Indian Trails Lead Way for Today’s Roads, Highways . . . . . . . 1

1931 – Hate Crime: Mob Murder at Maryville, MO

Although this ugly crime actually did not deputies on the way to the courthouse for happen in Daviess County, it is perhaps the him to plead guilty to the charge. The sheriff most notorious crime ever to be committed also suffered lacerations and bruises. in Northwest Missouri — and no one was A few members of the crowd grabbed jailed. It happened about 90 miles from Gal- Gunn and clipped his ears with snippers. latin in Nodaway County. The following was Gunn then confessed to the killing, but published in the Jan. 15, 1931, edition of the indicated another negro known as "Shike" Gallatin North Missourian, headlined Smith also had a hand in it. Upon reaching “Negro Murderer Taken and Burned.” the schoolhouse, shingles were torn from the

At that time, a mob of nearly 4,000 roof leaving the rafters to serve as a ladder. people, both of spectators and of partici- He was chained to the roof with heavy pants, had either watched or helped in the chains, gasoline from one of the cars was dragging of a negro man, Raymond Gunn, used to saturate the rafters, and a match lit. down the streets of Maryville, and towards a As the flames quickly spread, the small country school house four miles away schoolhouse roof fell into the fire carrying where he had assaulted and killed a white Gunn's body with it. Gunn let out a loud school teacher, Miss Velma Colter. He'd screech and then silence. hidden in a ditch waiting for her to dismiss A group of 50 national guardsmen had her class that day. When the children left the mobilized in the armory in case efforts were school grounds, he entered the school house made to snatch the prisoner from the where he did his harmful act. officers. They didn't leave the building

Now, the mob was ready to do their because there hadn't been any request by the "justice." Gunn was seized as he walked sheriff for them, which left them powerless along with the sheriff and three of his to act.

These are only a few selected examples of crime stories which occurred during a century, beginning in the 1880s when the Squirrel Cage Jail in Gallatin was put to use

20 years for stealing $800?

In 1933, three days after a jury found Daryl Hillyard of Bethany guilty of robbing $800 from the Bank of Coffey, Judge Ira D. Beals sentenced Hillyard to 20 years in the state penitentiary. The acquittal of Hillyard of murder in Harrison County just months before explains this unusually harsh sentence. The conviction on bank robbery was Hillyard's fourth trial in two years. He was accused of the murder of an elderly lady who lived near Bethany. This first trial at Bethany, as well as a second trial on a change of venue at Trenton, resulted in a hung jury. The third trial, at Bethany, was an acquittal. This caused much public consternation, including the ire of Judge A.G. Knight: "I am humiliated, to say the least," said Judge Knight from the bench. "...many school children attended this trial. The youth of this land are taught that it is all right to lend your car to a man who is going out to rob; that's all right. This was just a defenseless old woman murdered in cold blood." "Administration of criminal law is behind the times," he said. "It needs revision. In these days of racketeering, kidnaping, of murder, of robbery, if the people do not rise to the importance of it, we may as well have anarchy. I am no moralist, but I hate to see justice miscarried. I hope I may never again in this county or in this district or in this state see or hear of anything like this." On Dec. 11, 1896, someone attempted to blow open the safe in the Lock Springs Bank (there are not enough details to confirm whether that was a successful or merely an attempted burglary or robbery).

1929 — Pattonsburg Savings Bank

At 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, 1929, two young men robbed the Savings Bank at Pattonsburg of about $8,000 in cash. They were pursued by many armed men and were captured by C.K. Connell and Gordon Sweany after ditching their car. A few shots were exchanged, but no one was hit. The money was recovered.

1931 — The Bank of Coffey

In January, 1931, the Bank of Coffey was robbed. The two young male bandits entered the bank at about 1:30 p.m. on a Thursday and took over $800 in cash. Cashiers W.T. Siple and J.G. O'Hare were in the bank and W.A. Patridge entered the bank while the holdup was in progress. The robbers took money from the cashier drawers and some silver from the vault. Money in the big safe in the front window was apparently overlooked. The robbers put the three citizens in the vault, but failed to lock the door. The thieves evidently escaped to the north in a Ford sedan.

Still More Crime

1856 — County's First Stabbing

Larkin Packwood, claiming he was robbed of hogs and cheated of corn at a grinding mill, stabbed John T. Dougherty to death during a brawl near the river mill. He was held in the old pit jail on the Gallatin square, tried on a change of venue to Caldwell County, and convicted of murder in the first degree. In January, 1858, this ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in Jefferson City, finding that Packwood had acted in self-defense.

1982 — Kidnapping ...then Murder

Rosalyn Nelson, the 34-year-old mother of 9year-old Jennifer Barden who was abducted from her Gallatin home just months before (and later discovered dead in Oklahoma), was charged with murdering her husband in an Aug. 6 arson fire. Mrs. Nelson was sentenced to two years probation.

1982 — Double-murder Suicide

A deranged George Page approached the Tom Bergman farm northwest of Gallatin with revenge in his heart for business dealings gone sour. He thought Bergman owed him $20,000 for his work prospecting for gold in Alaska during the summer of 1980. By the time the 30-year-old man put a gun to his mouth and killed himself, he had devastated three families and robbed 13 children of their mother or father. Killed were Kevin Bergman, 16, Carl Bergman, 12, and the mother of nine children, Mary Bergman. Also murdered was John Ed Ramsbottom, an electrician who happened to be working at the Bergman farmstead at the time.