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A CEDAR CHEST IS NOT FOR HOPE |
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A woman has the right to a hope chest, a
place for her most cherished possessions. But hope runs out when
the only thing in the chest is human flesh and blood.
Paintsville, Ky, July 12,
1959
*State
Trooper Jack Music paused in front of the furniture store, then went
in. He was greeted by the furniture dealer.
"I understand you recently bought a
load of second hand furniture from Henry Cantrell," Music said.
"That's right," the dealer said.
"A pile of stuff--chairs, bed, sofa, tables and various odds and
ends."
"How about a cedar chest?" Music
asked. "Was that included in the sale?"
The dealer shook his head. "Nope, no
cedar chest. That wasn't in the lot."
Music walked across the town square in
Paintsville, a town of some 5000 in eastern KY, entered the courthouse
and went into the office of D.C. VanHoose, Johnson County attorney.
I'm trying a lead on the Virgie Cantrell
case, he told VanHoose "But I've gotten nothing
yet. "What's this one?" The attorney asked. "The
cedar chest---Cantrell owned one." "A cedar chest? the
county attorney said. "Yes, Henry might have had some use
for one of those. A big one could be turned into a coffin.
And I understand the one he owned was pretty good size."
The Cantrell case had kept the Paintsville
police busy ever since the summer of 1958. Henry Cantrell had
been a trouble maker for much longer than that. He had a
reputation as a cattle rustle and a bootlegger throughout
the eastern section of KY. But in the summer of 58 his name was
mentioned frequently in reference to criminal involvements.
Early one summer morning more than a year
ago, Officers Ova Johnson, Worth Blevins and Crate Spears were
coming along Main street when they spotted a nervous youth on a street
corner. Although they had done nothing to rouse his fear, he
started to run the moment he saw them. The officers took out
after him and caught him.
At approximately the same time, Police
Chief Bill Witten saw a car speeding along one of the streets without
lights. He gave chase but lost it. Then he returned to the
center of town, he learned a local hardware company had been broken
into and several guns, appliances and other articles taken.
It soon developed that the youth arrested earlier by the three officers was tied in with three others in the
hardware holdup. All four were finally rounded up and the
loot was recovered from tall weeds in a deserted hollow in Mud Lick
Creek. The speeding car was described as a late model black
Mercury. Henry Cantrell owned such a car and all four of the
implicated youth were reported to be friends of Cantrell.
But Cantrell himself was not arrested.
The arrested four were placed under bond
to await grand jury action.
Later in the month, Paintsville police received
a call about midnight from a woman who sounded very excited.
She reported hearing shots at a lumberyard at the far end of town.
The call sent night-duty officers hurrying
across town to the lumberyard. They found the
lumberyard quiet and a check of the neighborhood revealed no one who
had heard any shooting and no one who had called the police.
When the officers returned to the center
of Paintsville, they discovered that the hardware company store on
Main street had again been broken into. The stolen loot this
time included $400 worth of shotguns. A window had been broken
to gain admittance, and blood on the window indicated one of the
burglars cut his hand, But no witness and no clues were found
and no arrests were made and no loot was recovered.
the burglaries stirred the area but it was
just a ripple compared to the tidal wave that broke on November 30.
At 8:30 that morning Joe Gibson arrived at the
general store in Grassy Creek, 30 miles west of Paintsville.
Gibson was one of Evalena Stamper's tenants and she owned the store.
Gibson wanted to ask her about testing some of her cattle for
crucellosis.
The store was open but the 63 year old
woman was not there. He called out thinking she was in her
living quarters in the rear. There was no response.
Then he saw that the side door to the
stock room was open. He went in and called again, still no response. Then he saw blood on the floor.
Gibson ran out to a nearby store and
returned with several people. They found Mrs. Stamper lying
bound and gagged at the back of the store room. Her head was
bloody.
Sheriff James Phipps of Morgan County and
several deputies arrived at the general store. "She's
dead," the sheriff said. "She's been beaten and
strangled.
The community was shocked. The store
had been founded in 1898 by the victim's father, and served as a
center for the cross roads community of Grassy Creek, sometimes known
as the Chape. The community was settled in the early 1800's by
stable, peace loving, church-going farm folks.
Mrs. Stamper who took over the store when
her father died, was considered a well-to-do- woman
Investigators disclosed that the victims
purse had been cleaned of money, and that a glass in the back door had
been broken. There was a safe in the back room, but it had not
been opened
Coroner L. H. Owens said death was caused
by skull fractures and strangulation. In addition to binding
her hands and feet with bailing wire, the robbers had gagged the woman
with a handkerchief and put tape around her face to hold the
gag.
"Looks as if they tried to force her
to open the safe or tell them the combination," the sheriff
theorized.
Officers checked the neighborhood.
One man reported seeing Mr. Stamper pumping gas into a pick-up truck
at 6:45 that morning. No one had seen her alive after
that.
A farmer reported passing the general
store on his tractor about 7:45 a.m. and seeing a car parked in front.
He described it as a black Oldsmobile. He said he got a good
look at the car while backing up twice in order to get around it.
It had Magoffin County License, and was empty when he saw it.
Others in Grassy Creek had seen this same
car and also a maroon colored car which did not belong to anyone in
the neighborhood.
Authorities in Magoffin County, which
adjoins Morgan County to the south, started a search for the back late
model car, believed to be an Oldsmobile. It was not much to go
on but it was all police had except for rumors.
One of these rumors concerned Henry
Cantrell. There was talk that Henry had driven to Mount Sterling
took him through Grassy Creek. It was also pointed out that
Henry Cantrell's farm was not far from Grassy Creek. There were
other rumors, but you can't built a case on rumors.
It ws about this time that news of Mrs. Virginia Cantrell's disappearance cropped up. Virgie as she was
called hadn't been seen around., she was a pretty woman, dark and
petite. Throughout the years she was believed to have been a
loyal wife to Henry.
The wind picks up the rumors in those
hills, and blows it around the valleys and hollows. But trying
to get definite information from people is something else again.
State Trooper Music was more than just
passably interested in the rumors however. He had been interested
in Cantrell's activities ever since the hardware store robberies.
I got a tip that Henry's been seeing a
woman in Kermit, W.Va. Music told the county attorney.
"She had admitted seeing Henry recently, and says he's drinking a
lot and seems to have a large quality of money. When you ask
Henry about his wife he apparently claims she left him and went to
Ohio with his money.
"That could be" VanHoose
commented. "Could be" Music agreed. "But it doesn't
sound like Virgie Cantrell and it doesn't sound like Henry
either, I'm going to talk to more people.
Trooper Music asked questions around town,
then went down to the hollow, some 14 miles from Paintsville, where
Henry Cantrell's farm was located. there was a trailer house on
the farm but nobody was at home.
Some people in the hollow told Music that they
heard several shots fired one night, and that they hadn't seen
Virgie Cantrell since that.
Music went to the house of Cantrell's
father whose farm was a short distance up the hollow. The elder
Cantrell admitted hearing the rumors about Virgie. "Someone is
going to live hard for those rumors. he said.
Music told him neighbors reported hearing
shots one night.
"I' ve heard shooting at night,
too" the man said. "But there's a lot of shooting around
here, so what?
Music talked to almost everybody who lived
in or had business in the hollow. One man who delivered
groceries up that way and usually went through Henry's property to
save time reported that Henry had stopped him once from going through
with a deliver and explained that Virgie had broken a lot of glass on
the road and he might get a flat tire. The deliveryman took a
roundabout way skirting Henry Cantrell's property.
Sounds as if there was something on the
place Henry didn't want you to see. Music commented.
Rumors and suspicions were high in
the valley, but nobody made any missing person report, and there was
no actual evidence that foul play had been committed.
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There was one report
that interested Music concerning a 16 year old youth, close friend of
Cantrell's who never held a good job,came from a poor family had
bought a maroon colored car for $550. One of the cars reported
seen at Grassy Creek around the time of Mrs. Evalena Stamper's murder
was maroon.
But there was no strong
suspicion leveled at the boy nor at Cantrell and Music went on
digging, interviewing and waiting for more solid information
He thought he had it early in
1959 when he received a report that someone had seen several bullet
holes inside the trailer house on the Henry Cantrell farm. But
before trooper Music could investigate the trailer mysteriously
burned to the ground. If there had been any bullet holes in the
trailer there was no chance of them being used as evidence now.
An insurance adjuster from
Ashland said Cantrll was paid $500 for the burned trailer but not
until after much investigation because there had been two
other fire loses on the Henry Cantrell farm on which insurance
claim had been paid. There once was some suspicion that the
trailer had been deliberately set afire but no evidence or witness.
There was some talk that
Virgie Cantrell might have been burned up in the trailer. But a
through search of the debris failed to reveal any sign of human bones
or traces to substantiate such a theory.
It was May 21 when the first
definite evidence of foul play was uncovered. The gravel boat
crew working in the Ohio River two miles west to Russell, and some
miles northeast of Paintsville was disrupted from it's work by
discovery of a submerged automobile.
The police were called,
and the car was pulled out. It was a black 1957 model Mercury.
The doors were closed, the windows were up, the car's gear shift was
in neutral.
The car was registered to
Henry Cantrell. It's been in the water for at least several
days, one officer said. "There's been no missing report or
accident report about this car. It looks phony.
I can't figure it any other
way another officer said. "Doors and windows closed... gear
shift in neutral and ignition off...it couldn't have been driven into
the river like this. And if by some freak it was, then if
anybody was in it they surely couldn't haven gotten out with the
windows and doors closed. This car was pushed into the river
deliberately. If Henry Cantrell wants us to think he met with an
accident, he's done a bad job of it.
When examination of the
car produced no clues, the officers asking questions in the
Paintsville area were told that Henry Cantrell and his daughter had
been seen around town the previous day. Another probing led
police to a loan company in Huntington, W.Va. where they were told the
car was refinanced just two months ago when Henry Cantrell and a woman
co-signed for the car loan.
He said the woman was his wife and
she co-signed with him. a loan company officer said.
"She signed Virginia Cantrell".
Virginia Cantrell .... in here last March
... the officer exclaimed. "She' been missing for
months. What did this woman look like? The man gave
a description, but it was far from one that would fit Virginia
Cantrell. Now the investigation was stepped up. An officer
interviewed Cantrell's daughter, in Ashland, KY, but she denied
knowing where Henry Cantrell was, although it was reported that she
thought her mother was dead. So far she as knew, Henry was dead
too.
She said the last she saw
Henry was May 14, when he came to get the car. trooper Music
assessed all of these reports and came up with his theory, based on
the reports rumors, the substantiated reports and the missing cedar
chest.
I think Virginia Cantrell is
dead and I think her body is buried somewhere on that farm. I've
talked to about 200 people on this and I'm convinced of it.
That's a fir sized farm one officer pointed out. "We
couldn't dig it all up. You got any idea where to start?"
Music nodded.
"I've been all over that place. Virginia had a
garden...right over there where the trailer burned. Now, in the
middle of this garden, Henry had his potato hole....but from the size
of that hole, if three's nothing but potatoes in it, he has enough
potatoes there to feed the county."
The next day, officers called
at the home of Henry Cantrell's father. We're still looking for
Virgie, he said. The man said had no idea where she was or where
Henry was either. "We want to search Henry's place,'"
Music said.
The man gave permission for
the state to dig anywhere and arrangements were made for digging
equipment from the state highway department.
On Wednesday, July 1, 1959,
the equipment and a host of officers moved down Moon road, like a
advancing army.
A crowd gathered
and followed in the army's wake, down into the hollow and to the farm
of Henry Cantrell. The remains of the burned trailer were
evident and the garden of Virgie Cantrell with the out sized potato
hole, was not far from it. "We'll start here" the
bulldozer operator was told.
The bulldozer went to work on
the potato hole. There was the sound of grinding and digging, as
the big blade plowed deep into the ground.
"Don't look like there's
anything here but p potatoes, one observer remarked.
"They're more than six feet deep now.
The bulldozer backed up then
went forward again, digging deeper. There was the rasp of the
blade on something hard, and anxiety heightened. More
earth was cleared away and one of the officers shouted:
"There it is. The cedar chest. It had been buried
seven feet deep.
The crowd pressed forward and
officers put up ropes to hold them back. The dirt was pushed
aside exposing a 45-inch chest. Opened it revealed a pile of
clothing. Officers started to pull the clothing out, until one
officer called a half. "We'd better have the coroner here
now>"
A restless feeling gripped
the crowd as they waited the arrival of Coroner Jim Trimble.
When he came, the rest of the clothing were taken out, and there was a
spontaneous gasp. The body of a woman was on the bottom of
the cedar chest, face down , with legs doubled up across the back.
While some of the officers
were busy removing the body, others hurried off to Inez, KY 17 miles
east of Paintsville, to check out a new lead concerning a relative of
Henry Cantrell's.
The report was that Henry and
his relatives had been seen in the hollow one night last October,
driving their cars in a caravan and stopping a number of times en
route to converse with each other.
Virginia Cantrell was never
reportedly seen alive in the hollow after that night. This
relative was reported to have remarked when asked about Virginia
Cantrell's disappearance, "He should have h=killer her
soon." Officers picked up the relative early that afternoon
and told him they were going to take him to Paintsville for
questioning. While they were still in the sheriff's office in
Inez, before starting the ride to Paintsville, the relative turned to
Deputy sheriff Garman Horn, handed him some papers, and asked him to
keep them for him until he returned.
At Paintsville, state police
questioned the relative. He denied knowing anything about the
body in the cedar chest, or the whereabouts of Henry Cantrell.
He also denied being at Henry's home the night in October when
the strange procession of cars was reportedly observed and he said he
never had any such experience.
But even as he was denying
knowledge of Henry's whereabouts, Deputy Horn was checking into
the slip of paper the man had left with him. It carried the
address of a Miami, Fla. Hotel.
State Police Lieutenant
Billy Lykins made a long distance call to Miami police. He gave
an officer the address, a description, and a rundown on the case,
"We 've got a murder warrant out for Cantrell now, and I'll send
you a telegram requesting he be held on the warrant.
Miami police went to the
hotel checked the guest list and found no Henry Cantrell but a man
listed as Henry Pendleton fitted the description of the 51-year old
Kentucky man. Police learned he worked as a dishwasher in a
Miami restaurant. He was picked up and acknowledged he was Henry
Cantrell.
He was taken to the office of
Detective Lieutenant James Reese who showed him the telegram from
Kentucky.
"I don't know anything
abut it," Canter said, without asking who he was Cantrell with
murdering. Reese asked him about his wife, and Cantrell
said "She up and left me last October."
"Did you report her
missing?" he was asked "It's no use reporting a wife
running off in that neighborhood," Cantrell replied; Asked
why he was going under a different name. Cantrell said, "I
got tired of using the name Cantrell, I never did like it.
In Paintsville the next
morning, a Pikeville pathologist had a report for Coroner Trimble.
The woman in the cedar chest had been shot twice, once in the head and
once in the back. The body was identified as that of Mrs.
Virginia Cantrell, by a daughter, and the identification was
substantiated by Paintsville dentist who identified a partial plate
found in the victim's mouth as one he had made for the 41 year old
Virginia Cantrell.
Henry Cantrell was returned
to Paintsville on July 17, charged with murder, he maintains he was
framed.
On July 15, a preliminary
hearing was held and Henry Cantrell was ordered held in jail without
bond on the charge. At this writing he is in jail awaiting
action on the murder charges.
Police however are not
through with their investigation. Officers intended to drain and
clean out a well on Henry's farm. some expect the well to
contain the rest of Mrs. Cantrell's wardrobe and possible some of the
loot from the hardware store robberies
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