Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Double Hatchet murder in Smyrna

Sounds shocking but Smyrna had a bloody past that few know about. For instance the Cook murders is one good example.

I was in the Library of Congress' collection of newspaper and came across this small tidbit of information.


This was a small filler in the the Hayti Herald from Hayti, Mo on September 14th 1913. I was surprised as you would think that tales of murder would become part of a towns past and passed on. I then realized that so many people that live here really just live here because it is a bedroom community. This disconnect from our past is a great failing.

With this small bit of murder and mayhem I dug further and found a more detailed account in the oddest of places...Kentucky. The Crittenden press-record from Marion Kentucky on Sep 18, 1913 went into more detail on the situation.





Wow. The story changes some from hatchet to include the usage of clubs. An odd case like this during this time period does not have the luxury of CSI magic to find the killer. I wondered if this story would be open ended.

In a humorous instance of being early to press, or lacking the latest information I found that the Crittenden press-record was trumped by the Farmers Champion from Elgin Oklahoma on the same exact date. They had just a small bit of information, but it was more up to date. An Arrest!



Cook was the murderer!?!?!?!

Then my search came up cold and I never found out if he was convicted or this was a false arrest. Stay tuned for part 2 where the assistance of a local librarian gives me the answers that I sought.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting article.

Unknown said...

Very interesting article.