CORPSE IN THE CEDAR CHEST |
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by Sam Gordon |
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Finally the power shovel brought
up a large box and in
it was found the body of Virginia Cantrell
with bullet holes in the chest and head.
Nobody had ever said that State
"Trooper Jack Music ever had a easy job.
His tour of duties includes a
section of Eastern Kentucky where gritty mountaineers
live in a provincial world all
their own . Natives are tight- lipped and rumors are rare in
Johnson County. That's why persistent talk about one
woman's strange disappearance aroused the curiosity of Music. He
called the County Attorney D.C. VanHoose
about it while the latter was in Paintsville in connection
with the January 1959 term of
Johnson County Circuit Courts. The woman's
name is Mrs. Virginia Cantrell", Music explained.
"She hasn't been seen since last October.
Her husband says she ran out on him: The
County Attorney had heard the same rumors. Some
of the hill people were saying "Virgie" Cantrell
had been murdered. When did this talk start? "VanHoose asked.
Jack Music told him
that was difficult to say " I first heard the
rumors back in December, and people
must have been talking a long time before I got wind of it. They don't
tell their troubles to outsiders very readily.
The trooper told VanHoose as much as he knew about Virgie
Cantrell. "She is 44 years old," he said.
"Dark haired, about 5 feet 2 inches tall and
of slight attractive build. She is from a
large, long established Johnson County family and was one
of the prettiest and most popular girls in
Paintsville before she married Henry Cantrell.
They live on a farm in Fuget. That's 13 miles
northwest of Paintsville in the Red Bush section.
Jack Music went on to say the Cantrell' s had one daughter, Loretta. "I've talked to several people about the Cantrell's. Nobody has ever heard of marital trouble there. People say that whatever Henry did was all right with Virgie, that she never believed any wrong on him.
The County
Attorney was puzzled. He knew that loyalty was one of the
stronger characteristics of these mountain people. "If
Virgie Cantrell loved her husband so much," he asked, " why
would she run out on him.?'
Trooper Music and
everybody else in Johnson County had been wondering the same
thing. "That's why people are talking."
he told VanHoose. " The thing doesn't add
up".
Both the County Attorney and
Jack Music knew quite a bit about Henry Cantrell. He is 51
years old, a rugged backwoodsman typical of the section in
which he lived. Like his wife, Henry
is from an old Johnson County family.
The hills and hollows
of Eastern Kentucky are full of Cantrell's.
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Henry had been a constable a
while back. He had also worked on county roads
as a bulldozer operator for several years ,
but he was not
employed in that capacity at the time VanHoose
and Music were talking about his wife's strange disappearance.
"He used to run
the Knotty Pine Inn at Paintsville with his daughter, Loretta the
Trooper reminded VanHoose "There was trouble about the sale
of whiskey and the place was closed."
Johnson County is in local option territory.
VanHoose remembered the
Knotty Pine Inn and much more. Rumor had
it that Henry Cantrell obtained whiskey
in Mount Sterling, KY. and brought it back in his 1957 black
Mercury via a little traveled road that passed the
home of Mrs. Evalena Stamper about a mile from the Cantrell place Mrs.
Stamper was bludgeoned and strangled to death on Thursday
morning, November 20, 1958. Sheriff James
Phipps believed the motive for the crime
was robbery. The only clue to the unsolved
case was that a black late model car had been seen parked
in front of Mrs. Stamper's house with the motor running for some time
the morning of the murder.
There also came to
VanHoose's mind the robbery of the Big Sandy Hardware Company in
Paintsville the first week in August , 1958.
Part of the loot, 15
shotguns, four rifles, 12 electric razors, pocket knives and rifle and
shotgun shells, was recovered among tall weeds in a deserted hollow in
Mud Lick Creek. But most of the stolen property was never found.
Some of Henry Cantrell 's relatives and friends had been
convicted of
that crime.
County Attorney
VanHoose and Jack Music went over all this data and speculation.
Certainly Henry Cantrell had not even been arrested in connection with
either the murder of Mrs. Stamper or the Hardware
robbery . Still
the strange disappearance of his wife and the talk about her
murder
was worth investigating.
VanHoose
said,"I"ll pass what little information we have concerning
Virgie Cantrell along to Common- wealth Attorney
W. H. Hazelrigg.
He can study the facts and make the next move."
Hazelrigg listened
to what VanHoose had to say and concluded that where there was so much
smoke there could be fire. He requested Detective Chester D.
Potter, with headquarters in Pikeville, to make a complete
investigation.
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