William Lee and the Infamous Ax Murder in Boonville, Indiana:1911
Richard Lee was born in 1857 in Indiana. His wife Sarah Emma Blanset (Blancet) Lee was born in Kentucky in 1860. They would have been toddlers and young children during the Civil War. Sarah Emma Blanset lived in Spotsville in Henderson County Kentucky according to the 1860 Census.
I wasn’t able to find a record of Richard and Sarah Lee’s wedding date. They appear together first in the 1900 Census living in Newburgh.
Richard and Sarah Lee were the parents of three boys according to the 1900 census. Charles W. Lee was the oldest, having been born in 1888. William was born in 1889 and Clarence followed in 1895. Richard and his oldest son, Charles, worked as farm laborers. William was still as student at school.
In the Census of 1910, their oldest son, Charles W. Lee was no longer living. I wasn’t able to find any information about his death. But in 1911, his brother speaks about Charles having passed. There seems to be nothing on Find a Grave. How many people are born and die only to be nearly completely erased? How many people have lived nameless and unremembered?
Now, in 1910, only William, 20, and fifteen year old Clarence were still at home with their parents. The family lived in the busy Ohio River town of Newburgh, Indiana then. Richard was working at farm labor still. William was also doing general labor and odd jobs and so was young Clarence.
In 1911, Richard Lee sold the family home in Newburgh and moved to the town of Boonville. That is also in Warrick County and is the county seat. In 1904, the Beaux Arts style courthouse was completed. Boonville was a bustling town with shops and business all around the courthouse.
Richard Lee’s home in Boonville was on Sixth Street. It was a single story, three room cottage. The family was likely downsizing. William was getting ready to marry his sweetheart and Clarence was 16. I imagine that Richard and Sarah thought they would be empty nesters soon.
William had a fiancée named Mina Taylor. They had met and courted in Newburgh.
William had gone to Newburgh on August 24th, 1911 to withdraw a sum of money from the bank. The money was the proceeds from the sale of their former home in Newburgh. William later said that his father planned to give him half of the money for a wedding present.
I have a hard time believing that Richard Lee would have parted with half of the proceeds of the sale of his house. He and Sarah were getting older. They were in their 50’s. That’s not terribly old today but in 1911, they would have lived hard lives growing up. Everything was done by hand. They were probably hoping to save money for the future when their bodies simply would not allow them to work so hard.
Richard had been a farm laborer and not a farm owner. He likely did not have much saved. They may have been renting the little house on Sixth Street in Boonville.
The night of Thursday, August 24th, 1911 was especially dark out. That was the night of the new moon for that month. Boonville would have been fairly quiet that night. William Lee had reportedly visited his sweetheart, Mina Taylor, that night.
Early in the morning, 22 year old, William Lee alerted neighbors to a fire in his home. He was fully dressed which struck his neighbors as odd later on. They had turned out to help put out the fire in just their nightclothes or were very hastily dressed. But William Lee was dressed as if it was noon.
Neighbors worked quickly and put out the fire. They also pulled Richard, Sarah and Clarence Lee from the house. People could easily see that the three were deceased. They could also see that each had serious wounds to their heads.
The Fire Brigade arrived and continued to make sure that the fire was out. The three victims were covered with sheets. A photographer arrived during the daylight hours and took photos of the bodies and all the neighbors gathered around. Some photos showed the wounds of the family and some were taken with the sheet respectfully covering their faces.
William Lee was taken into custody by Sheriff Raymond Scales.
Upon questioning, William Lee confessed to killing his father in self defense. He said his father had killed his mother and younger brother.
He said that he and his father had quarreled over the money that day. Perhaps his father would not give him the wedding money after all. Maybe their financial situation had changed. Maybe the promised sum was not really promised but only hoped for. Maybe William had hoped and counted on it and even told Mina Taylor that he’d be coming into money.
That night while the family slept, William had used a hatchet to strike each family member in the head. His father seemed to only take one blow. His Mother, Sarah, was struck multiple times. Perhaps she had awakened at the sound of her husband being struck. 15 year old Clarence had been struck in the head and the chest.
The newspapers could not get enough. This was the era of Yellow Journalism. If it was sensational then it went on the front page with as many photos or drawings as possible.
A drawing of Mina Taylor was put in the newspaper as well. Fluffing up the story with as many personal details as possible was the journalistic style of the day. Mina, or someone close to her, spoke to reporters and stated that she and William had planned to marry on Friday August 25th. She had been holding onto a bank book as a wedding promise. The account was supposed to have held $100 dollars. She later found out that William had withdrawn all but $5. Whether that detail is true or not is unsure. It would have been a nice detail to add if you were trying to sell papers.
William Lee was taken from Boonville by automobile to Evansville to be held in the jail there. (The 1911 newspaper very proudly made sure to say they traveled by automobile. Today the drive would take about 20 minutes. In 1911 it took about two hours because the roads were muddy.) There was talk of an angry mob in town. Perhaps Sheriff Raymond Scales did not want a repeat of the 1900 lynching of a prisoner in Boonville. I believe that he had been a deputy when an innocent black man, John Rowley had been lynched in Boonville in 1900.
Richard, Sarah and Clarence Lee were buried at Sharon Cemetery on Lenn Road in Newburgh. Mina Taylor attended the funeral with her family.
By August 28th, 1911, William Lee, confessed that he did indeed kill his parents and brother. He no longer claimed that his father had attacked them. He also confessed that he and his parents had fought over money and they had told him they would not allow him to get married the following day. He went to his room and sulked. He was trying to find a way to save face and not disappoint Mina.
He spoke about the night of the killing. He spoke about his home life. He said his father often beat him and his brother when they were younger. He said when his older brother was still alive that they had spoken of killing their father if he ever beat them again.
William Lee was housed in jails in Boonville, Evansville, Petersburg, Jeffersonville before his trial. He likely traveled more as a prisoner than he ever had as a free man.
He said that his parents usually slept on a makeshift mattress filled with corn husks. They probably all had similar mattresses. They really had no money and no chance to get much money in life. William really had little chance of getting much money together either. They were living hand to mouth.
They did have a small insurance policy though. $600 was paid out to Homer Sutton, who was the next of kin. William Lee and his lawyers asked to use some of the money for his defense but Mr. Sutton was unwilling to help William Lee financially.
The trial of William Lee began in January of 1912 in Evansville in Vanderburgh County. He initially entered a plea of not because of temporary insanity. By February 1st, 1912, William Lee had been found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. He was transported to the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, Indiana.
The prison in Michigan City looked like a cross between a castle, a factory, and a Victorian workhouse. It’s still an odd collection of brick buildings surrounded by a huge brick wall. The location near Lake Michigan means it would be a very cold place in the winter.
William Lee died in early September of 1914 in prison at Michigan City, Indiana. His cause of death was not reported in the newspapers. Warden Fogarty contacted William’s next of kin to report the death. His uncle, Homer Sutton, declined to accept William Lee’s body.
William Lee’s remains may have been given or sold to a medical school. His body might have been buried in a pauper’s grave in Michigan City. I found no record online of what became of him.
If William had lived until 1924, he could have seen John Dillinger serving time at the Indiana State Prison.
I found a post about Mina Taylor online. It is reported by a family member that she passed away on July 12th, 1917. I haven’t found any details of her passing or her final resting place.
Such terrible things happen when we can’t control our tempers. A man beats his children. One of them grows up angry and resentful. And one night a rash decision made in anger took three lives and ruined two others.
I keep thinking about the youngest victim. Clarence Lee was just a teenager. He might’ve grown up to become just about anything. But, we will never know.
Rest in peace Richard, Sarah, Clarence, Mina and William
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