Family legend (very little of this has been verified - although we have found court docs to corroborate some of this)
During prohibition in rural Kansas, one of my great uncles allegedly ran a speak easy out of his home.
The local sheriff was a really corrupt and a drunk. He apparently made late night “raids” of my uncles home, keeping a “tax” of booze for himself.
Everything was tolerated until he threatened my great aunts life, and my distant relative murdered the Sheriff of Arma, Kansas.
He was arrested and put in the local jail. The town revolted and my uncle made a jail break during the chaos.
He fled to Missouri and was tracked down by the authorities but somehow still escaped custody. Fled to the South Carolina, and was again tracked down, and faked his own death by using demolitions to cave a coal mine he was working in.
What we have found are some strange court documents from the county in Kansas. My brother is an attorney and tracked these down by formally requesting from the state of Kansas. It seemingly shows that he eventually plead guilty to a lesser charge and was released.
I am SURE that most of this is over exaggerated. My brothers and I would love the truth. We have an extremely uncommon last name but have hit a dead end with our resources.
Any historians out there interested in helping us solve this family legend?
Hi OP, /r/genealogy is all about family history research, so it would be worth asking them for advice
Do you have any specific questions? If you are just looking to enlist a historian for some grunt work, this probably isn't the place, but we may be able to point you in the direction of historical resources if you're a little more specific.
We are trying to verify how much of this story is true.
All we can factually verify is that he plead guilty of “violating prohibitory law”. We have the court documents from 1932. Crawford County District court verified that the original charge was murder.
I certainly do not mind the grunt work. Any resources I could use would be appreciated.
We have a breakthrough!
All credit goes to the wonderful u/dontcallmemonica. Thank you, stranger. And I will never call you Monica out of respect.
What has been confirmed: March 18th 1932: (from his local newspaper) A local sheriff arrived at the family home of my great-great uncle. He was accompanied by four other men “seeking liquor”. Two of the men entered the home and my uncle “grabbed a shotgun and shot the officer in the head”.
March 19th, 1932: (from a different local newspaper). Short announcement of arrest but the story is now reported as a “liquor raid” - family story calls the first reporting the truth.
March 19th, 1932: (from a larger news organization -yes, the very same day he was arrested) A coroner’s jury freed him stating the killing of the deputy was in self defense.
What was already known: July 15, 1932 (four months after first incident, from court documents provided by the County): My uncle was found guilty to “violating prohibitory law”. Sentenced to 60 days in jail with a $200 fine. He appealed and the case was dismissed on October 17th, 1932.
New questions:
Edit: changed “plead guilty” to “found guilty” for clarity. Not a lawyer. But explains appeal to the district court at the time.
I'm not sure whether it's within the rules of /r/RBI but they might like a quest like this.