Victim mom’s health ‘stable’

Published 12:26 am Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The condition of an Andalusia woman, who was almost beaten to death by her daughter with a hammer Friday, has been upgraded to stable condition.

Gracie Mae Wilson, 65, was found inside her Lowe Avenue home by Andalusia Police Department officers shortly after 3 a.m. Friday, beaten and semiconscious. Her daughter, 44-year-old Frankie Louise Wilson, is charged with one count of attempted murder, first degree robbery and first-degree kidnapping, as well as second-degree criminal trespassing, second-degree criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.

Details of the incident are still unclear, but according to an eyewitness, officers were led to the Lowe Avenue home after the suspect was found naked and screaming on the lawn of a McDonald Street residence.

“About 2:50 a.m. I woke up and looked at my clock because I heard someone knocking at my door,” said homeowner Janice Shakespeare. “I thought it was the police, so I called out, ‘who is it?” She answered, ‘Louise Wilson.’

“I didn’t open that door, but she heard me calling from my bedroom, so she came around to my window and started throwing bricks in,” she said. “She said she had killed her momma, had beat her to death with a hammer. I told her to go to the police department. I don’t know why she came to my house.”

Shakespeare said Wilson continued to throw bricks through her window, and after she tossed a concrete block through the already damaged window, Shakespeare decided to retreat to the bathroom to call 911.

When officers arrived, they found Wilson naked in Shakespeare’s yard.

After word of Gracie Wilson’s upgraded condition on Tuesday, Shakespeare said she was thankful to hear the news.

“(Gracie Mae Wilson) is such a nice, helpful, respectable lady,” she said. “Her daughter doesn’t reflect her at all. I heard she’s (turned) the corner. I’m just so thankful.”

After her arrest, Louise Wilson was booked into the county jail and held on a more than $1 million bond. Her mother is currently a patient in Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Fla.