Goat Castle
Page 24
30. “Death of Sister, Poverty, Drove Natchez Butterfly from Poetry to Pigsty,” TP, August 10, 1932.
31. “Dick Dana and Miss Octavia Dockery Who Are Being Held on Murder Charges and Whose Life Stories Are Both Fantastic and Weird,” ND, August 11, 1932.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid. Records show that Richard and Nydia Forman, along with Dick Dana and Octavia Dockery, became residents of Glenwood at the same time. See chapter 2.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
CHAPTER EIGHT
1. Cox, “Revisiting the Natchez Pilgrimage,” 349–55.
2. “Dick Dana and Miss Octavia Dockery Who Are Being Held on Murder Charges and Whose Life Stories Are Both Fantastic and Weird,” ND, August 11, 1932.
3. “Natchez Sheriff Predicts ‘Startling Development’ in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, August 21, 1932.
4. “Booster Displays Dana Souvenirs,” ND, August 8, 1932.
5. Ibid.; “Swelling Wave of Sympathy for Dick Dana and Miss Dockery Continues to Steadily Mount in This Community,” ND, August 14, 1932.
6. “Natchez Sheriff Predicts ‘Startling Development’ in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, August 21, 1932.
7. Ibid.
8. “Merrill Murder Remains Puzzle to Authorities,” TP, August 27, 1932.
9. “Gwen Bristow (1903–1980).” While one can compare Goat Castle with the house described in Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” published in 1930, the most common comparisons made at the time were with Edgar Allan Poe, especially his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
10. “Damask and Dirt Mingle in Dick Dana’s ‘Goat Castle,’” TP, August 14, 1932; “Debris Ankle Deep Fills Once Lovely Mansion,” TP, August 14, 1932.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. “Life Story of Miss Dockery Reveals Struggle against Whim of Ironic Fate,” ND, August 10, 1932.
16. “Dana’s Life Filled with Tragedy and Futility,” TP, August 9, 1932”; “Investigation of Odell Ferguson Started Friday,” ND, August 13, 1932; “Many Visitors View Glenwood during Weekend,” ND, August 16, 1932. Trespassing at Elms Court described in “Crowd Applauds as Court Orders Release of Dana and Housekeeper,” TP, August 16, 1932.
17. Discussion of visitors in “Sheriff to Save Fingerprints for Merrill Jurors,” TP, August 25, 1932; “Admission to be Charged to Dana Property,” ND, August 24, 1932.
18. “Admission to be Charged to Dana Property,” ND, August 24, 1932.
19. Quote comes from “Swelling Wave of Sympathy for Dick Dana and Miss Dockery Continues to Steadily Mount in This Community,” ND, August 14, 1932. Even as the investigation continued, visitors were turning out in droves to see Goat Castle. See “No Excitement Is Created Here by Confessions,” ND, August 27, 1932; and “Sheriff to Save Fingerprints for Merrill Jurors,” TP, August 25, 1932.
20. “No Excitement Is Created Here by Confessions,” ND, August 27, 1932; “Merrill Murder Suspects Held in Jail at Jackson,” TP, August 24, 1932.
21. “No Excitement Is Created Here by Confessions,” ND, August 27, 1932; “Merrill Murder Suspects Held in Jail at Jackson,” TP, August 24, 1932. On cleaning Glenwood, see “Sheriff to Save Fingerprints for Merrill Jurors,” TP, August 25, 1932.
22. Notes on the goat flock appear in “Hints of Contest on Merrill Will Heard in Natchez,” TP, August 29, 1932.
23. News of the piano donation appeared in “Six Held in Jail Pending Merrill Murder Solution,” TP, August 31, 1932.
24. “Hundreds Hear Dana Concerts during Sunday,” ND, September 6, 1932.
25. “Excursion Will Bring Many to Natchez Sunday,” ND, September 10, 1932; “Excursion Here Brought Large Numbers,” ND, September 13, 1932; “Three Excursions to Visit Here Next Sunday,” ND, September 18, 1932.
26. “Abbott Announces W.S.M.B. Ready for Broadcast,” ND, August 28, 1932; “Broadcast Plans for Dick Dana Show Progress,” ND, August 29, 1932.
27. “Dana Will Not Broadcast Says E. H. Ratcliff,” ND, August 30, 1932.
28. “Concert Given by Dick Dana in Woodville,” ND, September 18, 1932; “Vicksburg Wants Dana to Appear There in Concert,” ND, September 20, 1932.
29. “Dana-Dockery Entertainment Makes Big Hit,” ND, October 13, 1932.
30. “Concert Given by Dick Dana in Woodville,” ND, September 18, 1932; “Vicksburg Wants Dana to Appear There in Concert,” ND, September 20, 1932; “Dana-Dockery Concert Given at Sicily Island,” ND, October 18, 1932; “Dana-Dockery Program Given at Jonesville,” ND, October 19, 1932.
31. “Dana-Dockery Recital Makes Hit in Jackson,” ND, October 26, 1932; Sansing, “Earl Leroy Brewer,” accessed March 22, 2016.
32. “Dana Drops ‘Wild Man’ Role, Plans to Tour South,” TP, September 18, 1932.
33. Ibid.
CHAPTER NINE
1. Weather reported in the Natchez Democrat, November 15, 1932.
2. Maurice O’Neill kept a number of items from the investigation following the trial. His daughter Marion Prevost inherited them, and in 1977 Charles East met with her and transcribed O’Neill’s notes and the letters Roberts received. See East Papers, LLMVC.
3. “New Inquiry into Merrill Slaying Asked by Court,” TP, November 15, 1932. Because no trial transcript exists, testimony is drawn from coverage by the Natchez Democrat and the Times-Picayune. However, subpoenas, affidavits, and jury instructions are all located in the records of the Adams County Circuit Court, Case File 4708, HNF.
4. “Merrill Murder Case Being Investigated by Grand Jury, Many Witnesses Called,” ND, November 16, 1932; “Secrecy Shrouds Merrill Slaying Study by Jurors,” TP, November 16, 1932.
5. “Merrill Murder Case Being Investigated by Grand Jury, Many Witnesses Called,” ND, November 16, 1932. In a 1976 interview with Charles East, Tucker remained convinced that there was insufficient evidence to indict Dana and Dockery, stating that Joe Brown and Book Roberts were the ones who wanted to indict, not Tucker. But Brown and Roberts had investigated the case and Tucker had not. Clay Tucker to Charles East, Woodville, Mississippi, 1976, East Papers, LLMVC.
6. Details of McKittrick’s interview appear in “Report on Slain Suspect’s Prints May Solve Case,” TP, August 15, 1932.
7. Grand Jury indictment, November 14, 1932, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 4708, HNF.
8. “Slain Suspect, Woman Indicted in Merrill Case,” TP, November 17, 1932; “Emily Burns Indicted for Murder of Miss Jane Merrill by County Grand Jury,” ND, November 17, 1932.
9. “Trial of Emily Burns for Murder of Miss Jane Merrill Set for the Twenty-Fifth,” ND, November 18, 1932. According to Charles East’s transcriptions of Maurice O’Neill’s notes, Emily Burns weighed 125 pounds in August. When she entered prison, the registrar listed her weight at 105 pounds.
10. Before 1940, capital punishment in Mississippi occurred by hanging. Cabana, “History of Capital Punishment,” accessed March 31, 2016.
11. Wilfred A. Geisenberger, Subject File, MDAH. Details of the ages of the three attorneys are drawn from the 1930 U.S. Federal Census for Adams County.
12. “Emily Burns to be Placed on Trial Friday,” ND, November 25, 1932; “State Attempts to Picture Death of Miss Merrill,” TP, November 26, 1932; “Confessions of Emily Burns to Officers Related,” ND, November 26, 1932.
13. “State Attempts to Picture Death of Miss Merrill,” TP, November 26, 1932.
14. “Confessions of Emily Burns to Officers Related,” ND, November 26, 1932.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.; Burns confession, East Papers, LLMVC.
17. “Confessions of Emily Burns to Officers Related,” ND, November 26, 1932; “State Attempts to Picture Death of Miss Merrill,” TP, November 26, 1932.
18. “Confessions of Emily Burns to Officers Related,” ND, November 26, 1932.
19. “State Attempts to Picture Death of Miss Merrill,” TP, November 26, 1932.
&nbs
p; 20. “Jury Is Unable to Agree upon the Punishment,” ND, November 27, 1932.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid. Natchez City Directory for 1928 lists Annie Reed as living at 232 St. Catherine Street. Emily Burns lived with her mother at a duplex that contained a joint address of 228–230 St. Catherine Street, likely because they rented rooms in one.
24. “Jury Is Unable to Agree upon the Punishment,” ND, November 27, 1932.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid. All original witness subpoenas in the case are located in Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 4708, HNF. Natchez City Directory for 1929 showed Elmore as owner of East End Beer Parlor, although the paper called it a “store.”
28. Stone’s quotes appear in “Sheriff to Save Fingerprints for Merrill Jurors,” TP, August 25, 1932.
29. Clifford Fields to Sheriff of Hinds County, November 22, 1932, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 4708, HNF.
30. Affidavit in Support of Motion to Continue, November 25, 1932, ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Z. Wells, Merrill Murder Mystery, 17.
37. Jury instructions by the state, The State v. Emily Burns, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case 4708, HNF.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Jury instructions for the defendant, ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Jury instructions by the state, ibid.
43. Ibid. Zaida Wells believed the reason Emily Burns did not receive the death penalty was due to Geisenberger’s impassioned pleas for mercy during his closing arguments. Z. Wells, Merrill Murder Mystery, 17.
44. “Woman Convicted in Merrill Case; Faces Life Term,” TP, November 27, 1932.
45. “Woman Involved in Merrill Death to Get Life,” TP, November 28, 1932.
46. “Merrill Murder Accessory Given Life Term,” TP, December 1, 1932.
47. “Prisoners Taken to Penitentiary,” ND, December 6, 1932. Sergeant Tullos was killed five months later while taking convicts to the penitentiary from Hattiesburg. See “Chester J. Tullos,” accessed April 4, 2016.
CHAPTER TEN
1. Cox, “Revisiting the Natchez Pilgrimage,” 353–67; “Pilgrimage Week Begins Tomorrow, When Ante-bellum Days Will Be Re-Lived,” NYT, April 2, 1933; Alfred C. Hottes to Mrs. Balfour (Katherine) Miller, February 3, 1933, Katherine Miller Scrapbook, HNF. Hottes was the editor of Better Homes and Gardens.
2. Goat Castle flyer, East Papers, LLMVC.
3. Dmitri, “So Red the Rose.” Journalists in 1932 compared Goat Castle to something from an Edgar Allan Poe story, but as Faulkner became increasingly known throughout the decade, more journalists compared the case with his fiction.
4. H. Wells, “Crimson Crime at Glenburney Manor,” May–September 1933. On Homer G. Wells see Przybyszewski, “Bloodhound Man,” accessed May 18, 2016.
5. H. Wells, “Crimson Crime at Glenburney Manor,” September 1933.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. African American newspapers also covered this story. See “Merrill Murder Suspects Sue Sheriff for $32,000,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 17, 1933.
8. Miss Octavia Dockery v. C. P. Roberts and National Surety Company of New York, New York, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 1822, HNF.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. “Natchez Sheriff Predicts ‘Startling Development’ in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, August 21, 1932.
13. Miss Octavia Dockery v. C. P. Roberts and the National Surety Company of New York, New York, Notice Under the General Issue, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 1822, HNF.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. “Dana and Dockery Indicted for Murder,” ND, August 16, 1933; “Trial of Pair Set by Court for Wednesday,” ND, November 16, 1933.
19. “Attorneys for Dana and Miss Dockery Want Suit Tried after Murder Hearing,” ND, November 17, 1933.
20. Ibid.; “Trial of Pair Set by Court for Wednesday,” ND, November 16, 1933; “Dana, Guardian Face Charges in Merrill Slaying,” TP, November 16, 1933.
21. “Court Dismisses $32,000 Dana Suit against Sheriff,” TP, November 18, 1933.
22. Ibid.; “Court Replaces Sheriff for Dana-Dockery Trial as Defense Charges Bias,” TP, November 23, 1933.
23. “Attorneys for Dana and Miss Dockery Want Suit Tried after Murder Hearing,” TP, November 17, 1933.
24. “Criminal Cases to Occupy Court during This Week,” ND, November 19, 1933.
25. “Dana-Dockery Case Expected to Go to Trial,” ND, November 21, 1933.
26. The State v. Octavia Dockery, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 4746, HNF. See also “Court Grants Defense Motion for Severance,” ND, November 23, 1933; and “Court Replaces Sheriff for Dana-Dockery Trial as Defense Charges Bias,” TP, November 23, 1933.
27. The State v. Octavia Dockery, Adams County Circuit Court Records, Case File 4746, HNF.
28. “Mystery Woman of ‘Goat Castle’ Faces Trial Today in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, November 27, 1933.
29. “Court Grants Defense Motion for Severance,” ND, November 23, 1933. On the trial-weary public, see “Mystery Woman of ‘Goat Castle’ Faces Trial Today in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, November 27, 1933.
30. “Dockery Defense May Base Case on Two Witnesses,” TP, November 28, 1933.
31. Ibid.
32. “Mystery Woman of ‘Goat Castle’ Faces Trial Today in Merrill Murder Case,” TP, November 27, 1933.
33. Ibid.
34. “Regular Panel, Special Venire Exhausted Monday,” ND, November 28, 1933.
35. “Further Action Not to be Taken at Present Term,” ND, November 29, 1933.
36. Ibid.
37. Bristow’s account appeared in “Dana, Guardian Sent Home Free after Mistrial,” TP, November 29, 1933.
38. Ibid.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
1. Details on Ola Mae Spickard, Jackson, Mississippi, City Directories, 1920, 1930; Series 1567: Convict Registers, 69, Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Penitentiary, MDAH.
2. Series 1567: Convict Registers, 69, Department of Corrections, Mississippi State Penitentiary, MDAH.
3. Ibid.
4. Foreman and Tatum, “Short History of Mississippi’s State Penal Systems,” 255. On the broader history of Parchman, see Oshinsky, “Worse Than Slavery”; and Taylor, Down on Parchman Farm. On the treatment of women in Jim Crow–era prisons, especially the case of Georgia, see LeFlouria, Chained in Silence.
5. Biennial Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, 1933–1939; Board Files, 1907–1976, Mississippi State Penitentiary, MDAH; Oshinsky, “Worse Than Slavery,” 172.
6. Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, 1933, 9–10.
7. “My Prison Life,” by Fanny Walden, February 28, 1935, David Cohn Papers, Archives and Special Collections, J. D. Williams Library, University of Mississippi.
8. On mercy courts, see Taylor, Down on Parchman Farm, 54–55.
9. Sansing, “Paul B. Johnson,” accessed April 20, 2016.
10. “Governor Opens Mercy Court,” ND, December 18, 1940.
11. Pardons, Series 926, Records of the Office of the Governor, MDAH; “Emily Burns Is Given Freedom by Gov. Johnson,” ND, December 19, 1940; “Governor Frees Natchez Suspect in Castle Killing,” TP, December 19, 1940.
12. Alfred Smith’s daughters Linda Griffin and Phyliss Morris described his heroic effort to the author, May 17, 2016, Natchez, MS.
EPILOGUE
1. “Denies Intention to Evict Couple from ‘Goat Castle” at Natchez,” TP, June 26, 1937.
2. “Dana, Guardian Lose Ruling for 45-Acre Estate,” TP, June 6, 1939.
3. “Hoosier Woman Claims Estate i
n Southland,” Kokomo (Ind.) Tribune, August 18, 1933; “Withdraws Claim to Estate,” ibid., August 19, 1935.
4. “R. C. Dana, Master of ‘Goat Castle,’ Freed with Guardian in Strange Natchez, Miss., Murder Case of 1932 — Stricken at 77,” NYT, December 12, 1948.
5. Miss Octavia Dockery v. Seaman Zerkowsky, Isaac Zerkowsky, Sam Zerkowsky and Mrs. Jeanette Habas, Adams County Chancery Court Records, Case File 11,795, HNF. See also “Marriage of Pair at ‘Castle’ Denied,” TP, February 27, 1949; “She’s Not His Wife, Defense Says of Suit,” Delta Times-Democrat (Greenville, Miss.), February 27, 1949. Details of Dockery’s health and stay at the charity hospital appear in “Octavia Dockery, 84, Lived in ‘Goat Castle,’” NYT, April 23, 1949.
6. “Octavia Dockery, 84, Lived in ‘Goat Castle,’” NYT, April 23, 1949; “Death Won Case for Miss Dockery, Principal in Goat Castle Suit,” Delta Times-Democrat (Greenville, Miss.), April 25, 1949; “Death Removes ‘Goat Castle’s’ Last Occupant,” Anniston (Ala.) Star, April 24, 1949; “Miss Octavia Dockery,” Gaston (N.C.) Gazette, May 14, 1949.
7. Duncan Morgan, discussion with author, Natchez, Mississippi, March 8, 2012.
8. Birdia Green, telephone discussion with author, May 3, 2016.
9. Natchez City Directory, 1950.
10. Ibid., 1950, 1955. Author’s discussions with Doris Maynard and Birdia Green revealed Lee Randolph’s role as deacon and descriptions of his size. Emily Burns’s death was recorded in the family Bible as September 1969, Smith family Bible, Natchez, Mississippi.
11. Based on author’s conversation with Birdia Green, Phyliss Morris, and Linda Griffin, October 9, 2015, Natchez, Mississippi.