Murder & Mayhem in Indiana by Keven McQueen

Author:Keven McQueen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Arlene Draves. Courtesy of Thomas Clark.

Despite the confusion, it did not take the jurors long to reach a verdict. On March 10, after deliberating a little less than four hours, they found Kirkland guilty of murder. The evidence showed, they felt, that Kirkland had struck his girlfriend with his fist when she resisted his advances, causing injuries that led to her death later that evening. They were not certain that he had caused other fatal injuries by sexually assaulting her and did not take that into consideration when deciding the verdict. The sentence was life in prison at Michigan City. “We’re satisfied,” said Kirkland’s attorney Barrett O’Hara, which suggests that the defense team expected its client to go to the electric chair. The next day, Mr. O’Hara preposterously opined that society was really to blame for Arlene Draves’s death—specifically, Prohibition: “He wasn’t the guilty one, remember. Society with its Prohibition, which brought about such gin parties, is really responsible for that murder.”

On March 11, the day after the jury made its decision, the defense attorneys claimed that a mysterious woman had emerged with sensational new evidence that would totally clear Kirkland. The unnamed woman attended the gin party, they said, and had witnessed a girl who was jealous of Arlene Draves strike her over the head with a milk bottle. They did not say where this witness had been when the defense so badly needed her during the trial, nor why she had waited until the proceedings were over to come forward, but they implied that she would be of critical importance in winning Kirkland a reversal of his life sentence. This marvelous surprise witness must not have panned out, because we hear nothing more of her.

Nevertheless, Judge Crumpacker granted Virgil Kirkland a second trial in April 1931, scarcely more than a month after his first trial ended, on the grounds that “the evidence was insufficient to uphold the verdict.” Crumpacker found fault with the jury’s belief that Draves’s murder had been premeditated; if that were so, asked the judge, why had Kirkland rushed her off to a doctor? (The judge’s logic appears to be faulty in this regard. Kirkland and his pals sought medical help for Arlene only after they stopped off for a leisurely hamburger feast and finally noticed that she wasn’t breathing. Also, when Dr. Wharton informed them the girl was dead, the men fled only to be caught later.)

Kirkland’s second trial began on May 12 after the court had considerable trouble finding twelve jurors. The possibility that Kirkland had killed his girlfriend by punching her would not be considered this time around. According to the Courier-Journal, prosecutor Underwood amended “the indictments against him to include only two counts charging that Miss Draves was killed as the result of a criminal attack or attempted criminal attack.” This meant that only two possible fates were now open for Kirkland: either he would be set free or he would go to the electric chair. He could not return to his life sentence.

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