TWO ENDS OF THE WORKER SPECTRUM

Marxism, Communism, and Socialism all lifted high the rights of the "Worker."  Many of the first labor organizations were coming from these political and philosophical stances.  In fact, in Mao Tsetung's little red book, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung ( Peking, Foreign Language Press, 1972)  The page before the title page reads " Workers of all countries, unite!"   It is interesting to note that the Progressive Movement actually worked to do away with the amatuer in many fields ushering in the era of the professional, the scientist, and the skilled worker as platforms of their reform movements. Although both functioning as radical reform organiations they approached the worker from two sides of the issue.  One raised the common, muscled worker with shovel, pick, or hammer to an almost mythic superman position.   The progressives did the same thing with the schooled, trained, scientifically based 'new professionals'. This in many ways would greatly marginalize the 'worker.'  In the middle was the American middle class - a new and trying to grow group - who were as much in the middle ideologically as they were socially and economically.

When Socialists Nearly Won The Presidency

In the years between WW 1 and the Great Depression, the socialist party (sometimes also labeled the progressive but this is generally incorrect)  in the United States made strong inroads.  They had become active in the industrial (mining and rail) strikes of the late 1890's, the farmer's revolts and the Grange movement.  Teddy Roosevelt in the 1912 election has witnessed a hostile and bitter election as the three groups struggled for power.   Some historians consider it a close call.

In the 1920's, they won increasing numbers of elections, gaining supporters from all walks of life.  The 2-party platform of the Democrat and Republican was in severe danger from the growing strength of the  Socialist Party and its candidate Eugene V. Debs.  Although, the group was not as vigorous as in the previous decade, there were enough unsettled voters that it was growing issue. It was so worrisome that FDR actually began to integrate many of the ideas and suggestions from the Socialist Party platform into the his own campaign and the campaign of the whole Democratic Party.  The jobs acts, social security, and other activities of FDR's "New Deal" reforms were all initally (to some degree) part of the platform of the American Socialist Party. In essence, he grafted into the Democratic Party the values and goals of the Socialist movement.   It worked, in the end he was able to attract enough Socialist votes to carry the day and the Socialist Party was a minimal independent  political power for many years after that.

Forced underground in the 1950's and the era of McCartheyism, the party begant to reassert itself in the late 1960's and since the 1980's have run a Presidential candidate almost every term.

Sources for more reading:

Socialism in America

Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive

Early American Marxism

Progressive Era in America

INSANE BY REASON OF AGNOSTICISM?

Agnosticism’s strong right arm, Robert G.Ingersoll, figures prominently in two interesting stories from America’s heartland. 

In Oklahoma, a tale comes about a grave and W.H. Sade, of Douglas, Oklahoma  (http://cybermarsx.mls.lib.ok.us/Folklore/Originals/XI-1_009.pdf).  He was reported to have been an infidel whose home was decorated with art and images depicting religious themes in a most sacrilegious  manner and raised his family to despise all things religious. 

His 15-year-old son, whom he had named after Robert G. Ingersoll, soon came down with an illness similar to appendicitis.  He suffered for many days and spat out curses to his father for raising him wrong and telling him, he would suffer.   This appears to have occurred as he developed strange ideas. The man believed his son’s illness arose from eating a peach. He became convinced his son would grow into a peach after death. When the boy died he had first did not want him buried in the regular cemetery but in a pasture across the road from the Douglas cemetery. His daughter convinced him finally but he insisted in carving a peach in the reverse of the stone.  Years later, she had this moved to his feet and replaced the headstone with a more traditional one.  As of 1936, John Miller reported the stone was still there in the cemetery.

One source did identify a grave in the cemetery which matches the description given,  Robert G. Sade, b. 1881 and died 1897 (http://www.okcemeteries.net/garfield/douglasunion/douglasunion.htm).

Near Joplin, Missouri, a most horrific event was linked to Robert G. Ingersoll as well in 1899 (http://www.historicjoplin.org/?p=635).  James Moss was a 35-year-old worker who was living with his wife and children in an area called the “Kansas City Bottoms.”   A stench led some people to the remains of their camp in a tent where the horrific sight of the mutilated bodies of the youngest child outside led to the bodies of the other two children, the mother and Moss.  Police determined he had killed his family and then shot himself.   A Kansas City paper reported he was attracted to the writings of Ingersoll and his views on Suicide.  A general belief seemed to be that his various views all indicated he was insane.

This all leads to the question - can agnosticism, like extremes in of any belief system, make a person mad?  Is it possible the wide-eyed, ranting, ignorant, superstitious Bible believing or religious extremist may need to move over to allow room for the wide-eyed, ranting,and murderous agnonist?  Opens up all kinds of charector possibilities.

BIG ANN'S PLACE : RECRUITING STATION FOR HELL

Doors from the time period

Although it had been around for at least ten  years, in 1903 'Big Ann's Place' became the recognized center of evil in early Oklahoma City.  A court case which made it to the state supreme court forever sealed its place in the more colorful side of history and presented numerous mysteries as a result. In the court records it is called a 'recruiting station for hell.'   A clever turn of phrase given an area in Oklahoma City, just west of the rail deport and Reno was known as "Hell's Half Acre."  The current convention center and gardens cover the same general area.

'Big Ann' was known variously as Annie Wynn, Annie Wynne, and Annie Bailey.  The reason for the sudden notoriety was the occasion of charges filed against Annie and her employee Maud Davis and George Garrison, concerning the alleged rape of two young Dutch immigrant girls, Ann and Lucy Patt (filed February 1903).  The crime was charged to have been done by a couple of small time would be hooligans, George Garrison and Jim Harman, aka the Arkansas Kid. The location was Big Ann's Place on west 2nd street.

The girls said Annie herself had served them small glasses of beer which was strangely bitter and resulted in almost immediate illness.  As they were led away by the young men they thought they were being taken somewhere to be sick, when instead they were taken to two different rooms and were, they said, raped by their male companions and possibly others.  Yet, later court records seem to paint a different picture of these girls.  Another man was also considered in the rape case, Jim Harman.

Annie Wynn Bailey, or whatever her real name may have been, by this time was well known for having avoided several serious episodes, avoided the long arm of the law, and was flagrantly operating in violation of the law.  Since most of Hell's Half Acre was similarly functioning beyond the law it was not too surprising.  It was suspected the money coming into the brothels, gaming dens, and saloons paid law and judges to look the other way.  

This single year would see Annie's name in the news almost every month.  There were numerous reasons for this.  It was time of growing anti-drink movements with people such as Carrie Nation who was ramping up her activities (she would visit Oklahoma in 1904).  It has been alleged some people were becoming aware that a lot of real estate in Oklahoma City and elsewhere (such as Lawton) was being purchased by this venal entrepreneur. It has been alleged it was this wealth that allowed Annie to have a pass for so many years.  She may have, however, been up against a two pronged attack beginning in 1903 and ending (perhaps) in 1909 when it is believed she left the City for California.  This attack may have been from some of the women she had supervised and trained to help her with her OKC operations, possibly aided by OKC men with a desire to acquire the real estate owned by the notorious Madam.

--Marilyn A. Hudson

IS IT TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TO RACE?

They sit there on most formal forms, little boxes asking people to place themselves into small, political, cultural, and biological boxes labeled 'race'. In the period after various legal battles and social corrections these were helpful to equalize and make fair opportunities to groups who had been marginalized for generations. 

Now, however, with growing numbers of people unable to select simply one box - is the labeling still appropriate?

The American Association of Anthropologists in a statement from 1998 said: ""Race" thus evolved as a worldview, a body of prejudgments that distorts our ideas about human differences and group behavior."

Modern studies in genetics, DNA, and other biological factos have shown we are all more alike than different and that once hard held 'racial' traits are as likely to be found in diverse populations and other 'races'. 

An example is the recent DNA discovery that many of a group termed Melungeon derive from  a mating of a Black sub-Saharan male and European white woman challenge the frail house we call "Race."  Maybe it is a clue we should help blow down the structure once and for all and embrace the fact we are all more than we think we are. 

This group of people - which includes often stories of "Indian princesses", Gypsy, Portuguese, or "Black Dutch" to explain a tendency to dark hair, olive toned skin and dark eyes.  These people, it is believed, kept apart in order to avoid being placed in slavery or denied rights.  Although the initial DNA results indicate only the Sub-Saharan connection, it is unclear how wide the testing was and if other results, supporting the Native American or Portuguese claims, might still be made. 

It still does not diminish the question: should race be eliminated on forms and diminished as  major element in social or personal identity?
Is race actually a shackle that keeps all of society tied to a 16th century idea of human value and an outdated social-political structure of colonialism and hierarchy?

Is skin color, hair type, shape of a nose, or a length of leg really the things we should be using as guides to understanding human existence?

We are shaped more by culture than race and once the culture begins to recognize and accept diversity, celebrate children born of two people instead of two races, and have enough self understanding to known that personal self worth is not based on making someone else feel bad, conquered, menial, or inhuman.

I celebrate anyone who is proud of their ancestral heritages, their cultural roots, and their own God crafted uniqueness. I sorrow with those who have been made to be ashamed of their identity, their looks, their social position, their skin color, or other factors used by manipulators to make themselves feel better by marginalizing others.

It is time, I think, to stop focusing on the differences and begin to celebrate the human species who reside precariously on a small blue island planet in the great cosmic ocean. To begin to understand that simply because one is white, black, brown or any other tone they are not special or minimized. To recognize that racial calls to power, privilege, or prominance are about as sensible as granting all redheads the right to vote but not blondes. It simply makes no sense and is indefensible.

Something to think about....the next time you see those little boxes on those official little forms. Does it really matter? Or, can we all siimply join the HUMAN race and be done with it?

THE MEADOWS MURDER, THE CRIME

THE MEADOWS MURDER, PART TWO

THE CRIME

According to records of the event presented in court and through newspaper articles, the events went something like this.  A husband and wife were in a difficult patch, but planning to move from their downtown rooming house on North Broadway to a fresh start in booming Capitol Hill. On a warm early summer evening, a scheming false wife and her lover planned and carried out the murder of a hard working, decent man.  Truth is not only stranger than fiction; it can be a lot more complicated.  

Over the course of the ‘newspaper trial’ that ensued, suggestions were that Meadows had an affair (or had ruined a young woman in the very boarding house where he lived) and was blackmailed. This was what caused an estrangement between the two. Countering that would be charges that Lila Meadows, far from the gentle and frail female, had been abusive to him blackening eyes, throwing a butcher knife at him, and withholding money.  

The rooming house was called the “Palace”, was situated over a saloon, and was said to be either at 116-116 ½ North Broadway or at 316-316 ½ North Broadway.  At both of these locations, local stories and advertisements, suggest the area was rife with con artists (usually posing as fortunetellers or psychics).   These ‘rooming houses’ or ‘boarding houses’ were also well known for their connection to the Oklahoma City criminal underground (the gambling, prostitution, white slavery, and con jobs).  These locations were both very close to the notorious “Hell’s Half Acre” of Oklahoma City where brothels, saloons, and gambling houses were located.

Shortly after the disappearance, police noticed that the woman and a young man, Rudolph Tegeler, seemed to have an undue interest in each other.  Initially denying they even knew each, witnesses soon recounted how she sent fruit and delicacies to young Tegeler at work.  Message boys testified how they carried notes between the two. He called her pet names and carried her picture.  She was seen riding in a buggy with Tegler, had some undisclosed all night escapade with him, and was often seen by Mrs. Keith talking on the back steps of the Meadows rooming house. Co-workers reported phone calls between the two. Tegler bought or leased the rooming house, located above a saloon operated by Bass Alder,  for Mrs. Meadows to operate.  

Although initially indicted as a co-conspirator in the murder, Miss Dorothy B. (or Dora) Keith, nurse and “boon companion” of Mrs. Meadows, would later tell authorities of the “queer actions” and “extreme excitement” on receiving two mysterious letters on the day of the disappearance.   She told authorities that the day of the disappearance,  the Meadows’ spoke at about 6:30 p.m. in the Oklahoma City residence.  Mrs. Meadows expressed the thought she might come to Capitol Hill that night to visit her husband. He told her the door would be unlocked.  That evening, it is was also reported, Mrs. Meadows and Tegler go for a buggy ride at about that same time.

Around midnight, a local hears gunfire near Meadows home in Capitol Hill. A neighbor reports her dogs were excited about some activity. Strangers lurking in the area are suspected and the next day, Meadows does not arrive for work and his supervisor calls the police.  Over the coming days and weeks, co-workers and volunteers keep watch over the nearby North Canadian River, make inquires, and assist local police in trying to locate Meadows.

During the disappearance, Tegler often brings newspapers to coworker C.M. Roberts to have him read and explain them to him.  This man said Tegler first said he thought Meadows had disappeared but as the time grew on he said he did not know what to think.  He also said Tegler had given him a memo book with a photograph of the woman Meadows and other undisclosed items.  This was in turn, handed over to Chief Post.  When the medium, Mrs. Rodie, Ronie,  or Rose Myers, wrote him with her vision of the missing man and where his body was buried, he of course believed this and reported it to the police.  He could take them to the place, resolve the disappearance, and then the two lovers would be free to marry.

What developed was a nearly decade long courtroom drama and newspaper presence for the case of the mysterious murder of James R. Meadows.

The day after the body is found, the police begin proceeding to indict Mrs. Lila Meadows, Miss Dorothy Keith.   Roy A. Baird and Edward Loughmiller identify the remains at the city morgue as James R. Meadows.  As a photo in the local paper shows, the body was badly decomposed.  Investigators, however, noted he had been shot in the back and the face.  They could not find a matching hole in his shirt and this added to the aura of mystery that would ensue. Near the time of the funeral, Dorothy Keith claims the casket is empty and Meadows is not dead.  In July of 1912, the witness of two physicians attending the body added to the debate. The body was badly decomposed, but the doctors were able to ascertain the man was a) in good health and b) had a full set of teeth. Some of Meadows closest friends, however, indicated he had been in very poor health and was missing a tooth. Further discussion of these points is missing in later accounts and no explanations are given for the disparities other than the extreme level of decomposition may have hindered findings.

 Later in 1910, coworkers Harry Warrrenton, F.H. McCane, and A.J. Scott testified the body they had seen in the morgue was their missing coworker.  A receipt in the pocket was to Rudolph Tegler for a meter for the Meadows rooming house on N. Broadway (but a worker later was unable to identify Tegler as the man who had gotten the meter).

Two days after the body is found, the theory of the police was clear.  Tegler was a naïve young man besotted and manipulated by a lovely older woman who used her sexual charms to her advantage. The man’s belief in the supernatural powers of the medium Myers, and a sad story of an abusive husband , were used to develop a patsy (at the least) for the murder of her husband, and so soon had both Mrs. Meadows and Rudolph Tegler were facing indictments for murder.

END OF PART TWO

THE MEADOWS MURDER: SENSATION BEFORE STATEHOOD

From , "Tales of Hell's Half Acre", Marilyn A. Hudson:

THE MEADOWS MURDER OF 1907, part 1:

It was little wonder the story remained a major headline event for over a decade.  The tale had it all: a murder mystery with titillating intrigue, illicit lust, yellow journalism, city officials on criminal payrolls, a guilty till proven innocent public sentiment, clairvoyant mediums, shady peripheral characters,  lying witnesses, plots and shenanigans, a grand standing defense attorney, a lovely and frail widow, a virile young villain, and lingering rumors of a man thought dead still being alive.   

THE PLAYERS

James R. Meadows, the Victim.

In 1907, Oklahoma was looking forward to its soon-to-be state status but was already a growing and increasingly sophisticated land.  One example was the Pioneer Telephone Company.   Originally opening in 1905 as the Pioneer Telephone and Telegraph Company it was a sure sign of the technological leanings of the people of Oklahoma.  

One of the men overseeing a work crew for them was a James R. Meadows who had been living in a boarding house he and his wife ran on Broadway in Oklahoma City, but had recently removed to the small community to the south of town called Capitol Hill.  The Pioneer Company was already running telephone lines to Capitol Hill indicating the stability of the community.  He had begun as a line man. For some reason, things had begun to turn sour in the marriage and he had hopes that in a new location he might mend his marriage and get a much-needed fresh start in the relationship with his younger wife.

He may be the man listed on the 1900 U.S. Federal Census living at 201 Reno Street as a boarder.  That individual was listed as being 31 years of age, born in Tennessee, and so would be within the age range of Meadows, but there is a similar man also listed on the 1910 census only he is 44 years old but also born in Tennessee.  Wherever Meadows was, reports were he lived as a married adult on Grand Avenue, North Broadway, and in the vicinity of Kentucky and “B” (print is fuzzy and could be 10 or 11th street, which would better match the numbering system of Oklahoma City). 

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~okoklaho/obit/meadows-james.htm

Lila Meadows, the Widow

Maiden name un-known, but that that is only part of the mystery of this woman.  She was said to have been living in Wichita, Kansas when she first met James Meadows. Another version says they met in Kansas City. One version was he and she had lived together unmarried until she had shamed him into marrying her, while another was she had followed him from Kansas to El Reno, Oklahoma, were he lived, and married there in about 1901. Mrs. Lila Meadows, wife of James R. Meadows, remains something of an enigma, although subsequent events lend themselves to several observations of her life and character.  

She was frequently ill, court testimony identified it is a morphine addiction, and then later she has dramatic  appendicitis surgery in 1910.  Good woman cruelly used, grieving widow, seducer of the young killer, it is hard to classify the woman but some clues lead to ideas about underlying truths. She is  known to have been living in 1908 with Annie Wynne Bailey aka “Big Annie”, and one of Annie’s former courtesans Fannie Ritchie, at the notorious  Arlington on West 2nd Street. About this time, Annie left for California after her first unsuccessful run-in with local law.  Did Annie cut a deal? Was Lila a charity cause or one of Annie's own girls?

Significantly, a few days before June 4, J.O. Green of the Sun Accident Insurance company calls to remind Mrs. Meadows of the due date of the life insurance premium on James was due June 1.

Mother Myers aka Rose Myers aka Ronie Myers, the Psychic

The boarding house had provided some income but it had also brought Meadows' wife into contact with some questionable people.  The so-called “Mother Myers”, who convinced people she was a clairvoyant with powers to see things, had also swindled people so that she had to flee to avoid arrest or worse. There were others, women mostly, who may have had been giving his wife ideas that were not to her betterment and were detrimental to a happy home. Dorothy Keith was one such friend and confident. He urged them to leave the boarding house and he set out to find somewhere in Capitol Hill for them to live.

Labeled a fortuneteller, medium, clairvoyant, and physic, Myers had been operating in Oklahoma City, in the boarding house, prior to the death of Meadows. It was suggested at one point she was the real mother of Lila and after some searching was finally located in Doxie near Elk City.  One of Annie's connections?

Dorothy or Dora Keith - woman of mystery

Mysteriously labeled the nurse and ‘boon companion’ of Mrs. Meadows. She is dramatically devastated when she is indicted with Mrs. Meadows early in the affair, strangely jovial while in jail, and then strangely missing after testifying in court.  It was even suggested she and Lila may have dressed as men to murder James and Dorothy laughed as she held up a petite hand that she was sure would convince no one of any other gender.  So far, no woman of that name has been located on the 1900 or 1910 census. Another of  "Annie's girls"?  

Rudolph Tegeler or Tegler, the Killer?

Over at the Oklahoma City Waterworks, a young, handsome man with a slight German accent worked hard and to get ahead in this new place. Rudolph Tegeler or Tegler (it is spelled both ways in many documents), was born in Germany in 1884 (U.S. Census, 1910, Oklahoma, Pittsburg Co., Ok State Penitentiary). He was a machinist for the new waterworks (http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.tegeler/15/mb.ashx).  His co-workers included C.M. Roberts, M.E. Hollingshead.  His own wife had died tragically after a buggy ride just a year before. 

At some point, he met the young wife of Meadows, and he was so struck by her charms, that he bought the Palace Rooming House from her, resold it and then ultimately rented  the rooming house with her from W.W. Shipp.   They seemed to be very compatible and able to talk about anything.  Her husband did not understand her: he was a brute, an evil man who abused her terribly.  Before long, one of the rooms in the boarding house, The Palace, now owned by the young man, became of place of secret whispered love promises and finally the first act of a long scene of adultery.  The man came to know another boarder, the medium, Mother Myers, and was soon convinced of her abilities.

Co-workers noticed special tempting dishes and delicacies sent to the young man at the Works for lunch or an afternoon treat.   Special couriers sent letters and phone calls came from a soft-spoken female voice.  Things were over-heard by co-workers, and much more was suspected, about this secret love affair of the young German accented man.

Momen Pruiett - Lawyer

A colorful attorney who was energetically creative in fighting for his clients.  His legal approach was a ‘watch me pull a rabbit from my hat” style designed to keep the story on the front page, incite public debate, and insure a need for a change of venue plea.  A onetime jail occupant himself, he was committed to bringing the system down in his own unique way. Cited for frequently skirting the limits of the law, and a few possible excursions over the line, he was a lawyer for Rudolph Tegeler in his later court cases. http://www.10thcircuithistory.org/pdfs/Moman_Pruiett.pdf

Annie Wynn, aka Big Annie, Local "Business" woman.  

Annie, better known as “Big Annie” had been a fixture in the prostitution, gambling, and bootlegging world of OKC’s “Hell’s Half Acre” since the land run.  The 1900 census lists her as a 35 year old, born in Illinois, whose profession was “prostitute.”  This would mean that she would have been about 24 if she came to the city in, or just after,  the land run of 1889.   In 1903, she was prominent in a case of a woman alleging she had been raped in her resort.  Although she came to dominate the local vice landscape and achieve the veneer of acceptable society, by the time of the murder things were not going so well.  Ron Owens notes in his “Oklahoma Justice” that on August 27, 1907 (two months after Meadows’ murder), her “resort” burned to the ground and arson was suspected.  A disgruntled employee charged that  Annie and another courtesan had plotted to rob and kill a customer and dump his body in the North Canadian River.  Sometime in 1908 she was living in The Arlington, a notorious but elegant sporting house, with Lila Meadows.  Meadows had been acquitted of the murder of her husband.   In Annie’s trial, the jury did not accept the testimony and so in 1909 Annie sold her property, moved to California, and there died some time later (pg. 49). http://www.dougloudenback.com/maps/vintage_vice.htm.  Proof of her death has not yet been discovered and since she was in a profession where discarding and assuming new identities was an art form - who knows?

Broadway Palace or The Palace, 

This was the apparent name of the boarding house where Meadows lived in OKC and where Mrs. Meadows and Tegeler had had some assignations.  It was located at either 116 ½ or 316 and 316 ½ North Broadway. Both addresses can be found in the news articles and ads. Early stories cite the 100 block while later ones favor the 300 block between 2nd and 3rd streets.   There was an incidence at the Broadway Palace, 316 North Broadway, in 1904.  A “Prof. Mott”, a fortuneteller or clairvoyant, was accused of mesmerizing a young woman from Cushing and freeing her of some $700.   At that time, the proprietor was one Mrs. Massey.  Both locations were sites of frequent fly-by-night con artists  labeling themselves as ‘fortunetellers”, “physics”, and “clairvoyants”.   

The location of the rooming house in the 116-116 ½ address on North Broadway is also very interesting because it only within two blocks of the northwest edge of Oklahoma City’s “Hell’s Half Acre” with its brothels, gambling dens, saloons, and other resorts.  The colorful area from Main to Reno   included colorful streets and lanes established with the 1889 land run: Battle Row, Harlots Lane, Alabaster Row, and Hop Boulevard.  Some rooming houses, especially those closer to this section of town, were no doubt subsidiary income for the people, like Big Annie.   Later news articles would cite the procurers who traveled the countryside, ran boarding houses, and  lurked at the train depot to derail young ladies from real jobs and trap them into prostitution.

END OF PART ONE

THE MEADOWS MURDER: THE SENSATION BEFORE STATEHOOD

The Meadows Murder, Part 4

As if staged by a Hollywood director of suspense or horror, the grave was uncovered in the dead of night, by lantern light, with a storm approaching.  The body was covered only by about two feet of dirt.  Nearby was the cornfield of farmer Stielitz and the Twin Creeks bite into the area located to the west of Capitol Hill and within just a few miles of the residence of Meadows.

____________________________________________________________

The railroad and a river cupped the area where both the victim’s home and grave were located in southwest modern Oklahoma City.  In 1907, the area was still largely undeveloped with more rural and wild environs still in place.

The working theory developed that Matthews had been in bed asleep or laying down when he was awakened and in response to someone at the door or to something heard in the yard, he rose.  He either went outside, or was led outside by his surprise visitor, to his death. Given the evidence he was no doubt led to the very sport where he was buried.  The story of a neighbor seeing something (or someone) in the yard and draw near the houses may be him being led to his death or attacked and then carried to the grave.  Strangely, reports of a mysterious group of men seen in the area are not seriously considered.

When people investigate the next door for the missing man, certain things are noticed. The door to the house at Kentucky and “B” or “13” in Capitol Hill was ajar, there was no apparent blood, and the bed had the impression of a head on the pillow. 

The body when finally discovered showed he had been shot in the back, with the bullet exiting the front just below the breastbone and another bullet went in his face just above the mouth.  The trajectory of the head wound might have coincided with a short fired while he was lying down on the ground either unconscious or already dead.

Although a bloody (or dirty) piece of carpet and a woman’s dress were located nearby just north of the body, the area was one where people camped passing through and apparently debris was not too uncommon.  A resident found a discarded spade as well with the suggestion it was the one used to dig the grave.  

Physicians who examined the body noted the advanced stages of decomposition (from the image of the body shown in local papers that is clear), but a cursory examination revealed no matching holes in the shirt on the body.  Other details were the man appeared to the doctors to be a healthy male with a full set of teeth.  These details will all be issues in the trails to follow but are quickly explained by other doctors stating the state of decomposition dissuaded closer examination of the body or the clothes.

THE VERDICTS

1907 Verdict : The Letters

The day of the husband’s disappearance, Dorothy Keith testified, Lila Meadows received two mysterious letters that greatly agitated her.    Two other letters from a mysterious “Mother Myers” ,aka Ronie or Rose Myers, to Tegler and  Meadows.  The one to Tegeler, it was asserted, contained a diagram of the location for the body of the missing husband. One version of contents asserted it was only through this letter that Rudolf could take police to the body.

Strange and jumbled claims emerged about the letters: they had not been written by the woman, they had been recopied, and they had been written by some person unknown.  Most of the letters, thankfully, seem to fade into the background.  One remains due to the diagram informing  about the body's location.

1908 VERDICT

On February 13, Tegler was given a life sentence for the murder of James R. Meadows, with two jurers holding out for acquittal. Out on bail he planned to go to Rock Island, New Mexico for a visit with his step-father and uncle, George L. Tegler and his mother Hermina Tegeler before taking up residence “in the pen”.   His defense team (now J.W. Johnson and A.N. Munden) had charged that Meadows had been in Panama where he had been working for the telephone company and was  returning to New Orleans on the 28 but had not so far been located. The attorneys then suggested he had drowned in the sinking recently of a White Star ship in the gulf.   A third trial was set to start in December.

1910 VERDICT: Shenanigans

In the courtroom of Judge Carney, the  Defense lead council was Judge D.B. Welty and Morman Pruiett . The chief tactic was the claim that  ‘Meadows lives.”  They brought in witnesses from Kansas,  a Johnson from Kansas City and a Livingston from Atchison, stating the man was alive.  Livingston had known James and Lila Meadows in El Reno and claimed they had been married there and lived in the town for a while.  In 1909, he was the proprietor of the Robinson Hotel in El Paso, Texas and there, two years after the murder, he entertained both Lila and James Meadows.  They were using the name Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hall and urged his silence. Tegler was set to go to New Mexico again to visit relatives, took a tour of Oklahoma City, visited with his sisters Mrs. J.D. Carpenter (Ft. Worth, TX), Mrs. John Hoppleman (OKC) and his attorneys Welty and Pruiett.  His bond was paid by an assortment of local business and farming people. This may indicate there was some public belief that he may have been an innocent pawn in a larger game.

1910: ACCUSATIONS

In September of 1910, defense accused the victim (Meadows) of having ruined the life of a young girl (Amelia Shamcok, had a child, and  had tried to blackmail him (thus explaining the initial missing $200 from the telephone company).  This affair and the blackmail was what were behind the disappearance of Meadows.  The Judge and the defense attorney noted a morphine problem with Mrs. Lila Meadows (whom one called a ‘dope fiend’).  The defense also charged other lovers for Lila as well.  A prominent, but unnamed city official, was implicated in the placement of the young girl in the north Broadway rooming house of Meadows.  Tegler, it was claimed, denied leading the police to the grave and that a Webb Jones was the first man there.  

1911 VERDICT

The jury found Tegler guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in the pen by the district court of Judge Brown of Mangum in Februry.  On the way to a cell, he passed Mike O’Brien who had perjured himself years before  and had been sentenced the previous month.  He had said under oath that he had seen Meadows alive after Teglers' arrest.

THE RED LETTER

A year later, in March, Judge Joseph G. Lowe, receives a mysterious letter in red ink. In this letter were claims that Meadows himself had sought to wreck vengeance on the couple cuckolding him by hiding the body, writing the diagram sent to Tegler, and had then left the country.

RUMORS OF PARDONS

In the fall of 1914, a year after Lila Meadows dies in Wichita, Kansas, rumors appeared in local newspapers about a secret pardon deal worked out for Rudolph Tegler.  Lt. Governor J.J.McAlister was to have worked a secret deal. This followed by a short piece, almost hidden, explaining how such a thing could not happen based on various legal complications. Yet by late decade and into the 1920’s there was a veritable avalanche of pardons in Oklahoma, enough that it drew the attention of many as being possibly excessive.

END OF THE STORY

A story so rich in the dramatic and so immensely convoluted cannot be easily resolved and such is true of the Meadows-Tegler Murder Case of 1907.   The basket of red herrings tossed out by the wily defense team often contained some valid and unanswered questions.  The prejudicial newspapers and judges targeted some issues while others, more important, were totally ignored. 

Newspapers and census records  locate a Rudolph Tegler, matching the age and birth location of the Rudolph Tegler on the 1900 Oklahoma Census. There he is living with Charles W. Tegler, Hermine P. Tegler, Louise C., Paulina A., Nellie K., Otto E., Esther, Walter D. in Oklahoma city’s 2^nd Ward.  He was listed  as 16,born in Germany and these names match later news articles mentioning his family.  In 1910, he is listed as an inmate at the State Penitentiary in McAlister, Oklahoma.  In 1920, in Quay County, New Mexico there is listed a Charles (57), Otto (31, son), Walter (20, son) and a William H. (34, labeled son, born in Germany).  He is later living in Osage County, Oklahoma and in 1931 is buried in Fairlawn Cemetery in Oklahoma City.  He is listed with a wife named Lila which raises many questions. Did he marry Lila Meadows?  She is gone, possibly dead, by 1920.   Later, he is with a woman named "O. Anna."  Many questions remain about this complex, intriguing, and very human tale.

What , for example, was the influence of the Aggie Myers case in Missouri on the murder of James R. Meadows?  The similarities are interesting enough to bear closer examination.

What was the connection between Annie Wynn Bailey, aka Big Annie, and the widow Lila Meadows?  What was the connection to the strange Dorothy B. Keith, Rose or Ronie Myers, and several other women who crop up in the story?  Women, interestingly enough,  who often seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth or assumed new identities.

Were these women all former courtesans of the entrepreneurial madam Annie? Were they running her web of dens, houses, and intrigues that had served to keep the police, politicians, and the law in Annie’s hand for nearly twenty years?  What was the connection between Moment Pruitt and Big Annie?  Did he become Tegler’s attorney because of Big Annie’s relationship with Lila Meadows?

The mysterious murder of Meadows in 1907 remains a tantalizing tale of lust and intrigue in the middle of Oklahoma’s onward thrust to statehood. The sultry days of that June were shoved aside by the excitement of that November as statehood was achieved. It had simmered that summer as the sensation of pre-statehood and though shoved to the back burner by events and lengthy trials it did not go away for many years.  In the end, the sights and sounds of their 1907 world have been largely eradicated and only the story, and the questions, remain.

--Marilyn A. Hudson, c2010

ST. JOSEPH'S CABINS: HISTORIC INNOVATIVE IDEA

Dec.12,1937 the Oklahoman, carried an article, "St. Joseph's to Try Novel Experiment", (pg.34) by building cabins on the land behind the gym and central building to house elderly people. The idea being children without families and the elderly could enrich each other's lives.  An article from the source of June 17,  1923 (pg.4), notes that they were taking care of the elderly at that early date.

In 1926 there were plans to move the institution from orphanage status to a boarding school (Oklahoman, Aug. 13, 1926, pg.4).

Here, some remaining cabins are shown. They photographed here in mid renovation (in 2010) by the present owners, Southwestern Christian University.  The original neat arts and crafts inspired bungalows contained two rooms with restroom/shower with a shared small entry hall.  Additional cabins were thought to have been planned behind these and to the west. If they were ever built is unknown at present.

This innovative approach was an early recognition of the value of inter-generational relationships.  Today numerous college campuses are making retirement communities part of their campus life following this same line of thought.  Retired alums become stand in grandparents to youthful students. Students become substitute children for retired couples who may not have had children or whose families live far away. In Bethany, Oklahoma there had been that idea decades earlier.

WHAT WE ARE GIVEN WE SO OFTEN WASTE

A haunting image comes out of one of America's most economically challenged cities shows a large old office space with thousands of squares of pulpy substances which had once been books.  The label of the image showed it was the old Detroit Public School Book Depository.

Several decades ago, in urban Oklahoma City, a church rented out the original old part of their church. This now unused wing became home to a Community Action Program (CAP).  Three stories were filled with offices, small group rooms, and waiting areas as the group helped 'win the war on poverty' by empowering, training,and educating the local community.

The overall CAP program lost its funding and many of the units merged into a single entity.  They moved into an old empty school building to consolidate their services with several other federal and state funded programs.

Charged with cleaning out the old church wing, a small group gathered to assess the task. It was amazing what met the eyes of the people as they walked through the three stories. Desks, chairs, file cabinets, couches, tables, lamps, books, coffee pots had been left.  The desk drawers still had pens, papers, writing tablets, receipt books, paperclips, staples and staplers!  In the file cabinets were file after file of not only programming type resources, but event records and plans, and even some confidential materials with Social Security numbers, addresses, and intimate information about personal or family problems.

Why did these not go with them into their new home in the old school building?  The programs were all federally funded and they had gotten new furnishing, new supplies, and new everything.  Strangely, this incredible wasting of useful and usable resources took place beneath the sage wisdom of 1970's browned and  curling wall posters about saving the world by saving the environment!

The irony lingers. Just as earlier generations could be accused of taking for granted the bounty of the natural world and using it up with out thought or caution, we of the later 20th century can be equally charged with our own examples of the same disregard.  Logical is a label few humans can truly wear with consistent pride.

So, yes, we walk away leaving resources to ruin rather than reusing....it is wasteful behavior which replicates  everywhere the human species walks.  Why? That, my friend, is the mystery.  

What Lies Beneath

A previous entry covered a Dark Spring in Oklahoma City.  A portion of the area's older homes were, at that time, destined for demolition in just a few years. That spring, they were still home to some people, although some houses were vacant and decaying by the minute.  Grisly, and still unsolved murders, erupted that dismal spring creating fear for many.  Today, the area is a green and tree filled area dotted by state and corporate buildings.

A short account of the events :

The first body parts showed up in April 1, 1976, in an abandoned house at 325 NE 8th in Oklahoma City, utility workers exploring an abandoned house found the head and body parts of a 18 year old Cathy Lyn Shackelford. At the time, however, she was unidentified and was labeled a 'Jane Dow'.   


Fast forward to April 19, 1979 when several grisly discoveries are made between mid-April and the first of May. All around the 300 block NE 10th and 200 block NE 7th in Oklahoma City.  The  second known victim was named Arley Bell Killian. 


A strange gap of seven  years followed before another find was made.  On March 6, 1986, the body of   23 year old  Tina Sanders was located at 507 N. Lindsay.  A fourth has been suggested but unverified.


There are interesting similarities which might provide links to similar crimes and bring closure to this cold case. 


All the women were Native American, they either lived on the streets and/or worked as prostitutes, and were all probably killed within the same one mile radius where their bodies were found. The killings were in the spring, they were not rushed, and due to the ease with which the body parts were created and discarded, the killer had to have been familiar with his surroundings (the Stiles Circle - Lincoln Terrace neighborhood; now generally covered by the Centennial Expressway and the OU Health Science buildings and related structures).  Each body had an incision in the lower lip, massive body mutilation and dismemberment, and certain parts of the bodies were never found.

THE UBIQUITOUS WINDMILL GETS FACELIFT

The ubiquitous windmill, featured in the early painting of nearly every would be artist of the west, is a haunting image often set in lonely desolation.  A rusting vestige, even if still in use, of simpler and harder times.  Odd, near anomalous skeletons of a dead past - like this image of a windmill bumping up to a road - a holdover of a time when the road was much more narrow and further to the south.  Now, however, as the 21st century dawns a new type of wind power is being seen in structures surely to be as iconic as the old wind wills pumping water from deep in the earth. These mills seek to capture the power of the wind - that constant and powerful force so loved and hated by inhabitants of the plains.  They are already providing new sources of power, income, and visions of a renewed future booming with potential and hope.

BOILING SPRINGS

Boiling Springs State Park, NW Oklahoma (near Woodward) is a single gurgling spring not as fascinating or visual as one might think. The location and the region are, however, very interesting and reveal the amazing geological surprises in the state of Oklahoma.  Just 20 some miles away is the largest gypsum cave, Alabaster Caverns and further afield are sand dunes of impressive dimensions.

Wooden Boxcar

It simply sat in the meadow, tall sprouting trees, heads of wild flowers and decorative grasses hugging its base as if to keep some internal modesty. The wood was soft and muted reflecting the tones of a dove's breast.  Where had it come from? When was the last wooden boxcar in use on the rusting rail systems of the landscape.  What stories of hope, acclaim, devastation or danger could it voice if we would but pause to listen?

SEEKING NEWS OF ST. JOSEPH ORPHANS

Some of the entries which have elicited the most responses have been those associated with St. Joseph's Children's Home, Bethany, Oklahoma. It opened in 1912 and closed in the 1960's.   If you would like to share your information there is a Facebook page set up for that purpose or leave a comment here.

If you are looking for someone or just wonder what ever happened to.... maybe together we can solve a mystery.

1947 TORNADO: THE UNKNOWN AND UNIDENTIFIED

Old Mooreland Hospital -
Victims where taken to several hospitals
in the region of the Tornado path.
Mooreland is ten miles east of Woodward.

In the wake of natural disasters, there is much tragedy and loss. People pick themselves up, cry of the loved ones gone, the property lost, and the dreams crushed by the shaking of the earth, the roar of the flood, the power of the winds, or any of a dozen other natural disasters. 

Memorials are erected to recall the lives lost and the families cut apart through misfortune. It is hard to even imagine the pain and agony of loved ones finding their families and friends in the wreckage. Worse, is the need to identify loved ones after such a catastrophe.

Yet, one of the most heartbreaking and puzzling has to be the people who remain after the disaster, after the identifications, and after the families and located their loved ones.  The ‘unidentified’ that linger on and cause a person to wonder how can a person, a adult or a child, remain ‘unidentified’?

On April 9. 1947, a massive storm front came up from Texas and crossed Oklahoma before moving northward. In northwest Oklahoma, one community would never forget the date or the aftermath.  Woodward would lose at least one hundred, see only their courthouse remain standing.

The mystery normally mentioned is the tragedy of Joan Croft, a 4 year old who was taken from a hospital by two men and never seen again.   Equally tragic, however, was the fact that there were at least two unidentified children in the wake of the monster of wind and debris.

Today in Woodward, Oklahoma there is a memorial honoring  the victims of the tornado of April 9, 1947 includes three females.  Unknown the victims were aged 6 months, approx 3 years, and one 12 years.

At one point, family and school teachers from around the region came by to view the bodies to try and identify the children.  

Yet, no one could identify the children. No one. In all of these decades those names have, apparently, remained unidentified.

MYSTERY SOUNDS AND BOOMS - 2012

The dawning of the new year has been punctuated by stories from around the globe of mysterious booms, explosions, and rattles for which no clear answers have emerged.  Some videos are clearly hoaxes but others are catching something but it is not clear what.

In January reports came from rural Poland, Indiana, Budapest, the Czech Republic, Romania, Arvada in Colorado and Toronto.

In February came reports from Alabama and in March from Savannah and from British Columbia a rumor of a barn leveled by noise and mystery sounds from Clintonville, Wis.

Is it just coincidence that on Jan. 18 came reports of sounds in two locations which can be linked by a straight line?  

Draw a line - a pretty straight one at that - from Arvada, Colorado to  Toronto, Canada and you see if passes very near the area of Clintonville, Wisconsin. This was the site of the very recent mystery booms.

Reports of booms or explosions reported from Savannah can also produce a straight line to the area north of Montgomery, Alabama where unexplained explosion sounds were reported.  A year apart - but still reported and on a straight line.

So - are the sounds then man made from some unknown craft flying at supersonic speeds? How many other reporting sites can be connected on a straight line? 

 Are they harbingers of  subterranean activity?  Clintonville is just north of the location of Wisconsin's largest earthquake. Are the recent unusual earthquake activities reported all up and down the Mississippi corridor part of a widespread and as of yet unidentified motion of the earth?

In 1997 in the South Pacific, off the western coast of southern tip of South America the 'Bloop' was discovered (50 degrees S, 100 degrees W).  This strange sound is unidentified with some thinking it is biological noise while others believe it is sound generated by the earth. Are changes in climate setting some acoustic action in motion unknown until now...just as the sounds from the bottom of the ocean  were unknown until 1997.

For an interesting discussion of Lovecraft and the Bloop click here.

A BLOT IN HISTORY: Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

Citizens gunned down on city streets, low flying planes dropping incendiary devices and passengers firing at people fleeing on the streets, and a community demolished.   A scene from some action film of WW2?  A fantasy of some unimaginable time of madness?  No, the year is 1921 and the place a prosperous area of the greater Tulsa area known as Greenwood, and by some as the "Black Wallstreet." Today it is known simply as "The Tulsa Race Riot."

The events of May 31-June 1 of 1921 was the result of a collision of bubbling racism from southerners who had settled in the northeastern part of Oklahoma, jealousy over the economic achievements and prosperity of "those" races (the African American and Native American), fear, and plan old greed.   As a result, many people died, were arrested, beaten, frightened, and an entire section of an American city was destroyed due to the vile evil of racism.

How many died? Official counts have always been low, and due to the wholesale racism at play, highly suspect.  Conservative figures are at around 300 but some suggest it might be closer to the four digit count.  Mass burials and no records create a fog over the truth of the matter.

What is needed is wide spread archaeological work to locate mass grave sites in the area and discover once and for all just how horrific the event really was.  It is already the worst race riot of American history but few knew that until the 2001 report of the event was made public.  It never made it into history books so others might learn about the depths of evil to which people can sink when they are ruled by fear, hatred, jealousy and greed.  Today, impressive development is renewing this area by acknowledging the past but moving into a positive future.

Racism is a cancer of society....let's all work together to find a cure.

Patterns

Recently, in a discussion with some researchers, an interesting question was raised about the timeline of terrorism . The researcher had asked, "were there 'dry-runs' before 911?" Initially, no one could see any pattern between the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center and the successful attack on September 11, 2001.

The First Timeline:

• 1993 World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Youseff and Sheikh Abdul Rahmon of Egypt , truck bomb, killed 5 people. 
• Aug 1998: Almost simultaneously, truck bombs blow up the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing more than 220 people. 
• October 12, 2000, suicide boat with 400-600 pounds of explosive formed into a shaped charge, rammed into the side of the U.S.S. Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, and killed 17 people. 
• September 11, 2001, suicide terrorist hijack four airplanes and crash them into the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field (thought to have been destined for the White House or Capital). Minimally 2985 died. 

Then we began to consider other possibilities, conspiracies, etc. As a result, the second timeline went like this:

• 1993 World Trade Center attack by Ramzi Youseff and Sheikh Abdul Rahmon of Egypt , truck bomb, killed 5 people. 
• April 19, 1995 OKC, attack by at least one individual Timothy McVeigh, although eye witnesses place another man or additional men with him. Truck bomb killed 168 people. 
• Aug 1998: Almost simultaneously, truck bombs blow up the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing more than 220. 
• October 12, 2000, suicide boat with 400-600 pounds of explosive formed into a shaped charge, rammed into the side of the U.S.S. Cole in the Port of Aden, Yemen, and killed 17 people. 
• September 11, 2001, suicide terrorist hijack four airplanes and crash them into the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field (thought to have been destined for the White House or Capital). Minimally 2985 died. 

A rough pattern 1-3 years began to emerge....circumstantial? Coincidental?  Additional research may show the pattern a mere accident of the clustering of any data. Interesting though, whatever the reasoning, and adds to the ongoing aura of mystery and conspiracy such events always attract.

DEATH ALONG THE SALT FORK RIVER

In the post-Christmas cold of early Dec. 28, 1930, two bodies were found along theroad near the Salt Fork River near Tonkawa, Oklahoma.  

Two sisters, Jessie (24) and Xexia (36) Griffith, school teachers in Norman, had met their end along the road near the cold water. They had come north to the home of their parents for the holidays and were headed home when a deadly fate stepped in. The bodies were found by a local furniture mover, C.C. Wood,  and his two sons later that day .

A killer had lead them there or followed them and shot both. It came to light he had "attacked" the younger sister Jessie before death.  Her sister was not assaulted but her body, with gunshot wounds was found nearly frozen near her sister.

Once the bodies were found, immediate suspicion fell on a local man, Earl Quinn aka Earl Howard,  who had a reputation for trouble of one kind or another.  He had once been a convict in a Missouri prison and now, local Kay County officials focused their eyes on them.  His wife Jean Quinn was quickly arrested but was released and later simply disappeared.

It was quickly learned the younger girl feared someone and felt she was being "shadowed."   Alarm was sent all the way to Chicago and down to Norman. Quinn was caught and for nearly three years the case went on  and he languished on Death Row. Then, almost three years to the day, he was electrocuted for the killings at McAlester.

Court evidence includes the testimony of a Miss Ruby Heard, of Three Sands, that Quinn had forced her from her own car a mere hour before the other girls were killed. Others testified he had been drunk, unruly and brandishing a weapon earlier that day.

Although quickly apprehended, Quinn created fear and righteous indignation in the hearts of people from Norman to Chicago for the senseless brutal killing of two school teachers heading home to start a new semester.

Questions remain after examining the information.  There was a button found in the girl's car police tried to tie to Quinn but his rooming house landlady denied it was his.  His wife, it was noted, had bought shells.  Yet, the weapon witnesses saw with the man was a .38 and it is not clear if the weapon, shells, and the wounds support each other.  His wife is another interesting element; Quinn accused her of working with the Kansas City underworld to get him and it was clear some witnesses were not above embellishing some aspects of their stories. 

The Hard Call

The Russian Flu, 1888-1889, reached North America in 1889-90. About a million people globally died in total.

In the 1918 Flu , millions of people died from "influenza".  Nearly every community in the U.S. was impacted, churches, schools, and public events, such as Halloween parties, were canceled by civic decrees.

An Asian Flu epidemic broke out in 1956-1958 and in the U.S. just under 70,000 died. I was one who was lucky and escaped death but was rushed to the hospital .

In March of 1976, soldiers at Ft. Dix in New Jersey were suffering from an illness with few symptoms other than just feeling bad.  One solder reported feeling ill but still made a hike only to die within hours of returning. Although others were ill and in the hospital by that time, base doctors were disturbed by the fact that there was an apparent illness without major symptoms capable of causing death.  Perhaps because it came from the military their report zoomed up the channels leading to what is sometimes called the "Swine Flu Fiasco."   In a daring move President Ford ordered mass inoculations to avoid a WWI style outbreak which was believed to have been Swine flu.

In 2009 a related version of swine flu, but one with a bit more 'umph' cut a swath through parts of the globe.  The 'umph' was the flu strain was a mixture of both swine and avian flu.  In truth the WW1 variety had been more avian flu than swine flu but this was not learned until later.  Apparently, the more avian the strain is the more dangerous the flu becomes.

Although, people died and came down with disastrous side affects following the 1976 immunizations and the pandemic was a 'no show', history warns us it could have been.  Recent history also shows that our quick transportation can create a disaster in hours rather than the months or years of earlier times.  If faced with another 'hard call' will we be able to move swiftly to counteract death or be bogged down with indecision?   People should be given the choice to participate (there is always a some who may die or become ill) but the small number who may become ill should not hamper work to save literally millions of lives in the event of a real pandemic outbreak.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H2N2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html

ICE COLD CASES: TEXAS, LOUISANA AND LONDON

In the sultry southern Texas community of Austin over the course of one year, a killer stalked the sidewalks.  His victims are thought to number seven and if all the victims were the work of one man, they were generally young and of the servant class. With the exception of a few victims most were African-Americans. 

The method was usually to drag his usually young victim from bed, rape them and then brutally slashing or hacking them to death with an axe. A couple may have also been stabbed in the ears and face by a spike or similar instrument. The dates for these atrocities were Dec. 1884 through Dec. 1885.

The axe will figure prominently in various other American killings across the continent between 1890-1920.  Logically, it was a weapon of convenience found in nearly every home for chopping wood, doing yard work, and similar tasks.  As a murder weapon, it is a weighty, awkward tool depending on brute force but deadly enough even a young person could use it effectively.  In certain regions, where it might be a standard tool of some profession or job, a man might be seen carrying one over his shoulder and none would think anything about it.  The wounds with a spike or other sharp object could be a railroad spike, a pipe, or an awl.

In 1888, in London’s Whitechapel district, someone working ‘from hell’ terrified the city by the butchering of at least five prostitutes.  His method was to silence his victims with a thrust across the throat and then to post-mortem indulge in invasive acts to the inner organs and flesh.  He is described by a witness as being dressed in a style which inferred he was a professional man or a dandy and not a “working man.”  Although it may have been a costume to disguise his identity, seeing such a man in the area seeking drinks, drugs, and prostitutes was not uncommon.  After his last victim, he simply disappeared.

 Some refuse to believe a killer who had escalated to such a level could easily slack off or simply stop. He had to have been killed or jailed on some other charge to halt the bloodshed so sharply.  Some firmly hold to the belief he fled to other killing fields.  As a result, in diverse locations ranging from Switzerland to Nicaguara to Wisconsin to New Jersey a trail of bodies is often cited to prove the “Ripper” continued to work. 

There are similarities.  In each case a particular class of society is targeted because they would be easy victims. Prostitutes in London were as invisible as African-American servants in Austin.  In both cases, several of the victims were involved in the world’s oldest trade.

 In truth, the London Ripper was merely a new class of an old crime which may have been hidden previously through regular European wars, New World conflicts, isolation, the racism of southern bigots, the migrations of several men with violent tendencies, and the beginning of the century of serial killer.

A recent theory has emerged about Jack the Ripper being a German sailor who was put to death in 1896 in the U.S. for a murder and was in areas, according to some, during the time of similar Ripper murders.  It can be pointed out that Austin is an inland community but is only a short distance from Houston, Galvaston and New Orleans.   In the 1911-1912 axe murder sprees the killer was obviously using the railroads to travel and may have traveled as far north as Iowa and Colorado.  At least one of the 1884/85 murders used something which might match the description of a rail spike.   

As more details emerge, more theories appear and the cycle goes on and the cases remain ice cold.  For now...

If you have personal information related to any of these crimes and would like to contribute to a book on the subject send your email to marilynahudson@gmail.com