About 10:30, the four took a taxi to the Rodenia Night Club on West Seventh, which had a reputation as a “disorderly place.” After the four resumed drinking, Petty and Ms. Gipson got up and started dancing. When they didn’t return, Saunders and Miss Hill went looking for them outside and finally saw Petty staggering back toward the club by himself about one o’clock in the morning. When they asked where Eula was, Petty said she was inside dancing.
The three went back into the Rodenia, but Eula was nowhere to be seen. They went back outside and looked for her some more but still couldn’t find her. Saunders and Miss Hill finally decided Eula might have caught a ride back into town with somebody else; so, they picked up her coat and purse to take to her and started for home.
As the couple left, they told the nightclub owner, “Kate” Melton, that Eula was missing, and Melton immediately undertook a search of his own. He, too, had no luck finding the missing woman. Meanwhile, Petty fell into a stupor in a booth. Melton finally aroused him at 5:00 a.m., and Petty went home.
When Eula didn’t come home or show up on Thursday morning at the beauty shop, her parents became concerned. After talking to Saunders and Miss Hill, they contacted the police.
Two detectives went to Petty’s home to interrogate him. They found Petty still wearing the trousers he’d worn the night before, and they noticed blood on them. Petty admitted the shirt he’d worn the previous night also had blood on it, but he’d asked his wife to wash it.
Petty was arrested and brought to the Joplin Police station for further questioning. He was then taken to the nightclub to help look for the missing woman.
Meanwhile, Melton had already resumed looking for Eula, and about 2:30 p.m. he found her crumpled, nude body in some tall grass about 150 yards north of the nightclub. The grass had been beaten down all around the body, suggesting a struggle. “There was blood everywhere,” said the Joplin Globe in describing the woman’s beaten, mutilated body. It was “one of the most gruesome murders in Joplin police history.”
The detectives arrived with Petty shortly after the grisly discovery, and the suspect covered his eyes in horror when he was shown the victim’s body. Melton told the officers he’d seen Petty arguing with Miss Gipson about midnight the previous evening and that he saw Petty “pull her outside.” Although investigators found only a single small knife on Petty when they searched him, Saunders said he knew the suspect had also been carrying a larger knife the night before, because he’d seen Petty take both knives out.
Petty admitted he’d had a second knife but he didn’t know what happened to it. He said he’d been so drunk that he could remember hardly anything after he left Metzger’s bar. Asked how he got blood on his clothes and scratches on his hands, he said he figured he must have gotten into a barroom brawl, as he’d done a time or two before.
Faced with the evidence against him, Petty finally broke down and admitted he must have killed Miss Gipson but that he couldn’t remember it. He was arraigned for first-degree murder and committed to the Jasper County Jail at Carthage.
An inquest into Eula Gipson’s death took place on February 26, and despite both Saunders and Melton testifying against Petty, the jury returned a verdict that Eula came to her death by the hands of an unknown party. Testimony at Petty’s preliminary examination on February 28 was similar to that at the inquest, and Petty was held for trial without bond.
Shortly after Eula Gipson’s murder, tests showed that her blood and the blood found on Petty’s clothes matched in type. At his trial in May, the prosecution, seeking the death penalty, paraded a whole passel of witnesses to the stand to testify against Petty, whereas the defense’s case rested mainly on one witness, a waitress at the Rodenia who claimed she’d seen some “rough-looking” men at the nightclub while Petty and his companions were there and that one of them appeared to have blood on his hand. She and a couple of other witnesses also said they didn’t see any blood on Petty after Eula disappeared. The defense introduced witnesses who testified to Petty’s good reputation in the community, but the prosecution refuted this by pointing out that Petty had been connected by rumor to the molestation or assault of two or three other young women. Near the trial’s end, Petty himself took the stand to repeat that he had no memory of exactly what had happened on the night in question but that he “wouldn’t do such a thing” as to murder Eula Gipson.
In his instructions to the jury, the judge reduced the charge against Petty to second-degree murder. Despite this fact and the considerable evidence against Petty, the jury came back deadlocked. The split was rumored to be eight to four in favor of conviction. The judge declared a mistrial, and when Petty’s new trial finally came up in September 1941, the jury acquitted him after just twenty-five minutes of deliberation.
Two detectives went to Petty’s home to interrogate him. They found Petty still wearing the trousers he’d worn the night before, and they noticed blood on them. Petty admitted the shirt he’d worn the previous night also had blood on it, but he’d asked his wife to wash it.
Petty was arrested and brought to the Joplin Police station for further questioning. He was then taken to the nightclub to help look for the missing woman.
Meanwhile, Melton had already resumed looking for Eula, and about 2:30 p.m. he found her crumpled, nude body in some tall grass about 150 yards north of the nightclub. The grass had been beaten down all around the body, suggesting a struggle. “There was blood everywhere,” said the Joplin Globe in describing the woman’s beaten, mutilated body. It was “one of the most gruesome murders in Joplin police history.”
The detectives arrived with Petty shortly after the grisly discovery, and the suspect covered his eyes in horror when he was shown the victim’s body. Melton told the officers he’d seen Petty arguing with Miss Gipson about midnight the previous evening and that he saw Petty “pull her outside.” Although investigators found only a single small knife on Petty when they searched him, Saunders said he knew the suspect had also been carrying a larger knife the night before, because he’d seen Petty take both knives out.
Petty admitted he’d had a second knife but he didn’t know what happened to it. He said he’d been so drunk that he could remember hardly anything after he left Metzger’s bar. Asked how he got blood on his clothes and scratches on his hands, he said he figured he must have gotten into a barroom brawl, as he’d done a time or two before.
Faced with the evidence against him, Petty finally broke down and admitted he must have killed Miss Gipson but that he couldn’t remember it. He was arraigned for first-degree murder and committed to the Jasper County Jail at Carthage.
An inquest into Eula Gipson’s death took place on February 26, and despite both Saunders and Melton testifying against Petty, the jury returned a verdict that Eula came to her death by the hands of an unknown party. Testimony at Petty’s preliminary examination on February 28 was similar to that at the inquest, and Petty was held for trial without bond.
Shortly after Eula Gipson’s murder, tests showed that her blood and the blood found on Petty’s clothes matched in type. At his trial in May, the prosecution, seeking the death penalty, paraded a whole passel of witnesses to the stand to testify against Petty, whereas the defense’s case rested mainly on one witness, a waitress at the Rodenia who claimed she’d seen some “rough-looking” men at the nightclub while Petty and his companions were there and that one of them appeared to have blood on his hand. She and a couple of other witnesses also said they didn’t see any blood on Petty after Eula disappeared. The defense introduced witnesses who testified to Petty’s good reputation in the community, but the prosecution refuted this by pointing out that Petty had been connected by rumor to the molestation or assault of two or three other young women. Near the trial’s end, Petty himself took the stand to repeat that he had no memory of exactly what had happened on the night in question but that he “wouldn’t do such a thing” as to murder Eula Gipson.
In his instructions to the jury, the judge reduced the charge against Petty to second-degree murder. Despite this fact and the considerable evidence against Petty, the jury came back deadlocked. The split was rumored to be eight to four in favor of conviction. The judge declared a mistrial, and when Petty’s new trial finally came up in September 1941, the jury acquitted him after just twenty-five minutes of deliberation.
This is a condensed version of a chapter in my most recent book, Midnight Assassinations and Other Evildoings: A Criminal History of Jasper County, Mo.
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