By Peninsula Daily News sources

LAKE CRESCENT — Sixty years ago a sensational murder trial captivated North Olympic Peninsula residents.

The trial began Feb. 24, 1942, in the Clallam County Courthouse in Port Angeles and drew so many spectators that people spilled out of the tiny courtroom and into the hallway.

It was a lurid case that involved a cheating husband, a volatile marriage and a woman’s body that “turned to soap” in the cold, clear waters of Lake Crescent, then bobbed to the surface one summer day.

The trial centered on Monty Illingworth, a beer truck driver who was accused of killing his wife Hallie, a beautiful Port Angeles waitress, and sinking her body in Lake Crescent.

It was a story ready-made for legend, and the murdered woman became known locally as the Lady of the Lake.

The story of the murder and the trial became a small book, “The Lady of the Lake,” written by Mavis Amundson and first published in 2000.

Since, then, bookstores and other outlets have sold about 11,000 copies through five printings; another 500 copies have been sold as e-books. A sixth print edition is due out this week.

Amundson will be in the lobby of Lake Crescent Lodge from 5-7 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 8, to talk to people and sign copies of “The Lady of the Lake” and two of her other Peninsula history books, “Sturdy Folk” and “The Great Forks Fire.”

Amundson, who lived on the Peninsula from 1987 to 1992, was an editor at the Peninsula Daily News, which published “The Lady of the Lake” through its book division, Western Gull Publishing.

She now lives in Seattle.