Diane Raver
March 07, 2008 07:59 am
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Andrew Stoner grew up in northern Indiana’s Elkhart County, and even though he was only 8 years old at the time, he remembers the 1972 murder case when Shirley Rock killed her husband with rat poisoning because she didn’t believe in divorce.
“I heard a lot about this case, and it struck me that it was the one case that the people of that community still talk about.” He asked himself, “Is there a case in other Indiana communities that people still talk about or still can’t believe happened?”
This became the starting point for the research for his book “Notorious 92: Indiana’s Most Heinous Murders in All 92 Counties.”
He described some of the highlights of this publication to an audience of about 20 at the Batesville Memorial Public Library March 3.
Earlier, the writer observed, “I think people are naturally interested in what other people are doing, including deeds that make us cringe or frighten us. To the degree that murder is an inherent part of the human condition, it’s a part of our history and worth examining.”
The 1986 Franklin College and 1995 Ball State University journalism graduate was a civilian public information officer for the Indianapolis Police Department from 1989-92 and attended dozens of homicides.
He said, “I have worked closely with homicide detectives both in that role, and also during my work as a newspaper reporter for the South Bend Tribune, my first job out of college.”
The Lawrence resident, who is the Honda Manufacturing of Indiana corporate affairs manager, remarked, “There are lots of famous cases to choose from in Indiana.”
He recalls the 1985 case in Lake County when Paula Cooper, 15, and three of her teenage friends skipped school and went to Ruth Pelke’s house. After talking their way inside, Cooper stabbed the 78-year-old to death. Cooper “was the youngest person to be sentenced to the electric chair,” but the death penalty was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court because she was so young. Cooper remains in prison.
Stoner indicated, “There have been multiple serial killers in Indiana.” Vigo County’s Larry Eyler killed 21 young men from 1982-84.
The author reported Westfield businessman Herbert Baumeister was responsible for up to 27 deaths from 1980-99. Some of the skeletal remains were found buried on his property, while others were found in various locations in central Indiana and western Ohio. The journalist noted this case has often been a topic of A&E TV’s “Investigative Reports.”
He also described murders in southeastern Indiana counties. In 1897, five Osgood residents, who had been jailed “on various charges related to a robbery and shootout with police at Correct ..... and were also suspects in a series of armed robberies perpetrated against unsuspecting farmers who had bought grain or livestock to town for sale” were lynched outside the Versailles courthouse.
According to Stoner, on a September evening over a dozen men came to the Ripley County Jail and forced the night jailer to give up his keys. They put ropes around the five suspects’ necks, drug them outside and hung them from a nearby tree.
New Trenton resident, Harry Miller, a retired Cincinnati Fire Department captain, “liked to convince others he had made a fortune in the stock market and other investments, (even though) the level of his financial success was subject to debate.”
As the victim of Franklin County’s 1936 “Head and Hands Case,” his body was discovered in a culvert in Kentucky. The Greensburg manager indicated, “The man’s head and hands had been severed.”
Later, three young men swimming in a lake near Carrollton, Ky., found a box submerged in 2 feet of water. Inside were Miller’s missing body parts. It was determined even though Miller’s body parts were dumped in Kentucky, he was actually killed in Indiana.
Heber Hicks, the victim’s sister’s chauffeur, was arrested for the murder. Stoner wrote that he confessed, “‘I figured that if Captain Miller was out of the way, that Miss Flora Miller would receive the estate, and that I indirectly would benefit by it because of the fact that I was employed by’” her.
Hicks admitted hiring three other men – John Poholsky, William Kuhlman and Frank Williams – to help with his plan. They each received “a starting fee of $30” and were told they “ultimately would receive more than $5,500 in cash and stocks from Miller’s accounts.”
On June 30, 1995, firefighters were called to a trailer home fire near Lake McCoy in Decatur County. Stoner wrote, “A chair had been placed just outside the bedroom door of young Anthony Bunch, blocking his exit from the flames.” Firefighters did locate the 3-year-old, but he died “a short time later from massive burns and smoke inhalation.”
According to the writer, an investigation showed the fire was centered near the toddler’s bedroom and an accelerant was used to start the blaze. Less than a week later, the child’s mother, Kristi Bunch, was arrested and later found guilty of murder and arson.
What does the friendly man consider to be the worst of these 92 murders? “Sadly, there are too many to narrow it down.” However, the most disturbing were “the ones involving abuse of children or the elderly, and/or ones where children were the perpetrators.”
Diane Raver can be contacted at 812-934-4343, Ext. 114; or diane.raver@ batesvilleheraldtribune.com. To comment on stories, visit batesvilleheraldtribune.com.
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