Ann Woodward shot her husband, the owner of Nashua, a grand jury cleared her in 30 minutes, and both her sons later killed themselves

William Woodward Jr. inherited Belair, the Maryland estate and stud farm, and the racehorse Nashua when his father died in 1953^†. He asked his wife, Ann, for a divorce in 1947, and she refused. On the night of 30 October 1955 she fired a shotgun twice in their Oyster Bay house and killed him. She said she thought he was a burglar. A Nassau County grand jury deliberated for 30 minutes and declined to indict her. His family then sold Belair. The horses brought more than $1.8 million at auction, over $1.2 million of it for Nashua. In August 1957 the developer William Levitt bought the Belair estate for $1,750,000. In October 1957 the house contents, including paintings, china and silver, sold for about $30,000. Levitt built much of modern Bowie on the land and later sold the mansion to the city for one dollar. In 1975 Truman Capote published in Esquire a thinly veiled story of a woman who shoots her husband, which accused her of murder. Ann Woodward died of cyanide poisoning on 10 October 1975, days before it appeared. Both sons later took their own lives: James in 1976 or 1978 and William III in 1999. Belair Mansion belongs to the City of Bowie.