The Fate of a Defamer

Immediately after William DeAtley shot and killed Fred Robertson in Joplin in December of 1899, stories circulated that the twenty-two-year-old DeAtley committed the crime because of an alleged wrong done to his younger sister. But at the coroner’s inquest the next day, no extenuating circumstances were introduced to justify the shooting except that the two men had gotten into a fight and the thirty-two-year-old Robertson had beaten DeAtley up. Even at DeAtley’s trial in February 1900, his lawyers pursued a self-defense argument rather than risk exposing the sister to public humiliation. Not until after the February trial ended in a hung jury and DeAtley went on trial again in July 1900 did the whole truth come out.

DeAtley and Robertson were on their way home after work at adjoining mines on the west edge of Joplin in the late afternoon of December 20, 1899, when they met, exchanged angry words, and got into a fight. A friend of Robertson named Reeves helped him hold DeAtley down and give him “a good pounding.”

When Robertson and Reeves finally let DeAtley up, he ran toward town and retrieved a pistol from his home in west Joplin. DeAtley hurried back out to meet his assailants and fired several shots at Robertson, none of which took effect. DeAtley then went back home.

Nervous with excitement, he told his mother what had happened, and she set off with a butcher knife seeking a revenge of her own. Meanwhile, DeAtley bought some more ammunition and followed his mother to a boarding house on Locust Street (now Picher) where Robertson stayed. His mother had already left, but Robertson came to the door with a revolver in his hand. DeAtley shot him through the glass in the upper part of the door.

DeAtley was arrested, and Robertson died shortly afterward. DeAtley admitted to reporters that he’d shot Robertson for spreading “bad stories” about his fifteen-year-old sister, Belle, but he begged them to keep her name out of the papers. DeAtley said Robertson had formerly boarded at his mother’s house and had shown unwanted attention to Belle. After she married another young man, Prentice Hedrick, Robertson continued to “make himself familiar” with her and began telling vile stories about her. Belle told her brother and her mother about Robertson’s mistreatment of her, and Mrs. DeAtley ordered Robertson out of her boarding house, with her son delivering the message. Robertson left in anger, but “instead of persecuting” Belle or her mother, William DeAtley “came in for the lion’s share” of Robertson’s wrath.

Despite DeAtley’s statements to reporters, the coroner’s inquest the next day brought out no testimony to justify the shooting, and DeAtley was bound over for trial on a charge of first-degree murder.   

At his trial in early February 1900, DeAtley took the stand to plead self-defense, making no mention of his sister. DeAtley’s attorneys wanted to put Belle on the stand to testify about Robertson’s mistreatment of her, but DeAtley and his parents refused to drag Belle’s name into the proceedings. The jury deadlocked, and the case was retried in July 1900. 
At the second trial, the defense openly declared that the dispute between the two young men involved DeAtley’s sister. While boarding with Mrs. DeAtley, Robertson had “accomplished the ruin” of her fifteen-year-old daughter and afterward, to save himself trouble, had induced another young man, Hedrick, to marry the girl. Shortly after the hasty marriage, Hedrick deserted his teenage bride and joined the military. Robertson then began once again paying unwanted attention to Belle, making insulting statements about her, and boasting that he could “do as he pleased” where she was concerned, using words “that cannot be printed.” 
The trial took a sensational turn when Henry DeAtley, Belle’s father, appeared in court to say that his daughter had just given birth the night before. A deposition the girl had given was allowed into evidence. Belle said she was still fifteen and would not turn sixteen until later in July. She said that on September 30, 1899, Fred Robertson raped her while they were alone at the DeAtley home, forcing her to “do things she did not want to.” Two days later, she married Prentice Hedrick to hide her shame, and she did not know which man was the father of her baby. Hedrick left her, she said, the day after her brother’s first trial concluded.

The jury came back on the evening of July 19 with a verdict of manslaughter in the fourth degree and assessed a sentence of two years in the state penitentiary. DeAtley was transported to Jefferson City on August 12, 1900. He was discharged on January 1, 1902, under the three-fourths time good behavior rule.

This entry is condensed from a chapter in my latest book, Midnight Assassinations and Other Evildoings: A Criminal History of Jasper County.

Murder on the Christian-Douglas Line

On Thursday evening, June 1, 1922, Charley Kyger met and halted Douglas County deputy sheriff Ernest Hall on the county line separating Douglas and Christian. Kyger, a young man of about 25 years old, was riding a horse, and Hall was driving a wagon with his nine-year-old son, Thetus, also aboard. Kyger threatened Hall not to try to find any whiskey Kyger had hidden, and the two also renewed an old grudge relating to a lawsuit Kyger's sister had filed against Hall's brother relative to the legitimacy or paternity of a child.
Hall started off, thinking the dispute was over for the time being, but Kyger followed him about 200 yards down the road and opened fire on him, killing him with two rounds from his revolver. Kyger promptly turned himself in and was taken to the Christian County Jail at Ozark, but, fearing mob violence, authorities removed him from there the next day and took him to an undisclosed location. Charged with first-degree murder, Kyger was scheduled for preliminary examination on Tuesday, June 6 in Ozark. On that day, he was brought to Christian County from Springfield, where it was revealed he had been kept the previous few days, and bound over to the circuit court for trial with bond set at $15,000.
Kyger's trial took place in September 1922. Young Thetus Hall was the main witness against his father's killer. When the trial ended on Friday the 15th, the jury, after deliberating two hours, came back with a conviction on a lesser charge, second-degree murder, and a sentence recommendation of ten years in the state prison.
Kyger appealed the verdict to the Missouri Supreme Court, and the prisoner was released on $10,000 bond pending the outcome of the appeal. The high court affirmed the verdict of the lower court in June of 1923. Kyger was received at the Missouri State Penitentiary on June 20, 1923, and he was discharged in mid-November 1928 under the "merit time" rule after serving only slightly over half of his ten-year sentence.

Joplin Tornado Nine Years Later

I recall someone saying shortly after the devastating Joplin tornado in May of 2011 that it would probably take five years before the town would be back to normal—meaning basically that it would take that long before all or most visible signs of the tornado had been erased, commerce had resumed at its previous level, and so forth. Replying to the first comment, another person, a disaster expert from FEMA or some such individual, said, no, it would take more like ten years. At the time, I thought the first person was probably right, because it seemed almost inconceivable that it would take ten years for the town to erase nearly all signs of the tornado.

And the progress was, indeed, fast at first. Within just two or three months after the tornado, houses and places of business were going up right and left. But after three or four years, the pace started slowing markedly, and after five years, there were still plenty of signs of the tornado, such as empty lots where houses or buildings had once stood. And even now, over nine years after the tornado, there are still vacant lots scattered throughout Joplin where structures stood before the tornado, particularly along West 26th Street and on Main Street between 20th and 26th. One glaring example, until very recently, was the large lot at the southwest corner of 26th and McClelland, across the street from where the old Mercy Hospital was located. A convenience store/pharmacy was once located at this site, along with a complex of doctors’ offices. Just a few weeks ago, construction on a new Aldi’s Supermarket began at the location, so we’ll soon be buying groceries where we once bought gasoline or went to the doctor. (Photo below.)

Another obvious example is the northwest corner of 26th and Main, where a Braun’s restaurant is supposed to be built but has not yet gotten beyond the planning stage. A Safeway supermarket once stood on this site, but I believe the property had been purchased by the Salvation Army at the time of the tornado. (Photo below)

So, I guess I was wrong when I second-guessed the person who predicted that it would take at least ten years for Joplin to get back to a point where very few signs of the tornado were apparent. It still seems a little astounding that it has taken this long, but seeing is believing.   

Fair Grove 4th of July 1893

I was recently reading one of Lucille Morris Upton's "Good Ol' Days" columns from the Springfield Leader and Press in the early 1960s in which she was recalling traditional Fourth of July celebrations in her hometown of Dadeville when she was a little girl in the pre-World War I years. But she also happened to mention a Fourth of July celebration in Fair Grove many years earlier that went awry when the fireworks exploded prematurely just as they were getting ready to be set off. In 1893, according to Upton, Fair Grove was was getting ready to set off a fireworks display from the cupola of the school building when the first rocket went off and ignited a whole, big pile of bombs, Roman candles, rockets, and other pieces of fireworks stacked nearby. "The cupola was blown off the building, a man was tossed off the roof," and "a woman was thrown from a nearby buggy," recalled Ms. Upton. A piece of wood hit a second man and broke three of his ribs, but no one suffered severe injuries. "The rockets hissed and boomed in every direction. They ignited  some of the fancy, frilly summer dresses of the girls and women in the crowd and there was a wild stampede."
I decided to see if I could find anything else about this ill-fated fireworks display in Fair Grove. It seems the Fourth of July celebration started off in good fashion during the day. At least 3,000 people gathered for the festivities, which kicked off about noon, and there was enough food left over from the midday meal to feed another 3,000. One newspaper noted, "Fair Grove has grown from an insignificant little hamlet into quite a bustling, busy town."
A rain storm came up about noon but didn't last long. It served only to cool things off a little bit for the orators who gave speeches during the afternoon. Among the speakers were Professor W. C.  Myrick and Professor J. C. Freeman. "The line of march from from town to the grove where the speaking took place was charming and showed that elaborate preparations had been made. The various states were represented by girls from 8 to 14 years of age, arrayed in red, white and blue, and each pretty maiden was accompanied by a boy bearing the national banner. The brass band from Ebenezer furnished excellent music for the occasion."
J. A. Hartley read the Declaration of Independence "in a clear voice and an impressive manner." Grand marshal M. A. Fawcett gave the welcome address, and Professor Arthur Bryant, "a brainy young teacher" delivered a well-received address that showed he had the "making of a No. 1 orator."
"The beautiful grove where the ceremonies occurred was filled with people," concluded a July 5 report in the Springfield Leader, "who had come out to have a good old-fashioned time and they had it. It may safely be said that the Fourth at Fair Grove was in every respect a glorious success and eclipsed any former event of the kind in the history of the town."
But that was before the nighttime fireworks display, which turned into a disaster. The July 6th edition of the Leader filled in the details that were missing from its previous day's issue. J. W. Hine and John Self were in charge of the fireworks, and they had everything set to go when, as Lucille Morris Upton described many years later, the first sky rocket went off igniting the whole stack of nearby fireworks. "The men were precipitated two stories to the ground, and the college building was on fire. There was a crowd of 2,000 on the spot, and as the vicious rockets hissed in every direction the dresses of the ladies and girls were frequently ignited and a panic ensued.... For a few moments there was a wild and disorderly stampede for places of refuge."
The fire threatened to destroy the school but was soon extinguished. Still, "a feeling of gloom and disappointment settled down over the little city on account of the disastrous conclusion of the day's exercises."
On July 8, the newspaper published another update, giving the condition of those who had been injured in the fireworks mishap. Joe Hine, who'd not only been blown off the building to the ground but had also had his clothing burned from his body, was "all right again." Mrs. James Butts, who had sustained serious bruises when she was blown from her buggy, was recovering rapidly, and the man who been hit by the stick of wood and had three ribs broken was doing "as well as could be expected."
Concluded the Leader, "Fair Grove's first attempt at a pyrotechnic celebration was a bad failure, but the good people of the town are sternly awaiting the revolution of the earth upon its axis and when July 4 rolls around again they will make a better showing."