In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

· 281 · Afterword i trust that readers will approach this story with an unbiased eye and in so doing draw their own conclusions. As to which “facts” in this case can be believed or not believed, it is hard to say—simply because too much time has elapsed, too many clues have been lost, and nobody alive today can claim any firsthand knowledge of the affair. Those who lived through it are deceased, and those who learned of it secondhand are almost certainly gone as well. That leaves those of us who inherited the knowledge at three or four removes. unfortunately , oral history transforms itself over time. This was more than borne out by the errors contained in Delia Greene’s 1977 telling of the events. Any historical source can contain errors, but primary sources are generally considered more accurate. in this case, primary sources were scant. Luckily, there was a plethora of newspaper articles, and these became the backbone of my research. But as this story so strikingly illustrates, Victorian reporters sometimes got their facts wrong. Also, the two sources that would have shed the most light on the truth could not be located. The first, a primary source, was that twelve-hundred-page “transcript of evidence” compiled at the board of supervisors ’ request. The other was the newspaper article shown to my anonymous informant—the one that supposedly stated that emma, on her deathbed, had accused a “boyfriend.” other than the court docket papers, which turned up in montgomery County, no court records of the case could be found. opinions were tendered—by judges, researchers, and employees of the courts—as to the possible whereabouts of that transcript. Although official case documents should have been returned to the original jurisdiction, it was never clear if the transcript fell into that category. if not, it could have gone home with one of the 282 · afterword lawyers, the sitting judge, or even John T. montgomery, the court stenographer (since he was apparently never compensated for it). As for the missing article on emma’s deathbed statement, a simple clue— such as the date or the name of the newspaper—would have helped immensely. realistically, though, it could have appeared in print any time between emma’s 1910 death and the late 1930s, when it was first shown to my informant. This almost thirty-year time span means the chances of finding it were slim indeed. Nevertheless, i scoured online historical databases for that article pertaining to emma’s death, to no avail. emma’s short obituary in the Taylorville newspaper made no mention of her deathbed confession. i was briefly buoyed by the news that my informant had kept said article. But as so often happens, the clipping was filed in a cardboard box, which was then stashed in the attic. Decades later, when the home changed hands, everything in the attic was earmarked for the local dump. That is precisely how we lose so many valuable links to our past. Photos, letters, personal journals, news clippings, and other cherished keepsakes are carefully tucked away for future generations and then quickly forgotten. if they escape damage from water, heat, mold, mildew, insects, and time, they still face the tough scrutiny of the later generations who inherit them. many heirs view these items as old and insignificant clutter, so out they go, along with the opportunity to truly know our ancestors. Arguably, my theory on elliott and ellsworth and their role in the crime may not be the final word. some may argue that my conclusion is based solely on circumstantial evidence, and i do not disagree. i can only hope that some determined sleuth or curious descendant will one day stumble across one or both of these two important sources that seem to have gone astray. But, until then, i am placing all my bets squarely on the Hobbs/Harding brothers. i cannot conclude without saying a word about Fate. in my family’s archives were pictures of A. D. Bond and Delia sabine Bond—but none of emma. in my second year of research, i did a Google search for the name “emma Bond” on a whim—hoping to find some overlooked bit of information. everything that came up on the first few pages of search hits pertained to a present-day woman of that name in Australia, and she appeared to be engaged in an occupation similar to emma’s in Joplin. But i continued to dig deeper into...

Share