Deadly Hero: The High Society Murder that Created Hysteria in the Heartland (38 page)

[1]
Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday in November until it was
changed in 1941 to the fourth Thursday of the month.

[2]
Now Oklahoma State University.

[3]
Not to be confused with Gorrell’s address of 1205 Linwood Boulevard.

[4]
A twenty-four-story, art-deco-style high-rise built by Waite Phillips and
completed in 1928.

[5]
Oklahoma didn’t need the 18
^th
Amendment to outlaw alcohol.
Prohibition was accepted as part of the state constitution in September 1907,
two months before it became the 46th state in the union. Oklahoma never did get
around to ratifying the 21
^st
Amendment, and the sale of distilled liquor
was illegal statewide until 1959.

[6]
At the time, an IQ of 120 placed him in the 91
^st
percentile.

[7]
Anti-mask laws penalized individuals who covered their faces for political or
religious purposes.

[8]
The 2014 equivalent of $277 million, when adjusted for inflation.

[9]
She was in a different room in the house and wasn’t aware that John had left
Charlie behind and then returned to pick his friend up.

[10]
Oldest to youngest, they were Opal, Juanita, Franklin Jr., and Phil.

[11]
In 1934, the word
dictator
did not have the same negative connotation it
has today.

[12]
It is unclear when John and Phil agreed to meet at the Crawford Drug Store, but
it most likely occurred during Thanksgiving evening when John got up from the
table to answer the telephone in the hallway.

[13]
No relation to Wade Thomas.

[14]
Wagoner is forty miles southeast of Tulsa.

[15]
This could not have been Ted Bath, and the statement is confusing as to whether
Gorrell meant a close friend of his, or a close friend of Kennamer.

[16]
The 2014 equivalent of $870, when adjusted for inflation.

[17]
It cost one cent to play—the 2014 equivalent of eighteen cents.

[18]
Tribune
reporters were not allowed because Kennamer was angry with them
for the stories they wrote about him and his turbulent youth.

[19]
Besides getting to the weapon before John returned from the hospital, claiming
“the holster flew off” was the only logical way he could account for putting
the gun back inside and leaving it on the seat. Leaning across John’s body to
retrieve it would have begged the question: Why?

[20]
This turned out to be Preston Cochrane and Pat Burgess. Burgess was a young
reporter for the
Tulsa World
, and Cochrane was an ex-employee of the
paper. Burgess introduced Kennamer to Gorrell in September, when Burgess sought
out Gorrell for repayment of a small loan, and Kennamer tagged along.

[21]
The oak tree is still there and is called the Creek Council Oak Tree.

[22]
The 2014 equivalent of $106 to $176, when adjusted for inflation.

[23]
GJE
doesn’t follow the 3-2 pattern. However,
GJE
was the code
used for his alias, Douglas Montgomery Blair, on prior occasions, but with a
different cipher. Cochrane was hoping to obfuscate his connection to the notes,
and he knew Kennamer would understand
GJE
.

[24]
Kennamer would later assert that it was the
Tulsa World
who inserted the
word
Sweetheart
in both messages “to inject an element of eroticism into
the case.”

[25]
The 2014 equivalent of $443,000, when adjusted for inflation.

[26]
Now the 14
^th
District.

[27]
An Associated Press article from 1939 gave a much lower figure for Murray, with
920 pardons and paroles. Without knowing the methodology that was used, it’s
hard to know which figure is accurate.

[28]
Earlier, he had said he met him through Pat Burgess, but since Burgess was
unlikely to testify, he now said it was Cochrane who had introduced him.

[29]
Burgess, Cochrane, and Snedden later denied this meeting ever took place.

[30]
Richard Oliver told police the only people in the apartment at that time were
himself and Jess Harris.

[31]
In his previous story, Kennamer said Gorrell had wanted to buy an airplane from
Huff.

[32]
The 2014 equivalent of $173,000, when adjusted for inflation.

[33]
The flooring, judge’s bench, gallery benches, attorney tables, juror chairs,
wall clock, and door molding are all the same today as they were in 1935.

[34]
In reality, this did not happen, and the rich and the politically connected
were able to obtain seats in the first two rows. It is unclear how they were
able to do this.

[35]
At that time, the Oklahoma Legislature’s interpretation of the 1907 state
constitution gave them the legal means to prohibit women from serving on juries
because it specifically stated that juries were to consist of “twelve men.” In
1942, a constitutional amendment was passed that allowed women to hold state
office. However, they would have to wait another nine years, until 1951, before
they earned the right to serve as jurors. Instead of “men,” section 19 now
calls for juries to consist of “persons.”

[36]
Ponca City is one hundred miles northwest of Tulsa, with Pawnee approximately
in the middle.

[37]
It was a nine-shot revolver, but that didn’t sound as sexually suggestive as
six-shooter
.

[38]
She quickly became just as famous as her father as a book author, columnist,
celebrity reporter, game-show panelist, Broadway musical producer, and crime
reporter covering some of the biggest trials of her time. She later got
entangled in the Kennedy assassination, with a purported interview of Jack
Ruby. She was also a harsh government critic. Her sudden death in 1965 led
conspiracy theorists to claim she was murdered to silence her. Her father
outlived her and died in 1982 at the age of ninety-three.

[39]
The 2014 equivalent of $1,700, when adjusted for inflation.

[40]
The 2014 equivalent of $4,300, when adjusted for inflation.

[41]
This was the first and last mention that Gorrell attended Knox College, and it
had never before been brought up by his father on the witness stand, who said
his son had attended the University of Tulsa and Oklahoma A&M before
attending dental school. There was also no statement, either confirming or
denying, that he wrote this letter to Wright.

[42]
The agency changed its name from Bureau of Investigation to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation in 1935.