About 6:30 Friday evening, November 20, 1942, 50-year-old Cliff Moore got into an argument with his "very attractive" 22-year-old wife, Sylvia, at Kidd's Place, a combination service station/tavern and dance hall about four miles west of Rolla on Route 66, which the couple had been operating for a few weeks. Initial reports said only that the two were struggling for possession of 12-guage shotgun when the gun went off, gravely wounding Cliff Moore. He died at a hospital a couple of hours later.
Investigators apparently did not consider it purely an accident, however, because they promptly arrested Sylvia at her parents' home in Vichy. Lodged in the Phelps County Jail at Rolla, she was charged with second-degree murder.
At Sylvia's trial a month or two later, the state contended that she grabbed the gun first. Testifying in her own defense, Sylvia told a different story. She said the quarrel began when she returned to Kidd's Place after visiting her parents in Vichy and her husband accused her of having been drinking with another man.
Moore ordered her out of the tavern, and, when the argument continued outside the building, he went to a telephone to call the state patrol. She convinced him not to call, saying that they could settle their dispute without the intervention of the officers. She followed him back to the tavern's front door, where, she said, Moore threatened to kill her. Nevertheless, she followed him inside, and they walked behind the bar to the kitchen, where a shotgun was kept.
Sylvia said Cliff picked up the gun and pointed it toward her. When she pushed the barrel out of the way, he grabbed her around the waist and shoved her onto a back porch. Opening the back door to the screened-in porch, he tried to throw her outside. He had his right arm around her, and his left arm was holding the gun. Sylvia said she used her right hand to prevent being thrown out, and when she bent over, the gun discharged.
The trial ended in a hung jury. Sylvia then asked for and was granted a change of venue for her next trial. It was held in neighboring Texas County in July of 1943. At the end of testimony and closing arguments on July 13, the jury deliberated for only 25 minutes before coming back with a verdict of not guilty.
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