Thurman Revelations Stirred Excitement In 1932

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Logan Banner, 1985

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

By Dwight Williamson

(Part IV of a Series)

Photo of Dwight Williamson, authorExcitement was high in Logan County during the early days of July 1932.

It was understandably so because it was about two weeks after the brutal murder of Mamie Thurman.

The cramped coal camps and communities which dotted the coal rich Logan County countryside sheathed with fear and retribution, while rumors went through them like a contagion. It had been brewing since Mrs. Thurman’s body had been found in a remote spot near Holden 22 by a berry picked.

The July 8th edition of The Banner reported a story that caused even already heightened fevers to rise when it was learned from a “reliable and unimpeachable source” in Charleston that blood found in a Ford sedan owned by Harry Robertson, then an early suspect in the case, had been determined by State chemist T.A. Borradaile as human blood.

Many believed it was Mamie Thurman’s although tests used at that time were legally considered unreliable and inadmissible as evidence in court.

So many questions about this case remain shrouded in mystery today. So many, in fact, that Mrs. Thurman’s brother George Morrison, a retired prosecutor from New Mexico is looking into it for some answers. Morrison, who learned only a few years ago Mamie Thurman was his sister, is primarily interested in locating her grave so it can e properly marked.

It his sister’s famous murder and ensuing case, police had found blood stains on a window, a fender and the seat of the Robertson car, which also was operated at time by Robertson’s black handyman Clarence Stephenson, the second major suspect in the now legendary murder case.

The sedan was mainly used to transport hunting dogs when they went fox hunting. Robertson, a banker and political figure in Logan had a hunting cabin located at Trace Mountain which was frequently used.

The car had been equipped for that purpose by removing the back seat and placing a tarp six-by-eight feet over the back of the front seat and rear part of the car. Curtains, made of canvas, also were hung from the doors. it suggests that a body could have been transported in the vehicle without suspicion.

Thursday, July 9 the murder case was continued in Justice of the Peace Court before Magistrate Elba Hatfield. The official hearing was set for July 28.

Long before time for court to open surging crowds filled the court room, the curious numbering close to 1,000 according to The Banner’s account.

People were seen carrying their own chairs to the courthouse, so they would be assured of a seat. had someone been selling tickets he would have made a fortune. County residents were enthralled by the events and the trial. Nothing, not even a depression going on at the time could have moved their attention away from what was going on before their very own eyes.

Robertson and Stephenson entered the court room together at 10 a.m., a thousand eyes upon them.

The Banner reported Robertson, President of Logan City Commission, employee of the National Bank of Logan and treasurer of the Logan Public Library, seemed very composed.

Stephenson, who had previously presented a “cock-sure air,” seemed worried, and as if he had lost a lot of sleep.

The Banner described the Robertsons has highly regarded citizens. Mrs. Robertson was treasurer of the Logan Woman’s Club.

Mamie Thurman was said to be a young woman of quiet demeanor and startling revelations brought out in the first hearing seemed almost unbelievable. Mr. Robertson’s own confession that he had carried on an affair with her was said to be the greatest shock of all, mostly because the principals involved belonged to such well thought of church going families.

Mrs. Thurman, according to The Banner, was at one time an employee of the Guyan Valley Bank and was an active church worker.

“No matter where one saw her, Mrs. Thurman seemed a perfect lady,” said The Banner report. ‘She was the type of person who minded her own business and only spoke to those of whom she knew, and until the time of the tragic happening there were many in the city who did not even know her. And those closely associated with her yet refuse to believe the sordidness attached to the story.”

Although Mrs. Thurman’s funeral services were conducted in Nighbert Memorial Church in Logan by the Rev. B.C. Gamble and the service was described as ‘the most unusual ever in Logan County,” a check this morning of well-kept records at the church did not show any listing of Mamie Thurman either as being a member, as being baptized there, married there or where she had been buried. Not a trace.

According to a source at the church, there were many events recorded relating to Rev. Gamble but none regarding Mamie or Jack Thurman, her husband, who left Logan after the trial and hasn’t been seen here since.

It is almost as if they had never existed.

It is interesting to note, that many of the prominent persons who were later named to the grand jury were members of charter families of the church. If fact, C.C. Chambers, one of the defense attorneys for Stephenson and Robertson, later served as custodian of the legal papers of the church.

Meanwhile Mamie’s grave is yet to be located.

The then Harris Funeral Home records show Mrs. Thurmond was buried in Kentucky, while her death certificate reports she was buried at McConnell. A check at both places has thus far revealed no physical evidence of her final resting place.

Tuesday, July 26, just two days before the Magistrate hearing on the case, Assistant Prosecutor Emmett F. Scaggs made an interesting statement to the press.

“It is continuously coming to my attention,” he said, “that in the minds of many people there will be no vigorous prosecution in the Thurman murder case for the reasons that the names of various prominent people might be involved. As to this, I respectfully request that the public suspend or withhold judgment.

“If those of us engaged in the investigation and prosecution of this case for any reason whatsoever should let up, then we should be criticized to the fullest extent and I for one would resign. But I feel that the citizens of Logan County should and will at least bear with us until we have had a fair chance. murder and adultery are different crimes. One may carry and extreme penalty; the other a misdemeanor only.

“It has not been, nor shall it ever be, to drag the name of any person into this case for the purpose of getting even with them, or to satisfy curiosity seekers, some of whom are more interested in scandal than to know who really murdered Mrs. Mamie Thurman.

“Unless the bringing in of such names will strengthen the state’s case and shed more light thereon, they will not be used. Otherwise, the name of NO ONE SHALL BE SPARED.”

In a separate story, The Banner reported that State chemist T.A. Boradaile will arrive in Logan July 27 to present testimony concerning the blood analysis. The Banner reported the evidence to be: “…the most startling of any that has leaked out since the investigation….since it positively links someone connected with the Robertson household with the crime.”

The Banner also reported that Jack Thurman was to return from Louisville, Ky., before the final hearing. He had been in Louisville for the past two weeks visiting relatives via a furlough granted by the Logan Police Department.

Thurman’s brother Morrison, who recently paid his second visit to Logan was in the Louisville orphanage at the time, along with two other sisters.

Morrison said Thurman visited his sisters at the orphanage; he later found out and gave both of them $2. Thurmond did not visit Mr. Morrison, then a very young boy, the youngest child in the family, which had been placed in an orphanage after Mr. Morrison’s step-father (Mamie’s father) had been killed in a gun battle with police in Ashland, Ky.

(NEXT: Part V, Robertson, Stephenson Bound Over To September Grand Jury; County Court Offers $1,000 Reward For Conviction).

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

*Published with permission.

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