A 1932 murder leaves many questions today

1 Comment / Articles, Logan County History / / Dwight Williamson


By Dwight Williamson

Photo of Dwight Williamson, author Eighty-nine years is a long time in terms of trying to resolve a hideous murder that captivated local residents at that time in 1932, likely because of the circumstances surrounding the slaying of a young woman who — let’s just say — was “loved” by many.

Perhaps, too many.

There has been much said and written since I first introduced Mamie Thurman back in 1985, resurrecting her from the darkness of time in which not even her gravesite had been located.

A bullet to the head, a broken neck, and her throat slashed — what could motivate anyone to do such a devious deed?

As Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder sang at different times, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind. The answer is blowin’ in the wind.” And, to somewhat copy the words of another musical artist, Jimi Hendrix, — “And the wind cries, Mamie.”

Yes, I believe the spirit of Mamie Thurman cannot rest until her untold story is presented and her final resting place marked in appropriate fashion with a tombstone or monument. Lengthy research and trial testimony have led me to believe that this motherless 31-year-old woman just may have had an uncontrollable sexual desire known as nymphomania, something even she did not understand. What is clear is that her husband, Logan City policeman Jack Thurman, 16 years older than Mamie, was not the answer.

There are many other complexities to the life and death of Mamie Thurman, most of which have yet to be unveiled. However, allow me to pull back the curtain on one twist to her shadowy existence that involved at least 16 of Logan’s most prominent citizens, indeed businessmen, some of whom may have served on the all-white jury that convicted Clarence Stephenson, the African American accused of her murder.

“She trusted him,” said John “Con” Chafin, special prosecutor in his closing arguments to the jury in the trial of Stephenson. “Clarence Stephenson has his passions the same as any other man. He had been hauling this woman out in that automobile on different occasions. He knew they had a date to take her out that night, but Clarence Stephenson cancelled that date.

“He was out there looking for her, according to his own evidence, with that Ford automobile until almost nine o’clock that night. This evidence shows, to my mind, gentlemen of the jury, that he found that woman there and has told her that Harry Robertson (an admitted lover) was on Trace Mountain waiting for her, and that woman would have gone anywhere with you under those circumstances.

“He has done that for the purpose of having improper relations with her; he has taken her up on that mountain with that belief. He has tried to force himself upon her, gentlemen of the jury, she has resisted, and Clarence Stephenson, in that brutal manner, shot her brains out, cut her throat and broke her neck. I can’t see anything else, gentlemen of the jury, in this case but that.”

Citing his law practice of 25 years, Prosecutor Chafin told the jury, “We have not put a thing before you but what I believe to be absolutely the honest truth. You can discard the evidence of every witness that testified in this case. You can take the circumstances and they alone are sufficient to break the neck of Clarence Stephenson.”

“Gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.” Chafin concluded.

After a deliberation of about 55 minutes, the jury returned with a verdict of first-degree murder for the handyman of Harry Robertson, a prominent banker, Logan City councilman, and the son and grandson of two of Logan’s most successful business people.

Historically speaking, 1932 stands out as a special year in Logan County’s past. Not only was Mamie Thurman’s demise forever etched in time, as well as Stephenson’s verdict, but one month after the September murder trial, history would forever change with the presidential election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but also the defeat of Tennis Hatfield in his bid to become Logan County sheriff.

Along with the defeat of Cap Hatfield’s son, Elba Hatfield, who had been the presiding magistrate in the preliminary hearing of Robertson and Stephenson, the election defeat would unveil Tennis Hatfield’s illegal misgivings as former sheriff, leading to the fall of what could be considered a Hatfield mini empire, both politically and economically.

Fast forward from 1932 until March 16, 1936, when Prosecutor John Chafin was found dead in the Guyandotte River. Described in The Logan Banner as “standing erect” with only his head showing, Chafin, who had attended revival services the night before at the First Christian Church in Logan, was declared to have committed suicide.

Attorney Chafin, who had announced for his party’s nomination in the upcoming primary election, was one of Logan’s best-known lawyers. Born and reared in Logan County, he was recognized one of the outstanding leaders in the Democratic Party, according to the newspaper obituary, which noted that Chafin was to be buried in the Aracoma Cemetery on High Street, now basically abandoned.

Interestingly, the cemetery is within 15 yards of a location where Mamie Thurman was last known to be on the night of her disappearance, it being a rented meeting place for her and Robertson, and perhaps others, on different occasions.

Also, of interest was that of the pallbearers mentioned in the obituary, C.C. Chambers — the attorney who represented Stephenson in the murder trial, and who later became Logan Circuit Judge — was named, as were Cap Hatfield and Naaman Jackson, who was the presiding judge in the murder trial. Almost 70 other prominent Logan citizens and businessmen were named as honorary pallbearers.

What is somewhat baffling to this writer is that Chafin’s suicidal death was never questioned.

There was no mention of the Guyandotte River being elevated from rain, which illuminates the question of him being found standing erect. Furthermore, what would cause such a highly successful lawyer, who had just been to church the night before with his young daughter, to choose to die in such a manner?

Adding more intrigue to this story, there is no death record of Chafin’s demise recorded in the Logan County Clerk’s office, which would have included a doctor or coroner’s report of the cause of death.

Like Mamie, funeral services were conducted by Harris Funeral Home in Logan. Chafin was buried in the same cemetery as was Mamie Thurman’s father, the Aracoma Cemetery on High Street, according to the obituary.

Unfortunately, like at her own gravesite, Mamie’s father’s tombstone has yet to be seen, while Chafin’s tombstone has been overturned or somehow has just disappeared.

So it is that the special prosecutor in the Mamie Thurman murder trial lies in the same cemetery as Mamie’s father, the burial ground being a short distance from the last house Mamie was known to be at before her brutal death. What an ironic twist this turns out to be, especially since it was Mamie’s father who was credited for constructing the house where Mr. and Mrs. Harry Robertson and their two children resided.

Mamie’s father, a contractor, died of pneumonia while lying in a ditch line after returning home one cold, wintry night, the result of having fallen from a small walk bridge in a drunken stupor near his residence.

And still today, the wind cries, “Mamie.”

Dwight Williamson is a retired Logan County magistrate and former staff writer and sports editor for the Logan Banner.

*Published with the author’s permission. Originally published July 7, 2021 in the Logan Banner.

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