Killing of Clara Castle and Trial of Jessie Morrison

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the mysterious death of May Sapp in Allen County, Kansas, in 1907. From the outset, whether she had been killed or had sliced her own throat with a razor was a subject of debate. A similar case happened in Butler County a few years earlier, and it was the subject of even more notoriety than May's scandalous case. Both stories are chronicled in my latest book, Murder and Mayhem in Southeast Kansas.
In June of 1900, less than two weeks after Clara Wiley married Olin Castle, Jessie Morrison, with whom Castle had previously kept company, slashed the the newly wedded woman to death with a razor. That fact was never in doubt, but Jessie, who was promptly arrested for murder, maintained from the outset that she had acted in self-defense. She said she was walking past Clara's house in El Dorado on her way downtown when Clara called her to the door and invited her inside. Accusing Jessie of not leaving Olin alone even after the marriage, Clara attacked Jessie with a razor, and Jessie ended up wresting it away and killing Clara instead. Jessie said she told Clara that it was Olin who wouldn't leave her alone, not the other way around, and that's what set Clara off.
The prosecution, on the other hand, said Jessie killed Clara out of pure jealousy and that she was the instigator of the fight. The state's attorneys claimed Jessie had brought the razor with her to the house, whereas Jessie claimed the razor belonged to Clara, and considerable testimony was offered on this point. In addition, Clara lived long enough to give a sworn statement saying that Jessie had come to her house and attacked her with the razor.

     

Jessie's first trial in December of 1900 ended in a hung jury. On retrial in June 1901, Jessie was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. She should have been satisfied that she'd gotten off rather easily, but her lawyers appealed the verdict and the Kansas Supreme Court granted her a new trial. At her third trial in June 1902, Jessie was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. Her lawyers appealed again, but this time the high court rejected the appeal. Jessie was paroled in 1910, after serving about eight years of her twenty-five-year sentence. The governor pardoned her three years later, granting Jessie her unconditional freedom.
Part of the reason this case made headlines across the country was because all the principals in the case came from prominent families. Jessie Morrison, for instance, was the daughter of a county judge, and Clara's and Olin's folks were also well known and respected in Butler County.
By the way, I'll be a having a book signing for Murder and Mayhem in Southeast Kansas next Saturday, May 25, at Watermark Books and Cafe in Wichita.