by Ralph Barnes
In the austere nineteen thirties, the Great Depression had a strangle-hold
on the land and desperate families were struggling to maintain minimal
subsistence. Those difficult times brought out the best in most people and
charitable acts were everyday occurances. Unfortunately, the grim atmosphere
had the opposite effect on Satan’s cadre of corrupted souls who haunt the
darker reaches of society. These depraved beings preyed on the weak and the
unwary that were delivered up to them through misfortune or recklessness. When
demented minds turn to murder, youthful females more often than not, are the
target of choice. Economic chaos dominated that harsh period and created dire
situations where some of the more vulnerable were thrust unavoidably into harms
way.
The decade of the thirties was part of a time warp, commonly referred to as the
good old days, when murder was considered by some to be a lesser crime than
promiscuity. Public opinion severely judged those who strayed from the norms of
established morality, especially women. Well meaning juries often reasoned that
females who lived on the wild side were responsible ultimately for their own
misfortunes. The male dominated jury panels sometimes failed to hold men to the
same high standards, making it difficult to obtain convictions for crimes
against women. This is a tale of two young woman brutally slain, but never
avenged.
The Fairalie Reece Case
John Farrell, of South Irvine, was out for a stroll and on Sunday morning May,
24, 1931. As he was passed a neighboring house, he noticed through the window
that a young women was lying on the bed covered by a coat. The house was a
rental unit owned by a local doctor and a young woman by the name of Fairalie
Reece had moved in the previous week. Several hours later when he again passed
the house he noticed that she had not moved and deduced that something was
wrong. He tried to rouse her by shouting and beating on the door to no avail.
He was unable to enter the house because the door was locked. At that point he
decided to summon the sheriff.
After arriving on the scene, Sheriff C.C. Stanfill forced his way into the
house and discovered that Reece was dead. She apparently had been shot at close
range with a 32 caliber pistol that left powder burns on her breast. A single
lethal shot struck her heart. Suicide was ruled out immediately because the
doors were locked and there was no gun or door keys to be found. Fairalie was
the twenty year old daughter of a poor widow who lived above Old landing named Susie
Reece. After a brief autopsy, the victim was put in a make-shift coffin and
buried at Doe Creek without fanfare.
The Sheriff began the painstaking task of learning the details of Fairalie’s
recent history, in particular the last few hours of her life. What he learned
was that Reece had requested another neighbor, Mrs. Frank Dawes to call a taxi
for her on the night of the murder. The Taxi driver, Bev Harris picked her up
around 7:00 PM and hauled her to the Ravenna depot. During the ride she asked Harris
to tell M.V. Abston that she was going to Lee County to testify in a moonshine
case and planned to visit her mother over the weekend before appearing in court
on Monday. Abston was a forty-three year old wholesale grocery salesman from
Lee County who had been having an illicit affair with the younger woman.
Soon after arriving at the depot, Reece walked up to the Cruse Hotel and
Restaurant. After a short stay at the restaurant, she suddenly vanished, but
left her hatbox. She reappeared in the restaurant around 11:00 PM to pick up
the hat box. Jim Fielder was standing in front of the hotel and saw her get
into the car and drive off with a man that he believed to be Abston. She was
never seen alive again.
Further investigation determined that she and Abston were indeed involved
romantically and that he had arranged to rent her previous residence as well as
the place in South Irvine. Only the week before, Abston hired Gardner
Birchfield to move her things to South Irvine from a Ravenna residence. It was also
established that Abston spent a good deal of time looking for her during the
period she was missing from the restaurant. John Worrell was on duty at the
train station when Abston came by and inquired of her where-abouts. Abston
seemed especially interested in locating the hat box. In addition, Abston had
driven up to Coleman Gilbert’s house on Cow Creek looking for her.
Based on overwhelming circumstantial evidence, Abston was indicted and tried
for the murder of Fairalie Reece on June 4, 1931. He was ably defended by
crafty Ezart Ashcraft and a team of Lee County attorneys. The prosecution was
handled by Ben Scott and Clarence Miller. Abston admitted his illicit
relationship with the victim but denied that he had anything to do with her
death. He claimed that he was in his room at the Cruse Hotel and had
indigestion so bad that he went to bed early and did not wake up until the
following morning. The prosecution used more than thirty witnesses to connect
the defendant to Reece and to put him on the scene with her shortly before the
killing took place. In spite of the compelling evidence presented by the
prosecution, the jury took only a few minutes to reach a not-guilty verdict.
M. V. Abston died of a heart attack in Heidleberg within a year of the killing.
Fairalie’s grieving mother lived to be ninety-six. The central questions in the
mystery have never been answered. Did the fact that she was due to testify in a
moonshine case have anything to do with her murder? Where was Fairalie during
the three hours she was gone from the restaurant? And what was in the hatbox?
The Anna Isaacs Case
On March 29, 1940, seven year old Chilton Neal Jr. and family of Miller’s Creek
were riding toward Irvine on the River Road . As they approached the mouth of
Cow Creek, one of the adults spotted something floating in the river that
looked like a body. Chilton Neal Sr. decided to investigate. He sought the
assistance of James Fike and Chester Horn, who lived nearby, in recovering the
corpse. What they found was a mostly nude, badly decomposed body of a woman.
Coroner Ferrell Lewis was called to investigate and determined that she had
died from a massive blow to the head. The deteriorated state of the cadaver
prevented identification and the putrid remains were buried hurriedly at the
poor farm.
Burlin Isaacs, a resident of Barnes Mountain, heard of the discovery and
wondered if it could be his missing daughter. Nineteen-year-old Anna Isaacs had
disappeared a few months earlier on November 7, 1939. At the request of the Isaacs
family the body was disinterred. After several members of the family viewed
what was left of the corpse, they agreed that it was indeed the remains of Anna
Isaacs. A missing tooth and some scraps of blond hair enabled them to make a
positive identification.
Two local men had been seen dancing with Anna Isaacs in a Back Street joint on
the night she disappeared. It was also determined that one of the men had
rented a room for her in Ravenna and had spent part of the night at the rooming
house. According to testimony at the trial, the man was upset on the night of
the murder and publicly stated that he was missing forty dollars and accused
the deceased of taking the money.
Based on that circumstantial evidence, The men were indicted and brought to trial
in July of 1940. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and the murder charges
against the two men were eventually dropped in 1942. The case was never solved.
Chilton Neal Jr. is still haunted by the memory of that tragic event.
Ironically, during the November that Anna Isaacs was murdered, the same Neal
family, while driving from Irvine to Millers Creek, saw a man and a woman near
the spot where the body was eventually found. The woman was waving her arms in
an agitated state. The Neals did not know what to make of the affair at first,
but after they had driven up the road a bit, decided to go back and check out
the situation. By the time they returned to the site the couple had
disappeared. Chilton Neal Jr. has spent more than half a century wondering if
the woman he saw that night, was Anna Isaacs.