presentation in the same courtroom where my great uncle, John Terrell, was tried for the murder of his estranged son-in-law in 1903. It was a murder that made headlines in hundreds of newspapers across the country, including the front page of the New York Times.
For me, this was a never-to-be-forgotten experience.
My co-presenter was Kent Kiracofe, the sitting judge in the Wells County Circuit Court in Bluffton, IN, where he presides. As he introduced me, Judge Kiracofe spoke of the late nights he has spent working the the 19th Century courtroom, sometimes seeming to hear the echoes of past trials, the most notorious of which was that of John Terrell.
My new book, The Madness of John Terrell: Revenge and Insanity on Trial in the Heartland, published by Kent State University Press, tell the story of the murder, the spectacular trial, and the strange events that followed. I've already given several presentation on the book and have more scheduled into next summer.
But this program, which focused on the trial itself, was different. Unforgettable. Haunting. Sad. Poignant.
I stood in the same place where John Terrell was on trial for his life, where his young daughter Lucy testified about the most intimate abuse at the hands of Leo Melvin Wolfe, where my great grandparents testified, much of it having to do with personal accounts of my great-great-grandfather, George Wesley Terrell, the first Terrell to step into Indiana in 1827. As a lawyer who spent 40 years in the courtrooms of the State of Indiana, no trip into a courtroom has ever meant quite so much.
Also present in the audience were the Wells County Sheriff, Wells County Prosecutor, and Larry Mock, a practicing attorney in Bluffton whose great-great-grandfather was one of the lawyers involved in defending John Terrell.
I just needed to share the experience.
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