the murder of her nine-year-old daughter, she faced evidence that she had also killed her two husbands and her mother-in-law; investigators had found ant poison and voodoo supplies in her home, crowds jostled for seats in the gallery, and a Bibb County Superior Court jury convicted her, a case later retold in books and film. The trial took place in this building, Bibb County's fourth courthouse, a Neoclassical Revival structure designed by architect Curran R. Ellis and built between 1922 and 1924, with portions remodeled by the Works Progress Administration in 1940. It replaced earlier courthouses reaching back to the county's 1820s founding. The building stands as a contributing property within the Macon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Bibb County Courthouse
The stone-and-brick heart of every Georgia county.
Bibb County Courthouse is a courthouse in Macon, Bibb County. It is one of 199 historic sites cataloged in Bibb County on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 32.8385, -83.6278 near Macon. The nearest cataloged historic site is Bibb County (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Grand Opera House, Library Ballroom / College Discotheque, and Old Macon Library.
This record is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
In October 1958 this courthouse hosted what remains the most sensational criminal trial in Macon's history, that of restaurateur Anjette Lyles, a widow charged with poisoning four family members with arsenic to collect insurance money. Though indicted only for the murder of her nine-year-old daughter, she faced evidence that she had also killed her two husbands and her mother-in-law; investigators had found ant poison and voodoo supplies in her home, crowds jostled for seats in the gallery, and a Bibb County Superior Court jury convicted her, a case later retold in books and film. The trial took place in this building, Bibb County's fourth courthouse, a Neoclassical Revival structure designed by architect Curran R. Ellis and built between 1922 and 1924, with portions remodeled by the Works Progress Administration in 1940. It replaced earlier courthouses reaching back to the county's 1820s founding. The building stands as a contributing property within the Macon Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Sources: digitalcommons.law.uga.eduen.wikipedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.org
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