Cleve Bullette

"The Woman was a Witch" is a radio script written by Cleve Bullette of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The script was dramatized for radio and aired on the seventh of July 1948 as episode 67 of "The Big Story." "The Big Story" was a radio true crime program which dramatized the true stories of real-life newspaper reporters, and it ran for nine seasons from 1947 until 1955.

You can listen to the original broadcast on YouTube posted by Old Time Radio Researchers.

Cleve Bullette was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma as George Cleveland Bullette, Jr. on the 14th of September 1909. After Bullette graduated from Muskogee High School in 1927, he went to work for the Muskogee Times-Democrat. He learned journalism while employed there and eventually became a news writer for the newspaper using the byline "George Cleve Bullette."

He met, dated, and eventually married Irma Shannon. They wedded on July 14, 1936, and then moved to Stilwell where Bullette got a job as a news editor for the Standard-Sentinel. A year later their son Landy was born. Bullette started using the byline "Cleve Bullette" for his articles and would continue to use that byline for the remainder of his career.

In 1940, Bullette moved his wife and son to Poteau, Oklahoma where he became employed by the LeFlore County Sun. Also, that year the Selective Training and Service Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Bullette filled out and mailed in a registration draft card.

The Tulsa Tribune hired Bullette as a police reporter in 1943, and he moved his family to Tulsa, Oklahoma. In March of 1944 the national news story broke about Mrs. Smith and the hex house. Bullette became obsessed, spent long hours investigating, and wrote several detailed articles that were published in The Tulsa Tribune.

But due to bad luck, bad timing, or both Bullette was drafted. He enlisted with the Army on May 6, 1944. He was thirty-five years old when he was stationed at Camp Barkeley near Abilene, Texas in July of 1944. He served for two years and was discharged in May of 1946.

Bullette was able to return to The Tulsa Tribune as a police reporter and he wrote several articles about crimes in Tulsa. However, there was nothing new to write about the story that interested him. The trials of Mrs. Smith had concluded, she was convicted, and she had already served her one year in prison at McAlester. So Bullette wrote a script about Mrs. Smith and the hex house.

Like many writers before and after him, he heard nothing back on his many submissions to radio stations. Then on June 12, 1948, he was notified by the producers of "The Big Story" that his script had been selected to be dramatized for the radio show. The broadcast of "The Woman Who was a Witch" aired nationwide on July 7, 1948. The show was sponsored by Pall Mall cigarettes. Bullette won an award for the script.

Bullette was forty years old in 1949, when he left his job at The Tulsa Tribune to become a Publication Supervisor for magazines published by oil and gas companies. Also in 1949, the producers of "The Big Story" started a television show based on their radio show. Bullette was notified that his radio script would be made into a TV show for an episode in season two of "The Big Story."

Bullette was able to take a leave from his job on June 8, 1951, to see his script performed live on TV from New York City for episode 27, season 2 of "The Big Story." The show aired on NBC.

KOTV, channel 6, in Tulsa on Friday, June 29, 1951, featured and interviewed Cleve Bullette on the evening news for his work as a reporter and a writer. Being humble, regarding the hex house story, Bullette gave credit to the three police officers that did most of the investigation: Bob Cleveland, Beula Johnson, and Alice Whitney. Bullette stated that he only "wrote what they discovered."

Bullette retired at the age of 66 in 1975. He died on February 27, 1985, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 75, and was buried in Claremore, Oklahoma at the Woodlawn Cemetery.

Note to readers: We have made our best effort to provide the most accurate information about the history of the Hex House of Tulsa. We collected newspaper articles, researched genealogy, and historical documents like marriage licenses, census information, city directories, and draft cards.