City’s Darkest Mystery Still Draws Crowds
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
School is wrapping up and despite the month of May being a very active and exciting time for many families in the Valley, all I want to write about is the status of my yard plants. But, since my column’s readership is already hotly distributed along Wagner Letter lines (Wagner Letters fans versus the surprisingly vocal Wagner Letters “non-fans”) I don’t feel it would do well to add a third column subdivision on the topic of yard plants. The world is divided enough already, you know?
Speaking of Wagners, I went to the Sunday afternoon reading of the book “The Axe Murders of Mississippi: A Tragedy in Mississippi” by writer Mark Neaves. The event was held at The Drawing Room which is the large and lovely new hangout/event space connected to The Magnolia Coffee Co. on Main Street. I had not been in there before and it’s a really terrific space! The general curiosity about the 1931 axe murders of the wealthy Will B. and Mamie Wagner and the subsequent hangings of the quickly convicted teenager Sammie Green Whitaker and Emmett Shaw (an adult) was great. The venue was pretty close to packed!
I enjoyed hearing a near first-hand account of the happenings on the morning of the 1931 murders from Ms. Kay McCulley, who was in the audience. She spoke up during the audience question and answer period to tell what she knew. Her mother was one of the townspeople who witnessed the town’s events surrounding the crime. Ms. McCulley’s almost-first-hand account was fascinating.
After the event, Grant Thompson told me that he has recorded her telling the stories she heard of that day from her mother. I’m glad that she and Grant have such a depth of knowledge on this most extraordinary event in our town’s history. Although the evidentiary circumstances related directly to the crime seem pretty clear in reading, I believe I could never stop weighing all the societal circumstances and pressures of that case. I wish we could hear even more from other townspeople whose parents or grandparents directly told them what they witnessed in the days surrounding the crime, trials and sentencing.
On a lighter note and bringing it back to this century, the new sidewalk construction in town is rolling along nicely. We have new ramps where one never even considered one might need a ramp! My 2007 self who pushed my kid in a stroller from my house on Dupuy Street all the way to Town Creek Learning Center on Jones Street every day would be so happy to know that sidewalk repair and ramps would be in Water Valley’s future (albeit when that same stroller baby is a sophomore in college.) Better late than never!
Lastly, and on the subject of kids, I want to give a special shout out to WVHS’s Valedictorian Madison Bryant! I have spent countless lazy afternoons for many years gossiping with Madison’s mama on the front porch while little Madison pretended to play at our feet so she could stealthily listen to the adults talk. You can’t get anything past her. We never had a doubt about you, Madison! Congrats, we are so proud and unsurprised because of course you’re Valedictorian!
