Diana Staresinic-Deane - Shadow on the Hill: The True Story of a 1925 Kansas Murder

SHADOW ON THE HILL:

The True Story of a 1925 Kansas Murder

Diana Staresinic-Deane

Copyright 2013 Diana Staresinic-Deane,

All rights reserved.

Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com

http://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1451-5

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

In memory of Florence, John, and Roger Knoblock

A special heartfelt thanks to my husband, Jim;

early readers Rosa Lee, Yvonne, Karen, Tony, Sarah, and Jeff;

my friend and editor, Erin;

and my EPL friends who were around when I found the folder

The Family

Florence Knoblock, victim

John Knoblock, Florences husband

Roger Knoblock, Florence and Johns four-year-old son

Charles Knoblock, John Knoblocks father

Mary Knoblock, John Knoblocks mother

John Mozingo, Florences father

Mary Mozingo, Florences mother

John Johnnie Mozingo Jr., Florences brother

Edna Mozingo, Florences sister

Ella Kellerman, Florences sister

John Kellerman, Ellas husband

Frances McCormick, Florences sister

Ruth Mozingo, Florences sister

Vesta Vet Mozingo, Florences sister

Herman Pete Jenkins, Florences maternal uncle

Alice Naylor, Florences maternal aunt

Minnie Aunt Min Jaggers, Florences maternal aunt

The Law

Arch C. Brown, Greenwood County deputy sheriff

Detective Maple, from the Burns Detective Agency

Frank Hunter, Coffey County sheriff

George Griffith, Coffey County deputy

Leroy Hurt, police chief in Emporia

Samuel Sam Crumley, Lyon County Sheriff

Steven A. Grubb, Coffey County deputy sheriff

T. H. Olinger, Coffey County deputy sheriff

William Bill Utesler, Coffey County deputy sheriff

The Court

A. H. Woodrow, court reporter for Judge Richardson

C. B. Griffith, Kansas attorney general

Emma Randolph, stenographer

Fred Harris, prosecuting attorney from Franklin County

Isaac T. Richardson, district court judge

J. H. Rudrauff, Justice of the Peace

Jennie Caven, court clerk

Joe Rolston, Franklin County prosecutor

John Stewart, Kansas attorney general investigator

Lon McCarty, Lyon County attorney

May Larson, stenographer

Owen S. Samuel, defense attorney

Ray Pierson, Franklin County attorney

R. C. Burnett, Kansas attorney generals assistant

W. C. Harris, defense attorney

The Undertakers/Coroner

Eugene Stone, undertaker/furniture maker

Joseph O. Stone, coroner

Roy Jones, undertaker/furniture maker

The Reporters

Reverend A. C. Babcock, correspondent for True Story magazine

Bill White, reporter for the Emporia Gazette

Glick Fockele, reporter for The LeRoy Reporter

John Redmond, editor and reporter for the Daily Republican

Lee R. Hettick, reporter for the Gridley Light

The Hounds

George Eaton, experienced bloodhound handler from Kansas City, Kansas

Old Bess, bloodhound from Kansas City, Kansas

Tom, bloodhound from Kansas City, Kansas

George Wilson, police officer and bloodhound handler from Lyon County (Emporia)

King Rustler, bloodhound from Lyon County (Emporia)

Queen Rosalind, bloodhound from Lyon County (Emporia)

Captain Volney G. Mullikin, owner of Rockwood Kennels in Kentucky, breeder of Emporia bloodhounds

The Doctors

Dr. A. B. McConnell

Dr. Albert N. Gray

Dr. David W. Manson

Dr. Harry T. Salisbury, conducted Florences autopsy

Dr. Melvin Roberts

The First Jury (Franklin County)

Frank Hiles, Ottumwa Township

Oliver Kelly, Ottumwa Township, foreman

Jack Britton, Rock Creek Township

E. E. Baker, Rock Creek Township

George Baker, Rock Creek Township

John Clark, Rock Creek Township

W. C. Combes, Lincoln Township

E. W. Ellis, Lincoln Township

George Bruce, Aliceville

Frank Decker, Burlington

G. H. Bennett, Rock Creek Township

Charles Strickland, Burlington

The Second Jury (Lyon County)

S. C. White, Bushong

Arthur Kirkland, Bushong

A. Q. Thornbrugh, Miller

Robert Castle, Admire

Earl Stonebraker, Admire

Edward Haas, Allen, foreman

O. B. Rhudy, Allen

James Heironymous, Admire

H. K. Gage, Reading

W. C. Showalter, Bushong

J. R. Bennett, Miller

John Mundy, Waterloo Township

Authors Note

Id never even heard of Florence Knoblock until her story fell at my feet.

One hot August morning in 2007, I was chasing after a group of hyper children playing hide-and-seek in the stacks at Emporia Public Library in Emporia, Kansas, where I worked as a library assistant. As I was passing through the stacks between the nonfiction collection and the genealogy area, a folder slipped off of the shelf and fell at my feet. It was thin, made with heavy green paper embossed in a faux leather pattern. Someone had scrawled Knoblock Murder in a shaky hand within the boundaries of the little rectangle on the cover.

The brads inside held nothing, but the right pocket contained several news clippings. May Have Murderer, read the first Emporia Gazette headline. I turned the clipping sideways and saw 2 June 1925 written in the same old-style cursive as on the folder cover.

Intrigued, I carried the folder back to the reference desk to read.

I shuffled through the microfilm printouts. Twenty-two newspaper clippings from two different newspapers: the Emporia Gazette and the Olpe Optimist , which had served the small town of Olpe, nine miles south of Emporia. It was obvious that this green folder was someones personal research folder, as each microfilm printout was dated in the same handwriting, featuring a loopy number two in the 1925. I also doubted it had been in the building very long, as it had been tucked onto the same shelf as some of our more heavily used materials. But why was this folder on the shelf at all? And why had no one found it before now?

The headlines were sensational, in bold capital letters across the width of their respective newspapers: MAY HAVE MURDERER: BURLINGTON AWAITS REPORT ON FINGERPRINTS; CALL IN DETECTIVES: KNOBLOCK MURDER PROBE WILL BE PUSHED; MYSTERY IS GROWING: NEW DEVELOPMENTS TEND TO CLEAR NEGRO; CALL OUT A POSSE: BURLINGTON THOUGHT MURDERER WAS CAPTURED, NIGHT RIDE ONLY TO FIND WEARY PEDESTRIAN.

The morning was slow enough that I was able to read a couple of paragraphs here and there between patrons needing assistance.

It was In Cold Blood meets the Keystone Cops. Absolute tragedy marred by klutziness and moments of humor. It was real life.

It was also gruesome. John Knoblock and his four-year-old son, Roger, returned to the farmhouse after a trip to town to discover the body of Florence Knoblock in a pool of her own blood on the kitchen floor. Florences skull was crushed, her head having been beaten repeatedly with an iron lid from the wood-burning stove, and her throat had been slashed to the bone with a shaving razor. Twice.

Several different men were taken into custody. Florences husband was arrested twice and then tried twice in two of the most sensational trials in Kansas.

I flipped to the last newspaper clipping in the folder. It was dated November 25, 1957. It was John Knoblocks obituary.

Theres nothing in here about how the trial turned out, I blurted out while standing at the reference desk, turning the heads of a few computer users in front of me.

Florence Knoblocks murder changed everythingfor her family, for her community. I had to know how the story ended. I had to understand why a tight-knit farm communitypeople who worked together, worshipped together, raised their children togetherwould ultimately choose to believe they had identified but failed to convict a murderer rather than accept the possibility that the real murderer lived and worked among them in anonymity.