A longtime metro Atlanta drag queen was shot to death in her Cobb County home, allegedly killed by her partner who then fled the state and was later arrested in Tennessee.
Police discovered the body of Kitty Litter – whose legal name is Samuel Collins, 60, and is known as Kitty Collins on Facebook – inside her home on Old Concord Road near Dobbins Air Reserve Base. They were dispatched to the home for a welfare check after the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested Frank Bowles, 58, in Cumberland County on Monday.
On Monday about 9:15 p.m., a state trooper investigated an apparent abandoned Honda Odyssey but found Bowles (second photo) inside. He was charged with driving under the influence and being a felon in possession of a shotgun, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. The trooper also found items belonging to Collins, so they notified Cobb police, who found Collins' body.
Cobb police investigators traveled to Cumberland County, which is about 90 minutes north of Chattanooga, to interview him before charging him with murder on Tuesday, Officer Mike Bowman, a Cobb police spokesman, told Project Q Atlanta.
Bowles and Collins were partners and the killing was related to their relationship, but police don't yet have a motive that explains what prompted the shooting, Bowman said.
“I know that it was domestic related but that is all we know,” he said.
Bowles is being held at the Cumberland County Jail ahead of his extradition to Georgia.
According to Collins' Facebook page, she has performed drag since 1972 in more than 200 clubs across 36 cities in 12 states. Collins performed over the years with drag legend Lily White, who grieved over the loss of her friend and fellow performer. Friends turned Collins' Facebook page into a makeshift memorial.
Collins performed with White and Alvina LaVerne as the Grease Sisters in the late 1970s and early '80s in clubs in Atlanta, across the Southeast and even in New England and Texas, White said.
White and Collins had been friends and occasional roommates for nearly four decades.
“She was like my sister,” White said. “She was so small and petite, one of the most beautiful drag queens I'd ever seen. She looked like a doll.”
White said Collins' death shocked her.
“She has many friends. We are all trying to get over it now. I don't think I'll ever get over it. I never expected her to get murdered, especially by her ex boyfriend. It is devastating.”
White said Collins served as a mentor to younger drag performers.
“Everyone loved her. She didn't have any enemies. She was kind and sweet to all the drag queens coming up in that time period. Everyone is going to miss her,” White said.
(This post was updated with comments from Lily White.)
[Collins photos via]
