Last night, as I watched the sunset, I sighed. How can a world so vast bring tales of 2 murders in my own family?
Are the tales colorful? Yeah, in a way. Depending upon what sections you focus on. I bet every family has stories that don’t focus only on the good stuff.
Are my stories black and white kind of deals? Cut and dried, tried in court, or not? Or mysteriously gray due to lack of details?
So, yeah, not only had it been quite a week of news about murders in our country, but it had also been a week of much distraction in our household. We discovered my own family had made the news cycle. Back in the 40s.
Say what?
How in the world did I get to discover news about murders in my family?
Are all eyes and ears ready to hear the tales I’m about to share?
Gather around the chair that my grandmother had, and then my mom had, and now I have. To hold and forever dust. Oh, just so you know, this isn’t about her side of the family. That’s a tale for another day. Which involves many of these floating people. In color, it is a beautiful painting. In black, white, and gray it is mysterious.
Just like the lady who this man married.
What is it about her as a little girl that I don’t know? I’d have to find the original photo to discover if it’s my mom or her mom? If it is my grandmother, I’d like to know.
We think we have stumbled upon the truth that she may have been adopted. But can’t find the proof. Yet.
The light I need to illuminate that unsolved mystery shall wait for another post.
For now, let’s see if there’s anything fishy about the tales of 2 murders.
Involving the other side of the family, aka, my dad’s side. Back in early 2020, he stayed with us while his sweetheart was in the hospital. He brought me some photos I hadn’t seen before, or at least, if I had, I didn’t remember seeing them. We sat together at our kitchen island as he combed through the papers and photos. He said, “You know that my dad was murdered, right?”
“Wait, what?”
“Yes, and my mother was involved somehow. We were never told that as children. My brother and I were under 10 at the time, so we were told she was in the nursing home, ill for 6 months. But, she was in jail.”
“Really?”
“Yep, you should go someday to the county register where we lived and read about it. I’ve never heard the complete story, but know it involved a shooting murder.”
I stored that bit of information in my brain as a potential to-do list item with my kids if they ever wanted to hear more about that story. But, it does make sense why my dad was adamant that my brother and I learned about proper handling of guns.
As I looked at my grandmother’s family photo, I realized, I knew most of the people. I never imagined my grandmother would be involved in a murder case. Of her own husband. My great-grandfather, who I never got to meet. Along with my dad’s grandparents and one aunt who did know the murder stories.
Low, and behold, I might get to know more. My youngest daughter, who created the floating people painting, just embarked on her new hobby of genealogy. Years ago, she had been given a box of my mother’s containing tons of family photos. Not really, but it seemed like an overwhelming amount of photos that I never had taken the time to go through with my mom. Despite her begging me to do so many times. Sigh. My daughter decided to go through them. To start her own capturing of our family tree. She’s so excited about the project, she’s gotten her older sister involved too.
“Mom, the murder story of grandpa’s dad was real, and it was big-time news across the state when it happened. I found the articles online and I’ll bring them to you to read at Thanksgiving. Yeah, grandma was in jail for suspected murder, accused of adultery, and the articles describe her clothes and hair and eyes. . .”
“Oh, boy, I bet grandpa would like to read that too.”
“Yes, I plan on visiting him to tell him more and to hear more of his stories, like, did he know that the little girl in that old framed photo of your grandma’s family was murdered too?”
“Wait, what? Really…I don’t know if I knew that or not?”
“Yes, Lulabell, was her name, she was only nine when she was shot by her dad in a horrible hunting accident. It’s a tough obituary to read.”
“I always wondered who that little girl in the photo was and why I never met her?”
While my daughter has been going down all those revealing rabbit holes of our family’s not so pretty background, I took my own path to discovery after I read Dan Antion’s post about John Mancini’s new book.
So, of course, I ordered it and finished reading it yesterday. I’ll regift it to my daughter for Christmas. She’s going to enjoy it, as much, if not more, than I did. I don’t want to spoil it for you or her, but John’s discovery process is very interesting to read about. He did a great job pulling all the details together. I read every last word, right down to acknowledgement page 215 where he thanks Dan Antion for his involvement in the project.
So, yeah, there you have it. My family’s story contains two murders. Hmm.
I set the book aside and went on with pondering while playing with the monochrome setting on my camera.
As I watered my plants and checked on the not-so-sprouty tomato project, I thought about the photos I do still have in the cedar chest in our basement. I should get them ready for the girls who might want them at Thanksgiving. I’m so excited they’ll be home for the holiday weekend! Family gatherings make my soul happy.
The photos are stored in the cedar chest under the little stuffed animals that my mom had bought for the girls over the years. I didn’t have the heart to part with them.
I scooped them up, placed them on the floor, and began to dig into the treasures I had placed carefully in there 4 years ago. In the Lane Cedar Chest that can cut a finger off if slammed by the cover if you’re not careful when closing it.
Needless to say, I didn’t get to any of my other projects yesterday. Like dusting off the clothes I had sorted out of my closet 18 months ago. I’m turning into my mom, she used to store clothes on that black rocking chair.
In 8 days, I’ll be turning 57. If only, I would’ve picked my mom’s brain about all of the photos when she was 57. She died of vascular dementia at 70. Her mom died of multiple myeloma at 66. Where does that leave me? You guessed right. I’m suddenly interested in genealogy too.
I’m guessing that’s why my daughters are so interested in this project too. It’ll be fun to share the journey of discovery with them.
Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “black, gray, and white.” Use one, use ’em all. Bonus points if you use all three. Have fun!
PS – Have you heard of John’s book? Do check out Dan’s post about it. Do you have a family story that you’re interested in but not so proud of your family for knowing it happened? Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating it this week!
Wow, that’s quite the story, Shelley. Not sure what else to say other than the photos in grayscale are very nice, especially the cats!
Thanks, John. Every family has their stories, when you start looking that’s when you find the things you didn’t know.
Glad you enjoyed the kitty photos – they both were cooperative for the photo session.
One more thing – I hope you have a safe and happy trip home!
I think you’ll get to the bottom of everything. You have excellent detective skills.
I do like to investigate things. Hmm…I hope your hunch is correct. I appreciate the vote of confidence. And, I appreciate you stopping by to share your thoughts.
It’s interesting to find these family secrets. We have a couple in our tree that weren’t revealed until my mother was in her forties. Not murders, but things that didn’t happen the way you think. It’s nice to have the old family photos, but sometimes it’s a shock to find out the stories about the people in them. It must be hard to look at the photo of the little girl and not be reminded of her tragic fate.
Thanks for the shoutout. I’m so glad you enjoyed John’s book.
Yes, I agree. And, now that I do know that about Lulabell, it does make me sad to look at that photo. I’m glad I have it though, I can compare it with the others that I have from when the siblings were together at family gatherings.
You’re welcome – thanks again for sharing John’s book/story, I likely wouldn’t have stumbled upon it had you not done so. It was fun to see your name in the book. I smiled and pointed to it to Mr. and said, “Hey…I know that guy!!”
Mom and Dad were separated for several years, partly because he allegedly had an affair with a nurse. I wonder sometimes if I have a brother or sister out there that I’ve never met.
Hey, did you see this?
https://thesoundofonehandtyping.com/2021/11/19/five-for-friday-gene-krupa/
Oh, my, that would be interesting to find out if you do have a brother or sister out there that you’ve never met.
I did finally see the Gene Krupa post – thank you so much for sharing it and for the kind words you said about my blog! I’m glad I could help you find a topic for your Friday post. My father-in-laws family did live in Chicago, so that’s why we tend to believe we’re related to him in some way. It’s fun to dream that we had somebody famous in the family line, especially now that we have famous murders – some good news helps balance that out. It’s fun too that Birgit said her dad claims the same thing about Gene being a relative. What a small world and you helped us make another connection!
Shelley – Thanks so much for getting my book – And reading it! I’m glad you liked it. I like to think that not every family search yields what you expect, but each story is unique and special and says something about who and whose we are. I started the book with a Rachel Held Evans quote that I especially like. “We look to the stories of our origins to make sense of things, to remember who we are. The role of origin stories…is to enlighten the present by recalling the past. Origin stories are rarely straightforward history. Over the years, they morph into a colorful amalgam of truth and myth, nostalgia and cautionary tale, the shades of their significance brought out by the particular light of a particular moment.” Thanks again.
You’re welcome, John. I enjoyed the book and the quotes you chose to feature in it as well. Rachel’s quote is very fitting indeed. I’m sure that my daughter will enjoy the book too. 🙂 So far our discovery process has confirmed some of the legend stories about murders, and we’re hoping to find some stories that warm our hearts instead of chilling them. So yeah, every family’s search is unique and special. We’re inspired to persevere thanks to your book!
A fascinating tale I look forward to hearing more of Shelley. I am glad you embraced the B&W in your wonderful photos 🙂 🙂
Thanks, Brian, I’m sure we’ll find more interesting tidbits.
I forget how fun it is to play with B&W photos. I’m glad you enjoyed them.
I think all families have a secret or two (or three, or four) and it was probably more prevalent in our parents’ and grandparents’ times. No murders in our family THAT I KNOW OF 🙂 but I did find out, after she passed away, that my mother had been married for a brief time before she met my dad.
I think you’re right, Janis. Our parents’ and grandparents’ times didn’t always bring out the best in people.
That’s interesting about your mom, have you ever tried to find out more about the mystery man?
I think we’ll all finally get to see how many famous people had secrets in the upcoming GM trial.
I looked a little bit but I guess I didn’t care that much about him. It was described to me by other relatives as a “short and unhappy marriage.” All I truly care about is knowing that my dad and mom had a long and loving marriage. I have no idea what the GM trial is.
GM = Ghislane Maxwell. Her trial for sex trafficking, among other charges in relation to Jeffrey Epstein, is slated to begin on Nov 29.
Thanks for clarifying!!
I can see why you wouldn’t want to look further, especially with your happy memories of your mom and dad’s relationship.
I see someone else commented on the GM. As much as we humans, wishing all the bad news would just go away, like to ignore the news we don’t want to hear, the GM news is very pivotal to current events and those in charge. And if you can’t find or haven’t heard about it, alternative news networks are covering it. The trial starts on the 29th.
Very interesting Shelley. I love how you wove this tale among the B&W photos. I don’t know anything about my father’s family, except he was an only child and orphaned at a young age, but a friend of mine who I’ve not seen since we graduated high school (she lives in NY) is very interested in genealogy and offered to “do my tree” and we discovered we were related through our respective grandfathers, 31X removed. I already knew my great-grandmother’s husband died and she married his brother shortly afterward – hmm.
Hi Linda! Yes, I found your comment in spam. Not sure why? Thanks for sharing your family’s story. That’s very interesting that you’re related at a distance to your high school classmate. It is quite fascinating to see the tree branches. My daughter is having so much fun with it. She’s color-coding, filing, organizing out of all the piles of data. She’s like a master over a living genealogy computer board.
Two of my high school classmates are really into it and it’s been an ongoing hobby for decades now since Ancestry software came out. That’s great your daughter’s taking an interest in her roots.
It is a fun hobby – easy to go down rabbit holes. Yes, we think it’s great she’s enjoying the hobby. It’s fun to see her brain working and her heart happy.
It’s a welcome distraction from the news headlines and everyday life.
Yes, that’s what my daughter is finding too!
Hmm – my comment may have disappeared into cyberspace?
Yes, found it, sorry!
That sinking feeling when you make a comment and it flies into cyberspace. I’m all of a sudden having a SPAM problem again – I kept it under control but the last two days, we’re talking hundreds of SPAM all of a sudden. Not wading through them as they’re all junk (hopefully).
It’s a weird feeling. I get it a lot, so I typically only comment on blogs that comment on mine first (it may seem rude, but if I don’t for some reason my comments disappear into spam world!).
Wonder why you had an increase? I do have spam software installed on my blog, maybe I should look to see how much spam has been caught?
I was checking it when it was 5-10 a day and doing the batch delete (which they didn’t always have before), then suddenly it was morphing and now 200+ so I haven’t been looking through them. Very weird. I had that about six months ago and it was 1,000+!
Yikes!
Sadly because covid I cant do my hobby 😦
Sorry to hear, I hope you’re able to do so soon.
You can read all about my hobby in my latest blogpost
Thank you for sharing. It looks like you have great ideas for travel tips. It may just be me, but I think you’d still be able to travel? There’s plenty of open spaces to discover that don’t have restrictions.
Wow. Fascinating to read your tales of murder. I’ve never stumbled over anything this intriguing in my family tree. Most of my research has lead me to upright citizens who did the right thing most of the time. Nothing that’d make the papers today.
Thanks, Ally – I got to read the articles at Thanksgiving. It was fascinating to read how the small town trial was portrayed in the news. Especially how they described my grandmother’s appearance and the clothes she wore. It makes me even more sure that propaganda rules in the news.
Congrats on not having any dark material in your family. Ours did bring about some lively conversation – better than the current news cycles! 😉