The Kidnapping and Murder of Little Skeegie Cash: J. Edgar Hoover and Florida's Lindbergh Case

12. Found

12 found Wednesday, June 8, 1938 At midnight,in an upstairs room at fbi headquarters,franklin Pierce McCall sat fidgeting like a rat in a cage. As SAC Connelley interrogated him, the noose slowly tightened around the suspect’s neck. Special agent h. b. Dill assisted in the questioning.1 Director hoover stood in the back of the room. The top G-man almost never participated in questioning suspects, and his presence indicated the importance of the case to the future of the bureau. McCall’s demeanor differed greatly from former suspects frampy braxton, Willard Campbell, and Walter fisher. each had unshakable alibis and repeated the same story over and over. on the other hand, McCall’s recollections of his whereabouts on the night of the abduction and the night the ransom was paid changed with each telling.2 The inconsistencies raised red flags to the experienced agents, who continued to press McCall until he broke. if McCall thought that placing the blame for the kidnapping on Asbury Cash would alleviate his guilt, it showed his lack of legal knowledge. Like most southern states,florida legislators had long ago enacted the felony murder rule. This law explicitly stated that if a death occurred during the commission of a felony, both offending parties were equally guilty, even though one had not actually “pulled the trigger.”3 either McCall didn’t know the law, or he simply hoped that shifting the responsibility for Skeegie’s abduction would make him appear less like a monster to the G-men.4 found / 117 Richard Asbury Cash seems to have been a strange choice for the truck driver’s imaginary partner in crime.Cash and his wife beatrice had four boys, ishmael, ormond, Lloyd, and oliver, and one daughter, Josephine. Asbury, as his friends and family called him, had a close relationship with his older brother, bailey, and by all accounts, doted on his nephew Skeegie.5 The fbi had already interviewed Asbury. he informed the G-men that “he has always been of the opinion that franklin Pierce McCall is a worthless young man, too shiftless to work steadily.”Asbury stated that the previous month,the preacher’s son had obtained twenty-seven crates of tomatoes from him on credit, then refused to pay for the produce. Asbury had threatened to have McCall arrested if he did not settle his debt.6 According to fbi files,the bitterness went deeper than a few crates of tomatoes .“Mr. Cash . . . state[d] that he [Asbury] is on unfriendly terms with the hilliard family due to the fact that he, Cash, has been associated with various growers in the community in selling their produce; that the business nets him from three to four thousand dollars a year; that Joseph hilliard, father in law of McCall, has attempted to take this business away from him several times, unsuccessfully; that hilliard had indicated to him that if he could get half the business from Cash he could employ his son in law.”7 but perhaps the most important reason McCall attempted to blame Asbury was that Preacher boy had somehow learned a secret that Cash’s brother had attempted to keep hidden. for several months, Asbury had been having an affair with an attorney’s wife.8 fbi reports described Thelma hill as “a very attractive woman.”her husband , C. Malcolm hill, had practiced law in tarpon Springs, florida, until about two years before the kidnapping of Skeegie. Seven years earlier, he’d married “a very pretty brunette girl [Thelma] who came from the Keystone section of hillsborough County,florida,and that from that union there was one boy, who was described as being five or six years old.”9 on hearing about Asbury’s alleged infidelity, G-men quickly opened up an investigation, surmising that hill might have snatched little Skeegie in retaliation for Asbury’s affair with his wife. A witness suggested that Mrs. hill liked to “party” and could be responsible for the abduction. on a fishing trip to Anclote, the witness claimed to have heard Thelma complaining about her own child who was crying. “if we get rid of this damn kid,” she allegedly said, “we might be able to catch some damn fish.”10 it turned out that the couple had recently moved to new Port Richey 118 / Chapter 12 where hill planned to open a law office. According to an informant...