The Curious Case of Mary Woodson
February 17, 2009 5 Comments
It’s not every celebrity that has a name that is linked to hot food as infamous as “Al Green and the Hot Grits Episode.”
We’ve all heard bits of the tale. But not from the horse’s mouth.
It is a true story about love, infatuation, deceit and sadly, death. People vaguely know the story, about how this married woman fell for soul singer Al Green and then later, scorned, poured ,boiling hot grits on him. What still fewer people know is that after that episode she calmly raised a revolver to her skull and blew her brains out.
This is a first-person account from Al Green himself, which resonates even today with the celebrity worship we see everywhere around us, and the basic relationships we have with people we like or so-call love, only to find out that they don’t love us. It’s worth taking a minute to remember, “The Curious Case of Mary Woodson.”
Al Green’s words:
“It was at one of those prison concerts, for the inmates at the New York State Correctional Facility, that I first met Mary Woodson. She was the kind of woman that when you first saw her, you’d take a second look, and then a third look, and then, after a while, your eyes would just become accustomed to turning her way. Mary was a radiant and ravishing woman. Mary had a classy way of carrying herself: She was statuesque graceful and proud. She was at the prison visiting a friend but she never told me what her friend had did to land in prison. Mary had all kinds of secrets, more that I could have imagined at the time. I casually asked Mary where she was heading after the concert but I already knew the answer and it was “There’s nowhere else you’re going but home with me.”
But Mary didn’t fall under my spell quite so easily. She begged off my invitation to come back with me to the hotel. It was late, she had to get up early. So, I offered her a ride in my limo into the city. I wasn’t pushing anything. She was pretty and I liked having pretty women around me.” But Mary had other things on her mind, right from the beginning. She was a real woman, I loved the smell of her perfume, she was new and exciting.
After my tour, I returned home to Memphis, Mary was in town. The infatuation I had for her blinded me to all the warning signs. I didn’t care where she had come from or the baggage she’d picked up along the way. When I asked her about her past, she lied and told me that she had never been married and of course she didn’t have any kids. The truth was, Mary had left behind a whole family in New Jersey to come and be with me but I’d only find that out later, after it was way too late.
Soon, her husband had come down from New Jersey to bring her back. She refused but he wasn’t going to let her go and made it clear that she belonged to him and their children. She was living out a fantasy on borrowed time.
One night, I was in the studio working on new material when the door opened and a good looking woman rushed in and gave me a hug. It took me a minute to recognize her, her name was Carlotta Williams, a flight attendant I’d met on my travels.
When Mary came to the studio later, I introduced the two women and suggested that we all go back to my house.
The women seemed to get along fine as we all piled in my Rolls Royce. Carlotta sat up front with me and Mary sat in the back.
I kept glancing at Mary through the rearview mirror, disturbed by the strange expression she had on her face. Once she caught me looking at her and fixed me with a cold, appraising stare that sat my nerves on edge.
I went to my room to change my clothes. When I went to the kitchen, Mary was standing at the stove, stirring a big pot of water with a wooden spoon. She turned around and asked me had I ever thought about getting married, I replied, “Maybe we should talk about that in the morning.”
When I asked her what she was cooking, she didn’t answer me. Then suddenly, she whispered in my ear, “I would never do anything to hurt you.”
Carlotta was in another part of the house listening to music. I then decided to take a bath. After I got in the tub, I soon heard a noise, I looked up and Mary was standing with the steaming pot in both hands. In the next second, my world exploded into a thousand splatters of pure agony. Mary had added grits to the water, making a thick, boiling hot paste. With all her strength, she hurled it at me. The grits scorched my naked back. The pain was so intense that I started screaming.
Carlotta burst in. “Al!” she screamed. It was then that I saw the egg sized blisters rising on my burned flesh. Mary rushed out of the bathroom.
Carlotta called a ambulance and was tending to me as best she could-when suddenly, we heard a gunshot. Despite being in pain, I rushed to Mary, she lay on the floor dead, clutching a gun.
With you and my children as my muse
I will paint for you a lifetime
A portrait of devotion and friendship
A panorama of passion and admiration
All I ask is that you gaze upon it with an open heart
And you shall unquestionably love me again
- Daryl R. Swensson -
Why is it that Al Green had two women in his house at the same time? Supposedly, he had other ideas. He was playing both of these women and Mary wasn’t going for that.
Mr. Green is really not telling the whole truth, like Mary, he too had secrets. The flight attendant, Carlotta Williams was one of his many women. Just another light-skin beauty with no brain.
Mary lived in New Jersey and Mr. Green said she was in town, in Memphis. He probably paid for Mary to be in town to visit him. He met Mary at a prison. Who hangs around prisons or would even consider dating people that are there. Well, Al Green does.
Mary was wrong to leave her family behind and yet no one knows the full story. What we know is that Mr. Al Green was a player and thought that with his money and lifestyle he would pull a fast one on Mary. I don’t think Mary was in love with him. She was fascinated by his fame, money, and belongings.
Mr. Green said that he loved being around pretty women. If he didn’t have anything to share with these pretty women, they sure wouldn’t want him for his looks because it is plain to see that he is neither good looking or handsome. That is not what real loving relationships are based on. I am aware that we do not have to look good or have money in our pockets to find love.
He is lucky that Mary didn’t take the gun and kill him. Both Al Green and Carlotta Williams are cheaters that might have fixed up a story to make it look like Mary killed herself. To this day, I don’t believe that Mary Woodson killed herself. Al and Carlotta pulled off not spending time in jail, even though jail seems a place that he is accustom to being around. Supposedly, if Mary was married with children; she was cheating too.
Al Green knew the horrible life of money, women, and sex that he was living wasn’t a good lifestyle and later decided to turn to God for forgiveness of all the sins he committed.
Men like Al Green have got to stop buying woman for their light-skin and beauty. Many of these women have nothing to offer but beauty which is only skin deep. They may have beauty, statuesque, and are classy but they turn out to be no-brainer. Mr. Green like many other men will always be tricked by beauty…Not very intelligent!
For all those men that think Mr. Green’s lifestyle is a wow! Take heed because you too have your day. When you play around with people feelings, you may get hurt and it could very well be deadly.
Al Green got a very hot lesson from Mary that he will never forget the longest day he lives; that he wasn’t going to play her for a fool. Mary was jealous and upset about Carlotta being there when he asked Mary to visit him. What man would make arrangements for two women to be with him at the same time if he didn’t have something else in mind? It appears that Carlotta was in for this kind of action and may have done it before because she wasn’t upset. She was just another cheap thrill and was going along with the flow for a few hundred dollars, of course.
Al Green’s story is way too big of a pill to swallow. Everyone knows that if you are married, you have to get divorce before you re-marry. Why would Mary get upset because he didn’t want to get marry to her? Saying I will marry you and actually getting married are two different things.
There was an argument at the house. Remember he said that Carlotta rode in the front of the limo with him while Mary was at the back giving him devil looks. The quarrel began there and tragedy ended up in him only being burnt and it cost Mary her life, while he created the whole idea of having pretty women around him because he is self-centered and has very low self-esteem.
Perhaps, Mr. Al Green needs to write another book and come clean with himself and God. He needs to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Well, both he and Carlotta have to live with the cloud of deceitful actions that he encouraged in his lifestyle. Look what fame and money offers to those that are not smart.
I bet that Mr. Green thinks twice now to have more than one women and he probably has fears or even nightmares that some woman is going to hurt him if he tries to cheat again. Mary put a stop to his cheating. So far, we haven’t hurt a peep out of Al Green and any woman. Way to go Mary (R.I.P.)!
All of you ‘CHEATERS’ out there better get ready because your day is coming!
wow!
wow…every man fixated with appearances alone should read this…always important to know more than “she’s just BEAUTIFUL”…
It’s from Al Green’s book, “Take Me to the River,”. An old one, but simply fascinating. http://www.amazon.com/Take-Me-River-Al-Green/dp/1841951870
Wooowwwwwww. That was some heavy reading. Where did you get this story? If it happens to be a book, please give me the title. Fascinating. Its seems as though she was a tormented soul…