Shadow On the Hill: The True Story of a 1925 Kansas Murder

Diana Staresinic-Deane

Description

It was the most brutal murder in the history of Coffey County, Kansas.

On May 30, 1925, Florence Knoblock, a farmer's wife and the mother of a young boy, was found slaughtered on her kitchen floor. Several innocent men were taken into custody before the victim's husband, John, was accused of the crime. He would endure two sensational trials before being acquitted.

Eighty years later, local historian Diana Staresinic-Deane studied the investigation, which was doomed by destroyed evidence, inexperienced lawmen, disappearing witnesses, and a community more desperate for an arrest than justice. She would also discover a witness who may have seen the murderer that fateful morning.

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Histoire
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456614515
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

SHADOW ON THE HILL:
The True Story of a 1925 Kansas Murder
 
 
Diana Staresinic-Deane

Copyright 2013 Diana Staresinic-Deane,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1451-5
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

 
In memory of Florence, John, and Roger Knoblock
 
 
A special heartfelt thanks to my husband, Jim;
early readers Rosa Lee, Yvonne, Karen, Tony, Sarah, and Jeff;
my friend and editor, Erin;
and my EPL friends who were around when I found the folder
The Family
Florence Knoblock, victim
John Knoblock, Florence’s husband
Roger Knoblock, Florence and John’s four-year-old son
 
Charles Knoblock, John Knoblock’s father
Mary Knoblock, John Knoblock’s mother
 
John Mozingo, Florence’s father
Mary Mozingo, Florence’s mother
John “Johnnie” Mozingo Jr., Florence’s brother
Edna Mozingo, Florence’s sister
Ella Kellerman, Florence’s sister
John Kellerman, Ella’s husband
Frances McCormick, Florence’s sister
Ruth Mozingo, Florence’s sister
Vesta “Vet” Mozingo, Florence’s sister
Herman “Pete” Jenkins, Florence’s maternal uncle
Alice Naylor, Florence’s maternal aunt
Minnie “Aunt Min” Jaggers, Florence’s maternal aunt
 
 
The Law
Arch C. Brown, Greenwood County deputy sheriff
Detective Maple, from the Burns Detective Agency
Frank Hunter, Coffey County sheriff
George Griffith, Coffey County deputy
Leroy Hurt, police chief in Emporia
Samuel “Sam” Crumley, Lyon County Sheriff
Steven A. Grubb, Coffey County deputy sheriff
T. H. Olinger, Coffey County deputy sheriff
William “Bill” Utesler, Coffey County deputy sheriff
 
 
The Court
A. H. Woodrow, court reporter for Judge Richardson
C. B. Griffith, Kansas attorney general
Emma Randolph, stenographer
Fred Harris, prosecuting attorney from Franklin County
Isaac T. Richardson, district court judge
J. H. Rudrauff, Justice of the Peace
Jennie Caven, court clerk
Joe Rolston, Franklin County prosecutor
John Stewart, Kansas attorney general investigator
Lon McCarty, Lyon County attorney
May Larson, stenographer
Owen S. Samuel, defense attorney
Ray Pierson, Franklin County attorney
R. C. Burnett, Kansas attorney general’s assistant
W. C. Harris, defense attorney
 
 
The Undertakers/Coroner
Eugene Stone, undertaker/furniture maker
Joseph O. Stone, coroner
Roy Jones, undertaker/furniture maker
 
 
The Reporters
Reverend A. C. Babcock, correspondent for True Story magazine
Bill White, reporter for the Emporia Gazette
Glick Fockele, reporter for The LeRoy Reporter
John Redmond, editor and reporter for the Daily Republican
Lee R. Hettick, reporter for the Gridley Light
 
 
The Hounds
George Eaton, experienced bloodhound handler from Kansas City, Kansas
Old Bess, bloodhound from Kansas City, Kansas
Tom, bloodhound from Kansas City, Kansas
 
George Wilson, police officer and bloodhound handler from Lyon County (Emporia)
King Rustler, bloodhound from Lyon County (Emporia)
Queen Rosalind, bloodhound from Lyon County (Emporia)
Captain Volney G. Mullikin, owner of Rockwood Kennels in Kentucky, breeder of Emporia bloodhounds
 
 
The Doctors
Dr. A. B. McConnell
Dr. Albert N. Gray
Dr. David W. Manson
Dr. Harry T. Salisbury, conducted Florence’s autopsy
Dr. Melvin Roberts
 
 
The First Jury (Franklin County)
Frank Hiles, Ottumwa Township
Oliver Kelly, Ottumwa Township, foreman
Jack Britton, Rock Creek Township
E. E. Baker, Rock Creek Township
George Baker, Rock Creek Township
John Clark, Rock Creek Township
W. C. Combes, Lincoln Township
E. W. Ellis, Lincoln Township
George Bruce, Aliceville
Frank Decker, Burlington
G. H. Bennett, Rock Creek Township
Charles Strickland, Burlington
 
 
The Second Jury (Lyon County)
S. C. White, Bushong
Arthur Kirkland, Bushong
A. Q. Thornbrugh, Miller
Robert Castle, Admire
Earl Stonebraker, Admire
Edward Haas, Allen, foreman
O. B. Rhudy, Allen
James Heironymous, Admire
H. K. Gage, Reading
W. C. Showalter, Bushong
J. R. Bennett, Miller
John Mundy, Waterloo Township
Author’s Note
 
I’d never even heard of Florence Knoblock until her story fell at my feet.
One hot August morning in 2007, I was chasing after a group of hyper children playing hide-and-seek in the stacks at Emporia Public Library in Emporia, Kansas, where I worked as a library assistant. As I was passing through the stacks between the nonfiction collection and the genealogy area, a folder slipped off of the shelf and fell at my feet. It was thin, made with heavy green paper embossed in a faux leather pattern. Someone had scrawled “Knoblock Murder” in a shaky hand within the boundaries of the little rectangle on the cover.
The brads inside held nothing, but the right pocket contained several news clippings. “May Have Murderer,” read the first Emporia Gazette headline. I turned the clipping sideways and saw “2 June 1925” written in the same old-style cursive as on the folder cover.
Intrigued, I carried the folder back to the reference desk to read.
I shuffled through the microfilm printouts. Twenty-two newspaper clippings from two different newspapers: the Emporia Gazette and the Olpe Optimist , which had served the small town of Olpe, nine miles south of Emporia. It was obvious that this green folder was someone’s personal research folder, as each microfilm printout was dated in the same handwriting, featuring a loopy number two in the “1925.” I also doubted it had been in the building very long, as it had been tucked onto the same shelf as some of our more heavily used materials. But why was this folder on the shelf at all? And why had no one found it before now?
The headlines were sensational, in bold capital letters across the width of their respective newspapers: MAY HAVE MURDERER: BURLINGTON AWAITS REPORT ON FINGERPRINTS; CALL IN DETECTIVES: KNOBLOCK MURDER PROBE WILL BE PUSHED; MYSTERY IS GROWING: NEW DEVELOPMENTS TEND TO CLEAR NEGRO; CALL OUT A POSSE: BURLINGTON THOUGHT MURDERER WAS CAPTURED, NIGHT RIDE ONLY TO FIND WEARY PEDESTRIAN.
The morning was slow enough that I was able to read a couple of paragraphs here and there between patrons needing assistance.
It was In Cold Blood meets the Keystone Cops. Absolute tragedy marred by klutziness and moments of humor. It was real life.
It was also gruesome. John Knoblock and his four-year-old son, Roger, returned to the farmhouse after a trip to town to discover the body of Florence Knoblock in a pool of her own blood on the kitchen floor. Florence’s skull was crushed, her head having been beaten repeatedly with an iron lid from the wood-burning stove, and her throat had been slashed to the bone with a shaving razor. Twice.
Several different men were taken into custody. Florence’s husband was arrested twice and then tried twice in two of the most sensational trials in Kansas.
I flipped to the last newspaper clipping in the folder. It was dated November 25, 1957. It was John Knoblock’s obituary.
“There’s nothing in here about how the trial turned out,” I blurted out while standing at the reference desk, turning the heads of a few computer users in front of me.
Florence Knoblock’s murder changed everything—for her family, for her community. I had to know how the story ended. I had to understand why a tight-knit farm community—people who worked together, worshipped together, raised their children together—would ultimately choose to believe they had identified but failed to convict a murderer rather than accept the possibility that the real murderer lived and worked among them in anonymity.
This is the story of the Knoblocks and the murder that shook Coffey County, Kansas. It's also the story of how a handful of newspaper clippings would lead to a curiosity that would take over my life for years to come. I’ve recreated the events that took place based on hundreds of newspaper articles, court documents, and interviews with descendants of those whose live s were touched by Florence Knoblock’s murder and the subsequent investigation and trial. It is my hope that I’ve accurately captured the essence of this moment in Kansas’s history.
 
 
Diana Staresinic-Deane
Chapter One
Across the Fence
Goodrick farm, seven miles west of Burlington, Kansas
Saturday, May 30, 1925
10:30 a.m.
 
Dora Goodrick stood in her pasture, a pitchfork in one hand, a sweat-covered kerchief in the other. She wiped the kerchief across her forehead. The sunshine had already burned much of the dampness out of the fields, but last night’s rain had left the creeks swollen and the air heavy with humidity. Dora stabbed the pitchfork into the wet soil and, pulling her dark hair back, retied the kerchief into a square knot at the base of her neck.
“Drink.”
Her husband, Charles, pressed a tin cup of cool water into her hand. Dora held the water in her mouth for a moment before swallowing. She touched the cool tin to her cheek as she joined her husband, who stood overlooking the shallow valley below them.
Leaving Oklahoma for Coffey County, Kansas, had been the right decision, Dora thought as she took in the scenery. They had made their home in the aptly named Pleasant Township nearly four years ago and hadn’t looked back. The natural springs and creeks ensured that the hills were green throughout the entire growing season, and from their little perch on top of a rise, they could see for miles. Their three children, all nearly grown—Grace, their youngest, was in high school now, a fact that never failed to astonish Dora when she thought about it—loved the land and explored it on horseback every chance they got. Yet they were less than half an hour away from Burlington, a town large enough to boast sever