George Pallas

2021/01/172023/03/24

George Trepal: Murder by Means of a Rare Poison

Last week’s blog underscored the old saw about there being no honor among thieves. This week, our topic is George Trepal, a murderer with a genius IQ.

Problems with the Neighbors

Two families lived next to each other amid the orange groves of the tiny town of Alturas, Florida. In one house, mine worker Parearlyn “Pye” Carr lived with his wife Peggy and their children from previous marriages. Even though they had only been married for a few months, Peggy suspected her husband of having an affair. There was also frequent strife among the children, who were in their teens and early twenties.

The other family was George Trepal and his wife, Dr. Diana Carr (no relation to Pye). George was a chemist and Diana an orthopedic surgeon who people said dominated George. Both belonged to Mensa, a society for people with high IQ.

George Trepal at the time of his trial in 1991.

You’d think two families living close together with no other neighbors nearby would form a bond but not in this case. The two families argued frequently over things like firecrackers and loud music. It seemed that Diana and Peggy’s stepson, Duane, were frequently at odds. And on one occasion, Peggy and Diana had a ferocious altercation over Duane’s alleged bad behavior.

A Strange Illness — And Death

Peggy Carr worked in a local restaurant. One day her daughter, Sissy, visited her at work. Peggy complained she didn’t feel well, and Sissy urged her to go home. Her youngest son found her lying on a sofa, unable to speak. Her family rushed her to a hospital.

At the hospital, doctors spent three days running tests but couldn’t find anything wrong. They suggested that perhaps Peggy’s symptoms were psychosomatic—all in her head. But her symptoms slowly disappeared in the hospital, so the doctors sent her home. The symptoms returned almost immediately.

Again, Peggy couldn’t speak. She was able to write a note saying, “My feet are killing me.” As they drove Peggy back to the hospital, her son Travis and stepson Duane both started feeling a burning sensation in their own feet. Now doctors suspected poisoning. They thought it might be a metallic substance like arsenic. But when Peggy began to lose her hair, they suspected the poison was thallium.

Peggy slipped into a coma, while doctors put Travis on a respirator. Peggy died in March 1988 after Pye allowed the hospital to take her off life support.

Detectives Find Thallium and Finger George Trepal

Detectives tested the Carr’s well water and dozens, if not hundreds, of items around the house. They found no thallium until they noticed an eight-pack of Coca Cola under the kitchen counter. Four of the bottles were empty and all four contained traces of thallium.

Product tampering is a federal crime, so the FBI was now involved. They found that someone had deliberately opened the bottles in the eight-pack. Since one else in the area developed symptoms of thallium poisoning, investigators concluded that someone had targeted the Carr family.

Naturally, Pye was the initial suspect. But authorities doubted he would poison his own son. Besides, tests showed that Pye himself had consumed thallium. Investigators widened their circle and began to consider the oddball neighbor, George Trepal.

George Trepal was an intelligent but passive man. Even the Carr family thought he was harmless. But George Trepal wasn’t harmless. A self-taught chemist, he had a 1975 conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine for sale. When questioned about the Carrs, he was nervous and complained at length about things that seemed trivial to detectives. Detective Susan Goreck befriended him and got to know him well. He told her he hated people less intelligent than himself and people he couldn’t control. Both traits applied to the Carrs.

The George Trepal house at the time of Peggy Carr's murder — *The George Trepal house at the time of Peggy Carr’s murder*

George Trepal Arrested and Convicted

Eventually the FBI found traces of thallium in a small bottle in Trepal’s garage. They arrested him and charged him with murder. They also found a room in his house full of BDSM paraphernalia. The supposedly meek Trepal appeared to have a vivid fantasy life.

George Trepal's garage. Inside, investigators found thallium that the jury decided he used to poison Peggy Carr. — George Trepal’s garage. Inside, investigators found thallium that the jury decided he used to poison Peggy Carr.

George Trepal refused a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for life. Instead, he went to trial. A jury found him guilty and, on March 16, 1991, the judge sentenced him to death.

Epilogue

Dr. Diana Carr died at age 69 in 2018 from complications following a stroke. George Trepal still sits on Florida’s death row. He maintains his Mensa membership and continues to file appeals, all of which have failed.

Dr. Diana Carr (no relation to Pye Carr)

Detective Susan Goreck and Jeffrey Good wrote a book about the case, Poison Mind.

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2021/01/102021/01/10

Jesse James: Unexpected Death of an Old West Outlaw

From last week’s blog about a homicidal son, we return this week to the Old West. Jesse James was a notorious bank and train robber. You might expect him to have died as a result of his violent calling. However, Robert Ford, one of his own men, gunned him down from behind.

The Early Years of Jesse James

Jesse Woodson James was born on a farm near Kearney, Missouri in 1847. Jesse was only fourteen at the beginning of the Civil War. He stayed home while his older brother Frank joined Confederate guerrilla forces operating in western Missouri and eastern Kansas. Frank eventually found his way into the guerrilla band led by the infamous William Clarke Quantrill. Quantrill’s Raiders were responsible for a particularly gruesome massacre of pro-abolitionists at Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863. Jesse, by then sixteen, joined his brother in late 1863 or early 1864.

A young Jesse James in 1864 (Library of Congress)

The end of the Civil War in 1865 did not bring peace to Missouri. Clay County, the James brothers’ home, had supported the Confederacy. This did not sit well with the occupying Union forces. Supporters always said that it was harassing Federal soldiers who drove the James brothers to crime. Perhaps that was true, or maybe they simply had a predilection for lawlessness. Regardless, the brothers began participating in and then engineering a series of robberies. In 1869, Jesse and Frank teamed up with their cousin Cole Younger and his brothers to form the James-Younger gang.

A later studio portrait of Jesse James (Library of Congress)

Outlaws and Badmen

The James-Younger gang was reasonably successful at robbing stores and banks. Then they decided to strike out in a new direction. On July 21, 1873, they robbed a Rock Island Railroad train at Adair, Iowa. For this robbery, the donned Ku Klux Klan garb. But this was just a disguise; they never had any serious association with the Klan.

The Cole-Younger gang came to an ignoble end on April 24, 1874. The gang planned to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. But the citizens of Northfield fought back fiercely. Frank and Jesse barely escaped with their live from the bungled robbery attempt. The other gang members were either killed or captured. The Northfield raid effectively destroyed the Cole-Younger gang. Jesse and Frank headed to Nashville, Tennessee (where Jesse took the name “Thomas Howard”). Frank seemed to want to settle down, but Jesse remained restless.

Jesse migrated to St. Joseph in northwestern Missouri, where he teamed up with brothers Charley and Robert Ford. Jesse trusted the Fords although, according to Robert, he had begun to harbor suspicions about them. Also, Robert was secretly negotiating with Missouri governor Thomas Crittenden to turn Jesse in. The large reward offered by the State of Missouri and the railroads had proved too tempting. Jesse didn’t know this, of course.

The “Dirty Little Coward” Shoots Jesse James

It is doubtful that many of his neighbors realized that the man who lived with his family at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph, Missouri was really the infamous badman Jesse James.

Jesse James's home at 1318 Lafayette Street, St. Joseph, Missouri — Jesse James’s home at 1318 Lafayette Street, St. Joseph, Missouri

On the morning of April 3, 1882, as his mother made breakfast, Jesse took off his gun belt and turned away to dust off a picture. Seizing his chance, Robert Ford shot Jesse in the back of the head, killing him instantly. A popular ballad about the event included these lines:

Well, that dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard
He laid poor Jesse in his grave

Epilogue

Ford himself came to a bad end ten years later. One Edward O’Kelley fired both barrels of a shotgun into him in Creede, Colorado.

Frank James survived. He surrendered to authorities and was acquitted in trials in Missouri and Alabama. He was never extradited to or tried in Minnesota for the deaths that resulted from the botched Northfield raid. Thereafter he worked odd jobs, including that of AT&T telegraph operator. He retired to the family farm where he conducted tours for twenty-five cents a head. He died there on February 15, 1918 at the age of 72.

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2021/01/032021/01/04

Jack Graham: Killer for Wealth and Revenge

Old West outlaw John Wesley Hardin, who we met last week, was a killer. But he made no bones about it. He even exaggerated the number of men he killed in his autobiography. This week’s subject is Jack Graham. Graham killed 44 people by blowing up an airliner in a scheme to collect his mother’s life insurance.

Jack Graham

Jack Graham (born John Gilbert Graham) was the child of his mother, Daisie’s, second marriage. He was born in 1932, when the Great Depression was at its worst. When his father died of pneumonia, his mother was destitute. Consequently, she sent young Jack to an orphanage.

Daisie Graham married for a third time to Earl King, who died shortly afterward. Daisie used her inheritance from King to establish herself in business. Despite her new status as a successful businesswoman, though, she did not retrieve Jack from the orphanage. Mother and son remained estranged until 1954, when Graham was 22.

At the time Jack and Daisie reconciled, she owned a successful chain of restaurant. Graham worked for his mother at one of them, the Crown-A Drive-In in Denver. Their relationship remained rocky, however. Witnesses often saw the two arguing.

In 1955, a suspicious gas explosion destroyed the Crown-A Drive-In. Graham had insured the restaurant and collected on the property insurance. He probably caused the explosion, though this was never proven.

Bombing of United Flight 629

On November 1, 1955, Daisie King planned to travel to Alaska to visit her daughter, Graham’s older half-sister. She boarded United Airlines Flight 629 at Stapleton Airport, which was then Denver’s main airport. Unknown to Daisie, Graham had purchased $37,500 wort of life insurance policy from a vending kiosk in the airport ticket lobby. Such machines were common in airports until the 1980s.

Jack Graham used a similar machine to buy insurance policies on his mother's life.. An intact airport flight insurance vending machine in the collection of the Smithsonian's "America By Air" online exhibit. — An intact airport flight insurance vending machine in the collection of the Smithsonian’s “America By Air” online exhibit.

Flight 629 originated at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The Douglas DC-6B named “Mainliner Denver” stopped in Chicago before flying on to Stapleton. At Denver, Captain Lee Hall, a World War II veteran, took command for the segments to Portland and Seattle. Hall took off from Stapleton Airport at 6:52 p.m. At 6:56, he made his last radio transmission to report he had passed the Denver omni (a flight navigation signal).

Jack Graham used a similar machine to buy insurance policies on his mother's life. Travel Insurance Kiosks at Detroit’s Willow Run Airport, 1954. Part of the “Old News” collection at the Ann Arbor District Library. — *Travel Insurance Kiosks at Detroit’s Willow Run Airport, 1954. Part of the “Old News” collection at the Ann Arbor District Library*.

Seven minutes later, the airplane was over Longmont, Colorado. It was then that Stapleton air traffic controllers saw two bright lights in the sky, north-northwest of the airport. The lights were visible for 30-45 seconds and both fell to the ground at the same speed. Next, they saw a flash bright enough to light up the base of the clouds (the ceiling was 10,000 feet). Controllers then contacted all aircraft in the area and accounted for all but one: Flight 629.

Investigation

Flight 629 broke apart while it was still in the air. Major parts of the wings, engines, and center ended up in two craters 150 feet apart. The aircraft had refueled at Stapleton and its load of fuel ignited on impact. It burned intensely for three days. Eyewitnesses described a violent mid-air explosion. This led to speculation that something other than pilot error or mechanical failure caused the crash.

The tail of the plane was discovered on a Colorado farm (FBI photo)

The Civil Aeronautics Board (forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration) led the investigation. They determined that the plane began to disintegrate near the tail. The explosion fragmented the aft fuselage in a way unlikely to have resulted from any aircraft system. There was also a strong smell of explosives on items from the number 4 baggage compartment in the rear.

Investigators soon discovered chemical byproducts of a dynamite explosion on some of the wreckage. The FBI, convinced that a bomb was responsible, began conducting background checks on the passengers. Investigators also theorized that the bombing may have been the result of a labor dispute between United and a local union. But they quickly discarded that theory.

The wreckage of Flight 229 was carefully laid out in a Denver warehouse, helping investigators solve the case (FBI photo)

The investigation turned to Denver locals. Daisie King was one of those locals and had also purchased flight insurance. In her purse, they found newspaper clippings about Mrs. King’s son’s 1951 arrest on forgery charges. The focused their attention on Jack Graham and learned that he held a grudge against his mother for placing him in the orphanage. They also found out about the restaurant explosion.

Jack Graham Confesses

A search of Graham’s house and car turned up wire and other bomb components matching those found in the wreckage. They also found an additional $37,500 insurance policy hidden in a small cedar chest. Graham told FBI agents that his mother had packed her own suitcase. However, Graham’s wife, Gloria told agents that he had wrapped a “present” for his mother on the morning of her ill-fated flight.

With evidence mounting and inconsistencies undercutting his story, Jack Graham confessed to placing the bomb in his mother’s suitcase.

November 28, 1955, an unidentified sheriff's deputy escorts the handcuffed John Gilbert Graham, 23, out of a car for his arraignment on charges of dynamiting a United Airlines DC-6B which exploded and crashed near Longmont, Colorado, November 1st, killing all 44 persons on board, including Graham's mother. He was given a two-week continuance while his attorneys, newly appointed by the court, have time to study the case. (Image © Bettmann/CORBIS) — *November 28, 1955, An unidentified sheriff’s deputy escorts a handcuffed John Gilbert Graham, 23, to his arraignment (Image © Bettmann/CORBIS)*

Authorities were shocked when they discovered that no federal law made it illegal to blow up an airplane. Instead, they charged Graham with a single count, premeditated murder with his mother, Daisie King, as the victim. His defense tried to have his confession excluded but the court denied the motion. Regardless, a mountain of physical evidence left little doubt that Graham was the bomber. He was convicted and, after a few short delays, executed in the Colorado gas chamber on January 11, 1957.

Epilogue

As a result of the Flight 629 bombing, Congress passed a bill making the bombing of a commercial airliner a federal crime. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on July 14, 1956.

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2020/12/272023/03/24

John Wesley Hardin: Ruthless Old West Killer

Last week I told you about modern-day killer Colin Ferguson. This week, we take a trip back to the old West to meet John Wesley Hardin. He’s not as famous as, say, Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp (they had better publicists). But Hardin was a prolific killer. He claimed to have killed 42 men. Contemporary newspapers put the count at 27.

Ferrotype mirror image of John Wesley Hardin (Public Domain)

John Wesley Hardin — A Violent Boyhood

John Wesley Hardin entered the world near Bonham, Texas in 1853. His father, a Methodist preacher, named his son after the founder of the Methodist denomination. The Civil War broke out when Hardin was eight years old. The next year, when he was nine, he tried to run away with his cousin and join the Confederate army. His father dissuaded him with “a sound thrashing.”

When Hardin was 14, he got into a fight with classmate Charles Sloter, a boy Hardin described as a bully. Sloter wrote something on the chalkboard disparaging a girl at the school. History doesn’t record what the writing said, but Sloter then claimed Hardin had written it. Hardin denied it. According to Hardin, Sloter punched him and pulled a knife. Hardin had a knife of his own and stabbed Sloter in the chest and back, nearly killing him.

Hardin’s First Killing

In November 1868, Hardin and a cousin engaged in a wrestling match with a former slave named Major “Mage” Holshousen. During the match, Hardin and his cousin threw Holshousen to the ground, cutting his face. Hardin claimed that the next day, the former slave “ambushed” him as he rode past. Hardin then shot Holshousen five times with his Colt .44.

Union troops occupied Texas in the wake of the Civil War. More than a third of the state police were former slaves. Hardin’s father felt a fair trial for killing a black man would be impossible, so he urged Hardin to go into hiding. Some historians believe Hardin wouldn’t have had any problems with an all-white jury, but he left anyway.

According to Hardin, while he was on the run, authorities discovered where he was hiding. They sent three Union soldiers to arrest him. Hardin laid in wait for the soldiers and killed two of them with two blasts from a double-barreled shotgun. The third soldier ran, and Hardin pursued him. The soldier shot at Hardin, hitting him in the arm. Hardin shot the man dead with his pistol.

Outlaw on the Run

By now, John Wesley Hardin was a full-fledged outlaw. He roamed around Texas and, for a while, even taught school in the tiny town of Towash. The students had a reputation for being unruly and frightening off teachers. But Hardin earned their respect—and attention—by carrying a revolver to class.

On January 20, 1875 the Texas Legislature authorized Governor Richard B. Hubbard
to offer a $5,000 reward for the apprehension of John Wesley Hardin.

Respectability wasn’t in Hardin’s future, though. On January 5, 1870 (some sources say Christmas Day, 1869), he got in a card game with Benjamin Bradley. He had a run of luck and Bradley threatened to “cut out his liver” if he won again. Hardin was not armed and left. Later, though, the two men found themselves facing each other in the street. The classic “walkdown” made famous by books and movies was, in fact, quite rare in the old West. They occasionally occurred, though, often among southern gunmen as a continuation of the idea of the “gentlemen’s dual.” Bradley fired and missed. Hardin shot Bradley in the head and chest, killing him.

John Wesley Hardin Kills a Man for Snoring

In the early 1870s, the fugitive John Wesley Hardin (using an alias) met James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok. Hardin admired the lawman-gambler and the two became friends. Hardin claimed that on one occasion, Hickok arranged for one of Hardin’s cousins to escape from jail.

In 1871, Hickok was the town marshal of Abilene, Kansas, a rough-and-tumble Cowtown. On August 6, Hardin checked into Abilene’s American House Hotel after a night of drinking and gambling. Sometime during the night, loud snoring coming from the adjacent room occupied by Charles Couger awakened him. After shouted demands to “roll over” had no effect, Hardin drunkenly fired several shots through the wall. Although he probably intended only to wake Couger, one bullet pierced his heart, killing him instantly.

James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok (Portrait taken in 1873 by George Gardner Rockwood at his New York studio three years before Hickok's death in Deadwood) — James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (Portrait taken in 1873 by George Gardner Rockwood at his New York studio three years before Hickok’s death in Deadwood)

Hardin—half dressed and still drunk—saw Hickok coming with four policemen. He escaped out a second-floor window onto the hotel’s roof, then jumped to the street. He hid in a haystack all night. The next morning, he stole a horse and escaped. He never returned to Abilene.

The incident apparently embarrassed Hardin. He later complained about the press he received from it and omitted it entirely in his autobiography.

Prison and Afterwards

Hardin evaded the law for several years. But on August 24, 1877, Texas Rangers and local lawmen accosted him on a train near Pensacola, Florida. Hardin attempted to draw a Colt .44 cap-and-ball pistol, but it caught in his suspenders. The lawmen knocked Hardin unconscious and took him prisoner.

Hardin went on trial for killing Brown County, Texas Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. On June 5, 1878, he was sentenced to 25 years in Huntsville Prison. He attempted to escape–unsuccessfully—several times. Eventually, though, he adapted to prison life. He read and studied law. He also penned an autobiography in which he wildly exaggerated and even fabricated incidents in his life.

Harden was released from Huntsville prison in February 1894. He was forty years old. Eventually pardoned, he passed the state bar examination and earned a license to practice law.

The Death of John Wesley Hardin

In El Paso, Texas, lawman John Selman, Jr. arrested an acquaintance of Hardin’s and the two men got into a verbal altercation. That night, Hardin was playing dice in the Acme Salon. Selman’s father, 58-year-old John Selman, Sr., entered the saloon, walked up behind Hardin, and shot him in the head, killing him instantly. As Hardin lay on the floor, Selman fired three more bullets into him. John Wesley Hardin was buried the next day.

Selman stood trial for murder. He claimed self defense and got a hung jury. Before his retrial, though, he himself was killed in an argument over a card game.

John Wesley Hardin's grave in Concordia Cemetery, El Paso, Texas. — John Wesley Hardin’s grave in Concordia Cemetery, El Paso, Texas.

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