Prison City Murders – Case 21 – Fatal Attraction Kansas-Style

8:45 am, June 22nd, 1900. Merchant Street, El Dorado, Kansas. Report from the Butler County Democrat newspaper: Mrs. Emma Spangler and Mrs. Betty Mobberly … hear screams from the home of Olin and Clara Castle. They run to the front door of the house, but the screen door is locked. They hear to sounds of a struggle inside. They run to the back of the house, but that door is also locked. As they run back to the front of the house, they see through a window that Mrs. Castle is on the floor with a woman bending over her. Emma and Betty break in the front door and pull the woman away from Mrs. Castle. They both recognize her as Miss Jessie Lee Morrison. Mrs. Spangler starts to take Jessie to her home, but she breaks away saying “I must have that letter.” Both Jessie and Mrs. Castle are bleeding profusely. While, Betty attends to Clara Castle who has been slashed in the throat, Emma takes Jessie home and calls a doctor. “But a few moments passed until word was taken down town, all was excitement and business was practically suspend. Both men and women crowded to the scene.” Clara cannot speak, but she is conscious. She motions to Betty to bring her something to write with. She writes “Jessie Morrison killed me.”     artist rendering for the Kansas City Star Sources https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Mayhem-Southeast-Kansas-Larry/dp/1467141402/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1576173576&sr=8-1 https://www.butlercountytimesgazette.com https://www.facebook.com/ST-LOUIS-Globe-Democrat-317244905115627/ http://history.rays-place.com/ks/butler-eldorado.htm www.kshs.org https://www.kansasmemory.org/ https://newspaperarchive.com/ https://www.ancestry.com/ https://www.genealogybank.com/ https://www.newspapers.com/ https://www.findagrave.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/