Christmas Slay Ride: Most Mysterious and Horrific Christmas Day Murders by Jack Smith

 
Delia’s Gone: Early on Christmas morning in 1900, fourteen-year-old Moses “Cooney” Houston murdered his lover, Delia Green, who was the same age. Because Georgia had no youth justice system, Cooney Houston was charged as an adult. The senseless crime shocked the citizens of Savannah, Georgia, and inspired songs later recorded by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
The Holyhead Horror: On Christmas Day, 1909, a horrific murder took place in North Wales. Gwen-Ellen Jones was killed by her ex-soldier lover, William Murphy, in a manner so depraved that even in an era when domestic violence was commonplace, people were shocked. The murder and subsequent execution of William Murphy are still talked about in Holyhead today.
Changing of the Guard: Early on the morning of December 26, 1920, New York underworld legend Edward “Monk” Eastman, was shot down by a crooked Prohibition agent, ending a thirty-plus year career marked by murder and mayhem. Eastman, who had once ruled the roost in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, died in a freezer gutter.
The Adonis Club Massacre: December 25, 1925 was the last Christmas on earth for Irish gangster Richard “Pegleg” Lonergan. He and his White Hand gang had taunted, abused, and killed their Italian rivals for years. Finally, when Lonergan and his boys went to the Italian-owned Adonis Social Club, their resentful enemies got even.
Lawson Family Massacre: On December 25, 1929, North Carolina tobacco farmer Charlie Lawson murdered his wife and six of their seven children. The reason for this brutal act is a subject of debate even today, but may be attributable to a terrible family secret that remained hidden until 1990.
     
    All of these events took place in the distant past. People who knew the victims, remembered the circumstances of their demise, or were directly involved in the investigations are dead. That’s why these cases were chosen for this book. The passage of time has transmuted them into tragic mysteries, ensuring that they arouse astonishment, sympathy, and indignation instead of the grief and personal loss that is at odds with the holiday season.

THE ASHLAND TRAGEDY
     
    Ashland, Kentucky in 1881 was a quiet and orderly town poised on the Ohio River. Like any community, it had its share of crimes. There were robberies, assaults, acts of vandalism, and the rare murder. Most homicides resulted from drunken confrontations, and caused little excitement.
    December 24 of that year changed everything.
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    The Gibbons family was small and hardworking. John Gibbons spent weeks at a time away from his family, doing odd jobs so that he could send money home to his wife, Martha, and their three children.  The oldest child, Robert, was seventeen and crippled after losing his leg in a freight car accident years earlier. Fanny, aged fourteen, was an attractive teenager said to be physically developed beyond her years, something that was not lost on a lot of men. Sterling, the youngest, was eleven.
    Early on the morning of December 24, a fire broke out at the Gibbons home, a small frame house at the corner of 28th Street and Carter Avenue in Ashland’s East End. Alarmed neighbors rushed into the building and dragged out three bodies that were later identified as Robert and Fannie Gibbons and Fannie’s friend, fifteen-year-old Emma Carrico. Three doctors who arrived on the scene examined the corpses before making a shocking announcement. All three had their skulls caved in, and the girls had been sexually assaulted.
    The townspeople were aghast. How could such a terrible thing happen in Ashland? When dawn broke, the police searched the smoldering house for evidence and found bloody pillows and sheets as well as a crowbar and axe, both of which were caked with blood and hair.
    Mrs. Gibbons and Sterling had not been home that night. They were in Ironton, Ohio, visiting family. Emma’s mother tearfully exclaimed that she had let her daughter sleep over at the Gibbon house to keep Robert and