They Lined-Up Early To Get A Seat At The Thurman Trial

Leave a Comment / Mamie Thurman / / Dwight Williamson


The Logan Banner, Tuesday, August 27, 1985

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

By Dwight Williamson
Part X of a Series.

Logan was spellbound.

The Mamie Thurman Murder Trial of 1932 held the country in its grip.

And, the Friday, Oct. 14 edition of The Logan Banner reported a “packed house” in the Logan County Courthouse long before 3 a.m. Oct. 13, the day Mrs. Harry Robertson was to testify in the trial of Clarence Stephenson, the man who went to prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit.

Everyone wanted to be sure to get a seat.

Apparently interest in the 53-year-old murder and the fantastic revelations which came out of it are no less gripping today than they were then. It is a half-century-old mystery that still boggles the mind and whets the literary palates of even the most voracious mystery fan.

It certainly has generated major interest today among county residents as it has Mrs. Thurman’s brother, George Morrison, who has traveled here twice from New Mexico in an attempt to locate her yet elusive gravesite.
Holland Building, Logan, WV
The case is also bringing many “out of the closet” with what they know about the principles in the trial know about the principles in the trial and investigation. Street sales of The Logan Banner have never been better. But, nothing offers more intrigue and excitement than The Banner’s hot headlines in 1932, bringing the shocking and singeing news which threatened to bring Logan’s social stratum crumbling down about its knees.

The Banner reported: “…the crowd was anxious to hear Mrs. Robertson’s testimony.” When the trial started and Mrs. Robertson was called to the witness stand “they strained to hear her.”

The Banner also described Mrs. Robertson as a “splendid witness” not for a minute did she falter.”

“Yes, I knew Mrs. Thurman,” said Mrs. Robertson when questioned by prosecution. “I have known her ever since they moved there eight years ago this fall. The lived over our garage, the part where cars are facing Main Street.

“We knew each other and frequently she was in my home and I was out there. For about two years or 18 months, we went about quite a bit together, and played golf at the country club.”

“I stopped going around with Mrs. Thurman last January. Well, I had reasons to believe she and my husband were intimate and I wouldn’t be around with a woman that was intimate with my husband. One Saturday night in January was the last night she was ever in my home.”

When questioned about the day murder victim Mamie Thurman was last seen (June 21), Mrs. Robertson said her husband had left for work that morning and was home for lunch and was home from work that evening as usual. She added that Mr. Robertson took the children (a boy and girl) to a swimming pool at Stollings.

“They came back between 6:30 and 7 o’clock. I had supper ready and we all ate together,” explained Mrs. Robertson.

Mrs. Robertson further stated that her husband had work done on the Packard automobile that same day and decided to take the car “around the block and put it up.” She said he took his son with him and said he would be back by 9 p.m. to listen to the prize fight. She added that her husband had washed dishes after dinner, a chore the black handyman Stephenson normally did. But, he was ill, she said.

Mrs. Robertson said she did not see Stephenson leave the house, but that he was in the dining room after Mr. Robertson left and ‘was in the kitchen a time or two.”

While the prize fight was in progress, Mrs. Robertson testified, Stephenson knocked on the door and she let him in.

“Mr. Townsend (Oscar Townsend who also lived in the Robertson home and worked at the bank with Harry Robertson) went to bed at 10:30 and we retired about 15 or 20 minutes later. Stephenson didn’t go to bed when we did, but came in a little while after we were in bed.” I heard him come in and go upstairs and close his door. I didn’t remain awake long, I don’t think. I never heard Clarence anymore that night after 11 o’clock.

When defense attorney C.C. Chamber questioned Mrs. Robertson about the firearms found in the Robertson home, Mrs. Robertson said: “Clarence kept his pistol in the pantry in a built-in cabinet. I told him to put the gun up somewhere safe, as I was afraid the children would get it.

“My husband had a gun, but I don’t know what kind, as I don’t know anything about pistols. But I heard them say it was a .38.”

Mrs. Robertson said she was in bed about 4 a.m. Thursday, when police officers came to the house and took a pistol out from under a bed. She said her husband had been arrested and was in the custody of the police. She added that she heard one of the officers say the pistol hadn’t been fired.

“I have heard Clarence go in and out after we’ve gone to bed,” Mrs. Robertson said. “I am not a heavy sleeper and any unusual noise awakens me. I usually wake about 5 or 5:30 and don’t sleep much until getting up time, which is about 6:30.”

Mrs. Robertson’s testimony in regard to her husband’s alleged affairs with Mrs. Thurman was described by The Banner a “very unusual, as she based all of her suspicions and belief on her woman’s institution.”

“I learned they were intimate with each other because I had cause to believe they were. A woman doesn’t have to be told these things. I had an intuition and was not told by anyone there was too much intimacy between my husband and Mrs. Thurman.

“I had an intuition before January, but I didn’t watch my husband. I watched his actions.

Prosecutor James Damron asked Mrs. Robertson if she had ever spoken to Mamie Thurman about the alleged affair.

“No, but I was talking to Mrs. Thurman once and she told me someone had told her she had better watch her husband.

“I told her, ‘If your husband is ever untrue to you, you won’t have to be told, you’ll know it’.”

In later testimony, Mrs. Robertson said she had not spoken to Mrs. Thurman since a day in May.

“I had no enmity toward Mrs. Thurman. Of course I cared and was hurt. But what was the use to be mad about it,” asked Mrs. Robertson.

Mr. Robertson later denied Stephenson had ever told her that Mamie Thurman was “trying to frame her.” Strangely enough, the 1932 newspaper account did not make further mention of this fact brought out in the trial.

The state asked: “Mrs. Robertson, you never heard anything about Mamie telling your husband things which might reflect against you?” Apparently, Mrs. Robertson answered no because the following paragraph in The Banner read:

Another denial made by Mrs. Robertson was about her sending word to the jailer, Lance Hall, for him not to let Stephenson want for anything.

The trial continued throughout the day, with other witnesses called and other re-called to the witness stand. The trial continued until 9 p.m. that day when the jury went into session. Fifty minutes later, a guilty verdict was returned sending Stephenson o jail for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile Morrison, Mamie’s orphaned half-brother, yesterday was contacted in New Mexico. Morrison said he has received five letters regarding his half-sister. One of the letters was unsigned and told Morrison that he must run an ad in the legal section of tomorrow’s Logan Banner in order for the person writing the letter to telephone Morrison and tell him the true story about Mamie Thurman.

And, the case becomes even more mysterious by the day.

One man who has been helping The Banner to locate the gravesite at McConnell telephoned yesterday to say he had contacted a lady who had a map of the McConnell cemetery. However, according to the man, the woman said someone had already purchased the map from her for $1,000.

And, the tangled web of the Black Widow spins on, ensnaring the mesmerized in a never-ending web which spans three generations.

NEXT: Part XI, “Testimony Continues; Harry Robertson, Stephenson Re-Called To Stand; Negro Community Helps Stephenson”)

Correction

In yesterday’s story regarding Mamie Thurman, it was incorrectly stated that Elwood Sloan, Brother of Norman Sloan who was an inmate of convicted murdered Clarence Stephenson, was sentenced to prison in relation to the trial of what has been dubbed “The Logan County.”

However, members of Elwood Sloan’s family informed The Banner yesterday that Mr. Sloan is now serving prison time in Lexington, Ky. in relation to extortion charges and not charges stemming from the previously mentioned trial.

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

*Published with permission.

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