Charlotte’s court of public opinion issued a harsh verdict
George Cutter, uptown's largest property owner, was accused of killing his paramour after a night of drinking
Sensational courtroom cases have long seized public attention, and Charlotte’s halls of justice are no exception. This week, in a special series only for Ledger members, The Charlotte Ledger examines spectacular trials that captivated local audiences.
In 1961, Charlotte’s most prominent developer testified in his own murder trial; ‘Spectators hung on every word’
By Mark Washburn
George King Cutter didn’t need a big bucket of weird to make his 1961 trial the biggest of the mid-century.
After all, he was descended from generations of Charlotte social and business royalty. He was the city’s most prominent developer, the single biggest owner of uptown property, much of it inherited from his father, J.H. Cutter, a textiles and cotton magnate.
When the cops beckoned, Cutter was erecting the largest office structure in North Carolina, the 14-story Cutter Building — posh, Class-A quarters that would include a seven-hole putting green — at Fourth Street and South Tryon, facing the headquarters of North Carolina National Bank.
Few knew of Cutter’s severe predilections, liquor and sex.
Fewer still knew of his bizarre love nest — an old bus rebuilt as a touring vehicle, complete with beds, a bar and an unlisted telephone — parked in a ramshackle shed off West Boulevard near Morris Field, the precursor to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
On July 3, 1961, he took his drunken paramour, Delette Nycum, 38, there. About 3 a.m. on July 4, he took her home, quite dead, then dressed her in her pajamas and slipped her into her bed. He got her son to help tuck her in, and told the boy to tell everyone that she’d died in her sleep in her own bed.