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I'm your host Mark Covey and I'm Courtney and this is Mountain State Mysteries.
The Case We Have For You Today is one of the most enduring mysteries in West Virginia's history,
involving murder, scandal, and conspiracy.
This is the case of Mamie Thurman.
Mamie Morrison was born in Louisville, Kentucky on September 12th, 1900.
Not much is known about her life until the 1920s when she married Jack Thurman.
The couple ended up moving to the city of Logan, West Virginia around 1924.
During this time, the city of Logan emerged from a year-long cold strike,
from a year-long cold strike which turned into war between the local coal companies and the union organizers.
Despite all of this, Jack was able to find a job as a patrolling officer for the Logan City Police Department.
His position would end up putting him and Mamie in with the city's elite.
They brushed elbows with the powerful political figures, coal barons, bankers, and lenders.
This labor strike would lead into the roaring 20s.
Logan was the center of commerce with the coal and timber industry, which made it a boom town.
And it wasn't immune to the party scene.
Like, this was the era of flappers, jazz music, and speakeasies, which was everywhere to be seen.
Usually the alcohol was home-brewed liquor from the steels, which were all over the surrounding mountains.
In the community of Logan, Mamie was known as a strong, intelligent woman who was active in church and business affairs.
When her and Jack moved to Logan, they lived in an apartment above a private garage behind the home of Louise and Harry Robertson.
Harry was the president of the Logan City Commission, and he actually helped Jack secure his job with the police department.
Harry also worked as a bookkeeper at the Guy in Bally Bank.
Jack would mostly work the Greyyard shift, which was from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Jack has said that he just assumed Mamie stayed home on the nights he worked. Little did Jack know, Mamie started to like the finer things in life.
Sometime in 1930, Mamie started having an affair with her former co-worker and landlord, Harry Robertson.
They would usually spend the evening going to a secret social club, which is said to be on the upper floors of the Holland building on Stratton Avenue in Logan.
This is where Mamie and Harry would rub elbows with members of Logan's elite.
This wasn't the only location they went to. Sometimes they'd be driven to isolated lover lanes.
Harry never drove. He had his African-American friend and worker Clarence Stevenson drive him around.
Clarence was from Tennessee and came to Logan, West Virginia around 1924.
He followed in the footsteps of most men in southern West Virginia and found work at the Island Creek Co. Company, which was 8 miles south of Logan.
During this time, Clarence and Harry became friends. They would go hunting together.
Harry would do the hunting and Clarence would take care of the dogs.
In 1932, Clarence moved into Harry's house on Stratton Street and he made himself at home in the attic.
His role was never established. He was described as Harry's handyman, servant, and friend.
Mamie kept her double life a secret from her husband and honestly the entire city of Logan for two years.
Somehow the affair became known to Harry's wife, Louise, and she refused to leave her husband.
She did say that she tried desperately to talk him out of the affair.
When she failed at doing that, she ended up cutting all ties with Mamie and Jack Thurman.
Together, Mamie and Harry had built a house of cards and theirs was a little more than shaky.
It was only a matter of time before their house of cards came tumbling down.
On June 21, 1932, they planned an evening together, but it was kenneled by Harry.
However, at some point during the evening, Harry ended up growing uneasy.
He knew that he wasn't the only one who Mamie was sleeping with.
She actually gave him a list of the men she was sleeping with, which contained the names of 16 different men.
So he ended up sending Clarence and told him to keep watch on Mamie.
He watched Mamie leave her apartment around 7pm and she started to walk down Main Street.
When Harry learned that Mamie left her apartment, Harry told Clarence to drive to the home of Fennette Jones,
who owned a boarding house on High Street.
Fennette's home was actually a popular meeting place for Harry and Mamie.
However, Clarence told Harry that he checked Fennette's home and said he saw no trace of Mamie there.
Harry still wanted to know where Mamie was, so he told Clarence to keep a watch outside the social club.
At this point, it was 9pm, so Harry decided to go and join his son and friends at the smokehouse
to listen to the sharky and smelling fight.
It's reported that Clarence stayed outside of the smokehouse like he was on guard from 10.45 to 11.15pm.
And of course, he saw no sign of Mamie.
According to Clarence, when he returned home, he went straight to bed.
Harry and Louise said that they went to bed not too long after him.
6 hours later, Jack Thurman returned home and he was shocked to find that Mamie wasn't there.
Jack called a few of their friends as well as the hospital and everyone said they haven't seen Mamie.
With his fear growing at every passing minute, he called Harry.
Clarence offered to help and then proceeded to drive Jack around Logan and the surrounding area to see if they could find Mamie.
By this time, it was well into the next day and sadly Jack was unaware of the events that were unfolding just 8 miles away.
Around 1pm on June 22, 37 year old Garland Davis, a deaf mute was picking blackberries along 22 Mine Road on Trace Mountain.
About 25 feet from the main road, Garland came across the lifeless body of Mamie Thurman.
Mamie's throat had been slashed from ear to ear and she was shot twice in the head.
Garland got police and troopers, C.A. Thompson and C.B. Satterfield from the Stollings Detachment of the West Virginia State Police responded to the scene on 22 Mine Road.
Not too long after they arrived, they were joined by officers from the Logan City Police as well as the Logan County Sheriff's Department.
Mamie's body was found on the left side of the road. The only thing that really prevented the remains from continuing over the hillside were thick bushes.
Mamie was wearing a blue dress with white polka dots. The morning rain actually washed away most of the blood, which rained it and started falling in the area until after 1.30am.
The blue dye from Mamie's dress actually bled onto her skin, so this helped police determine that her body had been on 22 Mine Road before the rain started.
Not too far from where Mamie's body was found, police would actually find one of Mamie's shoes, a package of cigarettes, her pocketbook, which had $9 in it, a case knife, which was thought to be the knife that sliced Mamie's throat,
and a piece of paper which is said to have a license plate number on it.
I mean Mamie still had all of her rings on, so this along with money and everything else, police kinda ruled out the idea of robbery.
Police did see faint tire tracks which showed a car did pull off the road, stop, and then got back on the road.
Logan's chief of police, Mead Smelzer, who knew Mamie, was at the scene and he was the one who made the positive identification.
Mamie's body was removed from the mountain and taken to the Harris Funeral Home in Logan, where her autopsy revealed that Mamie's throat had been cut first,
and that she was shot twice just above her left ear with a.38 caliber handgun to ensure her death.
Her death was estimated to be anywhere from 5 to 15 hours before her discovery.
On June 22, Trooper Satterfield with others went to the Thurman's residence where they found Harry sitting on a bench in his yard.
Harry unlocked the garage so officers could inspect his Ford sedan.
Looking at his vehicle close, Trooper Satterfield noticed blood stains under the driver's floor mat, as well as inside the right front window.
Then during the search of the home's basement, officers found a pair of long underwear and a long straight razor that was stained with blood.
Clothing was found in Harry's attic which also appeared to have blood and were taken as evidence.
Following these discoveries, Harry was arrested on the spot.
He quickly admitted that he and Clarence had access to his car, which caused Clarence to be arrested as well.
While being questioned, both Harry and Clarence denied any involvement whatsoever in Mamie's death.
Both of them openly admitted to having an affair with Mamie.
Harry didn't hold back saying that the affair had went on for over two years.
While the two were being interrogated, investigators were trying to piece together the events leading to Mamie's discovery.
They learned that Mamie was last seen around 8.30pm at Eric Oma Drag Company Store,
where the clerk remembered Mamie buying a pack of cigarettes.
20-30 minutes earlier, Mamie had been seen at the boarding house of Annette Jones.
If you remember, Harry and Clarence watched the boarding house, which all Mamie did was just drop off some sheets.
As the investigation continued, Harry was held in the Logan County Jail for more questioning.
Clarence was also held at the Logan County Jail.
However, authorities feared that the charged atmosphere in Logan could possibly turn into a mob violence against him.
They removed Clarence from the Logan County Jail in the middle of the night and taken him to a jail in Williamson, which is in Mingo County, West Virginia.
While all this was going on, Mamie's body was prepped for burial at the Harris funeral home before she was transferred to the Canaveral Memorial Church.
Mamie's services were held on Friday, June 24, 1932.
Pastor B. C. Gamble and the Reverend Robert L. Cavarley officiated the services.
In some newspaper articles, it's said that Mamie was going to be transported to her hometown at Bradsford's Field, Kentucky, the next day.
However, on her death certificate, it has that Mamie was buried in the Logan Memorial Park on June 24, 1932.
And, I mean, to this day, people are still wondering where Mamie is buried, like in 1985 when the Logan banner had the headline, quote,
Where is Mamie Thurman's body?
End quote.
So to get back on track, after Mamie was buried, the rumor mill started while the Lovers Triangle of Mamie, Harry and Louise and the Logan Social Club
gained the most attention, quote, This club allegedly has a take orders on the top floor of one of the business district's most well known buildings
and its membership, according to the statements made by Harry, end quote.
Basically, every member of the club was afraid their names would be dropped.
The media did more than just poking around and eventually prompted prosecuting attorney L.P. Hager to state, quote,
With the regards of the list of members, the public is warned not to believe many of the rumors current through the community, end quote.
While the public was glued to newspapers over the affair, the investigation continued, bloody rags, clothing, a canvas sheet, and part of the floor mat from Harry's Ford was collected and sent to Charleston for further investigating.
The razor and pistols found at Harry's home were also taken into evidence and sent back to the state police barracks installing Swiss Virginia, where the analysts later confirmed that almost all of the sustains were human blood.
Several witnesses reported seeing a man that they identified as Clarence, either driving or parked on 22 Mine Road during the morning hours of June 22.
One witness, Myrtle Brown of Holden, West Virginia, even said that she heard what was sounded like took on shots near the area where Mamie was found.
Later that morning, James Murphy, an employee at the service station located across the street from the Robertson's garage, seen Clarence open the garage door at 9am.
He added that over the next 90 minutes, Clarence backed the Ford out of the garage and then drove it back inside, then drove it back inside five times.
He said that he called out to Clarence asking in a joking manner what he was doing. According to Murphy, Clarence never said anything.
The preliminary hearing for both Harry and Clarence began on the morning of Saturday, June 25, 1932.
Squire LW Elba Hatfield brought the proceedings to order at 11am.
The first day was normal. Both Harry and Clarence pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Bruce Harris of the Harris Funeral Home was called to the stand and gave a detailed account of Mamie's body, along with state troopers and others who were present at the crime scene also testified.
On the second day of trial, Harry took the stand and he gave a detailed account of his affair with Mamie, but very little new information came from it.
Clarence took the stand the next day and it didn't take long for the shit show to begin.
When the topic of his alleged affair with Mamie started, attorneys Emmett Skaggs and CeCe Chambers locked horns and basically argued over the disclosure of this information.
Later it was revealed by the state's attorney that Clarence had written a letter to his sister, Josie Carpenter, while being killed in Wilmanson.
The letter was entered into evidence, quote, Dear sister, please do all you can do to help me and go to Miss Robertson and tell her that they have taken me to Wilmanson to keep anyone from seeing me.
But I will not tell anything to hurt Mr. Harry and her and stand up and help me as we all know that it's going to be hard for me and Mr. Harry.
They don't know anything to hurt us. That's why they have taken me away from Logan. Tell Mr. Harry that I will die before I lie on him and Miss Robertson.
So please help me. Yours truly, Clarence, end quote.
The courtroom erupted when Harry's defense attorney, John Chaffin, inquired who was paying for Clarence's attorney. Then Charles Eastap protested loudly calling Chaffin's tactics third degree in nature and asserting that it seemed to him that the hearing was being held for the benefits for the newspaper and not justice.
With all this, it cost the preliminary hearing to be postponed and continued several times. The hearing finally concluded on July 29.
At that time, Judge Hatfield ordered the case to be sent to the grand jury in September to decide the questions of formal indictment stirring.
The court of Logan County offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of Mamie Thurman's murderer or murderers.
On September 15, 1932, a full day of investigation, the grand jury, for the fall terms of the circuit court, convened and reported its findings to Judge Naiman Jackson.
Clarence Stevenson was indicted for first degree murder. Harry wasn't. Clarence demanded his right to a full trial and the opening date was set for October 10.
Crowds surrounded the Logan County Courthouse early.
Reporters came from across the nation representing the White and Black press.
The hallways were so packed that you could barely walk through them and the deputy sheriffs were there to keep the anxious crowd at bay.
The trial started just after 1 p.m.
Bruce Harris of the Harris Funeral Home was once again the first to take the stand.
Then began the line of witnesses, experts, law enforcement, and then Clarence.
Mamie's husband Jack took the stand on the second day.
Called as a witness for the state, Jack said that he has seen Clarence when he was seen on the steps of the Guy in Valley Bank, known as the Old Stone Bank at 11 p.m.
This was during the time that Clarence was supposed to be on watch for Mamie by the rules of Harry.
Vanette Jones was one of the last people reported to see Mamie alive on June 21st, was called to the stand.
So was Logan police chief Mead Smelser, who said that Clarence attempted to make a run for it when he was first taken to jail in Williamson.
He also said that when Clarence ran, he drew his gun and ordered Clarence to stop and return.
And Mead said that Clarence complied without further incident.
When Clarence was questioned as to why he bolted, he said that it was simply a case of fear.
At 4.05 p.m. on Thursday, October 13, 1932, the defense rested.
At 9 p.m. the jury was sent away for deliberations while Clarence was awaiting the verdict.
He was seen to be unmoved and even talking and laughing with some of the officers that were near him.
He reportedly said, quote, no matter what the verdict is, if it is for me or against me, there is just one thing I have to say.
I hope they keep on searching until they do find the right party.
I don't believe whoever did it is here and I think they've left the country, end quote.
On October 14 at 9.50 p.m. the jury returned its verdict of guilty of first degree murder.
The supporters of Clarence rallied to his defense.
Local chapter of the NAACP and the Logan County Colors Civics League began raising funds to enable Clarence to have his case appealed to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Clarence was sentenced to life in prison.
Clarence was taken to the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Maldesville, West Virginia to serve his life sentence.
In 1939, he was transferred to Huttonsville Correctional Center.
Clarence Stevenson died of stomach cancer on April 24, 1942.
You probably think this is where the episode is going to end, right?
Well, Mamie's story doesn't end just yet.
22 Mon Road is still used today, but now by the public.
It was originally used for the Island Creek Coal Company.
The Logan Memorial Cemetery where Mamie is said to be buried has overgrown and you can barely see the name on the graves.
If you do go out to the graveyard, you will probably be searching forever because you can't find Mamie's marker.
So this has many thinking that they've seen Mamie over the years.
In 1985, George Morrison, Mamie's half brother came to Logan wanting to visit her final resting place.
He became curious as to why there wasn't a grave or marker for his half sister.
George and a reporter from the Logan Banner did some digging and found out that Mamie's funeral cost came to $700.
Records from 1932 also said that a metal marker was placed at the site.
In the sun of the caretaker said he remembered digging Mamie's grave.
Now, back to what we said about Mamie still being seen.
It's reported that she can be seen on 22 Mine Road and almost all of the sightings of her state the same thing.
Drivers reported seeing a woman dressed in all white walking along the road.
Feeling like it's a woman that may be in trouble, the drivers pull over to give her a ride and they were taken up on their offer.
The woman got in the car and is said to be grateful for the ride and the driver would start driving away and turn to talk to Mamie.
And then she was gone.
Another way to experience Mamie's presence.
Locals say you can put your car in neutral at the bottom of 22 Mine Road and you'll feel it roll back up to the hill, back towards the spot where Mamie's body was found.
Now, this has been said to just be an optical illusion known as a gravity trap.
Today, Mamie's story lives on where people argue over who really killed her. Whether it was Harry or Clarence, to this day, it's still unknown, just like the spot where Mamie is buried.
To us, Mamie's spirit is still trying to find the justice she deserves.
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