WEBVTT 00:00:00.194 --> 00:00:06.285 - Welcome to another program of the Monroe County History Club. My name is Michael Carter, and welcome 00:00:06.285 --> 00:00:12.497 - to my wife Paulette, my cousin, my brother Steve, who will always show up to invite me up. And we have 00:00:12.497 --> 00:00:18.588 - some other guests here today. WTIU, some folks at WTIU are taking a little video of what the History 00:00:18.588 --> 00:00:24.618 - Club does. And they've interviewed four of us. Myself, Daniel Schlegel, Christine Friesel, and John 00:00:24.618 --> 00:00:30.046 - Summerlake. And then they interviewed two or three people here at the meeting today, too. 00:00:30.498 --> 00:00:39.078 - and it'll turn up on WTIU TV sometime later. I'll find out. It'll be shown sometime in the future. 00:00:39.078 --> 00:00:47.919 - Oh yeah, I left you sheets of paper on all the tables like I always do, upcoming programs, so you can 00:00:47.919 --> 00:00:56.759 - share amongst yourselves, take a picture of it or something. They list all the upcoming programs, end 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:59.966 - of next year, bar and cancellations, 00:01:00.226 --> 00:01:07.690 - That happens from time to time. Many thanks to the American Legion for hosting these programs for the 00:01:07.690 --> 00:01:15.301 - last 13 and a half years almost. They've been great partners and really the only ones we could do this, 00:01:15.301 --> 00:01:22.838 - the only place we could do this. And thanks to the weight and kitchen staff here. Thanks to Amanda and 00:01:22.838 --> 00:01:28.766 - Misty. Be generous with them for putting up with all this. And of course, CATCV. 00:01:29.954 --> 00:01:43.092 - They've been recording our programs for 10 and a half years. Thanks to all our Laurel history enthusiasts 00:01:43.092 --> 00:01:46.686 - who attend all our programs. 00:01:57.346 --> 00:02:02.770 - Yeah, thanks for all the people that come to the programs and all the people that watch it on YouTube. 00:02:02.770 --> 00:02:08.457 - We have one program that has over 9,000 views on YouTube. So a lot of people see them all over the country. 00:02:08.457 --> 00:02:13.881 - And if you have an email address you'd like to give us to get it on a regular mailing list, just leave 00:02:13.881 --> 00:02:18.936 - it with me and I'll give it to Steve Brewer, our helper over here, that sends out all the email 00:02:18.936 --> 00:02:24.307 - announcements. And right now, Daniel Schlegel, the director of the History Center, would like to make 00:02:24.307 --> 00:02:25.150 - a few comments. 00:02:29.378 --> 00:02:35.595 - Thank you, Michael. I just had a couple quick updates. I've already had a couple people ask. Our garage 00:02:35.595 --> 00:02:41.931 - sale was very successful, so thank you to everyone that donated, came out, and bought anything. We really 00:02:41.931 --> 00:02:47.909 - appreciate it, and we are moving to Ellensville. The property is sold, so we do have a new location 00:02:47.909 --> 00:02:53.946 - that's being renovated currently. We do not know when we can accept donations, but as soon as we do, 00:02:53.946 --> 00:02:56.158 - we will publicize that far and wide. 00:02:56.418 --> 00:03:03.975 - But I do have little flyers, so if anybody wants a flyer for next year's garage sale, please stop by 00:03:03.975 --> 00:03:11.008 - over here and see me. We also have, this coming Thursday, a gravestone preservation workshop. 00:03:11.008 --> 00:03:18.415 - It is free, it opens to the public. There's a company, Atlas Preservation. They're master monument 00:03:18.415 --> 00:03:25.598 - professionals with over 35 years of experience. They will do a, the lower 48, they do one stop, 00:03:25.762 --> 00:03:32.362 - per state. Normally Indianapolis or Northern Indiana gets the stop because they're able to cut right 00:03:32.362 --> 00:03:39.027 - through Ohio to Indiana to Illinois. This time we were the ones selected. They liked our proposal and 00:03:39.027 --> 00:03:46.018 - so they are coming to Bloomington this Thursday. So I have some flyers if you are interested in gravestone 00:03:46.018 --> 00:03:52.030 - preservation or if you want to learn more, please stop by and see me. And then we also have 00:03:52.578 --> 00:03:58.986 - We know the 4th of July is going to be a very big deal this year and a lot going on. So we're waiting 00:03:58.986 --> 00:04:05.269 - for a week after and on July 11th, we're going to have a big party of a history on the block party. 00:04:05.269 --> 00:04:11.551 - We have new exhibits open, new items on display, more items in the store. I brought a small sample, 00:04:11.551 --> 00:04:18.462 - but this way we thought instead of dividing a very thin pie into another slice, we thought we would just have 00:04:18.786 --> 00:04:24.653 - a big celebration the week after 4th of July. So it's on July 11th from 12 to 3. Admission is free. 00:04:24.653 --> 00:04:30.813 - It's open and welcome. We'll have music, activities, programming. Like I said, we have some new exhibits 00:04:30.813 --> 00:04:36.680 - opening up. So you can just collect a whole bunch of flyers. And I have a flyer for one of those as 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:42.547 - well, if anybody wants those. Otherwise, I brought some new books that we haven't had in the store. 00:04:42.547 --> 00:04:46.302 - And stop by the History Center and see us. Thank you, everyone. 00:04:52.802 --> 00:04:59.775 - Regards to today, an old friend, Clay Stuckey, Dr. Clay Stuckey. He's gonna do a program for us called 00:04:59.775 --> 00:05:06.817 - The Mill Murders, Tailor Race, Sex and Murder. So he's given us, once before at Bedford, it's the first 00:05:06.817 --> 00:05:13.587 - time new people have seen it. And Clay, we've only got the one speaker here. So I think some of the 00:05:13.587 --> 00:05:20.222 - people over there have a little problem hearing. So Clay's pretty good at projecting. So project. 00:05:29.538 --> 00:05:39.101 - Welcome to The Mill Murders, true tale of race, sex, and murder. Now, that's a fact. The bit about feeding 00:05:39.101 --> 00:05:48.039 - one of the most notorious murders in Norwegian history, that's just my opinion. And I didn't do any 00:05:48.039 --> 00:05:57.513 - research to compare this murder with any other murder. But the year was 1946, before the internet, before 00:05:57.513 --> 00:05:59.390 - the 24-7 news cycle. 00:05:59.842 --> 00:06:08.737 - before cell phones, before television for penicillin. And yet this story was covered in every state 00:06:08.737 --> 00:06:18.076 - of the union in the newspapers, including the territories of Alaska and Hawaii. Now that makes it pretty 00:06:18.076 --> 00:06:25.726 - darn notorious in my book. For those of you who subscribe to newstakers.com, you know 00:06:26.114 --> 00:06:33.285 - but the intensity of the color of the state indicates the number of newspapers that have been scanned 00:06:33.285 --> 00:06:40.455 - and have the story in the newspapers. And of course, Bloomington's, or Indiana is very red because it 00:06:40.455 --> 00:06:47.977 - burns here, but the rest of it tells you about the population of the states that have the most newspapers. 00:06:47.977 --> 00:06:55.710 - Well, certainly for a time, Bloomington had a gaggle of a whole lot of newspaper reporters and photographers, 00:06:55.842 --> 00:07:04.161 - from both newspapers and wire services that had gathered in Bloomington to cover this story, including 00:07:04.161 --> 00:07:12.399 - those as far away as New York. But none of them had the experience of Rita Fitzpatrick, the age crime 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:20.475 - reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Her editor told her, Rita, get down to Bloomington as fast as you 00:07:20.475 --> 00:07:22.494 - can and cover the murder 00:07:22.754 --> 00:07:30.514 - that's breaking there. And so she hopped on a plane and flew to Bloomington and immediately went to 00:07:30.514 --> 00:07:38.352 - the chief of police and asked him, what can you tell me about the murders? And only when he replied, 00:07:38.352 --> 00:07:47.198 - what murders? Did it dawn on her that she should have been in Bloomington, Indiana and not Bloomington, Illinois? 00:07:51.522 --> 00:07:59.792 - Our story begins on Friday, March 1st, 1946. Now you all know it was 1946 because I told you. The March 00:07:59.792 --> 00:08:08.142 - 1st isn't important other than to me because I was born 20 days later. I took a keen interest in current 00:08:08.142 --> 00:08:16.413 - events at the time. But Friday, the day of the week, is very important because this was a fast-breaking 00:08:16.413 --> 00:08:21.502 - story and you need to keep track of what day of the week it is. 00:08:22.114 --> 00:08:30.270 - Keep your pride from death as we go on. On that day, Russell Coons was 43 years old, and he was not 00:08:30.270 --> 00:08:38.508 - going to get a day owner. His wife Ruth was 45 years old. They'd been married for 20 years. They had 00:08:38.508 --> 00:08:46.991 - no children. He lived at 411 East University Street, and the house today looks pretty much like it did, 00:08:46.991 --> 00:08:51.966 - although some subsequent owner has filled in the front porch 00:08:56.130 --> 00:09:04.399 - He had formerly been the superintendent of Sunday schools at the Clear Creek Christian Church. I also 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:12.831 - attended that church for a brief time during the mid-1950s. In March of 1946, he was the choir director 00:09:12.831 --> 00:09:20.938 - at that church. For the last 17 years, Russell Coons had worked at the Empire Stone Company, and he 00:09:20.938 --> 00:09:26.046 - worked his way up to be the superintendent of their stone mill 00:09:27.106 --> 00:09:37.933 - down just west of Sanders. Here you see Dillman Road at the top, Fairfax Road at the bottom. Here's 00:09:37.933 --> 00:09:49.409 - what that mill looked like in 1923. And by 1940, it had expanded. Now, I know you get tired of me telling 00:09:49.409 --> 00:09:56.446 - you this, but there's always somebody that doesn't get the word. 00:09:56.770 --> 00:10:05.137 - TV show Jeopardy got it wrong, the Empire Stone Company has absolutely nothing to do with the Empire 00:10:05.137 --> 00:10:13.505 - State Building. Today, the Empire Stone Company mill is some kind of a lumber processing business of 00:10:13.505 --> 00:10:22.369 - some sort. Well, anyway, the stone for the Empire State Building came from a quarry just north of Olidick. 00:10:22.369 --> 00:10:26.014 - It was called the Perry Matthews and Busker 00:10:26.498 --> 00:10:33.054 - which at the time was owned by the Indiana Limestone Company. And because as the area that was worked 00:10:33.054 --> 00:10:39.739 - north quarried in the quarry field, it finally ran to the property line that you see there on the left, 00:10:39.739 --> 00:10:46.488 - those little white stakes running along, just to the left of those is the Hopkins Cemetery. Well, you're 00:10:46.488 --> 00:10:53.109 - not gonna quarry any more land running there to the left, so that quarry hole remained empty after the 00:10:53.109 --> 00:10:55.230 - Empire State Building was built. 00:10:56.034 --> 00:11:03.744 - And so locally, everybody started referring to that as the Empire Quarry, because that's where the stone 00:11:03.744 --> 00:11:11.161 - for the building came. And that's what it looks like today here to the right. But there's absolutely 00:11:11.161 --> 00:11:18.797 - no correlation between that Empire Quarry and the Empire Stone Company. I'll say it again the next time 00:11:18.797 --> 00:11:25.406 - I talk about this building. Well, just before noon on that Friday, March 1, Russell Coons 00:11:26.242 --> 00:11:33.502 - told Ben Smith, the company sales manager, that he was going up to Hunter Valley to the abandoned Hunter 00:11:33.502 --> 00:11:40.486 - Brothers stone mill to check out some old derricks that they might want to buy. Now, I dare say that 00:11:40.486 --> 00:11:47.538 - very few people here today have ever heard of Hunter Valley or even know where it is. But I guarantee 00:11:47.538 --> 00:11:55.006 - you, after today, you're all going to remember exactly where I was, not because of the murders, because you 00:11:55.234 --> 00:12:04.635 - all drive right through that area all the time. It was started by Revit Brigadier General Morton Craig 00:12:04.635 --> 00:12:13.945 - Hunter in 1891, who was the first to open a quarry there in the Hunter Valley district. He was in his 00:12:13.945 --> 00:12:23.163 - Atlanta campaign with Sherman and eventually commanded a brigade when Sherman's marched from Atlanta 00:12:23.163 --> 00:12:24.350 - to Savannah. 00:12:25.666 --> 00:12:34.181 - Here was his house on North Corkwood, which has not survived. One of many fine old beautiful homes that 00:12:34.181 --> 00:12:42.368 - had suffered the wrecking of here in Wilmington. Well, there we see a 1908 map of the Hunter Valley 00:12:42.368 --> 00:12:50.638 - District. And you see there were a lot of forest and different stone mills were working there at the 00:12:50.638 --> 00:12:55.550 - time. And the red arrow indicates the Hunter Brothers stone 00:12:55.714 --> 00:13:05.429 - They were the sons of General Hunter. Well, it turns out when the Thor Lane 37 was built, it went right 00:13:05.429 --> 00:13:15.050 - through the Hunter Valley stone district. So lots of quarry holes were filled in and route valves were 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:22.430 - taken down to fill in the holes. And then when the light path was built of 46, 00:13:22.850 --> 00:13:30.519 - going east and west, even more quarry holes were filled in until very little was left to indicate that 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:38.113 - it had been a major quarry area. And then when I-69 came along and they altered it yet again, now you 00:13:38.113 --> 00:13:45.931 - would be hard pressed to know that it was a quarry area. That upper left insert there shows an abandoned 00:13:45.931 --> 00:13:46.750 - stone mill 00:13:47.778 --> 00:13:54.691 - that is the only abandoned stone mill that's left more or less intact anywhere in the entire Indiana 00:13:54.691 --> 00:14:01.877 - limestone history of which I am aware. If it's in the dead of winter and there's no leaves on the trees, 00:14:01.877 --> 00:14:08.858 - you can just spot it down on the southwest quadrant of the interchange if you know where to look. And 00:14:08.858 --> 00:14:16.318 - there are some open quarry holes on the west there, but otherwise that whole quarry field has been filled in 00:14:21.890 --> 00:14:29.996 - The only operating mill in Cora is the B.G. Hoagley Company up at the very north of the Hunter Valley. 00:14:29.996 --> 00:14:37.866 - Well, here's what the Hunter Brothers Stone Company mill looked like in 1923. It had been abandoned 00:14:37.866 --> 00:14:45.814 - in 1939, and it was the derricks there that Russell Coons said he was going to check out. Well, that 00:14:45.814 --> 00:14:51.166 - Friday afternoon, Lottie Finley was the secretary to Alan Busquets, 00:14:52.322 --> 00:14:58.562 - who was the Secretary Treasurer of the M. Parnstoke Company, and she called Mrs. Coutts, and she said, 00:14:58.562 --> 00:15:04.621 - Mrs. Coutts, if your husband decides not to come back to work today but goes directly home, be sure 00:15:04.621 --> 00:15:11.103 - to have him called because the business has come up that's important that he needs to deal with. Remember, 00:15:11.103 --> 00:15:17.586 - he was the superintendent of the mill. Well, Mrs. Coutts called Ben Smith, the sales manager, when Russell 00:15:17.586 --> 00:15:19.646 - had not shown up for supper then. 00:15:20.930 --> 00:15:29.674 - And that was totally unlike him. So she was absolutely beside herself in worry. Abandoned stone mills 00:15:29.674 --> 00:15:38.847 - are very dangerous places to walk around in. So Ben Smith called the sheriff. Now at the time, the sheriff 00:15:38.847 --> 00:15:47.934 - was Albert H. Skirvin. So he gathered together a search party, if you will, that contained Albert Busker. 00:15:48.674 --> 00:15:57.317 - from the Empire Stone Company, and Ben Smith from the Empire Stone Company, and two deputies, Beatrice 00:15:57.317 --> 00:16:05.792 - and Herschel Corbett. And yes, that's correct, his name was Beatrice. And here we have the abandoned 00:16:05.792 --> 00:16:14.686 - stone mill at some point. Well, when they got there, they found Russell Coons's chrysler that was locked. 00:16:15.266 --> 00:16:23.147 - They looked in the window and they saw a box of chocolates in the front seat, a package of letters, 00:16:23.147 --> 00:16:31.500 - some business documents in the back seat. And they started looking through the mill. And I need to remind 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:39.696 - you, March 1st in Indiana, it's dark at 8 o'clock. So they're using flashlights to look around for what 00:16:39.696 --> 00:16:43.006 - they found inside the mill building where 00:16:44.418 --> 00:16:50.817 - they could tell there was very little mud and very little overturn on these things. So it gave them 00:16:50.817 --> 00:16:57.536 - a clue that maybe there was a flood, but they weren't sure. But then they found that something obviously 00:16:57.536 --> 00:17:03.999 - had been dragged across the dusty floor. So they followed the path of the dragging until they got to 00:17:03.999 --> 00:17:10.654 - a sludge pit. Now a sludge pit is something that most stone mills have that would be full of water that 00:17:10.654 --> 00:17:14.110 - has been permeated with the grindings from limestone. 00:17:14.594 --> 00:17:22.105 - So I mean, it was completely opaque. You can't see it at all. Sludge is a good name for it. And in that 00:17:22.105 --> 00:17:29.399 - sludge pit that had about a foot and a half of water in the bottom of it, it was full of lumber that 00:17:29.399 --> 00:17:36.765 - had been thrown into it. So one of those deputies, he had to be the guy that jumped in the sludge pit 00:17:36.765 --> 00:17:42.398 - and started removing the lumber until they found a human leg looking at them. 00:17:42.562 --> 00:17:53.122 - above the water, immediately the sheriff called the altar and said, it's time to call the coroner. So 00:17:53.122 --> 00:18:03.785 - presumably somebody was left there to secure the area. And the sheriff started off to find a telephone 00:18:03.785 --> 00:18:08.030 - to call the coroner. Now, if you're like 00:18:08.418 --> 00:18:15.944 - was in doing the research for the manuscript. I really thought, yes, you're wondering, well, why didn't 00:18:15.944 --> 00:18:23.252 - he just call the dispatcher with the radio in the police car? But only since writing the manuscript, 00:18:23.252 --> 00:18:30.488 - I subscribed to newspaper.com and found the answer. But on the way to get to the telephone, the car 00:18:30.488 --> 00:18:38.014 - had a flat tire. And you know Sheriff Skerbing about this time is thinking, this is going to be a long, 00:18:38.242 --> 00:18:45.884 - Well, on November 19, there was a fire in the dispatcher's room that destroyed radio equipment. So for 00:18:45.884 --> 00:18:53.970 - several months, until that was repaired, there was no radio communication between any of the law enforcement 00:18:53.970 --> 00:19:01.760 - agencies or their cars in Monroe County. And that's why he had to find a telephone. So the sheriff found 00:19:01.760 --> 00:19:07.102 - a filling station to get the tire fixed, and he could call the coroner. 00:19:09.570 --> 00:19:17.826 - The coroner showed up in several cars containing not only Ray Borland, Dr. Ray Borland, the coroner, 00:19:17.826 --> 00:19:26.246 - but the state and other local police, two Coots brothers, and two Coots brothers-in-law. There we have 00:19:26.246 --> 00:19:34.747 - Dr. Borland in three stages of his life. Some of us old folks can remember Dr. Borland being the school 00:19:34.747 --> 00:19:36.382 - doctor in our time. 00:19:40.802 --> 00:19:49.185 - Cut the corner there, removed the lumber, and could find out what was buried. And all they found, 00:19:49.185 --> 00:19:57.824 - not one, but two bodies. A man and a woman. The man had been killed with a massive blow to his head, 00:19:57.824 --> 00:20:06.463 - and the woman was strangled with a rope or a cord. The woman is immediately identified by the Coutts 00:20:06.463 --> 00:20:10.654 - family because they all went to the same church. 00:20:10.786 --> 00:20:19.707 - church. Now, in case somebody just woke up, let's nail down the fact that Russell Coots and Phyllis 00:20:19.707 --> 00:20:28.627 - Poehler are married, but not to each other. Okay, Phyllis was 32 years old at the time. Her husband 00:20:28.627 --> 00:20:37.815 - was Kenneth Coleman, who was 35. They'd been married for 10 years and had no children. She sang in the 00:20:37.815 --> 00:20:40.670 - choir at the Fair Creek Church. 00:20:41.602 --> 00:20:50.511 - and both Phyllis Coleman and Russell for well-respected members of their community. Lots of friends. 00:20:50.511 --> 00:20:59.507 - That's where she lived with her husband Kenneth Coleman in 1946, and that's what it looks like today. 00:20:59.507 --> 00:21:08.504 - It's just a couple hundred yards northwest of what had been the Fluck Cut Stone Company, which is now 00:21:08.504 --> 00:21:10.974 - the Textacon Stone Company. 00:21:11.490 --> 00:21:23.758 - on Victor Pike. I grew up on a farm a few miles north on Victor Pike. Anyway, the two Fluck brothers 00:21:23.758 --> 00:21:36.877 - had come to Monroe County back in 1931 and moved their stone mill from Chicago to the Victor Pike location. 00:21:36.877 --> 00:21:38.942 - So Monroe County 00:21:39.394 --> 00:21:47.055 - 15 years to have customized themselves with pronouncing the Fluck name very carefully. Unlike either 00:21:47.055 --> 00:21:55.095 - the reporter or the editor or the typesetter, who knows what of the Indianapolis Star, which in reporting 00:21:55.095 --> 00:22:02.908 - this thought, well, that can't be right, and it suddenly became FlexMill. And you know a lot of Monroe 00:22:02.908 --> 00:22:07.838 - County folks had to chuckle when they read that in Indianapolis. 00:22:09.666 --> 00:22:16.707 - Okay, so the Greene and Harrell ambulance took Mr. Coleman's body to the day funeral home and the Coot's 00:22:16.707 --> 00:22:23.614 - body to the Greene and Harrell funeral home. Now, these bodies, I told you are the cause of death, but 00:22:23.614 --> 00:22:30.453 - interestingly enough, both bodies had had their hands tied, I think their feet tied as well, but they 00:22:30.453 --> 00:22:37.226 - were untied when they found the bodies. But the bodies were both gagged with portions of the slip of 00:22:37.226 --> 00:22:38.366 - Phyllis Coleman. 00:22:41.666 --> 00:22:48.928 - Now it's Saturday, March 2nd. The sun is up so the police can return to the scene of the crime and now 00:22:48.928 --> 00:22:56.050 - see what's going on. And Kenneth Coleman, of course, was the leading suspect. After all, the husband 00:22:56.050 --> 00:23:03.241 - of the wife, he's being cuckolded, so he becomes the leading suspect. He was a former grocer, had his 00:23:03.241 --> 00:23:08.318 - 122-acre farm now, but there's the grocer that he had on West Kirkwood, 00:23:08.834 --> 00:23:17.003 - obviously still there, but he's not a grocer anymore. And here we are at the insanity to do our search 00:23:17.003 --> 00:23:25.014 - and look for clues. I told you about that. Now there are love letters. The prosecutor announced that 00:23:25.014 --> 00:23:32.945 - those love letters were described as mushy and of the high school freshman type. I thought that was 00:23:32.945 --> 00:23:35.166 - a cheap shot because to me, 00:23:35.362 --> 00:23:42.847 - Anybody's love letters, no matter who you are and what age you are, probably contain an element of mushy 00:23:42.847 --> 00:23:49.976 - high school freshman. But that's just me. The contents of those letters were never released because 00:23:49.976 --> 00:23:57.176 - the prosecutor said they contained names of other people. Well, so what? Anyway. Phyllis Coleman had 00:23:57.176 --> 00:24:02.238 - worked for a Johnson's creamery for 10 years. Well-respected employee. 00:24:06.658 --> 00:24:13.372 - to do with Mr. Coons for their trist that day was at the post office, which was up at the corner of 00:24:13.372 --> 00:24:20.087 - 7th Street in college, and required a walk of just two blocks from the creamery to the post office. 00:24:20.087 --> 00:24:26.868 - And the newspapers seem to indicate that that's the location of most of their meetings, although how 00:24:26.868 --> 00:24:33.583 - they would know that, I don't know, unless the letters reveal that. But certainly, that's what they 00:24:33.583 --> 00:24:34.590 - did on Friday. 00:24:36.322 --> 00:24:43.579 - Now, Mr. Coleman, as I said, was the leading suspect, but he had an ironclad ally. He had been working 00:24:43.579 --> 00:24:50.977 - on his farm that Friday afternoon. Now, it's interesting that the Indianapolis Star quoted him as saying 00:24:50.977 --> 00:24:58.233 - he was putting up hay. Now, that's what the big city reporters said. They had no idea that in Indiana, 00:24:58.233 --> 00:25:04.222 - nobody puts up hay on March 1st. The first cutting of hay is generally Memorial Day. 00:25:05.186 --> 00:25:12.700 - There's nothing to cut on March 1st. All the other papers said he was pitching hay. Well, maybe he was 00:25:12.700 --> 00:25:20.141 - feeding livestock. But the point is, whatever he was doing on his farm, he had a lot of witnesses. So 00:25:20.141 --> 00:25:27.728 - he ceased to be a suspect and immediately was allowed to go home. At the scene of the crime, they found 00:25:27.728 --> 00:25:31.230 - a man's hat, a handkerchief there at the scene. 00:25:33.538 --> 00:25:41.393 - We have a sheriff renting out the handkerchief. But the critical clue in his whole murder mystery was 00:25:41.393 --> 00:25:49.094 - a footprint. It had rained a little Friday, just enough that you could make a footprint. And one of 00:25:49.094 --> 00:25:57.103 - the heels on one of the boots that made a footprint had a notch in it that had been accidentally caused 00:25:57.103 --> 00:26:02.494 - by something or other. But it made that boot print absolutely unique. 00:26:03.298 --> 00:26:13.188 - So they knew they had a wonderful clue there. So they poured a plaster cast of it. Now at this point, 00:26:13.188 --> 00:26:22.884 - I couldn't help but be reminded of the old joke where pick a group you want to make fun of and say, 00:26:22.884 --> 00:26:28.702 - how many of this group does it take to change a light bulb? 00:26:29.026 --> 00:26:38.506 - How many police does it take to pour a plastered ass? At this point, either the prosecutor or the police, 00:26:38.506 --> 00:26:47.985 - or I don't know who, you know what I regard as an incredibly stupid thing. They released that information 00:26:47.985 --> 00:26:56.929 - in the newspaper. That's what Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare said. I wouldn't dip that low for that 00:26:56.929 --> 00:26:58.270 - kind of humor. 00:26:58.530 --> 00:27:08.258 - Anyway, the Bloomington paper, the World Telephone, talked about it, and the Sunday Indianapolis Star 00:27:08.258 --> 00:27:17.987 - talked about it. Well, what were they doing? They were telegraphing out to any murderer who was worth 00:27:17.987 --> 00:27:28.478 - his salt, who read that in the newspaper, would say to himself, oh, shit. That's the way most murderers talk. 00:27:28.770 --> 00:27:36.248 - I got to get rid of those boots. But apparently our murderer did not read the newspaper. Because he 00:27:36.248 --> 00:27:43.800 - didn't get rid of the boots. Enter our hero. Carl Burks was a 37-year-old fellow who worked for Kerr 00:27:43.800 --> 00:27:51.576 - and Riley's Hellion Filter Queen vacuum cleaners. And that Saturday night, he was reading the newspaper 00:27:51.576 --> 00:27:55.390 - out loud, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. Carol Smith, 00:27:56.066 --> 00:28:03.931 - and she related that her husband had pulled a truck out of the mud on bean blossom roads that had been 00:28:03.931 --> 00:28:11.566 - stuck there. And there were two Negroes involved, and one of them was wearing boots. And our fellow 00:28:11.566 --> 00:28:19.354 - here, new Deputy Noble Sisko, and he says, well, I'd like to tell him about that, but I can't go over 00:28:19.354 --> 00:28:25.310 - to see him, because it's after dark, and the headlights don't work on my car. 00:28:26.434 --> 00:28:33.166 - nor did he have a telephone. So he just sat on this information Saturday night. Now, I'd like to give 00:28:33.166 --> 00:28:39.897 - you an assurance that this is pretty much what happened, but I can't, because the newspapers were all 00:28:39.897 --> 00:28:45.969 - over the place in relating this part of our story. Some said that that was his wife and not 00:28:45.969 --> 00:28:52.634 - his sister-in-law. Some said that the truck was completely overturned in an accident, and the police 00:28:52.634 --> 00:28:55.934 - were there and started to discover the footprint. 00:28:57.314 --> 00:29:06.920 - I chose the local coverage in the local paper because I figured that reporter knew the people involved 00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:16.898 - as probably closer to the truth. But we know Carl Burks had an important role to play, regardless, because 00:29:16.898 --> 00:29:22.494 - there he is in consultation with Sheriff Skirvin and Jesus. 00:29:27.458 --> 00:29:37.014 - It is now Sunday, March 3rd. And Burks, like he intended, first thing, he drove over to his friend, 00:29:37.014 --> 00:29:47.144 - Deputy Sheriff Noble Sisko, and they and State Trooper Hal Hober went to the scene of the formerly truck, 00:29:47.144 --> 00:29:56.318 - stock truck, and found those footprints that had the unique boot print. And they followed that. 00:29:57.666 --> 00:30:06.292 - and trace them to the farmer who told them, oh, yeah, that was the Warwich brothers who had a load of 00:30:06.292 --> 00:30:14.833 - chitterlings in their pickup truck. Now, don't reach for your phones. I already did it. Chitterlings 00:30:14.833 --> 00:30:23.628 - are hog intestines that are used for food by some people. And they would get those from the Bloomington 00:30:23.628 --> 00:30:25.150 - Packet House. So. 00:30:25.826 --> 00:30:33.285 - The trooper went to the slaughterhouse and determined that the Woodbrothers had been involved 00:30:33.285 --> 00:30:41.300 - by chitterlings. It was Chester Wilrich called Psy and his younger brother Joseph Luther Wilrich who 00:30:41.300 --> 00:30:49.950 - went by the name Luther. And they found the boots at the home of Luther Wilrich who resided with his family. 00:30:50.466 --> 00:31:00.857 - He had no permanent residence. They kind of shifted him around from one family member to the next. And 00:31:00.857 --> 00:31:11.349 - at that time, he was living with his sister. He was 29 years old, living at 1229 West 12th Street. Now, 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:20.126 - if you're wondering, did they search for those boots legally? Was that a legal search? 00:31:20.290 --> 00:31:28.152 - It doesn't matter. It doesn't make any difference at all. The exclusionary rule states that any evidence 00:31:28.152 --> 00:31:36.015 - that is obtained illegally without a search warrant cannot be used to trial against you. And the Supreme 00:31:36.015 --> 00:31:43.802 - Court had ruled back in 1914 in Weeks versus the United States what that law was. The exclusionary rule 00:31:43.802 --> 00:31:48.894 - would exist. But only in federal cases. It did not apply to states. 00:31:49.186 --> 00:31:58.659 - until 1961 when Matt v. Ohio made it now applicable to the states. So in 1946, didn't make any difference. 00:31:58.659 --> 00:32:06.981 - Well, Luther Lawridge had a criminal record. He had six previous arrests and two convictions. 00:32:06.981 --> 00:32:13.886 - At age 17, a petty larceny charge. He served 16 months in Indiana Boy School. 00:32:14.082 --> 00:32:23.630 - In 1936 he had a public indecency charge in Green Castle where he spent two months in jail. He was married 00:32:23.630 --> 00:32:32.910 - with two children and his estranged wife was living in Benton Harbor, Michigan with their two children. 00:32:32.910 --> 00:32:39.870 - Enter our prosecutor Robert McCray. Now Robert McCray was a rookie prosecutor 00:32:40.546 --> 00:32:47.388 - This is March. He'd only been elected the previous November. Even then, he was off in the Pacific in 00:32:47.388 --> 00:32:54.230 - the military, and his wife had to campaign for him. But he did win the election, and he was released 00:32:54.230 --> 00:33:01.140 - from the service. He began to be the prosecutor on the 1st of January. And he had previous experience 00:33:01.140 --> 00:33:04.798 - as a deputy prosecutor, though, so it wasn't entirely 00:33:07.394 --> 00:33:16.880 - Well, Woolridge was interrogated for 12 hours starting on Sunday and lasting most of the night until 00:33:16.880 --> 00:33:26.555 - Monday morning. Then it was taken to Indianapolis for a lie detector test, which he neither failed nor 00:33:26.555 --> 00:33:35.102 - passed because he refused to answer the questions that a lie would have been convicted of. 00:33:35.970 --> 00:33:43.013 - He would say things like, I don't remember, and I'll have to think about that. So the lie detector test 00:33:43.013 --> 00:33:49.176 - didn't prove much. But for whatever reason, he confessed at 5.45 in the morning in a state 00:33:49.176 --> 00:33:56.423 - police headquarters in Indianapolis. Now, in his confession, he said that he was out with his gun shooting 00:33:56.423 --> 00:34:03.195 - groundhogs, or hunting groundhogs, and rabbits, and whatever else you find out at the Hunter Valley 00:34:03.195 --> 00:34:04.414 - Stolen Districts. 00:34:05.442 --> 00:34:12.060 - Quote, I stopped and was watching the couple when the man looked up and told me to scram. I stood on 00:34:12.060 --> 00:34:18.808 - the spot for a short time and the man asked me if I knew him. I told him I did. This man lunged at me. 00:34:18.808 --> 00:34:25.361 - I ducked and at the same time I picked up a window sash weight and swung at the man and hit the man 00:34:25.361 --> 00:34:32.240 - on the back of his head when he went after me. After I had tied the man's hands and feet, felt his heart 00:34:32.240 --> 00:34:34.206 - and noticed that he was dead, 00:34:34.658 --> 00:34:41.165 - At this point, I was scared and didn't know what to do. I finally decided that since the man was dead, 00:34:41.165 --> 00:34:47.546 - I would have to also dispose of the woman because she was a witness to the fight. I found a piece of 00:34:47.546 --> 00:34:54.053 - rope lying on the floor of the building, and it was at this time that I decided that I would choke the 00:34:54.053 --> 00:35:00.370 - woman to death. That's his confession. And I don't particularly believe all of it. It may very well 00:35:00.370 --> 00:35:04.350 - be the gospel truth. But there are several things that made me 00:35:04.770 --> 00:35:13.558 - and some reporters, and certainly Lawrence's attorney question. First of all, what happened to the guy 00:35:13.558 --> 00:35:22.346 - that he's out hunting groundhogs with? You don't go lunging at a man that's got a firearm. The firearm 00:35:22.346 --> 00:35:30.964 - was never mentioned in any of the stories anywhere. Why did he tie up the couple and then untie them 00:35:30.964 --> 00:35:33.950 - before they put them in the sludge 00:35:42.914 --> 00:35:52.339 - here that the role of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors are to seek justice. They're not to write 00:35:52.339 --> 00:36:01.316 - history. Once they have achieved enough evidence to convict the defendant, add on the fact that the 00:36:01.316 --> 00:36:10.292 - defendant has confessed, they're finished with it. They don't need to dot all the i's and cross all 00:36:10.292 --> 00:36:11.998 - the 2's and answer 00:36:12.802 --> 00:36:20.679 - like I just brought up, like the historian is interested in. They've already done their job. One could 00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:28.327 - only wish that they had done it a little more thoroughly. At the end of his confession, he wrote, I 00:36:28.327 --> 00:36:36.127 - wouldn't have made this statement except for the kindness shown me by Sheriff Skirvin and Officer Ray 00:36:36.127 --> 00:36:37.886 - Hinkle and Officer Ray 00:36:40.002 --> 00:36:47.548 - I found that laughable and I thought in 1946 it probably appeared laughable. And I also assumed that 00:36:47.548 --> 00:36:55.318 - that was dictated to him by the police officer. Now I don't mean to imply by that that they used rubber 00:36:55.318 --> 00:37:03.013 - hoses to extort a confession from him. I just don't believe that this seventh grade educated man would 00:37:03.013 --> 00:37:08.766 - come up with that quote. Nor did his lawyer who said that with his education 00:37:09.090 --> 00:37:18.650 - There were words in that confession that he either knew how to spell or had ever even heard of their 00:37:18.650 --> 00:37:28.210 - meaning, which is ironical, as we'll see later, in something his lawyer has to say for it. Well, now 00:37:28.210 --> 00:37:34.078 - here's our very little secret that we don't like to think of. 00:37:35.234 --> 00:37:45.005 - Jim Crow was alive and well in Wilmington, Indiana in 1946. The last lynching in Indiana had been in 00:37:45.005 --> 00:37:54.873 - Marion in 1930, when two black men were lynched or hanged for allegedly raping a white woman, but did 00:37:54.873 --> 00:38:03.870 - not kill her, but just raped her and were lynched. In 1946, there were six black men lynched 00:38:04.450 --> 00:38:13.184 - in the South. And for that reason, the judge and the law enforcement officials decided that Luther Woolwich, 00:38:13.184 --> 00:38:21.998 - a black man, would be kept at the prison at Pendleton, Indiana and not kept in the local jail in Bloomington. 00:38:21.998 --> 00:38:30.251 - They wanted no trouble. And one of the headlines, and I have to admit, guilty, I used that to lure you 00:38:30.251 --> 00:38:32.414 - in to hear me speak today, 00:38:33.986 --> 00:38:42.763 - for those who saw it on the website, that appeared on March 5th on World Telephone. A lot of people 00:38:42.763 --> 00:38:51.628 - don't realize that most newspapers for a long time, and maybe even today, the writer of the headline 00:38:51.628 --> 00:39:00.756 - is not the man who writes the article. It's a different job. And so when you read the article, you find 00:39:00.756 --> 00:39:03.038 - out it's bait and switch. 00:39:04.258 --> 00:39:12.445 - The headline says outrageous citizens. They want us to think that there's a lynch mob that's forming. 00:39:12.445 --> 00:39:20.633 - No, when you read the article you find out that there were large crowds of people at the jail and the 00:39:20.633 --> 00:39:28.660 - newspaper office and they were all upset because they wanted news of what was going on. They didn't 00:39:28.660 --> 00:39:31.710 - want to lynch anybody. Well, the real 00:39:33.122 --> 00:39:40.229 - was the word rape. In the newspaper, it said Healy, meaning the prosecutor, said bruises were found 00:39:40.229 --> 00:39:47.904 - on the body of Mrs. Coleman, which are not accounted for by Woolridge's story and which might have resulted 00:39:47.904 --> 00:39:55.223 - from an attempted rape. That was in the Chicago Daily Tribune. And if that's an accurate quote, it was 00:39:55.223 --> 00:40:01.406 - totally irresponsible. That was the only use of the word rape I read on any newspaper. 00:40:02.530 --> 00:40:10.792 - having to do with this case. Because believe me, if you're going to get a crowd fired up in 1946 in 00:40:10.792 --> 00:40:19.055 - the Jim Crow era, is if this black man had raped a white man. So kudos to the reporters that nobody 00:40:19.055 --> 00:40:26.078 - used that word but this one instance, nor any evidence that ever came that he raped. 00:40:30.306 --> 00:40:39.002 - Bloomington ministers adopted a resolution calling on the citizens of Bloomington not to condemn the 00:40:39.002 --> 00:40:47.698 - entire Bloomington Negro population because of Woolridge's confession. And here we are, he's signing 00:40:47.698 --> 00:40:56.222 - that confession. Now I put this in for comic relief, bear with me. The charges read that Woolridge 00:40:56.994 --> 00:41:04.214 - Unlawfully, feloniously, and purposely, and with premeditated malice, did kill and murder one Philip 00:41:04.214 --> 00:41:11.578 - Cera Coleman, 32, by placing, binding, tying, twisting, fastening, and holding a certain piece of rope 00:41:11.578 --> 00:41:14.366 - about the neck of the said Philip Cera 00:41:14.434 --> 00:41:22.910 - Coleman, and then and there, unlawfully, feloniously, and with malice and forethought, did choke, suffocate, 00:41:22.910 --> 00:41:30.687 - throttle, and strangle the said Philip Sear Coleman, from the effect of which choking, suffocating, 00:41:30.687 --> 00:41:38.463 - throttling, and strangling, she, the said Philip Sear Coleman, on the aforesaid first day of March, 00:41:38.463 --> 00:41:43.518 - 1946, and then and there, die. Now, don't you just love lawyers? 00:41:45.314 --> 00:41:55.257 - What that translates to is that he strangled Philip Sarah Coleman to death with a royal. Now, when the 00:41:55.257 --> 00:42:05.296 - newspaper said the confession of Joseph Luther Lawrence reads in parts, it wasn't clear just what parts 00:42:05.296 --> 00:42:13.598 - were left out. And when the newspaper board is saying related a couple in an embrace, 00:42:14.626 --> 00:42:22.670 - That brings up the question, well, just what was he watching and what were they doing? Now, this is 00:42:22.670 --> 00:42:31.518 - a period part of this. The coverage seemed to be indicating that Mr. Coutts was fully clothed. But obviously, 00:42:31.518 --> 00:42:39.481 - she wasn't if they found a female's girdle the next day and if her slip was off and used as a gag. 00:42:39.481 --> 00:42:43.422 - So clearly, she was in some condition of nudity. 00:42:44.354 --> 00:42:53.468 - It certainly held the attention of Mr. Woolrich for a while. Now, before any trial was undertaken, the 00:42:53.468 --> 00:43:02.494 - prosecutor announced that there would be no need to prosecute him, which in legal terms means that he 00:43:02.494 --> 00:43:11.343 - had decided that he would not prosecute Woolrich for murdering Mr. Coons either then or at any time 00:43:11.343 --> 00:43:12.670 - in the future. 00:43:13.410 --> 00:43:21.239 - That was just as far as the prosecutor was concerned, not going to be a trial matter. And that was a 00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:29.223 - wise decision, because according to the confession, that would have been self-defense. And yet, by his 00:43:29.223 --> 00:43:36.510 - own words, the defendant had confessed to killing Phyllis in cold blood. So try him for that. 00:43:45.026 --> 00:43:52.711 - That Monday, a lawyer for Luther showed up, Mr. Lawrence Shaw, an Indianapolis attorney who 00:43:52.711 --> 00:44:01.064 - was a self-described attorney for the dam. What was that? He used another word. Anyway, the man did 00:44:01.064 --> 00:44:09.500 - the same thing. He kind of fancied himself a Clarence Darrow, I suppose, but he was also a brilliant 00:44:09.500 --> 00:44:14.846 - attorney. He was born in Paris, graduated from IU's law school, 00:44:15.394 --> 00:44:24.920 - spoke six languages, had been involved in Republican politics. And I want to bring your attention to 00:44:24.920 --> 00:44:34.351 - not the man confesses, but the newsman attacked by the dead man's brother. Now, on that Monday, the 00:44:34.351 --> 00:44:40.670 - funeral of Mr. Coons was held at the Clear Creek Christian Church. 00:44:42.370 --> 00:44:49.924 - The former pastor, Reverend George Wyatt, was to officiate at the funeral. And by the way, the newspapers 00:44:49.924 --> 00:44:57.050 - were full of all sorts of gossip from parishioners at Fair Creek. Some of which said, oh yeah, that 00:44:57.050 --> 00:45:04.248 - affair had been going on for months. And other parishioners said, we had no idea that that was going 00:45:04.248 --> 00:45:10.590 - on. Well, the first group also said, well yeah, that's why we had to send Reverend Wyatt 00:45:10.818 --> 00:45:18.982 - to another church because he wasn't dealing properly with this shenanigans going on between the choir 00:45:18.982 --> 00:45:27.145 - director and a member of the choir. So who knows what's true there. But anyway, Rufus and Opal Coots, 00:45:27.145 --> 00:45:35.149 - the brothers of the dead man, attacked Ed Feeney of the Chicago Tribune for trying to get a picture 00:45:35.149 --> 00:45:38.270 - of Ruth. The police told the reporters 00:45:39.042 --> 00:45:47.706 - As long as you're off the church grounds, you can take all the pictures you want, but only after the 00:45:47.706 --> 00:45:56.627 - funeral is over. Well, the Coots brothers didn't take it that way. So they charged and damaged Feeney's 00:45:56.627 --> 00:46:05.463 - camera. And Prosecutor McCray warned Feeney to get out of town because he was afraid of what was going 00:46:05.463 --> 00:46:08.894 - to happen to him by the Coots brothers. 00:46:09.186 --> 00:46:16.394 - And Feeney said, I'll get out of town when I'm good and ready. Thank you. And he got a lawyer down from 00:46:16.394 --> 00:46:23.603 - Chicago and pressed charges against the Coon brothers with assault and battery, which in a local court, 00:46:23.603 --> 00:46:30.880 - they found him guilty. And he had to pay court costs, which involved $5 to fix his camera and apologize. 00:46:30.880 --> 00:46:38.366 - And that was that. I could find no pictures of Ruth Coons on any newspaper anywhere. So at least it worked. 00:46:39.650 --> 00:46:47.079 - So here we have a picture of the funeral on Monday. And I don't know whether there's a fight going on, 00:46:47.079 --> 00:46:54.437 - that they're all watching, or the casket's being carried out. I don't know. But everybody's attention 00:46:54.437 --> 00:47:01.722 - is turned to the East, except for that lady right there, who sees that her picture's being taken and 00:47:01.722 --> 00:47:08.286 - wants to speak on her best side, and not with her back to the camera. Well, all the legal. 00:47:09.346 --> 00:47:17.745 - things going on in Monroe County were done by the circuit court judge Q. Austin East, 1886 to 1959. 00:47:17.745 --> 00:47:26.144 - He was a circuit court judge from 1945 to 1957. And the assistant prosecutor was Nat U. Hill. We've 00:47:26.144 --> 00:47:34.627 - old folks here today can remember Nat Hill, who was the assistant prosecutor and followed Judge East 00:47:34.627 --> 00:47:38.910 - as the Monroe County circuit court judge from 1956 00:47:39.042 --> 00:47:46.064 - to 1980. And there's Robert McCrae, the prosecutor, and Nat Hill assisting him in this course. Well, 00:47:46.064 --> 00:47:53.642 - the grand jury was sworn in on March 7th and began its investigation. And Wilruth was brought from Pendleton 00:47:53.642 --> 00:48:00.872 - and then returned back to Pendleton. He didn't make his first appearance in the local jail until little 00:48:00.872 --> 00:48:07.964 - Al, after three weeks after the murder, when the judges decided it was OK to start keeping him in the 00:48:07.964 --> 00:48:08.798 - local jail. 00:48:10.242 --> 00:48:20.421 - And there we have the grand jury. The gentleman to the right of the room is not there yet. Richard Walker. 00:48:20.421 --> 00:48:30.124 - Clyde Fiscus. Well, on September 11th, Judge East set a trial date for November 12th. And a change of 00:48:30.124 --> 00:48:38.686 - venue was granted by Judge East. And the trial was moved to be in Spencer in Owen County. 00:48:40.834 --> 00:48:49.336 - The Owen County Circuit Court judge that would handle this was Frank M. Mark, who died in January 1957 00:48:49.336 --> 00:48:57.672 - after serving as judge since 1938 when that court was founded. Well, three days before his scheduled 00:48:57.672 --> 00:49:06.174 - trial, Woolridge made this statement when he withdrew his plea of not guilty and changed it to guilty. 00:49:07.362 --> 00:49:15.744 - I do not believe I am guilty of first degree murder, but I'm doing this in consideration of my family, 00:49:15.744 --> 00:49:24.208 - my people, and the people of the community. Now remember when his attorney was upset because he thought 00:49:24.208 --> 00:49:32.427 - the confession was not in the words that Luther would use? Does anybody think that the seventh grade 00:49:32.427 --> 00:49:37.310 - education fellow would compose that paragraph? I think not. 00:49:37.730 --> 00:49:45.370 - That's clearly out of the mouth of his attorney. Then the circuit judge court, Frank Martin, 00:49:45.370 --> 00:49:54.079 - circuit judge, court judge, he publishes in the newspaper a letter he sent to the governor and the parole 00:49:54.079 --> 00:50:02.377 - board saying, I earnestly request that no governor or commission ever pardon, parole, or commute for 00:50:02.377 --> 00:50:06.238 - any reason the life sentence. It is my concern 00:50:06.402 --> 00:50:13.889 - firm conviction that this man is entirely too dangerous an individual to ever be at large, and that 00:50:13.889 --> 00:50:21.826 - he should never be permitted to be released from the Indiana State prison, but should remain there during 00:50:21.826 --> 00:50:29.313 - his entire life. Strong letter to follow. Well, Luther's lawyer was upset. He said that that letter 00:50:29.313 --> 00:50:32.158 - was outside the agreement, not in any 00:50:32.354 --> 00:50:39.632 - it's part of the court records and beyond the jurisdiction of the judge at the time. Well, I have a 00:50:39.632 --> 00:50:47.129 - friend who is a retired federal magistrate judge and I asked him, what about this? It was his attorney 00:50:47.129 --> 00:50:54.407 - correct or was it okay for the judge to do that? And he said, well, off the top of my head, I would 00:50:54.407 --> 00:50:57.246 - think that today that would clearly be 00:50:57.730 --> 00:51:05.534 - out of line for the Judge Martin to do that. I don't know what it was, been in 1946. And he actually 00:51:05.534 --> 00:51:13.338 - did some research on that and came back and told me, I have researched it and it would have been not 00:51:13.338 --> 00:51:21.296 - proper for a judge to do that in 1946. It is proper for a judge to render an opinion to a parole board 00:51:21.296 --> 00:51:26.782 - if he had handled the case, if they ask him, but only if they ask him. 00:51:27.170 --> 00:51:34.677 - for him to volunteer that information is strictly out of line. Once then, it is now. However, he pointed 00:51:34.677 --> 00:51:41.897 - out to me something that I should have thought of, but didn't, and for that I'm embarrassed. Circuit 00:51:41.897 --> 00:51:49.189 - court judges in Indiana are elected. Judge Martin wrote this letter to the governor and to the future 00:51:49.189 --> 00:51:55.838 - parole boards, but in between the lines, that letter was going to the voters in Owen County. 00:51:56.834 --> 00:52:03.236 - He wanted to make sure they all knew that if it was left up to him, he would have sent Luther to the 00:52:03.236 --> 00:52:09.701 - chair and enjoyed doing it. But his hands were tied, and he couldn't. Smart politician, Judge Martin. 00:52:09.701 --> 00:52:16.292 - Well, here we are, poor old Luther's going to the penitentiary. And we know that, because the only time 00:52:16.292 --> 00:52:23.074 - in this whole thing where he wore a coat of tie was when he went up before Judge Martin, who had sentenced 00:52:23.074 --> 00:52:26.814 - him to a life sentence in prison because of the plea mark. 00:52:28.258 --> 00:52:36.098 - Now, his attorney, when he died in 1956, all of his obituaries mentioned this case. So you know he was 00:52:36.098 --> 00:52:44.242 - proud of what he did in this case. And what he did, and I'm sure going into it was all he could anticipate 00:52:44.242 --> 00:52:49.950 - doing, was saving Luther Wilrich from the chair and getting him a license. 00:52:53.186 --> 00:53:00.373 - Well, he was released, the first time he was up for parole, the parole board did quote that letter from 00:53:00.373 --> 00:53:07.421 - Judge America. And he went up for parole another time or two, but they always denied it. But in 1978, 00:53:07.421 --> 00:53:14.263 - he was released by Governor Otis Bowman because of his age and medical problems. And then in 1981, 00:53:14.263 --> 00:53:21.726 - he died, so he clearly had medical problems. And he currently resides in a ground hill cemetery in Indiana. 00:53:25.762 --> 00:53:36.954 - Coleman is all by herself in the Clear Creek Cemetery. Kenneth Coleman remarried. Russell Coons was 00:53:36.954 --> 00:53:48.147 - married and a headstone was provided by his wife, Ruth, who clearly anticipated that she would join 00:53:48.147 --> 00:53:54.974 - him later, but she remarried. She remarried, Earl Stansford, 00:53:55.202 --> 00:54:04.814 - who stands for radio here in Bloomington and lived to the ripe old age. Now you would think that any 00:54:04.814 --> 00:54:13.473 - program that ends with pictures of the tombstones of the principals would be an end. Well, 00:54:13.473 --> 00:54:23.085 - you'd be wrong. In the words of the newspaper man, this story had legs. From 1949 to 1957, there was 00:54:23.085 --> 00:54:24.798 - a show on the NBC 00:54:25.346 --> 00:54:33.349 - television network called The Biggest Story, where the Palmol Cigarette Company, the sponsors of the 00:54:33.349 --> 00:54:41.828 - show, saluted journalists who, in their opinion, had been involved in stories that were less than Pulitzer 00:54:41.828 --> 00:54:50.069 - Prize-type material, but nonetheless deserve recognition. So on season five, episode 31, Grady Bennett, 00:54:50.069 --> 00:54:54.110 - the reporter for The Bloomington World, telephoned 00:54:54.722 --> 00:55:02.125 - came to Herald Telephone, was the hero of the story. It was written by Norman Lessing, directed by Dick 00:55:02.125 --> 00:55:09.243 - Schneider, and starring Richard Carlyle as Grady Bennett. And here's Grady Bennett. He died not too 00:55:09.243 --> 00:55:16.575 - long after that, unfortunately, so he didn't have a lot of time to spend on a big story award at $500, 00:55:16.575 --> 00:55:22.910 - which was a lot of money at 19. And here's Richard Carlyle, the actor who portrayed him. 00:55:23.298 --> 00:55:31.845 - Now, I tried every way I could on the internet to watch that episode, and my skills are such that going 00:55:31.845 --> 00:55:40.063 - on YouTube and all, I could not find it. So I don't know how accurately they portray our story. But 00:55:40.063 --> 00:55:48.446 - Christine Friesel, who's given several talks here from the library, provided me with a September 1950 00:55:48.446 --> 00:55:52.062 - issue of Detective World. Now, that's not a 00:55:52.322 --> 00:56:00.922 - That's the picture of Pristino. That's the picture of detecting the world. And in that magazine is the 00:56:00.922 --> 00:56:09.605 - story, whoa, in that story, in that magazine is the story of the choir singer and the peeping tom. Does 00:56:09.605 --> 00:56:17.954 - that sound familiar? By J. Filler. Now I tried also every way I could to find out who J. Filler was 00:56:17.954 --> 00:56:20.542 - and met a dead end every time. 00:56:20.802 --> 00:56:30.451 - It is my considered opinion that J. Filler is a pseudonym, a pen name. And if I wrote as badly as J. 00:56:30.451 --> 00:56:40.292 - Filler did, I would have a pen name as well. Even the name itself is suspicious. Filler? Well, the bad 00:56:40.292 --> 00:56:48.030 - writing starts off in the first paragraph. The girl's body was soft, voluptuous, 00:56:48.130 --> 00:56:54.802 - graceful lines, her face had a bewitching beauty outlined delicately by her gorgeous copper-colored 00:56:54.802 --> 00:57:01.541 - hair. She lay back in the man's arms in the room of an old abandoned quarry and sighed. Now, I don't 00:57:01.541 --> 00:57:08.214 - read pulp mystery fiction, but I dare say if you change the hair color back and forth, you have got 00:57:08.214 --> 00:57:15.086 - a description of every woman that was ever murdered in a mystery story that was ever written, or hired 00:57:15.086 --> 00:57:17.822 - a detective, or was even a lead witness. 00:57:19.362 --> 00:57:30.822 - Dorothy Parker said that men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses. She did not point out that 00:57:30.822 --> 00:57:42.057 - it also saved them from being murdered in pulp mystery stories. The writing gets worse. Quotes, the 00:57:42.057 --> 00:57:43.742 - three officers 00:57:43.906 --> 00:57:51.103 - quickly pulled the boards away and stared down into the yawn-in pit. The sheriff said hoarsely, there 00:57:51.103 --> 00:57:58.230 - they are, two bodies, a man and a woman, and they haven't many clothes on. Now the sheriff must have 00:57:58.230 --> 00:58:05.286 - either had a bad cold or was a heavy smoker, because he spoke hoarsely. But he was very considerate 00:58:05.286 --> 00:58:10.014 - and an astute observer, because he pointed out to his two deputies 00:58:10.274 --> 00:58:17.015 - the fact that they were looking at two bodies, a man and a woman, and they haven't many clothes on, 00:58:17.015 --> 00:58:24.228 - and they couldn't possibly have figured that out for themselves. There were 11 people in the real truthful 00:58:24.228 --> 00:58:31.105 - story that were mentioned in the magazine story doing the jobs that they had done as part of the real 00:58:31.105 --> 00:58:37.374 - story. And they were all spelled correctly except the prosecutor, whose name was misspelled. 00:58:42.306 --> 00:58:51.392 - His 15 minutes of fame was over. He was not mentioned. They had a whole fabricated plot element of who 00:58:51.392 --> 00:59:00.301 - discovered the hood prints by the truck at all. It was absurd. Transit Gloria Mundi, how fleeting is 00:59:00.301 --> 00:59:09.387 - the glory of this world. Poor Carl. Interestingly enough, Luther Woolridge does not make an appearance 00:59:09.387 --> 00:59:10.622 - in our story. 00:59:10.914 --> 00:59:19.118 - Nor was the fact that the murderer was a black man. It would have seemed to me that any kind of a pulp 00:59:19.118 --> 00:59:27.640 - magazine would want to include that, just to make the story all that more titillating, exciting, whatever. 00:59:27.640 --> 00:59:35.924 - But it didn't. They never mentioned it. And in fact, the last paragraph of the magazine story said that 00:59:35.924 --> 00:59:40.862 - three months later, Jester Warwich was found guilty by a jury 00:59:41.090 --> 00:59:47.827 - a first degree murder of a citizen to spend the rest of his life in a state penitentiary. Well, we know 00:59:47.827 --> 00:59:54.370 - it was a plea bargain. It wasn't a trial, but there's nothing sexy about a plea bargain, so they had 00:59:54.370 --> 01:00:01.172 - to call the trial. But what did they just do? Who's Chester Woolridge? Chester Woolridge is the innocent 01:00:01.172 --> 01:00:07.780 - older brother of the murderer. Where's a good libel lawyer when you need one? Well, where are we? Why 01:00:07.780 --> 01:00:09.918 - don't we have to think about all 01:00:10.626 --> 01:00:17.031 - It was kind of summed up by the Indianapolis Reporter, which was a black newspaper, and his coverage 01:00:17.031 --> 01:00:23.880 - of the story was very responsible. They said, respect for the law and order deeply rooted in the traditions 01:00:23.880 --> 01:00:30.222 - of this university town has bravely withstood the stunning emotional impact of the twin slaves. And 01:00:30.222 --> 01:00:36.627 - they were right. And after doing a research of this, it made me kind of proud to have Bloomington as 01:00:36.627 --> 01:00:38.910 - my own hometown, because as I look, 01:00:39.586 --> 01:00:47.032 - Everybody was behaving very responsibly. The newspaper coverage was very responsible. The police hadn't 01:00:47.032 --> 01:00:54.550 - brown beat some poor black suspect into confessing something he didn't do. They really had the murderer. 01:00:54.550 --> 01:01:01.709 - They had the foot pest, which was, the evidence doesn't get any better than that. So all in all, it 01:01:01.709 --> 01:01:07.294 - was a credit to everybody involved. And if you want to know any more details, 01:01:07.970 --> 01:01:15.344 - There's a manuscript of mine in the library and in the museum. And I have added on to that later when 01:01:15.344 --> 01:01:22.935 - I got to newspaper.com. But the most important thing is there is a copy of that mystery magazine article 01:01:22.935 --> 01:01:30.382 - in there with all my sarcastic comments in it where I've annotated how much of what's in there is true 01:01:30.382 --> 01:01:36.382 - and how much is not. And so we find ourselves today, 80 years after all the people 01:01:36.546 --> 01:01:52.238 - involved in this story. We're doing our thing. And now, those folks and this program have all reached 01:01:52.238 --> 01:02:06.238 - the same state of affairs in that it is the end. I'm happy to try to answer any questions. 01:02:06.498 --> 01:02:23.507 - I have no idea what Judge Hill's farm was. He wanted to know if Judge Hill had a farm out in the area 01:02:23.507 --> 01:02:31.678 - where the murders occurred. Any other questions? 01:02:32.898 --> 01:02:42.583 - No, that's a question that I always wanted to know. If you're having a tryst with your lover, both of 01:02:42.583 --> 01:02:52.743 - them have spouses elsewhere, why do you bring along the letters? Was he wanting them back? Was she wanting 01:02:52.743 --> 01:02:56.446 - to give them back? I don't know. Also, 01:02:58.466 --> 01:03:06.701 - Ruth Coutts, who immediately was calling people because her husband not showing up, Mr. Coleman, who 01:03:06.701 --> 01:03:15.182 - took his wife to work, but she did not drive, and normally picked her up. Well, she wasn't pick upable, 01:03:15.182 --> 01:03:23.336 - presumably, when he showed up Friday. So he made a couple of calls. He called the hospital. Then he 01:03:23.336 --> 01:03:25.374 - went to a lodge meeting. 01:03:26.082 --> 01:03:37.877 - and then waited around to the police to call him on Saturday morning. But he also had an iron plan. 01:03:37.877 --> 01:03:49.672 - Any other questions? Oh, yeah. Judge McCracken's two sons have a law firm in Bloomington today. Any 01:03:49.672 --> 01:03:55.806 - other questions? Sir? The motive is this poor black 01:03:56.834 --> 01:04:05.104 - is watching this couple in some extraordinarily intimate behavior. And the man there is concerned they're 01:04:05.104 --> 01:04:12.983 - being watched. Now, what happened next? We'll never know. Do you attack the black man who is holding 01:04:12.983 --> 01:04:21.253 - a gun? The black man who whacks him with a, he says, a window sash that he later said he threw the murder 01:04:21.253 --> 01:04:26.558 - weapon in a quarry home. Because the murder weapon was never found. 01:04:27.330 --> 01:04:35.000 - His description of it led the prosecutor and the law enforcement authorities to assume it was a part 01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:42.821 - of a window frame. But they couldn't find that either. But whatever it was, it went into a quarry. But 01:04:42.821 --> 01:04:50.718 - this poor befuddled murderer wasn't thinking clearly because he just killed the only witness that would 01:04:50.718 --> 01:04:55.806 - testify if his story is true that it was a matter of self-defense. 01:04:57.346 --> 01:05:06.998 - Did he kill Russell Coons? But then who's thinking clearly after he just murdered someone or killed 01:05:06.998 --> 01:05:17.422 - someone? The being at the wrong place at the wrong time is the source of this tragedy. Any other questions? 01:05:17.422 --> 01:05:26.302 - Sir? Not a question, but a comment. The 12-hour interrogation would never be allowed today. 01:05:28.258 --> 01:05:38.421 - to think that Bloomington or any law enforcement here had anything to do with soliciting that confession, 01:05:38.421 --> 01:05:48.392 - particularly after what used to be an hour and a half drive or so to Atlas, but along the Peloton area, 01:05:48.392 --> 01:05:56.638 - which would be even further, it reeks of problems. Well, problems today, not in 1946. 01:05:57.058 --> 01:06:06.548 - It was a different world in 1946, with different rules and regulations. Any other questions? Thank you, 01:06:06.548 --> 01:06:08.190 - folks, very much.