'Alarming' letters lead to mom's arrest in toddler's murder
Alice Rollinson Idlett (Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center).

Alice Rollinson Idlett (Calcasieu Parish Correctional Center).

A 75-year-old mother in Louisiana has been arrested for allegedly beating her 16-month-old son to death more than half a century ago after a series of macabre letters she penned to her husband at the time came to light during their subsequent divorce revealed that she did not love the boy and regularly beat him.

Alice Rollinson Idlett was taken into custody on Thursday and charged with one count of second-degree murder in the brutal 1970 slaying of young Earl D. Bunch III, records reviewed by Law&Crime show. According to court documents stemming from Idlett’s 1985 custody battle over her and her ex-husband’s surviving daughter, Idlett was 18 years old when she gave birth to Earl in September 1968. Shortly after the child’s birth, Idlett’s husband, Earl Bunch Jr., was serving in the U.S. Army at the time and was transferred to Thailand.

While Bunch was stationed in Thailand, Idlett sent him a series of disturbing letters which the judge said “expressed her despair and loneliness” and were “threatening in nature” toward the victim.

“I just got through whipping that little basdard (sic),” she allegedly wrote in November 1969. “I hate him. That’s the honest truth. I can’t stand this life. God had to punish me by letting me have that little brat. I wish I would have died when he was born. I hate myself,” she wrote. “Now I know how those people feel that get rid of their kids. I believe I could do it. I’m serious.”

That same month, Idlett also apparently wrote a letter stating that she never wanted to be a mother.

“I honestly wish he had never been born,” she wrote, referring to the victim. “He knows he won’t get his way around me. I’ll kill him before he becomes spoilt. I honestly mean that.”

Two days later, in another letter, Idlett threatened to “whip” the victim “until his darn seat is red.”

“I can’t put up with this mess … I hate your son. I wish he was dead,” the letter stated.

In December 1969, Idlett is alleged to have penned a letter in which she said that her son “doesn’t even mean anything to me anymore.”

“I feel like if he would die tomorrow I wouldn’t care. He is the one who ruint my life,” she wrote in that letter, referring to the victim. ”

Later that month, Idlett wrote to her husband saying, “I got to the point where I hate him. I can’t help it. I wish I had never had him.”

Idlett’s husband further testified that he received similar “alarming letters” from Idlett in March and April of 1969. He attempted to take emergency leave from service to return home but the request was denied.

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