M. C. Hayes Kills His Cousin

On Saturday, January 4, 1890, M. C. "Mick" Hayes, accompanied by his cousin John Hayes, became involved in an argument with two black men, including George Robins, near the corner of Walnut and Campbell streets in Springfield. Robins and his companion had apparently done nothing to provoke M. C. Hayes, but Mick was in an intoxicated, belligerent state. He started to pull out a revolver, but his cousin intervened to try to prevent gunplay. As the two scuffled over possession of the weapon, it discharged and struck John under the left shoulder. He fell to the sidewalk, gravely wounded. Mick Hayes then turned the gun on the black men and fired three shots, one of which struck Robins, seriously wounding him. John Hayes was taken to a nearby drugstore, where physicians tried to relieve his suffering but held out little hope for his recovery. Robins was treated at a physician's office and then taken to his sister's house. 

Meanwhile, Mick Hayes fled the scene but was soon afterward apprehended at his home. Taken before a justice of the peace, he was committed to jail in default of $5,000 bond but later was released on a $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing was delayed until January 16 in order to wait and see what the result of the men's wounds might be. John Hayes, a well-respected Springfield letter carrier, died on January 15. Shortly afterward, his cousin was indicted for murder and also for felonious assault for shooting Robins, who was expected to recover.

After two or three continuances in the Greene County Circuit Court, Mick Hayes received a change of venue to Christian County. In September 1892, in an apparent plea bargain deal, the murder case against him was dropped and he pleaded guilty to the felonious assault charge. He was fined $300 and costs. Not much penalty for killing a man, his own cousin no less, and seriously wounding another.  

Ephraim Bennett Murders His Brother In Law

On the afternoon of May 30, 1893, 50-year-old Ephraim Bennett went to home of John Buchanan about ten miles southwest of Marshfield, Missouri, in West Dallas Township, to talk business with Buchanan, who was his brother-in-law. Sometime earlier, Buchanan's wife (i.e. Bennett's sister) had begun "to show symptoms of insanity and finally became a raving lunatic," and she started accusing her husband of mistreating her. It was decided Mrs. Buchanan needed to be taken to Nevada to the "insane asylum," as the state hospital was called at the time. However, her husband was poor and lacked the funds to have her committed and transported to Nevada. Bennett agreed to lend him the money, despite the fact that he believed his sister's accusations and blamed Buchanan for driving her crazy.

Presumably, the "business" Bennett wanted to talk over with Buchanan involved the debt that the latter owed him. At any rate, the two men talked matters over, supposedly in a friendly manner, and Bennett departed about two o'clock in the afternoon. Buchanan and his 10-year-old son then left the house and started working in a field. They had not been at work long before Bennett showed back up carrying a revolver and accused Buchanan of abusing his sister. Buchanan made a motion as if to reach for a weapon, and Bennett promptly opened fire, shooting the other man five times in quick succession.

After the shooting, Bennett calmly walked away, asking his little nephew to come with him. Bennett went to a neighbor's house, where he readily admitted the shooting. He claimed Buchanan had threatened to kill him and that he'd gone to the field to ask him about it. When Buchanan "tried to put his hand in his pocket," Bennett said, "I was too quick for him and fixed him." Bennett then went to a justice of the peace and turned himself in.

He was turned over to Sheriff James Goss of Webster County and lodged in jail at Marshfield. A coroner's inquest held soon after the shooting concluded that Buchanan came to his death by means of a pistol shot in the hands of Ephraim Bennett. At Bennett's preliminary examination on Monday, June 5, evidence was presented that Bennett had threatened Buchanan on several occasions, while the defendant presented his self-defense version of events. He was bound over without bond to await the action of a grand jury. 

After the hearing, several clusters of men gathered in different spots on the public square in Marshfield, and the sheriff, suspecting that they were plotting vigilante action, spirited Bennett out of jail and took him on foot to some woods on the outskirts of town, where a deputy met them with a hack and took the prisoner farther out of town. Late that night a mob of about 70 men surrounded the jail in Marshfield. The leaders went inside and demanded that the jailer turn over the keys and lead them to Bennett's cell. The jailer told them Bennett was not there, but they thoroughly searched the place, ransacking it in the process, before they became convinced the jailer was telling the truth. They then dispersed quietly, and few people living in the vicinity of the jail even knew anything out of the ordinary had taken place.

The next morning, June 6, Sheriff Goss brought the prisoner back to the jail in Marshfield, but that afternoon he and other law enforcement officials decided Bennett should be removed to a more secure location for safekeeping. A deputy took the prisoner to the train depot, secreted him in the baggage car, and escorted him to Springfield, where he was placed in the Greene County Jail. 

Bennett was taken back to Marshfield in March 1894, but instead of going on trial as scheduled, he was granted a change of venue to Dallas County. At his trial in Buffalo in October of the same year, the defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to ten years in the state prison. The verdict was met with general surprise and disapprobation, because most observers had expected a first-degree murder conviction. The jury was said to have initially split 9-3 in favor of first-degree but that three members held out for second-degree and the others compromised in order to get any sort of conviction. 

The prisoner was received at the penitentiary in Jefferson City on October 20. He was discharged in April 1902 under the 3/4 law, which allowed for release, on the condition of good behavior, after a convict had served three-quarters of his sentence.  

Murder of a Summersville Constable

 On Wednesday, July 18, 1888, Will Renfro appeared before a justice of the peace in Summersville, Missouri, on a minor charge. He and his brother, Peter, became angry at one of the witnesses, and late that afternoon, after the trial, they accosted the witness, John Hughes, on the streets of Summersville. When Will hit Hughes with his fist, Constable Charley Dorris intervened and told Will Renfro he was under arrest. Discovering that Peter Renfro had his pistol drawn, Dorris turned toward him and said, "Hold on!" Peter Renfro retreated, and the lawman followed. When they were away from the crowd, Renfro suddenly turned and fired, striking Dorris in the forehead. Dorris lapsed immediately into unconsciousness and died an hour later. According to a report in the Houston Herald a few days later, both Renfro brothers were drunk at the time of the incident. Peter Renfro made his escape after the shooting, but he turned himself in the following Monday, July 23, and was lodged in the Texas County Jail at Houston.

Charged with first-degree murder, he was granted a change of venue to Greene County. While still awaiting trial, he escaped from the Springfield jail in early January 1890. Around the first of August, when Renfro had still not been recaptured, the Missouri governor offered a $200 reward for his apprehension. He was captured a few days later in a cave on Leatherwood Creek in Shannon County. 

Renfro was taken back to Greene County, where his trial got underway on August 24, just a couple of weeks after his recapture. At his trial Renfro claimed the killing of Constable Dorris was an accident--that he'd actually been aiming at someone else who was among the crowd on the street in Summersville at the time of the shooting. Understandably, the argument did little to sway the jury, and Renfro was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to hang on October 9. An appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court automatically stayed the execution.

The high court upheld the lower court's verdict in November 1892. His execution was reset for late January 1893, but he again escaped from the Greene County Jail on January 21, with eleven other prisoners, just eight days before he was scheduled to die.   

This time he stayed on the run for over five years. He was finally recaptured on February 14, 1898, on the Current River not far from the Missouri-Arkansas border. He said he'd been roaming over southern Missouri and northern Arkansas for the whole five years. He was brought back to Springfield, and his execution date was reset for May 21. However, a number of citizens, especially some of the women of Springfield, circulated a petition asking for leniency, and, just a week and a half before he was supposed to hang, the governor commuted his sentence to 25 years imprisonment without parole. He was taken to the state prison in Jeff City on May 14, but he ended up spending nowhere near 25 years behind bars. A different governor commuted his sentence to time served as of May 13, 1905, and he was discharged on that date after serving only seven years at the Big House.   

 

The Murder of Brooks Van Noose

On Sunday, March 4, 1934, W. R. Murray went to the home of wealthy businessman Brooks Van Hoose and became concerned when he couldn’t rouse him. The next day, he went to the real estate agency Van Noose and George Biemdick operated together in Carthage. Informed that Van Hoose hadn’t showed up for work yet, Murray told Van Hoose’s partner what had transpired the day before. Biemdick and others drove out to the Van Hoose place to investigate. They found Van Hoose dead on the floor just inside the doorway of his massive stone house. He’d been shot multiple times.

The Biemdick party immediately called authorities, and Sheriff Oll Rogers arrived to investigate. A revolver Van Hoose owned was found on the floor beside his body, and Rogers thought the victim had been killed while resisting would-be robbers. The sheriff believed there was more than one assailant, and he placed the time of death as about 9:30 Saturday night, March 3, because a neighbor woman reported hearing gunshots about that time and Van Hoose had not yet dressed for bed when he was killed.

On Monday evening, eight or ten hours after Van Hoose’s body was discovered, ex-convict Charles Napper turned himself in at the county jail after learning he was wanted as a suspect in the murder. He confessed he was with four other men near the Van Hoose home on Saturday night, but he denied participating in the crime. He named the other four men as former Carthage restaurant operator L. B. Harmon, L. B.’s brother Glenn Harmon, and two acquaintances of Glenn Harmon whom he did not know. Napper said he and L. B. Harmon were in one car, while Glenn Harmon, who had a long crime record and was currently wanted for several robberies, was in a second car with his two sidekicks. They met and parked near Van Hoose’s house, and L. B. Harmon walked off with the other three men leaving Napper alone in L. B.’s car. Napper said he knew the gang was up to something but he was not in on the scheme. After a few minutes, the four men hurried back, and all five took off in the same cars they’d arrived in. Napper said he never saw Glenn Harmon or his two pals after that.

Arrested about the same time as Napper, L. B. Harmon gave a story similar to Napper’s except he said that he and Napper, after stopping at the rendezvous spot near Van Hoose’s home, left for Joplin without waiting for Glenn Harmon and his sidekicks to show up. He claimed to know nothing about the murder of Van Hoose. After talking to Napper and L. B. Harmon, officers concluded that a sixth man might have been in on planning the robbery of Van Hoose.

On March 8, first-degree murder charges were filed against Napper, L. B. Harmon, Glenn Harmon, and three unidentified associates of Glenn Harmon.

In mid-March, Victor Powell and Byron Wolff were identified as accomplices of Glenn Harmon in the murder of Van Hoose. Apprehended in Denver, Powell was brought back to Jasper County. During the return trip the prisoner admitted he’d been in the Carthage area with Glenn Harmon at the time of Van Hoose’s murder but, like Napper, he denied involvement in the actual crime. He put the full blame on Wolff and Glenn Harmon.

Wolff was captured in Los Angeles on the evening of March 26 when he was overpowered by a tailor whom he attempted to hold up. The next night, Glenn Harmon was killed in a gunfight with a Los Angeles detective after Wolff led officers to the hideout where the fugitive was holed up. A couple of days later, William Moors was arrested as the mysterious sixth accomplice. He was a taxicab driver who had brought Powell, Wolff, and Glenn Harmon from Kansas City to Carthage on the day of Van Hoose’s murder.

In mid-April, Wolff was brought back to Jasper County, and he and the other four suspects were jointly arraigned at Carthage on charges of first-degree murder.

In early June, the cases of Napper, Powell, Wolff, and Moors were severed, while L. B. Harmon was granted a change of venue to Barton County. Powell’s trial was held first, in mid-June. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

At Wolff’s trial in late June, Napper testified for the prosecution, and Wolff was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Napper was released on parole a couple of weeks later.

Both Powell and Wolff appealed their verdicts to the Missouri Supreme Court after their motions for new trials were denied. L. B. Harmon’s trial at Lamar in September ended in a mistrial.

In late March 1935, Moors, who’d been adjudged insane a few years earlier, was again declared insane and committed to the state hospital at Nevada. The murder charge against him was nol prossed.

L. B. Harmon was acquitted upon retrial in September 1935. In November 1935, the Missouri Supreme Court granted Wolff a new trial. On retrial at Carthage in March 1936, he was convicted of second-degree murder and given ten years in the penitentiary.

In June 1936, the state supreme court denied Victor Powell’s appeal and sustained his sentence of life imprisonment. The Jasper County prosecutor expressed dissatisfaction with verdict, because authorities were convinced that Glenn Harmon was the ringleader and Wolff was the trigger man. Yet Powell had ended up getting a much stiffer sentence than Wolff. Powell had been offered a deal if he turned state’s evidence, but he refused and was now paying the price.

This blog entry is condensed from my book Midnight Assassinations and Other Evildoings.