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.