Logan Banner, Monday, August 26, 1985
Special thanks to Mark Edward Jones for providing a clipping of this article.
By Dwight Williamson
Murder and murder trials were by no means unusual for Logan County in 1932.
But there was one which stirred more than the usual interest and reached into the very heat of Logan – the Mamie Thurman murder trial.
Nearly every edition of The Logan Banner at that time contained at least one story of murder or a murder trial. It is one of several reasons why Logan County has had a blemished name in West Virginia – it was a rough and tough place to live.
In some respects it still is.
But, a true Logan Countian, unlike anyone else, is tied to his home with roots so deep it is impossible to pry him loose. To turn on an old phrase, “you can take a boy out of Logan, but you can’t take the Logan out of a boy.” Mountain Mama will always draw him home and draw him back to yesterday. It’s home…it’s where the heart is.
Even though George Morrison spent most of his life out of the state as an orphan and later a New Mexico lawyer and prosecutor, he too, like so many other, is drawn back to the hills…drawn back to find some answers about his sister’s death way back in 1932…and drawn back to properly mark the grave of a murdered woman scorned by society for her romantic mis-deeds, yet adored by the men who were her lovers — the heart of official and professional Logan County.
While the tainted image Logan County belies the true character of Logan and her people, those same people who love this country as much as they love themselves, such incidents which have spotted the country’s history have provided enough legend and intrigue to fill historic volumes. Those stories still reach out to us today. They grip us with fascination just as real now as it was for them then.
Through the murder of Mamie Thurman and the trial of Clarence Stephenson were “headline news” in ’32, there were many other murders which received nearly the same amount of newspaper coverage. It was a most notable year in the history of Logan County. It was a year of transition, of change and of dynamic events in this notorious town.
September editions of The Banner contained many interesting stories and advertisements.
The Banner reported that the Ammar Brothers, the last of whom died just last week at 95, and at the time had been in Logan 10 years, were planning the opening of a large department store which would be “one of the most attractive department stores in southern West Virginia.” Construction costs were reported to be $8,000, paid for by S.A., K.A. and N.A. Ammar. S.A. Ammar would be the manager.
Piggy Wiggly, described as the biggest grocery store in Logan, featured salt bacon for 8 1/2 cents per pound. The A&P and Kroger stores had advertisements for coffee for 21 cents per pound; four pounds of navy beans for 10 cents and two pounds of lard for 13 cents.
It was an election year which would later change the course of history for both Logan and the entire United States. A full-page ad read: “Hold On To Hoover.” “Every Crisis Needs Its Own Master.”
The invention of radio was the missing communication link for America. And though few Logan Countians could afford it, the Logan Mercantile store was proud to have the radio available “at low terms.” Described as marvelous, the advertisement read: “Hear Your Candidate On his Road To Presidential Fame. Tune in on a Philco, the world’s greatest radio. Once you hear a 1933 Philco, you will know why it is the choice of seven of ten radio buyers.” The cost was listed as $100.
Hatfield Island (now Midelburg Island) was said to be the proposed site of a Logan airport. One newspaper account described the site as “an ideal flying field.”
Progress was being made right before their eyes. But, the thing that held the county’s attention was Mrs. Thurman’s brutal murder, the revelations in court about her escapades with as many as 16 prominent men and the trial which would pin the killing on a banker-politician’s black handyman. Some quipped that he was “handy” when it came time to find someone to blame it on.
These events, and many others like them, are easily remembered by one Logan County resident, Norman Sloan.
Sloan, 70, who also remembers the man convicted of the murder, Clarence Stephenson, says it is almost “as if it were yesterday.”
A resident of Ethel, Sloan spent time in the Logan County jail and later at Moundsville with Stephenson, the latter sentenced to life for the murder of Mamie Thurman.
At the age of 16, Sloan, along with two other juveniles, was accused of stealing candy from a local store. Unlike today’s more lenient justice where juveniles essentially can’t be jailed and often spend no time in jail and only get their ‘wrists slapped”, Sloan was placed in Logan County jail with felons, and accused felons like Stephenson.
“There was no juvenile stuff back in them days”, said Sloan. “And, if you didn’t have the money for a lawyer, you didn’t have a chance.”
Sloan said Stephenson never was “locked up” in the Logan jail.
“He never ate a bite of jail food,” explained Sloan. “Everything was carried to him three times a day from the New Eagle restaurant. He didn’t talk much in the Logan jail, but he talked freely in Moundsville.”
According to West Virginia Penitentiary records, Stephenson was convicted of murder Oct. 24, 1932 and was received at Moundsville Aug. 22, 1934. On June 22, 1939 he was transferred to work at Huttonsville Prison Farm. The record indicated he died of stomachic carcinoma (stomach cancer) April 24, 1942. He was buried on the prison farm May 2, 1942.
Sloan was convicted and sentenced of a felony crime in 1936. It was at Moundsville he saw Stephenson again.
“Stephenson was the funniest looking man you ever seen,” said Sloan. “His forehead stuck out, but he wasn’t as bad looking as the picture you all (The Banner) had of him in the paper the other day.”
“I have a memory like an elephant,” said Sloan. “When you play checkers with somebody and gamble with them like I did Stephenson, you don’t forget that.
“Moundsville wasn’t no playpen. It was terrible. We all would meet in the yard and play ball or dominoes. Moundsville was full of people from Logan.”
Sloan named several native Logan Countians, some still living, who were in Moundsville during the time he was imprisoned (1936-42).
Stephenson, who served as Warden Orel Skeens’ chauffeur, according to Sloan, reportedly talked with Sloan “several times.”
“He told me he was hired to take the body to 22 Mountain and that he didn’t do anything to Mamie Thurman,” said Sloan. “He never did say he knew who killed her. All he said was that he didn’t do it. He said it was politics.”
“Let’s just say he’s where he ought to be right now,” said Sloan. “I remember, he had a voice like a woman.”
Sloan’s recollections of Logan County and the Logan jail then located at Hudgins Street, paint an intriguing picture of Logan.
“The jail was a three-story building,” said Sloan. “The first two floors were for the men, and the third floor was for women. I’ve never seen such a law like there was in Logan back then. There was as many women in jail as there was men.
“I remember seeing all kinds of women lined up by the Health Department to go to jail. Back then, there was an outbreak of syphilis and gonorrhea. All you had to do was call the police and tell them a woman gave you a disease and they would come and arrest her.”
“I’ve been in prison, but I have a high respect for the law, but not crooked law.”
It is interesting now to note that Sloan, brother of Elwood Sloan, convicted in the 1969 election law violations, was a key FBI witness for the Prosecution which led to the imprisonment of “The Logan County Five”…and that’s another story all by itself.
(NEXT: Part X, “More Interesting 1985 News Surfaces”)
Dwight Williamson is a former writer for the Logan Banner and a retired magistrate for Logan County.
*Published with permission.
Articles by Dwight Williamson on this site.
- “Boots” was anything but a normal coal miner
- 1916, 1917 were especially eventful years in Logan County
- A guardian angel from 1972
- A stringent look into the history of Logan County
- Alderson helped elevate Logan to greatness
- Articles about the Murder of Mamie Thurman
- C.C. Chambers was one tough judge
- Cap Hatfield led an interesting life
- Changes in Logan during the year 1912
- City losing another historical structure
- Coal camp Christmas memories
- Death of the Hatfield brothers
- Dehue Company Store Closing
- Don Chafin and the Battle of Blair Mountain
- Early 1900s Logan was crime infused with soap opera
- Early Logan Co.: A mighty tough place to live
- Early Logan County was a ‘mess’
- Early Travel in Logan County
- English credited with discovering coal in Logan Co.
- Even without the vote, Logan women accomplished much
- Every building in downtown Logan has a story
- Finding Princess Aracoma
- Fires change course of Logan’s history
- Former baseball player from Holden barely remembered today
- Growing up with the Company Store
- Halloween escapades of the “Porch Sitters”
- Hatfield and Chafin clans played large role in Logan history
- History before our eyes
- Holiday Memories from the Shegon Inn
- Kathy’s story
- Life was more free when tram roads crossed the mountains
- Logan Co. people with national interest
- Logan County history filled with unsolved murders
- Logan County is rich with Native American history
- Logan High School almost missed being on the island
- Logan was a focal point of Tommy gun sales
- Logan’s Boulevard has a storied history
- Man, W.Va., holds 100 years of memories
- Mid-1930s were a wild time in Logan County
- Monumental efforts gave us our ‘Doughboy’
- Neighbors
- Recalling one of the worst floods in Logan
- Recollections of old stores and “filling” stations
- Remembering some of the coal camp communities
- Remembering the Community of Holden 22
- Searching for the Holland grave
- Some find their life goals at home; others move away
- Spiritually reuniting Logan’s pioneer couple
- The Civil War in Logan County
- The Creation of Logan County
- The end the Hatfield political dominance
- The historic cemetery in Logan
- The journey of Logan’s Woman’s Club
- The legendary Don Chafin
- The little town at the mouth of Buffalo Creek
- The man responsible for the creation of Mingo County
- The Midelburg family history in Logan
- The murderous ’30s
- The old custom of ‘funeralizing’
- The porch sitters
- The story of the Chirico family restaurants
- Today’s kids don’t know the freedom we had