When 48-year-old Sarah Elizabeth "Sadie" Trainer shot and killed 47-year-old Cora Jones on the streets of St. Joseph on Saturday evening, December 17, 1932, the immediate dispute involved a grocery bill, but the murderous act was the culmination of bad blood that had existed between the two women for many years over "a triangular relation."
According to Sarah's son, 31-year-old Forest Trainer, his father had begun an affair with Cora Jones about 13 years earlier. Sarah had caught her husband, 53-year-old Fred Trainer, and Cora together two or three times, resulting in bitter quarrels. Forest's parents had finally separated about five or six years ago, and the elder Trainer had gone to board with Mrs. Jones and her husband, Charles, who lived not far from the Trainers. Sarah did not file for divorce until early 1932, and the divorce was granted just two or three months prior to the shooting. The property settlement decreed by the divorce also caused "a good deal of trouble" between the Trainer couple.
Early on Saturday evening, December 17, Forrest Trainer and his young wife, Ethel, went to a local grocery store to purchase provisions and asked for credit, but storekeeper David Stearns denied the request, because Trainer, who was out of work, already had run up a bill with the store that he couldn't pay. Stearns said Trainer would have to pay something toward the current bill before additional credit would be extended.
Trainer called his father and told him the situation, and Fred Trainer, in the company of Cora Jones, soon met up with his son outside the store. Forrest asked his father to give him some money, which, according to the son, Fred had previously promised to do. Fred gave his daughter-in-law five dollars, but Forrest and his father got into an argument over the amount, because Forrest thought Fred ought to give him ten dollars. Meanwhile, Cora began berating Forrest and Ethel for running up such a large grocery bill to begin with.
As the argument heated up, Forrest asked his father to walk down the street a piece so that they could discuss the matter in private, but Cora wouldn't let them leave. Forrest claimed she called him "everything but a white man" and slapped him.
At this point, Ethel, who was at the store, called her mother-in-law and told Sarah. whose home was only a block or so away, what was going on. The argument was still going when Sarah arrived, and, according to at least one eyewitness, she walked up to Cora and shot her in cold-blood without warning. Both Forest and his father claimed not to have seen the actual shooting, while Sarah denied shooting Cora.
Cora was taken to the hospital, and Sarah was arrested and charged with assault. After Cora died about 24 hours later, the charge was upgraded to first-degree murder. Sometime after her arrest, Sarah admitted the shooting, but she said Cora was threatening her with an iron bar resembling a car crank at the time.
So, at Sarah's trial in early 1934, her attorney argued self-defense. He also wanted to make an insanity plea, but the judge ruled that he could not argue both self-defense and insanity. So, he stuck with the self-defense plea.
Sarah took the stand in her own defense to repeat her iron bar story. She said she acted not just to protect herself but also her son, since Ethel had told her over the phone that her ex-husband and Cora were "killing Forrest down here." During her testimony, though, she broke down in sobs, claiming that "they" would not let her tell her story.
At the end of the trial, the jury came back with a second-degree murder conviction and a sentence recommendation of fifteen years in prison. Cora's lawyer moved for a new trial, and when that motion was denied, he appealed to Missouri Supreme Court.
Sarah remained free on bond during the appeals process, but after the high court affirmed her conviction in March 1935, she was transported to the state prison at Jefferson City. She was paroled in 1941 after serving about six and a half years of her fifteen-year sentence.
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