Keven McQueen - Louisville Murder & Mayhem: Historic Crimes of Derby City

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Keven McQueen

All rights reserved

Cover photos courtesy of the Detroit Publishing Company.

First published 2012

e-book edition 2012

ISBN 978.1.61423.364.0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McQueen, Keven.

Louisville murder & mayhem : historic crimes of the Derby City / Keven

McQueen.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-566-4

1. Crime--Kentucky--Louisville--Case studies. 2. Murder--Kentucky--Louisville--Case studies. 3. Louisville (Ky.)--History. I. Title. II. Title: Louisville murder and mayhem.

HV6795.L68M37 2012

364.10976944--dc23

2011051849

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

OTHER BOOKS BY KEVEN MCQUEEN

Biography/History

Cassius M. Clay, Freedoms Champion (Turner Publishing, 2001)

Offbeat Kentuckians: Legends to Lunatics (McClanahan Publishing, 2001)

More Offbeat Kentuckians (McClanahan Publishing, 2004)

The Great Louisville Tornado of 1890 (The History Press, 2010)

Historical True Crime

Murder in Old Kentucky: True Crime Stories from the Bluegrass (McClanahan Publishing, 2005)

Cruelly Murdered: The Murder of Mary Magdalene Pitts and Other Kentucky True Crime Stories (Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2008)

Strange Tales of Crime and Murder in Southern Indiana (The History Press, 2009)

The Axman Came from Hell and Other Southern True Crime Stories (Pelican Publishing, 2011)

Folklore/History

The Kentucky Book of the Dead (The History Press, 2008)

Forgotten Tales of Kentucky (The History Press, 2008)

Forgotten Tales of Indiana (The History Press, 2009)

For further particulars, check out KevenMcQueen.com.

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Dedicated to Brayden, Keenan and Delia Pinson

and to the citizens of Louisville, without whose violent and sordid ancestors this book would not have been possible.

Contents

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The Hanged Butchers Alleged Rejuvenation

William Kriel, a rough-and-tumble butcher who lived in Louisville just after the Civil War, might have been as rich as a Vanderbilt had he spent as much time working as he spent drinking and beating his wife, Margaret Evans Kriel. She is described in various reports as being delicate and one of the most amiable of women. The couple had been married fifteen years and had a son. Williams butcher shop was on Green Street, and he was well known in town for his honesty. Clearly, he had a private side that few saw.

Early in March 1868, thirty-two-year-old Mrs. Kriel, who was suffering from an illness, decided that she had had enough of her husbands violence. She left him and moved in with her mother on Main Street. William responded with an alcoholic binge of several days duration that was prodigious even by his degraded standards. On March 5, he dropped by for a visit, which means that he abused her shamefully, as a press report phrased it. He came back on Saturday, March 7, and demanded to know if she was really going to leave him.

No, I am not going to leave you, Mrs. Kriel replied, no doubt choosing her words carefully. The doctor has told me I must go off [to the country] or I will never get well. This was not the answer he sought, and he protested his wifes show of independence by throttling her. A light bulb appeared over Kriels heador would have, had Thomas Edison developed it yet. He produced a gun and shot her two inches above the left ear. She died instantly in her elderly mothers arms and went on to a much greater reward than being the spouse of William Kriel.

The drunken butcher sat on the floor and had a first-rate idea: he pressed the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger. A glancing shot tore off his scalp. At this unpleasant juncture, the dead womans sister, Mrs. Rosa Tolbert, came downstairs to see what all the noise was about. A few weeks before, she had said in confidence that if she had a husband like William Kriel, she would kill him. Somehow, Kriel had gotten wind of the remark, and although the reproof was not unjust, he had been offended. When Mrs. Tolbert entered the room, he shot at her. She ran outside, and he gave chase, firing a second time at the side gate. Luckily, both bullets missed.

Kriels gun was a six-shooter. Realizing that he had two bullets left, and not wishing to waste them, he shot himself twice more in the head. Thanks to the blind luck of the drunkenor perhaps because Fate wanted to save him for a far worse endboth bullets merely grazed his scalp. Soused though he was, the assassin knew he was in trouble when he saw a crowd gathering outside. He fled, but neighbors followed him and captured him at a pork house on Beargrass Creek. Strange to say, but Kriel appears to have been the only murderer in the entire history of nineteenth-century Kentucky who wasnt threatened with lynching. He was delivered to a jail cell, where it took him over a week to dry out. The two major city dailies, the Courier and the Journalit was in the days just before they mergedran repeated announcements stating that his death from delirium tremens was expected at any time. As late as March 19, twelve days after the murder, it was reported, The condition of the prisoner is much improved, although he yet exhibits strong symptoms of mania-a-potu. During his lucid moments, Kriel said that Mrs. Tolbert had fired at him first and that he was merely returning fire when he accidentally shot his poor, dear wifeafter placing the muzzle directly against her head! Needless to say, such statements did not bear analysis.

Margarets March 9 funeral at the Shelby Street Methodist Church was one of the largest ever held in Louisville. Her mother, who had lost two of her Confederate soldier sons in the recent war, was insensible with grief. Reverend J.W. Cunningham preached a pointed sermon about the dangers of alcohol and wenching and urged husbands to be faithful and kind to their wives. The man who most needed to hear the sermon was unable to attend, however, since he was still gradually sobering up.

When Kriel was at last able to wobble into circuit court on March 18, a reporter said, [H]e was very sensibly moved at the sight of the mother and sister of his murdered wife, who are to testify against him. He even burst into tears. The reporter speculated that the murderer was suffering from the pangs of remorse; this was possible, but it was equally likely that Kriel realized the testimony of his mother- and sister-in-law would put a noose around his neck.

While Kriel languished in jail, numerous attempts were made to release him on bail, somebody somewhere having decided that it would be a fine thing to let him walk the streets unencumbered. It was decided that he could have bail if he came up with $10,000in modern currency, nearly $157,000but to Kriels chagrin, his relatives refused to risk their savings and property on his behalf, resulting in a chilly feeling between him and his kin that never thawed. When he realized he was not going to get bail, Kriel and his lawyers claimed he was insane. He had never been insane before, just mean, but evidently they hoped to confuse the concepts of insanity and drunkenness.