Deadly Hero: The High Society Murder that Created Hysteria in the Heartland (10 page)

Following the mayor’s lead, “We can show that they
are gambling machines,” Hoop declared. But he never really showed
how
they were gambling machines; he only stated that he
could
show it.

The metaphorical torches and pitchforks came out
during a meeting of the Parent Teacher Association held later that same day at
the First United Methodist Church. The PTA was demanding the machines’ “complete
removal in view of the recent tragedy in our city.”

“It is not a case of marble machines and such
being taken away only near the schools,” one PTA delegate declared to nodding
heads of approval. “Children can get a long ways from home as you know and they
will find them any place. That is why we must remove them all!”

“In the face of the recent tragedy this particular
bit of work comes within our realm of child welfare and if we don’t take a
stand on this now, we arent’s (sic) good for anything,” one middle-aged mother
shouted.

“Not only is it the actual playing of the machines
that is a corrupting influence,” another mother stated, “but it is the
atmosphere. My children can go into the places near their school, where these
machines are, and they stay around and watch outsiders play and gamble, and I
feel that they should not be subjected to this temptation.”

But this was just the beginning. Whether they knew
it or not at the time, they were steeling themselves up for a city-wide moral
crusade. As Christian soldiers fighting for the salvation of their children,
they would soon find the devil’s influence in more than just arcade games.

PHIL KENNAMER LEANED
FORWARD IN the matron’s rocking chair, gripped a wooden match in his right
hand, set his thumbnail on the head, and slid it to the left with enough
friction to light it with one strike. It was a maneuver he practiced often, and
as he squinted through the tobacco and phosphorous smoke at the reporters in
the room, he returned their grins and smiles with his trademark smirk. He was in
a good mood the morning of Wednesday, December 12, and he appeared comfortable
in the furnished room that had been his “cell” for the last two weeks.

With
Tulsa World
and newswire reporters there,
as well as some from several out-of-state large dailies, Kennamer was holding
court and enjoying the moment.
[18]
By working his smooth charm and silver tongue, he was confident he could cod
these twits into empathizing with his side of the story. After Born’s death on Sunday,
the narrative throughout the city had decidedly turned against him. Rumors that
his friend was murdered to keep quiet steered the case away from the direction Kennamer
needed it to go.

But there was another reason Kennamer wanted to
get his story out: he hated the story his attorney was putting out. In an
interview published Tuesday, the day before, Moss had laid the groundwork for
an insanity defense. When Kennamer read that article, he was livid. An insanity
defense discounted his heroics. It didn’t tell the story of how he’d outsmarted
a dangerous criminal like John Gorrell Jr. and saved Virginia’s life. Why
couldn’t they see that?

Besides placing blame back on the victim, and
reinforcing their claims of self-defense, Moss also said during his interview
that Kennamer’s infatuation for Virginia Wilcox had become obsessive, and that
he had mental health issues because he told people he was going to kill John
Gorrell.

“Possibly, he was suffering from heroics and this
may have added to his desire to join Gorrell, expose him at the opportune
moment and incidentally redeem himself in the eyes of Miss Wilcox,” Moss theorized.
“If Kennamer had not been abnormal, he would not have told several friends that
he intended on killing Gorrell, as well as discuss various fantastic and
imaginary [scenarios] with him as the hero.”

He also pointed to several of Kennamer’s youthful
transgressions as incidents in his life that should lead one to question the
boy’s sanity. In spite of this, the lawyer had no doubt in the boy’s claim of
self-defense. After all, Gorrell was the one who brought the gun, and they were
prepared to show it was his handwriting on the famed extortion note that no one
had seen.

In a three-hour interview with reporters, Kennamer
gave his own version of events that conveniently weaved in and around the witness
statements published in the newspapers. He had nearly two weeks to put together
his account of what had happened, and by the time of the interview, he had a
logical explanation for everything, as well as counterarguments that were
impossible to prove or disprove.

Kennamer prefaced his story by saying that he had first
heard of the plot to kidnap Virginia in September and had then formed a one-man
conspiracy to enter into the scheme and frustrate it from the inside. “His sole
idea, he said, was to prevent harm to Miss Wilcox or embarrassment to any
member of the Wilcox family,” the
World
reported. The same newspaper
also pointed out that Kennamer “scoffed at many questions plied to him as well
[as] at several of the police theories.”

He then recounted how he met Born at 10:30
Thanksgiving night at the Quaker Drug Store.

“Sidney told me to take his car but I said I’d
rather have him drive me. I told him I was going to meet Gorrell. We drove to a
point near St. John’s Hospital. We saw Gorrell’s car parked near 19
^th
Street and Utica Avenue. Sid remarked that Gorrell was in the car. I got out of
Born’s car and he left, but before he did, he warned me that it would be
dangerous to reveal to Gorrell that the Wilcox plot was not going through.

“I got into Gorrell’s car and we started driving
toward the Forest Hills addition. We were driving about thirty or forty miles an
hour. Gorrell asked me ‘how the shake was coming along.’ I told him ‘it wasn’t
coming along at all.’

“‘What’s the matter, didn’t you mail that
letter?’” Kennamer quoted Gorrell as saying.

“I told him it was not mailed and that I never
intended to mail it. I told him I had the note right here in my pocket. Gorrell
asked me what the idea was. I told him I was going to stop this thing. I told
him the reason I got into it was to stop it.

“‘You just think you are,’” Gorrell answered,
according to Kennamer.

“Did you ever hear of the double-cross?” I asked
Gorrell. “I told him he was getting the double-cross now. Gorrell asked me how
I was going to stop the plot. If in no other way I can turn this note over to
the authorities, I told him.”

At about the same moment, Kennamer said the car
slowed down to ten to fifteen miles per hour as Gorrell reached down at his left
side, jerked out a pistol, pointed it at Kennamer’s head and pulled the trigger.
Twice.

“It didn’t go off and I grabbed it,” he said. “We
both had our hands on it. I struck at him and we struggled. I remember the gun
was pointing at Gorrell’s head. He may have pulled the trigger again or I may
have, but it went off. The second shot came almost instantly, just as the car
hit the curb.

“I was panicky. I guess I was almost hysterical. I
put the gun back into the holster. I remembered when Gorrell jerked out the gun
the holster flew off.
[19]
I placed the gun beside his body. I got out of the car and walked to the Owl
Tavern. I guess it was about two miles away.

“I stayed there a few minutes and then went to the
Quaker Drug Store where I met Robert Thomas. I told him I just killed Gorrell
and explained the reason was the extortion note.

“That’s the way it happened. It was just his life
or mine. I had to do it,” Kennamer said with a smarmy shrug of his shoulders.

“Gorrell was stronger than you and shouldn’t have
had much trouble in overpowering you in the fight,” a reporter asked Kennamer.
“How did you manage to turn the gun on him?”

“I don’t know,” Kennamer replied. “It happened so
fast.”

“When did this kidnapping plot, later changed to
one of extortion, originate?” a reporter asked.

“It was last September that I met two other Tulsa
young men
[20]
who told me of the plot Gorrell was working on, and how they had refused to
enter into such a scheme. I decided I would try and find out more about it. I
was not going to allow any harm to come to the Wilcox family when, after all, I
am very fond of Miss Wilcox and could not see her harmed in any way. I then
conceived the idea of joining in the scheme,” Kennamer answered before he lit
another cigarette.

“I learned from one of these two Tulsans, who
incidentally are not involved in any way, that the plot was to kidnap Miss
Wilcox. An airplane was to be waiting near Tulsa and the girl was to be flown
to Kansas City,” Kennamer said. She was then to be tucked away and guarded in a
suburban hideaway until the ransom was paid.

“After my investigation, I went to Kansas City
about the middle of November and found Gorrell,” Kennamer began again as he
moved from the rocking chair to the bed. “We talked a bit and then I remarked
how I heard something was coming against the Wilcox family. When Gorrell
discovered I was interested, he said he did not know that I would be interested
in anything like this.”

At this point, the nineteen-year-old began to
crack a smile as he told of how he had outsmarted his adversary.

“I replied I was in for anything that had easy
money connected with it. We talked over the original plot and I told him it was
way too complicated. I said it had too many people in it and that the better
way was merely to write Homer Wilcox an extortion note.

“I told him I’d discussed extortion news with Mr.
Wilcox and that I
knew
he would pay off. Actually, I’ve seen Mr. Wilcox
only twice in my life and have never discussed extortion or anything else with
him,” Kennamer said with some animation.

“All we had to do was write an extortion note and
Wilcox would pay off. We agreed to this plot. I suggested that Gorrell write a
letter but we decided to wait awhile. My idea was to get that letter as
evidence of the plot.”

Since Oliver had reported seeing rubber gloves,
Kennamer had to explain the rubber gloves. He also had to explain the hunting
knife. Why would a young man go to Kansas City and buy rubber gloves and a
hunting knife as soon as he got there? His reason for purchasing them was to
fool his co-conspirator into thinking he could write the letter without leaving
evidence behind. Kennamer’s cleverness, he pointed out to reporters, was in knowing
full well the handwriting could be matched to Gorrell.

“I knew it wouldn’t make any difference whether
there were fingerprints or not,” he confidently declared. “The science of
handwriting detection is sufficient to incriminate him.”

It was a good story, but he forgot about one small
thing: that he had told Huff he planned on wearing the rubber gloves “when he
stabbed his friend.”

Kennamer then explained to the reporters that
Gorrell had been too drunk to write the letter that night of November 20, and
it was put off until the next day.

“We went to bed and the first thing Gorrell said
in the morning was a suggestion about writing the letter. I stood over him
while he wrote the letter. It threatened harm to members of the Wilcox family
if the amount demanded, $20,000, was not paid. I was to take the letter and
mail it. It was addressed to H. F. Wilcox and marked ‘Personal’ and ‘Air Mail.’

“Gorrell was so anxious to write the letter that
when he woke up, I remarked that it wasn’t so important that he would have to
get me out of bed.”

Even if Gorrell did write the extortion note,
Kennamer never explained why he didn’t turn it over to police when he returned
from Kansas City. As for the knife, he told them, it was purchased in
anticipation of the deer hunting season. But as for why it was in his bag,
Kennamer would not talk about that, either.

Although he had put responsibility for Gorrell’s
death back on Gorrell, Kennamer had more explaining to do. Huff would be a star
witness against him in the preliminary hearing next week, and he had to chip
away at his account of their inebriated car ride to Tulsa.

“Later that day, with the letter in my pocket, we
contacted an aviator to obtain passage to Tulsa. We talked to Floyd Huff,”
Kennamer said. “Due to the weather Huff refused to fly but offered to drive me
to Tulsa. Later that day, I started to Tulsa with Huff. We had a few drinks and
he made some remark about Gorrell and a deal he had been trying to make in the
purchase of a plane.”

According to Kennamer, Huff was angry with Gorrell
for pretending to be financially capable of buying an airplane from him and
suggested that Gorrell was “crazy.”

“‘I’ll show you how crazy he really is,’” Kennamer
said he told him.

“Then I showed him the note,” he said. “But I made
no threats against the life of Gorrell. When we reached Pittsburg, Kansas, we
stopped at a hotel and got a room. I took my [bag] to the room. When I opened
it, Huff saw the dagger now in possession of the sheriff’s office. I had a pair
of rubber surgical gloves also. I told him that I often had a knife like that
which I used when I went deer hunting.

“I doubt if I get to go deer hunting this year,
though,” Kennamer said as his voice trailed off in thought for a moment.

Returning to his story, he said, “I bought the
rubber gloves so that Gorrell could write the letter without leaving any
fingerprints on the letter,” Kennamer repeated. “Then we continued to Tulsa and
I told Huff that I was going to wait for Gorrell to come to Tulsa and then stop
the extortion plot.”

Kennamer’s account skirted Huff’s claim that
Kennamer described to him a daring plan to get the dental student up in an
airplane and “crack Gorrell over the head with a wrench and then bail out in a
parachute.” It was a point Huff clearly recalled to investigators because if it
had worked, he’d have lost his $8,000 airplane.

When a reporter asked him about Huff’s claim,
Kennamer denied it.

“I didn’t tell Huff that I planned to stab Gorrell
or of a plot to get him in an airplane, slug him in the head and then bail out
of the plane with a parachute while Gorrell crashed.”

But in giving his account of his time with Huff,
Kennamer forgot one fine point. It was a point confirmed the next day by a
Tribune
report that the field manager of the Fairfax Airport in Kansas City recalled
that Kennamer had questioned him closely as to whether the plane would carry
parachutes or not.

The death of his friend Sidney Born was a
hot-button issue for Phil, and when he was asked about it by a reporter,
Kennamer used his friend’s death to his advantage with new claims that could
not be confirmed or denied by his dead friend.

“There isn’t a person in Tulsa that will say that
Sidney was the type who would take his own life,” Kennamer said as he lit
another cigarette. “He was murdered and I KNOW IT! They bungled the job when
they found Born dying in his car and destroyed any evidence that might have
offered a clue to the murder.

“Born could have testified at my trial and blown
up the state’s evidence that I hid in Gorrell’s car and deliberately killed
Gorrell. The second motive could have been someone feared Born knew too much
about the case and his testimony might involve others on the information he
had,” Kennamer explained.