Latest / River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky / The Murder of Doris McDonough

Transcript

The Murder of Doris McDonough · River City Mystery - Investigating mysteries in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and western Kentucky

• 0:10
  Speaker: You're listening to. River City
• 0:11
  Speaker: Mystery podcast, the show that
• 0:13
  Speaker: delves into the Evansville and
• 0:14
  Speaker: surrounding Tri-State area's
• 0:16
  Speaker: mysteries, including unsolved
• 0:18
  Speaker: crimes, murders, and
• 0:19
  Speaker: disappearances.
• 0:21
  Speaker: A show that isn't afraid to jump
• 0:22
  Speaker: down the rabbit hole to
• 0:23
  Speaker: investigate reports of local
• 0:24
  Speaker: hauntings, sightings of UFOs and
• 0:26
  Speaker: cryptids, among other paranormal
• 0:28
  Speaker: phenomena.
• 0:29
  Speaker: With your host, co-founder of
• 0:31
  Speaker: the Humans of Evansville
• 0:32
  Speaker: Facebook page.
• 0:33
  Speaker: Law office worker by day.
• 0:34
  Speaker: Insomniac researcher of the unknown by night.
• 0:37
  Speaker: Matt Deig.
• 0:43
  Speaker: Welcome to episode seven and thank you for joining me.
• 0:46
  Speaker: We're going to be looking into a cold case from October three,
• 0:49
  Speaker: nineteen sixty eight.
• 0:51
  Speaker: Thirty six year old housewife and mother of two, Doris
• 0:55
  Speaker: McDonough, was brutally murdered in her own kitchen in the middle
• 0:58
  Speaker: of the day.
• 1:00
  Speaker: No one was ever charged with her murder, and the case remains
• 1:03
  Speaker: unsolved to this day.
• 1:06
  Speaker: October three, nineteen sixty eight.
• 1:08
  Speaker: Started like any typical Thursday for the McDaniel family
• 1:11
  Speaker: of Evansville, Indiana.
• 1:12
  Speaker: The family, consisting of Doris McDaniel, thirty six, her
• 1:16
  Speaker: husband William, thirty five, and the couple's two sons,
• 1:19
  Speaker: eleven year old Billy and ten year old Bobby, arose that
• 1:22
  Speaker: morning around four thirty a m, five days a week.
• 1:26
  Speaker: Both Billy and Bobby delivered newspapers to the surrounding
• 1:28
  Speaker: neighborhood on their bicycles and always accompanied by their
• 1:32
  Speaker: father, William, the boys delivered newspapers to more
• 1:35
  Speaker: than one hundred homes in the area on Sundays and Thursdays.
• 1:39
  Speaker: However, when the newspapers
• 1:40
  Speaker: were a bit heavier, both William
• 1:42
  Speaker: and Doris would drive the boys
• 1:44
  Speaker: in the family car that morning,
• 1:46
  Speaker: however, after driving only a
• 1:48
  Speaker: few blocks, the family's
• 1:50
  Speaker: nineteen sixty three Mercury
• 1:51
  Speaker: began to experience carburetor
• 1:53
  Speaker: trouble, forcing them to return
• 1:54
  Speaker: home.
• 1:56
  Speaker: While Doris stayed behind to
• 1:57
  Speaker: prepare a snack for the boys,
• 1:59
  Speaker: William chaperone them on their
• 2:00
  Speaker: bicycles while they continued
• 2:01
  Speaker: their route.
• 2:03
  Speaker: William, Billy and Bobby returned to the family's home,
• 2:06
  Speaker: located at thirteen eighteen South East Riverside Drive,
• 2:09
  Speaker: around six thirty a m after having some milk and cookies,
• 2:13
  Speaker: the two boys and Doris went back to sleep while William stayed up
• 2:16
  Speaker: and read the morning newspaper.
• 2:19
  Speaker: The three awoke around seven a m
• 2:21
  Speaker: and the family had breakfast
• 2:22
  Speaker: together.
• 2:23
  Speaker: Approximately one hour later, at eight a m, William left to drop
• 2:27
  Speaker: the boys off at school before heading to work.
• 2:30
  Speaker: At one p m, William placed several phone calls home.
• 2:33
  Speaker: However, Doris did not answer.
• 2:36
  Speaker: Initially, William thought his
• 2:37
  Speaker: wife had simply walked next door
• 2:39
  Speaker: to a friend's house or went to
• 2:41
  Speaker: visit her father, who was ill in
• 2:42
  Speaker: the hospital.
• 2:44
  Speaker: However, after phoning both and learning neither had seen her,
• 2:47
  Speaker: William asked the neighbor, Jeanne Akers, if she could go
• 2:51
  Speaker: check on Doris.
• 2:52
  Speaker: At one ten p m, Jeanne reported
• 2:55
  Speaker: back that even after knocking
• 2:56
  Speaker: loudly several times, Doris did
• 2:58
  Speaker: not respond.
• 3:00
  Speaker: William asked Gene to go over to the house once more, instructing
• 3:03
  Speaker: her to use the unlocked back door if necessary to go inside.
• 3:07
  Speaker: Just moments later, a hysterical gene called William to inform
• 3:11
  Speaker: him that Doris was dead.
• 3:13
  Speaker: William rushed home, arriving there around one thirty p m, he
• 3:18
  Speaker: was met with firefighters and paramedics, who informed him
• 3:21
  Speaker: that it appeared as though Doris had may have shot herself.
• 3:24
  Speaker: William was kept outside in an
• 3:26
  Speaker: attempt to shield him from the
• 3:27
  Speaker: grisly scene inside the couple's
• 3:29
  Speaker: home.
• 3:30
  Speaker: Doris was found on the kitchen floor of the McDonough home,
• 3:33
  Speaker: still dressed in her pajamas.
• 3:35
  Speaker: She had suffered such severe
• 3:37
  Speaker: trauma to the head, face, neck
• 3:39
  Speaker: and back that investigators
• 3:41
  Speaker: initially believed her injuries
• 3:42
  Speaker: must have been the result of a
• 3:44
  Speaker: gunshot.
• 3:45
  Speaker: However, they soon came to the quick realization that Doris had
• 3:49
  Speaker: been beaten to death.
• 3:50
  Speaker: The autopsy found that Doris had been hit six to eight times with
• 3:54
  Speaker: a heavy, blunt object causing a severe skull fracture.
• 3:58
  Speaker: Scratch marks, believed to have
• 3:59
  Speaker: been defensive wounds were found
• 4:01
  Speaker: on Doris wrists, indicating a
• 4:03
  Speaker: possible struggle with her
• 4:04
  Speaker: attacker.
• 4:05
  Speaker: It was determined she had not been sexually assaulted.
• 4:08
  Speaker: Bizarrely, two towels were found folded and wrapped around the
• 4:12
  Speaker: wounds on Doris head, leading investigators to theorize that
• 4:16
  Speaker: her killer may have felt remorseful and attempted to
• 4:18
  Speaker: render aid to the dying woman.
• 4:20
  Speaker: Police found no evidence of a break in, and theorized the
• 4:24
  Speaker: killer may have used the unlocked back door to gain
• 4:26
  Speaker: entrance to the home.
• 4:28
  Speaker: While the house itself had been untouched and nothing of value
• 4:31
  Speaker: had been taken, it was later learned a claw hammer, usually
• 4:35
  Speaker: kept on one of two locations was missing from the home.
• 4:38
  Speaker: Police immediately questioned
• 4:40
  Speaker: William about his movements that
• 4:41
  Speaker: day.
• 4:42
  Speaker: According to him, after dropping
• 4:44
  Speaker: the boys off at school, he had
• 4:46
  Speaker: driven downtown and parked in a
• 4:48
  Speaker: metered zone at eight thirty a m
• 4:50
  Speaker: He then walked to a nearby auto
• 4:52
  Speaker: garage to inquire about an
• 4:54
  Speaker: appointment to have the car
• 4:55
  Speaker: repaired at eight forty a m.
• 4:58
  Speaker: William clocked into his job at
• 5:00
  Speaker: the Commonwealth Life Insurance
• 5:02
  Speaker: Company.
• 5:03
  Speaker: He spent fifteen minutes in the office before leaving for an
• 5:06
  Speaker: appointment with a client.
• 5:08
  Speaker: William explained that on his
• 5:10
  Speaker: way to the appointment, he
• 5:11
  Speaker: noticed that his son had left a
• 5:12
  Speaker: borrowed clarinet in the back
• 5:14
  Speaker: seat.
• 5:15
  Speaker: Not wanting the instrument to be damaged, he decided to drop it
• 5:18
  Speaker: off at home.
• 5:20
  Speaker: William claimed he was home for approximately ten minutes.
• 5:23
  Speaker: According to him, he and his wife discussed her plans to make
• 5:26
  Speaker: ice cream cake for their youngest son's birthday, which
• 5:29
  Speaker: was that day.
• 5:30
  Speaker: On his way out, she asked him to take out a bag of trash and as
• 5:34
  Speaker: he exited, William asked his wife if she wanted him to close
• 5:37
  Speaker: and lock the back door.
• 5:38
  Speaker: She declined, explaining the breeze and sunlight coming
• 5:42
  Speaker: through the screen door was nice and she would close it later.
• 5:46
  Speaker: Just a few minutes later, William arrived at huddle House
• 5:48
  Speaker: cafe to meet his client.
• 5:51
  Speaker: The pair had coffee and chatted a while before William left.
• 5:54
  Speaker: At nine forty five a m, William arrived at Saint Mary's Hospital
• 5:57
  Speaker: to visit with Doris sick father.
• 6:00
  Speaker: He left around ten forty a m after briefly chatting with
• 6:03
  Speaker: Doris cousin, a medical records librarian at the hospital,
• 6:07
  Speaker: William then stopped by the home of another client before driving
• 6:10
  Speaker: back to his work.
• 6:11
  Speaker: Arriving at approximately eleven
• 6:13
  Speaker: a m, Doris had made him a sack
• 6:15
  Speaker: lunch, so he sat at his desk and
• 6:17
  Speaker: ate.
• 6:18
  Speaker: He remained in the office until he received a phone call from
• 6:21
  Speaker: Jean about his wife's death.
• 6:23
  Speaker: According to neighbors and
• 6:24
  Speaker: friends, the McDonagh family had
• 6:26
  Speaker: no known enemies, and no one
• 6:27
  Speaker: could imagine who would want to
• 6:29
  Speaker: hurt Doris.
• 6:30
  Speaker: Each person interviewed raved about how William and Doris
• 6:33
  Speaker: dedication to their children and to each other.
• 6:36
  Speaker: They also described Doris as a
• 6:38
  Speaker: spotless housekeeper, an antique
• 6:40
  Speaker: collector, and just an all
• 6:41
  Speaker: around friendly and lovely
• 6:42
  Speaker: person.
• 6:43
  Speaker: Doris was laid to rest at Sunset
• 6:45
  Speaker: Memorial Gardens Cemetery under
• 6:48
  Speaker: her name.
• 6:48
  Speaker: Her modest tombstone simply reads beloved wife.
• 6:52
  Speaker: After his wife's death, William
• 6:53
  Speaker: and the couple's two sons
• 6:55
  Speaker: remained in the home on
• 6:56
  Speaker: Riverside Drive.
• 6:57
  Speaker: William eventually went back to school and remarried.
• 7:01
  Speaker: Later, he moved to South
• 7:02
  Speaker: Carolina, where he worked as a
• 7:03
  Speaker: college professor.
• 7:04
  Speaker: He passed away in twenty nineteen at the age of eighty
• 7:07
  Speaker: six, with no motive.
• 7:10
  Speaker: Few clues and even fewer suspects.
• 7:12
  Speaker: Doriss case quickly went cold
• 7:14
  Speaker: and sadly, has remained that way
• 7:16
  Speaker: ever since.
• 7:17
  Speaker: I found this case on the Unresolved Mysteries thread on
• 7:21
  Speaker: Reddit, there's a user who contributes quite a bit.
• 7:23
  Speaker: Her name is The Bones of Autumn.
• 7:26
  Speaker: She's an author of a book called Unsolved Indiana Murder
• 7:29
  Speaker: Mysteries, Bizarre Deaths and Unexplained Disappearances, that
• 7:32
  Speaker: just came out in October of twenty twenty two.
• 7:34
  Speaker: If you want to check it out, I've got a link in the show
• 7:36
  Speaker: notes to the Amazon listing.
• 7:39
  Speaker: I'm going to credit The bones of Autumn with a lot of the
• 7:42
  Speaker: research on this case, because if it weren't for her, I
• 7:44
  Speaker: wouldn't have known anything about this case.
• 7:45
  Speaker: And she did a great job of compiling all of the newspaper
• 7:48
  Speaker: articles and facts of the case, which is very much appreciated.
• 7:51
  Speaker: And you can check her out on Reddit.
• 7:53
  Speaker: Her username is The Bones of
• 7:55
  Speaker: Autumn, and I will have a link
• 7:56
  Speaker: in the show notes directly to
• 7:57
  Speaker: her account, so you can check
• 7:59
  Speaker: out the other cases that she's
• 8:00
  Speaker: worked on.
• 8:02
  Speaker: Eight days after the murder,
• 8:04
  Speaker: there was an article posted in
• 8:05
  Speaker: the Evansville Press by a
• 8:07
  Speaker: Charles Schlieper.
• 8:09
  Speaker: I think his name is pronounced Schlieper or Schlepper.
• 8:13
  Speaker: That outlines a discussion he had with Mr. Mcdonaugh, and he
• 8:20
  Speaker: outlines every movement he made that day and provides basically
• 8:25
  Speaker: a timeline of events.
• 8:28
  Speaker: And I have, you know, written this down and some things just
• 8:33
  Speaker: don't make a lot of sense to me.
• 8:35
  Speaker: So I'm going to go through the timeline as Mr. McDonnell
• 8:39
  Speaker: reported it to this reporter eight days after the murder.
• 8:45
  Speaker: And this is all this is in the
• 8:46
  Speaker: article, exactly how it was
• 8:48
  Speaker: reported.
• 8:51
  Speaker: As far as the timeline goes.
• 8:53
  Speaker: So he reports that at four thirty a m, the family wakes up
• 8:57
  Speaker: at their normal hour.
• 9:00
  Speaker: He mentions that five days a week, the boys ride bikes to
• 9:02
  Speaker: deliver one hundred and thirty five newspapers, and he
• 9:06
  Speaker: accompanies them on those days.
• 9:09
  Speaker: On Thursdays and Sundays, the whole family goes.
• 9:12
  Speaker: Doris drives.
• 9:15
  Speaker: And since this was one of those heavier days, the whole family
• 9:18
  Speaker: had loaded up in the car to go.
• 9:21
  Speaker: The papers, according to Mr. McDonough, were late that day,
• 9:26
  Speaker: so the family did not get started until about five fifteen
• 9:29
  Speaker: a m and then he mentions, of course, that they drove several
• 9:33
  Speaker: blocks and there were carburetor issues, so they returned home.
• 9:36
  Speaker: He mentions that he and the boys
• 9:38
  Speaker: continued the route on their
• 9:40
  Speaker: bicycles.
• 9:42
  Speaker: At six thirty a m he returns
• 9:44
  Speaker: home, which is an hour later
• 9:47
  Speaker: than usual.
• 9:48
  Speaker: He says that they have milk and cookies.
• 9:53
  Speaker: He reported that Doris and the boys went back to bed, while
• 9:56
  Speaker: William read the newspaper.
• 10:00
  Speaker: At seven a m he reports that the family had a breakfast, which I
• 10:03
  Speaker: guess would be the second time they ate since they had cookies
• 10:07
  Speaker: thirty minutes earlier, which is kind of strange.
• 10:10
  Speaker: They had a second breakfast or whatever you want to call it,
• 10:12
  Speaker: and this was at seven o'clock, and then they get ready for
• 10:16
  Speaker: school and work.
• 10:17
  Speaker: Before leaving, William and Doris apparently discussed the
• 10:21
  Speaker: children's busy schedule, school, sports, music lessons
• 10:24
  Speaker: and the busy newspaper route.
• 10:28
  Speaker: At eight a m, William and the boys leave.
• 10:32
  Speaker: William drives the boys to
• 10:33
  Speaker: school at Redeemer Lutheran
• 10:35
  Speaker: School at eight sixteen,
• 10:36
  Speaker: Jefferson At eight thirty a m,
• 10:40
  Speaker: William parks his car in a
• 10:42
  Speaker: metered zone at Northwest Third
• 10:44
  Speaker: Street off of Court Street near
• 10:46
  Speaker: his office, which happens to be
• 10:47
  Speaker: the Commonwealth Life Insurance
• 10:49
  Speaker: Company.
• 10:50
  Speaker: Doesn't mention, but I assume
• 10:51
  Speaker: he's a salesperson for the life
• 10:53
  Speaker: insurance company.
• 10:56
  Speaker: However, before going into the office, he questioned a nearby
• 10:59
  Speaker: auto mechanic about fixing the carburetor problem they were
• 11:02
  Speaker: having with the car.
• 11:05
  Speaker: At eight forty five, he reported that he got to work.
• 11:09
  Speaker: He checks the mail and attends to a few minor details.
• 11:14
  Speaker: At nine a m, he drives home.
• 11:17
  Speaker: His younger son's rented clarinet was in the back, and he
• 11:20
  Speaker: didn't want it to be in the back seat for whatever reason.
• 11:24
  Speaker: Uh. According to Mr. McDonough, Bobby had considered dropping
• 11:28
  Speaker: the clarinet lessons, so they wanted to leave.
• 11:32
  Speaker: He had left it in the back seat
• 11:33
  Speaker: so they could return it to the
• 11:34
  Speaker: owner.
• 11:36
  Speaker: I'm guessing Mr. McDonough did not want to leave it back there.
• 11:40
  Speaker: And according to Google Maps,
• 11:43
  Speaker: it's about a four minute drive
• 11:44
  Speaker: from that intersection to their
• 11:47
  Speaker: house on southeast on southeast
• 11:49
  Speaker: Riverside Drive.
• 11:51
  Speaker: You know, whether or not the traffic would have been the same
• 11:54
  Speaker: back then or not, I don't know.
• 11:55
  Speaker: But, you know, four minute
• 11:57
  Speaker: drive, we'll just say it was
• 11:58
  Speaker: four.
• 11:58
  Speaker: We're going to be generous and
• 11:59
  Speaker: say it was a quick drive
• 12:00
  Speaker: actually, because it works in
• 12:02
  Speaker: his favor to for it to have been
• 12:04
  Speaker: a short drive in my scenario
• 12:06
  Speaker: here.
• 12:08
  Speaker: So let's say he got to the house
• 12:09
  Speaker: at nine oh five a m. He claims
• 12:13
  Speaker: that he and his wife discussed
• 12:15
  Speaker: upcoming plans to make cake and
• 12:16
  Speaker: ice cream for the party that
• 12:18
  Speaker: day.
• 12:21
  Speaker: He claims that the storm door was locked from the inside when
• 12:25
  Speaker: he got home, so this would have been the front door.
• 12:28
  Speaker: So Doris had to come unlock the
• 12:29
  Speaker: door, which she usually kept
• 12:31
  Speaker: locked.
• 12:32
  Speaker: As he was leaving, his wife handed him the garbage to drop
• 12:35
  Speaker: off just outside the rear door.
• 12:37
  Speaker: He asked if she wanted him to
• 12:38
  Speaker: close the door, since the door
• 12:40
  Speaker: faces east and the rays from the
• 12:42
  Speaker: rising sun would brighten the
• 12:43
  Speaker: house.
• 12:44
  Speaker: She told him she would lock it later.
• 12:49
  Speaker: Now that's actually interesting that she says that the sun, the
• 12:54
  Speaker: rays from the rising sun would brighten the house.
• 12:57
  Speaker: And so she told him she would lock it later.
• 13:02
  Speaker: This is before there was a lot of technology available, of
• 13:04
  Speaker: course, but there is an app called Sun's Path, and it's kind
• 13:14
  Speaker: of neat because you can actually enter a location, an address,
• 13:19
  Speaker: and a date and a time, and it will actually show you how the
• 13:25
  Speaker: sun was in relation to that particular address on that day,
• 13:29
  Speaker: at that exact time, at nine.
• 13:33
  Speaker: At nine a m on that particular day, according to that, that
• 13:37
  Speaker: app, the sun would have been would have already risen mostly
• 13:43
  Speaker: past the house to where the rays would have been beating through
• 13:46
  Speaker: the the door.
• 13:49
  Speaker: It would have been more of a that that would have already.
• 13:53
  Speaker: So to have kept kept the door open for the continued rays to
• 13:58
  Speaker: be coming in.
• 13:58
  Speaker: Seems a little off.
• 13:59
  Speaker: I. I have a picture, a
• 14:01
  Speaker: screenshot that I'm going to
• 14:03
  Speaker: share.
• 14:03
  Speaker: Its in the show notes at River city mystery dot com slash.
• 14:08
  Speaker: If you want to check out that.
• 14:10
  Speaker: That graphic that shows where
• 14:12
  Speaker: the sun was in relation to the
• 14:14
  Speaker: back door.
• 14:14
  Speaker: And I actually went to the house and was kind of like observing
• 14:17
  Speaker: how the sun would be in relation to that back door.
• 14:21
  Speaker: And it, and there's a garage back there.
• 14:22
  Speaker: And it's also it's, it's an odd thing to say that you're going
• 14:25
  Speaker: to leave that back door open for the light at that particular
• 14:29
  Speaker: time of the day.
• 14:30
  Speaker: Just a strange thing to say.
• 14:35
  Speaker: So that was at nine.
• 14:36
  Speaker: So at nine fifteen, he.
• 14:38
  Speaker: He claims he left for the huddle house.
• 14:41
  Speaker: Apparently it's about a four
• 14:43
  Speaker: minute drive from thirteen
• 14:45
  Speaker: eighteen East River, southeast
• 14:46
  Speaker: Riverside Drive to where I think
• 14:48
  Speaker: the huddle House was at that
• 14:51
  Speaker: time.
• 14:53
  Speaker: So at nine twenty a m, William arrives at the huddle house for
• 14:58
  Speaker: coffee with a client.
• 15:01
  Speaker: So according to his own timeline, at nine twenty five a
• 15:04
  Speaker: m, he drives to Saint Mary's Hospital to visit his sick
• 15:07
  Speaker: father in law, James C Hopwood.
• 15:11
  Speaker: So he had he meets a client at the huddle house for coffee, and
• 15:19
  Speaker: five minutes later he's on his way to Saint Mary's.
• 15:24
  Speaker: It must have been a very quick coffee.
• 15:27
  Speaker: Maybe they just decided to get together and stand in line and
• 15:32
  Speaker: order the coffee and walk back out to the parking lot.
• 15:35
  Speaker: And I don't know.
• 15:36
  Speaker: There's no mention in any of these articles, or about whether
• 15:39
  Speaker: or not the clients that he's meeting were actually talked to.
• 15:43
  Speaker: So, you know, maybe, maybe he did have some sort of bizarrely
• 15:46
  Speaker: short meeting with someone at a coffee house, um, and then take
• 15:51
  Speaker: off really quickly.
• 15:53
  Speaker: So at nine forty five a m, he arrives at Saint Mary's Hospital
• 15:57
  Speaker: to visit his sick father in law.
• 16:00
  Speaker: At ten forty, he claims he left Saint Mary's Hospital.
• 16:04
  Speaker: On his way out, he speaks with
• 16:07
  Speaker: his wife's cousin, a medical
• 16:08
  Speaker: records librarian at the
• 16:10
  Speaker: hospital.
• 16:12
  Speaker: And I'm assuming they talked to her.
• 16:14
  Speaker: The police talked to her to
• 16:16
  Speaker: confirm that at ten forty five a
• 16:19
  Speaker: m, he arrives at a client's home
• 16:21
  Speaker: on North Bakey at eleven a m he
• 16:24
  Speaker: arrives back at his office to
• 16:25
  Speaker: eat a sack lunch prepared by his
• 16:27
  Speaker: wife.
• 16:28
  Speaker: So at ten forty five, he arrives at a client's home.
• 16:31
  Speaker: And then at eleven a m, fifteen
• 16:32
  Speaker: minutes later, he's back in the
• 16:34
  Speaker: office.
• 16:35
  Speaker: Um, I'm assuming maybe he was.
• 16:37
  Speaker: I know back then with life insurance, they would collect
• 16:40
  Speaker: premiums, so maybe he was just picking up a premium.
• 16:43
  Speaker: I'm just going to throw him a bone there.
• 16:47
  Speaker: Um. Who knows.
• 16:49
  Speaker: It was a very short meeting at the with the client.
• 16:51
  Speaker: Apparently at one p m he claims
• 16:55
  Speaker: he calls his wife at home to
• 16:56
  Speaker: tell her that he would pick up
• 16:57
  Speaker: the children from school,
• 17:00
  Speaker: whether or not that's a normal
• 17:01
  Speaker: thing, maybe because he had the
• 17:03
  Speaker: car or I don't know, who knows
• 17:04
  Speaker: why he.
• 17:05
  Speaker: Maybe that was a normal thing, he says.
• 17:07
  Speaker: No one answered.
• 17:09
  Speaker: So at that point, he calls the
• 17:10
  Speaker: neighbor Jeanne Akers at
• 17:12
  Speaker: thirteen twelve South East
• 17:13
  Speaker: Riverside Drive to ask if she
• 17:15
  Speaker: was over there or if she had
• 17:16
  Speaker: taken the family's second car to
• 17:18
  Speaker: the hospital to visit her
• 17:19
  Speaker: father.
• 17:21
  Speaker: Akers had also called her earlier and had no answer, so
• 17:24
  Speaker: apparently she had already tried to call before William reached
• 17:28
  Speaker: out to her.
• 17:29
  Speaker: So multiple people have tried to call her at this point.
• 17:33
  Speaker: And this is one p m Jean asks if he wants her to go check if the
• 17:38
  Speaker: second vehicles in the driveway.
• 17:40
  Speaker: He says to check that while he calls the father in law.
• 17:44
  Speaker: So William tried two or three
• 17:46
  Speaker: times to call his father in law,
• 17:47
  Speaker: but each time the phone line was
• 17:48
  Speaker: busy.
• 17:50
  Speaker: At one ten p m, William is concerned and calls Jean the
• 17:54
  Speaker: neighbor, to ask if the second car is still in the driveway.
• 17:57
  Speaker: It is.
• 17:59
  Speaker: She said she went to the front door.
• 18:00
  Speaker: This is.
• 18:00
  Speaker: Jean says she went to the front door and knocked.
• 18:02
  Speaker: No one answered and the front storm door was unlocked.
• 18:06
  Speaker: William asked if she could go
• 18:08
  Speaker: around to the rear door and
• 18:09
  Speaker: knock, since she was a little
• 18:10
  Speaker: concerned, since he was a little
• 18:12
  Speaker: concerned.
• 18:14
  Speaker: As Jean was going to the rear
• 18:15
  Speaker: door, William called and got
• 18:17
  Speaker: Ahold of his father in law, who
• 18:18
  Speaker: said he had not seen his
• 18:19
  Speaker: daughter.
• 18:21
  Speaker: Seconds later, Jean calls
• 18:23
  Speaker: William screaming that Doris was
• 18:24
  Speaker: dead.
• 18:25
  Speaker: William claims he was numb and
• 18:27
  Speaker: drove and drove home after the
• 18:29
  Speaker: ambulance and firemen arrived at
• 18:32
  Speaker: one thirty p m, William arrives
• 18:34
  Speaker: home.
• 18:34
  Speaker: He is held back by the EMTs due to the condition of his wife.
• 18:38
  Speaker: At first, a fireman told him that his wife had shot herself
• 18:41
  Speaker: with a gun.
• 18:43
  Speaker: Then he later learned from a detective that his wife had been
• 18:45
  Speaker: beaten to death.
• 18:48
  Speaker: According to the this article, William said he has no idea who
• 18:51
  Speaker: would have done this or why.
• 18:53
  Speaker: He says it's quote unquote still
• 18:55
  Speaker: disturbing, which I assume it
• 18:57
  Speaker: would have been eight days
• 18:58
  Speaker: later.
• 19:00
  Speaker: And he said that neighbors in recent months had complained of
• 19:03
  Speaker: prowlers in the area.
• 19:06
  Speaker: Now, according to the medical examiner, the time of death was
• 19:09
  Speaker: between nine a m and one forty p m on that day.
• 19:13
  Speaker: It was reported in another
• 19:14
  Speaker: article in the Evansville Press
• 19:16
  Speaker: that a physician said death was
• 19:17
  Speaker: due to an unmerciful beating,
• 19:20
  Speaker: and a policeman said it was the
• 19:22
  Speaker: worst I've seen of that kind of
• 19:23
  Speaker: crime.
• 19:25
  Speaker: One year after the murder, there
• 19:27
  Speaker: was another article in the paper
• 19:28
  Speaker: that references that the only
• 19:32
  Speaker: item that was missing from the
• 19:33
  Speaker: home was a claw hammer, which
• 19:34
  Speaker: was kept in a basement toolbox
• 19:36
  Speaker: or in a pantry drawer just off
• 19:38
  Speaker: the kitchen.
• 19:40
  Speaker: A hammer was among the few bits of evidence later found by
• 19:43
  Speaker: detectives, but police said that they were never sure if that was
• 19:45
  Speaker: the murder weapon that was used.
• 19:49
  Speaker: So apparently the claw hammer
• 19:51
  Speaker: was originally, according to the
• 19:52
  Speaker: early reports, was missing from
• 19:54
  Speaker: the home.
• 19:55
  Speaker: That was the only item missing.
• 19:57
  Speaker: But here this article is saying one year later that it was among
• 20:03
  Speaker: the few bits of evidence later found by detectives.
• 20:06
  Speaker: So apparently that Claw hammer shows back up.
• 20:10
  Speaker: The article also mentions that
• 20:11
  Speaker: because of a lack of a motive or
• 20:13
  Speaker: a suspect, police questioned
• 20:15
  Speaker: Mcdonaugh and gave him a lie
• 20:16
  Speaker: detector test.
• 20:17
  Speaker: The results were labeled inconclusive by the police.
• 20:22
  Speaker: The same article says that McDonagh, when recently asked
• 20:25
  Speaker: about the incident, said he would rather not talk about it.
• 20:28
  Speaker: Quote, the less said about it, the better.
• 20:32
  Speaker: End quote.
• 20:34
  Speaker: William McDonagh went on to be a
• 20:36
  Speaker: college professor at Hesser
• 20:38
  Speaker: Business College, and he was the
• 20:40
  Speaker: former owner operator of Brooks
• 20:42
  Speaker: Cleaner in Chester, South
• 20:43
  Speaker: Carolina.
• 20:45
  Speaker: He apparently volunteered with
• 20:47
  Speaker: the Chester Nursing Center,
• 20:48
  Speaker: where he was known as the Bingo
• 20:50
  Speaker: Man.
• 20:51
  Speaker: His obituary states that he died
• 20:53
  Speaker: on October twenty eight, twenty
• 20:55
  Speaker: nineteen, at the age of eighty
• 20:56
  Speaker: six.
• 20:58
  Speaker: It references his second wife of
• 21:00
  Speaker: over forty five years and two
• 21:02
  Speaker: sons.
• 21:04
  Speaker: The obituary neglects to mention anything about his first wife,
• 21:07
  Speaker: which I suppose ties in with his mentality of the less said about
• 21:11
  Speaker: it, the better.
• 21:13
  Speaker: I disagree with Mr. McDonagh.
• 21:15
  Speaker: I don't think the less said about it, the better.
• 21:17
  Speaker: I think more needs to be said about it.
• 21:20
  Speaker: This poor woman was murdered in cold blood, in her own kitchen
• 21:25
  Speaker: and her own husband, in quotes in the actual paper, seemed more
• 21:29
  Speaker: concerned about sweeping it under the rug than he was
• 21:32
  Speaker: finding the actual killer.
• 21:35
  Speaker: While it may be too late to
• 21:36
  Speaker: bring Doris' killer to justice,
• 21:38
  Speaker: my goal is to shine some light
• 21:39
  Speaker: on her case so that she's not
• 21:41
  Speaker: forgotten.
• 21:42
  Speaker: And that brings this episode to a close.
• 21:45
  Speaker: Thank you so much for listening.
• 21:47
  Speaker: And for those who are interested in decentralization and privacy
• 21:50
  Speaker: and blockchain technology.
• 21:52
  Speaker: Feel free to check out the show on the Muci stream, which is
• 21:55
  Speaker: part of the desert blockchain.
• 21:58
  Speaker: I have a link to that at RiverCityMystery.com.
• 22:01
  Speaker: Thanks again for listening.
• 22:03
  Speaker: Until next time, take care.