Like Vultures, They Packed Court Room In ’32

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Logan Banner, Thursday, August 22, 1985

Special thanks to Mark Edward Jones for providing a clipping of this article.

By Dwight Williamson
Seventh In A Series

Photo of Dwight Williamson, authorThe old Logan courthouse must have been a real site Monday, Sept.10, 1932, the day Clarence Stephenson’s trial started.

The stately old southern courthouse, later torn down and replaced with the modern, less personable present-day courthouse in 1964, was huge. It even had a balcony, so gawkers, perched like vultures on the edge of a cliff waiting for a tasty morsel from the dead, could wait for the ripe moment.

And, while he was no Daniel, for Stephenson, accused of the murder of Mrs. Mamie Thurman, the courtroom became his Lion’s den.

It is hard to imagine that nearly 1,000 curious people had jammed their way into the court room. Still others waited outside for the chance of getting a seat. When someone would move out it would be filled immediately. That went on for four days in what has become one of Logan’s most celebrated murder trials–the official end of the Mamie Thurman murder case.

But, did that bring the case to a close? Even after 53 years, many believe not. Many still wonder, including the slain woman’s brother, just what happened to the love of Logan, who many have pulled at the heart strings of a score of prominent men, one of whom may have been her killer.

George Morrison, Mrs. Thurman’s brother who lives in New Mexico might conjure up some idea in his mind what the atmosphere surrounding the trial may have been, since he is an attorney himself. But, he was just an orphaned child living in Kentucky at the time, not knowing those events he may not have even heard of, would have a profound effect upon him one day.

But, while Morrison, who is still trying to find his sister’s grave, wasn’t there, there were those alive today who were. One remembers…

Edward Eiland, a successful and prominent Logan attorney, remembers the old court room.

“They used to hold political rallies in there,” said Eiland with a faint smile. “It could easily hold 1,000 people.”

And, it did on that fateful day when the black handyman Stephenson began his unsuccessful defense for the murder he says he didn’t do.

The first witness for the state was R.L. Harris, undertaker for Harris Funeral Home. Harris said he had embalmed the body of Mrs. Thurman on June 22, after having gone to the mountainside where the body was found. He said she was wearing a blue dress with white polka dots. Other wearing apparel of the deceased was introduced to the court as evidence.

Harris said he had reached the at about 2:30 in the afternoon, and that the body when he found it was lying with the head facing downhill, some bushes having held the body and kept it from sliding on down the hill where it might never be found.

When cross-examined by attorney C.C. Chamber, Harris said the left side of Mrs. Thurman’s face was severely powder-burned. When asked if he had bothered a card bearing a license number which was in her pocket he said he did not. He said the body had been dead from 17 to 18 hours.

A Dr. Rowan testified next. Rowan said he was positive the two bullet holes in Mrs. Thurman’s head were caused by a .38 pistol, both of which passed through her brain. Shots could have been fired immediately before the throat was slashed, he said, judging from the power burns.

Jack Thurman, husband of the deceased, was next on the witness stand.  Thurman said he was 48, 16 years older than Mamie. He said they had lived in Logan eight years and he had been a Logan city patrolman for 15 months.

He said he had been working June 21 at the usual time (from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.). Thurman said they had lived in a two-room garage apartment behind banker-politician Harry Robertson’s house on Stratton Street since coming to Logan. The Robertson home was located at the approximate site of what is now Logan Band and Trust’s drive-thru bank.

He added that he had last seen his wife at about 5:30 p.m. Thurman said he was working the beat with Hibbard Hatfield and that he telephoned his wife shortly before 1 a.m. When no one answered, he went to his home and found that the bed had not been used. He said he next saw his wife dead at 3 p.m. the next day.

Thurman told of how he had called at Robertson’s that afternoon for Stephenson (Robertson’s handyman and hunting companion) before the body was found and that Stephenson drove him around town, while he checked on where his wife was last seen.

Thurman said he had seen Stephenson the night before at about 11 p.m. sitting on the steps of the old Guyan Valley Bank and that they spoke. During cross-examination, he said that he and his wife did not argue that afternoon, and that they were always on good terms.

Mamie Thurman was 31 years old, according to her husband, and she weighed 131 pounds and was in good health. He said the diamond ring she wore was one he had given her and it cost $200.

Other witnesses of the first day included Mattie Bell, a Negro laundry woman who did Mrs. Robertson’s laundry; Nadine Mabney, employee of the Aracoma Drug Company, who testified she had sold Mrs. Thurman a package of cigarettes about 8:30 p.m.; Jack White, a 16-year-old boy who said he saw Mrs. Thurman shortly before dark; Clyde White, who said he had seen Mrs. Thurman enter Fannette Jones home about 8:10 p.m. and stayed there “several minutes”.

The last witness was W.L. Brand who said he had Mrs. Thurman between 8:30 and 9 p.m. the evening she was supposedly killed.

(NEXT: Part VIII, “Crowds Jam Outer Halls of Courtroom As Harry Robertson Takes The Stand”).

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

*Published with permission.

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