Appalachian Murder, Mystery And Legend
A Sheriff Named Maude
Listen to how this young woman reacted to the death of her husband and made history
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/larry-bentley/support
- Broadcast on:
- 08 Sep 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
(gentle music) - Apple Atchia, the word that evokes a whole pass of the reactions. Everything from the beauty of a mountain top to trailer parks, drugs, and about everything in between. The Apple Atchian Mountains are indeed the oldest mountains in the world. They once towered 30,000 feet into the air. They stretch from Eastern Canada through 14 states all the way to Louisiana. The folks who live in these mountains have faced an unending number of tragic and just plain odd hatens that cry out for the telling. Hello, I'm Larry Bentley. I know I was born and raised in these very mountains by a family who themselves were born, raised, and lived for generations in the heart of the Apple Atchian Mountains. Come with me and we'll take a look at some of the unending stories that come from within my beloved mountains. And we'll look through the eyes of an old Apple Atchian at some outside the area as well. Welcome to season four of Apple Atch and Murder, Mystery, and Legend. How do my good friends? Hope you're doing well today. Thank you so much for stopping by again. Now, there ain't nobody that's gonna say that being married to a law enforcement officers is an easy thing. They work long hours and stuff they see that they'll take to the grave, mind you. Probably makes them have a hard time sleeping and when they do have time off to try, that is. And that in turn probably makes them a bit edgy and maybe somebody even grow fond of a drink or so to try to wash that crap out of their mind. But probably the biggest thing is the constant worry as to when the phone might ring with the horrible news that something happened to them and the line of duty. The truth is that that very thing happens pretty often across our country here as of late. After all the arrangements are attended to and survivors are left alone in the empty house, the question comes, well, what do you do now? Well, have a seat and make yourself at home and I'll tell you what happened next for one young lady that received that call. From all Collins of Benton County, Ohio, which sits close to the border of West Virginia, that call came in 1925 when her husband, Sheriff Fletcher Collins, was shot and killed while arresting a man for excessive speeding. He was such a beloved sheriff that there was about 250 car loads of folks and police cars at his funeral procession. And in a county the size of Benton in that day, that was saying something. Newspaper Accounts of the Day reported that the young widow and her five little children withstood the strain bravely. Now the tragedy of Sheriff Fletcher's death shattered the world moulded known, but mould was cut from a cloth of strong Appalachian material. What happened sent her on a path that she hadn't intended on going down by putting her in a position to make history. By strong Appalachian material, I mean that she was born in 1893. And she was the granddaughter of none other than Randall McCoy, who of course was the patriarch of the McCoy side of the few between the Hatfields and McCoy's. Now when the local coroner who was next in line for the position of Sheriff flat turned down the job, I reckon because he probably already had a plate full. County officials offered the position to mould, which wasn't uncommon at the time for widows to inherit political positions from a slain husband. You know, it kind of sounds to me folks like about halfway expected politicians just to drop over any time, don't it? But by passing the office to the widow, they'd ensure that the post would be held for that political party and at least until the next election. It just hadn't happened in the position of Sheriff in that part of the country yet. With her husband gone, Mal's decision to carry on with Sheriff probably had something to do with her current financial situation. In Venton County, the Sheriff's house was adjacent to the jail. And as the Sheriff's wife, Mal would be, would have served as the jail matron, feeding prisoners, cleaning the jail, handling paperwork and taking care of the female prisoners. In other words, she was a corrections officer before there's even call corrections officers, I reckon. So she wasn't exactly a stranger to it at all to begin with, I guess. If she'd turned them down, she and her family would have, or what was left of it to five children, would have lost a roof over their heads and she would have likely had no other way to support them at the time. Remember folks, there weren't no government relief back in. Sheriff Mal served out the last year of her husband's term and then made the decision to run for re-election. Folks, at that time, women had only recently gained a right to vote to begin with. And while women had barely begun to get into law enforcement in other places, the few who'd been appointed Sheriff by what was known as the widow's succession, had until now always left the post when their terms were up. In the 1926 election, Sheriff Mal beat her opponent in the primary, winning 964 votes to 232, and received nearly 60% of the vote in their general election, making her the new first elected female sheriff in Ohio history. And wouldn't you know that it would be on the Appalachian side of the state, of course? Sheriff Mal's time as Sheriff was a dang sight from which somebody might call easy. Prohibition was in full swing and since ain't nobody ever told hillbillies what they can't make or that they can't make their corn squeezes, moonshine stills, had always been quite a fixture and all across the Appalachian Mountains in fact. Up to and including Southeast Ohio, you know, but since the government decided what was best for people that they rarely have ever even laid eyes on and decided that the whole country would be better without any alcohol, then went ahead and passed an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit it. And you know, just to make sure that it'd be a royal painting and asked to reverse, meaning it would take a major act of Congress to change it, just like that, moonshine became illegal. All that did was make the Appalachians accept the dare and step it up a notch or 12. The insured liquor operations in the region grew about 10 fold and turned lead to an increase in violence, of course. Yep, Sheriff Mal was walking into a hornet's nest. Apparently, being raised in the middle of a feud makes a person pretty much tough as shoe leather. And as it turned out, Sheriff Mal was pretty blamed good at her job and it wasn't long after she was appointed that she got to prove it. When she was called out to the stout place to try to find William Stout, who had been reported missing in February of 1927. Now the last time she saw the missing man, he was mending fences. And as Palmer told the sheriff, now, Sheriff Mal and her deputy Ray Cox, listen to how our boyfriend's father, who was missing man, had headed out to men fences and was acting a little bit like a lunatic when he left. Sheriff Mal and deputy Ray followed the trail patch fences, two and a half miles from the house they found a lunch pail under a tree. The pail contained a handwritten will in which William Stout cut off his other two sons, Noah and Byrne, and named as his boyfriend, Arthur, as the soul heir. Now the document wasn't signed by any witnesses. And the Sheriff Mal and deputy Ray, the whole matter just started stinking. Now I don't blame them. There's a whole bunch of things that I would not do while mending fences and I guess taking a lunch break and disowning two of my children will be right there at the top of that list. Now, Sheriff Mal got down and put the eagle eye on the footprints leading to and from the dinner bucket. They called them my dinner buckets back in because that's pretty much what they were. A little tin bucket with a lid on it and a handle to carry it with. My grandpa had one. When I was a little feller, I always thought he was carrying a whole tin full of Christmas candy to work for some reason. Anyway, back to the story. Sheriff Mal followed the tracks back to William Stout's house and found a pair of his shoes. Shoes fit exactly to the footprints but Sheriff Mal noticed that the footprints weren't not as deep in the soil as those of deputy cops. A man who's about the same size as Mr. Stout. Sheriff dropped the shoes on the ground and slipped them on and she walked up and down beside the footprints and her own fresh footprints were about the same death. She figured with that bit of quick thinking that a person was much closer to her weight and size made the prints, not William Stout. So now we're about to skunk live along the stink. Now, the sheriff and her deputy proceeded to put the search to the house. It was obvious that William Stout never took any of his belongings when he went out to man fences. Except in his lunch bucket, I guess. Everything else he had was right there in the house. They went back to MacArthur, which is a dang near right smack in the middle of Venton County. And presented the will to the cashier at the Venton County National Bank where Mr. Stout had his account. Sheriff Maud compared to hand right into the will to that of his canceled checks. And the signature wasn't even close. It looked like some right handed person had written it with their left foot. In fact, it was written so bad it was written. Rotten was written in Rotten, which was how the whole affair was now smelling. Now, Sheriff Maud and deputy cops went back to the farmhouse the next morning to search the Stout's farm for any traces of what they assumed was going to be William Stout's body, which they fully expected to find. Once they were there, they had a nice little talk with the missing man's two young grandsons. During the courses, they're a little talk. The boys informed the two law officers that I and is had told them that the water behind the stout house or in the will wasn't fit to be drinking. They best just stay away from it. Sheriff Maud and deputy cops promptly pounced stone and arrested an as Palmer who was living at the house as a suspect so they could search the premises without interference. First stop, of course, was the well. Being that somebody knew that the well water was tainted in all. So sure enough, they found William Stout's body crammed down in the well. It was obvious that Mr. Stout had suffered severe head trauma caused by a blunt instrument. I know if I was on this Palmer, staying at the house in the first place and where was Arthur, the boyfriend, during all that. Well, I'm glad you asked because folks we ain't done yet. Stick around, I'll be right back. You're listening to Appalachian murder mystery and legend with Larry Bentley. Folks are supposed to properly explain and answer the questions at hand. We'll need to go back to November 11th, 1926. When a young neighbor of the Stout's named Manville Perry noticed the living room door of William and Sarah's family or family's house standing wide open in the cold weather and decided to go check things out. He was shocked by the sight he saw when he stuck his head in to tell Miss Stout that the door was open and it might need a bit of minting or something to hold it shut. After seeing what he saw, he ran to a nearby coal mine and called for several miners to company him back to the farm for help. What he saw, folks, was Miss Stout's body laid out on the floor in front of the living room stove. Her face, neck, and portions of her body were burnt and charred beyond recognition. One arm was extended out from her body on the floor in front of her and wouldn't burn at all. That suggested that she hadn't even tried to put flames out to her, literally, burning her alive. All of her hair were burned off except for her head and came in contact with the floor. It was obvious to the gathered group of concerned folks that the body had been placed in front of the stove, locating, or the local, I'm sorry, prosecuting attorney. Blake was called in and he and Dr. O.S. Cox and Dr. A.E. James took a real close look at the scene. Their post-mortem concluded that Miss Stout died of strangulation, not burns. The body was then covered with kerosene and said on fire. It would be the reason that she wouldn't try to put the fire out because she was already gone. And the reason that her arm was extended out was that somebody used it to drag her body over in front of the stove first. Sir, at Stout, while she was last seen alive in MacArthur two days earlier, when she took out a warrant against Arthur Stout, who was her stepson. The adult re-charge, she swore out against him accused him of an illicit relationship with none other than an S. Palmer, who'd been cohabitating with him for three years on his family farm, about three miles east of Sarah and William's farm. It was rumored that an S and Arthur had had a child since they had been living together. And yes, folks, that was illegal at the time. The young Mr. Stout had been bailed out of jail by his father for a crime that, you know, we pretty much laugh at being even called a crime today. I reckon Mr. Stout figured that somebody got a run to back 40 so he can't do it all himself. But now I couldn't tell you if he was irritated at Miss Stout because he thought that she was a birth of better than you or not. But Miss Stout was scared to death that Arthur would kill her on account of taking out the warring. At least that's what the Stout's neighbor, Mrs. Lucy Gibbs told everybody who'd listen, and that would include the police. Sarah, who was aged 60 and her husband, Mr. Stout, was 65, were on their second marriages and were respected, well to do farmers in the county. I don't know what came out of the blue and call Sarah to jog downtown to turn her stepson in for having his Samsonite wedding. But any, I mean, even especially if she figured that he might be a life-threatening stunt to pull, yes, and my part of the mountains, folks, they're called Samsonite weddings or Shack and Pack weddings because the co-habitants are usually making a trial run at a marriage and if it don't work out, they just pack their bags and skedaddle on their own ways. But considering the time period we're in here, folks, one thing that could have happened that is she figured that if she and William were to let things go on this, their reputations would have been ran into the Venton County dirt. Besides, there were folks around them parts that took pretty damn views of such care and own and just might decide to literally do something about it. In fact, Sarah just may have already been warned by the vigilante machine and if she was, she likely burned the warning in the stove and shuffled off to get the warrant post-haste. That makes sense, I guess, being that Arthur and I is been living like married folks for three years by that time. Another view is that, well, Sarah was a gold digger looking to eliminate any competition for the old man's money. Now there's information that either one could be true. Now William started immediately called for the arrest of his son. I showed the man his punishment. He said it was an awful thing to do to murder the woman who had raised him since he was only 13 years old. Then, for some unknown reason before his own death, William Stout hired a law firm of woolly and rolling to defend his son. Sheriff Maud had used blood hounds on the case which followed the trail of the murdered woman's stepson from a wagon. He had unhitched in the yard to the room in which Sarah Stout was found murdered, which in turn led to Arthur Stout's arrest. Now I got to say here that Sheriff Maud might have jumped the gun a little bit on that one. Arthur might have been running in and out of the house to the point where the door flopped around like a fan blade you never know, but it didn't matter in early February of 1927. A grand jury indicted him for a first degree murder and when young mr. Stout was dragged off to jail and as Palmer became a housekeeper for the elder mr. Stout, so apparently William didn't suspect her of any wrongdoing or maybe didn't wanted to keep a close tabs on her and figured he could take her in a fire fistfight or something. I reckon he forgot maybe that he had to go to sleep sometime, but so here's where we are. At the time of our arrest, which came in March of 1927, and as Palmer was living in the stout house with Arthur and William Stout, along with Arthur Stout's sons who had been living with the grandfather for a while because Arthur of course was behind bars. And as Palmer didn't say anything about Sarah Stout's death when she was first arrested, she did confess that she'd killed William Stout because he made advances toward her and she got to defend herself up to whacking gray cells out of a man's head if necessary. And apparently she thought it it need be with William, I reckon, that she explained that she attempted to cover up the crime by putting on a pair of his shoes and had made footprints near the repaired fences. And yes, she said that she had forged the well placed at the dinner pail under the tree. I reckon if she got killed itself to fetch, she might as well take everything he had to. As far as she was concerned, he wouldn't be needing it anymore at the bottom of a well. When Arthur Stout learned of a Nezis confession, he confirmed her story and added on to it saying that she'd killed Sarah Stout too. Nez told him to shut his pie hole and burn the body. So, known his place in the pecking order on the family of the family, that's exactly what he did. Now, he probably wasn't supposed to do it right there in the living room, but I'd say that he'd already been told not to think on his own, just do what he was told, or he saw a way out by piling everything that he could on a Nezis in hopes of walking away from it all one or the other. If that was what he was up to, it didn't work. Arthur Stout and Nez Palmer were both tried for the murders, and on the stand Arthur informed the prosecutors that his father was actually the person that came up with the idea of wiping Sarah out because he had him arrested and for living with ideas, Palmer without the benefit of a marriage license, I guess, is what it was. Now, Arthur Stout was found guilty of second-degree murder, and a Nez Palmer with first-degree murder in April of 1927, and they were both given life's terms. In November of 1927, Edgar Foy and Rose Waldron were delivered to the Ohio State Penitentiary for their part in a violent robbery. They were also witnesses to a significant moment in Ohio history. They were the first prisoners ever escorted to the Penitentiary by a woman, and that woman being Sheriff Maud Collins. After Sheriff Maud ran her term as sheriff, and I'd say most likely got to thinking about the danger of the job and put what happened to her babies, I guess, if something was to happen to her, I'd like what happened to her husband. She moved on to something a little bit less stressful. She was elected twice to a position of clerk of courts in Venton County and then served as a matron at the Columbus State School. She later moved to California but eventually returned to Ohio before she passed away in 1972. She is buried in Hampton Cemetery next to her husband. From the information I have, Shuff, she never remarried. When it came to the attention of the Venton County historical and genealogical society that a woman elected Sheriff in 1976 had been recognized as Ohio's first female sheriff, the organization nominated Maud for the Ohio Woman's Hall of Fame in order to correct that mistake. On October 24th, 2000, Maud's granddaughter traveled all the way from California to accept the award at the induction ceremony. That honor officially confirmed Maud Collins as Ohio's first female sheriff. Sheriff Maud's story was put together as a play by the Ohio Historical Center in 2014 and it ran as a reminder of the first female sheriff in Ohio history. Finally, an Ohio historical marker commemorating Sheriff Maud was erected beside the Venton County Courthouse in 2019. Folks, hope you enjoyed our story. If you did, please rate and review the podcast and don't forget to subscribe or follow depending on where you're listening. Come on over to Facebook, group Appalachian Murder Mystery and Legend podcast where we talk Appalachian or about anything else you want to bring up. I'll be right back real soon with another Appalachian Murder Mystery or Legend and I will see you then.