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Woman, 86, still serving time for killing ex-beau at Atlanta senior high rise

Lena Driskell, age 79 of Atlanta, looks over at prospective jurors Tuesday, June 20, 2006 during jury selection for her murder trial in Fulton Superior Court. Driskell is accused of shooting her 85-year-old boyfriend Herman Winslow (cq) to death at the Hightower Manor Senior citizens apartments in June 2005 when she found out he was seeing another woman. (Kimberly Smith / AJC staff)
Lena Driskell, age 79 of Atlanta, looks over at prospective jurors Tuesday, June 20, 2006 during jury selection for her murder trial in Fulton Superior Court. Driskell is accused of shooting her 85-year-old boyfriend Herman Winslow (cq) to death at the Hightower Manor Senior citizens apartments in June 2005 when she found out he was seeing another woman. (Kimberly Smith / AJC staff)
By Mike Morris
June 18, 2013

The gun-toting great-grandmother convicted of killing a former beau in a highly publicized attack at a southwest Atlanta senior high rise eight years ago remains in prison, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Lena Driskell, then 78, shot and killed her former boyfriend at the Atlanta Housing Authority’s Hightower Manor complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in June 2005.

Driskell didn’t want to end a romance with her neighbor, widower Herman Winslow, Atlanta police said.

But Winslow, 85, had found another girlfriend.

Police said Winslow was sitting on a couch in the lobby of the high rise, reading a newspaper when Driskell, wearing a hair net, support stockings, bathrobe and slippers, put a gun to his temple and fired four times.

When police arrived, she waved the gun at them and said,”I did it, and I’d do it again,” according to police.

Driskell, now 86, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and is serving a 10-year sentence at Pulaski State Prison.

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Mike Morris

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