(L to R) Johnette Connelly Taylor, niece of “Killer Wife” first victim, Joe Connelly; Evaline Rowland Connelly (no relation to Johnette), sister of the third victim, Don Rowland; and Bitty Martin, author.
Bitty Martin has completed her second Hot Springs true crime, Killer Wife: The True Story of Bonnie Connelly and the Men Who Died to Love Her. Martin was inspired to write the book when a friend asked, “Who was the lady who killed her husband on Bellaire?”
She soon learned that an attractive Hot Springs woman had preferred a bullet to divorce. From 1959 to 1969, each of Bonnie Connelly’s three husbands had died from a gunshot wound—and the third, a twenty-three-year-old, was half her age. Killer Wife will be released in March 2027 by Globe Pequot Publishing Group/Prometheus Books.
Jake Bonar, Martin’s acquisitions editor, said, “Bitty’s next project is phenomenal: what a character she has found in Bonnie Connelly! Gripping stories, centered around a compellingly malicious figure who keeps on killing and eluding justice, and with Bitty’s research and writing—clippy and page-turning—this is a remarkable true crime project.”
Having published Martin’s first Hot Springs true crime about her childhood friend’s 1966 murder at Blacksnake Ranch, Bonar added, “Snake Eyes lays a strong springboard for what I think could be a big hit with Killer Wife as Bitty’s sophomore effort.”
Snake Eyes: Murder in a Southern Town is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and locally at Black Ribbon Books in the Arlington Hotel’s shopping mall.
Killer Wife: The True Story of Bonnie Connelly and the Men Who Died to Love Her will be released in March 2027 at all major bookstores and online, and in Hot Springs at Black Ribbon Books.
