Hazelrigg listened to what VanHoose had to say and concluded that where there was so much smoke there could be fire. He requested Detective Chester D. Potter, with headquarters in Pikeville, to make a complete investigation.

CORPSE IN THE CEDAR CHEST
PAGE 2

Like the rumors that had first come to Trooper Music's attention back in December, 1958, such evidence as there was pointed to Virgie's burial on the Cantrell farm, if indeed a crime had actually been committed

Corpse In The Cedar Chest
page 4

The mountain people want to know the answers to those questions. Perhaps Henry Cantrell's trial will answer most of them. Certainly, it will determine whether he is innocent or the degree of his guilt. Until that time Henry Cantrell, like all persons under the American Code of Justice, is presumed to be innocent.

A CEDAR CHEST IS NOT FOR HOPE

A woman has the right to a hope chest, a place for her most cherished possessions. But hope runs out when the only thing in the chest is human flesh and blood.

Paintsville, Ky, July 12, 1959

*State Trooper Jack Music paused in front of the furniture store, then went in. He was greeted by the furniture dealer.

"I understand you recently bought a load of second hand furniture from Henry Cantrell," Music said.

"That's right," the dealer said. "A pile of stuff--chairs, bed, sofa, tables and various odds and ends."

"How about a cedar chest?" Music asked. "Was that included in the sale?"

The dealer shook his head. "Nope, no cedar chest. That wasn't in the lot."

Music walked across the town square in Paintsville, a town of some 5000 in eastern KY, entered the courthouse and went into the office of D.C. VanHoose, Johnson County attorney.

I'm trying a lead on the Virgie Cantrell case, he told VanHoose "But I've gotten nothing yet. "What's this one?" The attorney asked. "The cedar chest---Cantrell owned one." "A cedar chest? the county attorney said. "Yes, Henry might have had some use for one of those. A big one could be turned into a coffin. And I understand the one he owned was pretty good size."

The Cantrell case had kept the Paintsville police busy ever since the summer of 1958. Henry Cantrell had been a trouble maker for much longer than that. He had a reputation as a cattle rustle and a bootlegger throughout the eastern section of KY. But in the summer of 58 his name was mentioned frequently in reference to criminal involvements.

Early one summer morning more than a year ago, Officers Ova Johnson, Worth Blevins and Crate Spears were coming along Main street when they spotted a nervous youth on a street corner. Although they had done nothing to rouse his fear, he started to run the moment he saw them. The officers took out after him and caught him.

At approximately the same time, Police Chief Bill Witten saw a car speeding along one of the streets without lights. He gave chase but lost it. Then he returned to the center of town, he learned a local hardware company had been broken into and several guns, appliances and other articles taken.

It soon developed that the youth arrested earlier by the three officers was tied in with three others in the hardware holdup. All four were finally rounded up and the loot was recovered from tall weeds in a deserted hollow in Mud Lick Creek. The speeding car was described as a late model black Mercury. Henry Cantrell owned such a car and all four of the implicated youth were reported to be friends of Cantrell. But Cantrell himself was not arrested.

The arrested four were placed under bond to await grand jury action.

Later in the month, Paintsville police received a call about midnight from a woman who sounded very excited. She reported hearing shots at a lumberyard at the far end of town. The call sent night-duty officers hurrying across town to the lumberyard. They found the lumberyard quiet and a check of the neighborhood revealed no one who had heard any shooting and no one who had called the police.

When the officers returned to the center of Paintsville, they discovered that the hardware company store on Main street had again been broken into. The stolen loot this time included $400 worth of shotguns. A window had been broken to gain admittance, and blood on the window indicated one of the burglars cut his hand, But no witness and no clues were found and no arrests were made and no loot was recovered. The burglaries stirred the area but it was just a ripple compared to the tidal wave that broke on November 30.

At 8:30 that morning Joe Gibson arrived at the general store in Grassy Creek, 30 miles west of Paintsville. Gibson was one of Evalena Stamper's tenants and she owned the store. Gibson wanted to ask her about testing some of her cattle for crucellosis.

The store was open but the 63 year old woman was not there. He called out thinking she was in her living quarters in the rear. There was no response.

Then he saw that the side door to the stock room was open. He went in and called again, still no response. Then he saw blood on the floor.

Gibson ran out to a nearby store and returned with several people. They found Mrs. Stamper lying bound and gagged at the back of the store room. Her head was bloody.

Sheriff James Phipps of Morgan County and several deputies arrived at the general store. "She's dead," the sheriff said. "She's been beaten and strangled.

The community was shocked. The store had been founded in 1898 by the victim's father, and served as a center for the cross roads community of Grassy Creek, sometimes known as the Chape. The community was settled in the early 1800's by stable, peace loving, church-going farm folks.

Mrs. Stamper who took over the store when her father died, was considered a well-to-do- woman.

Investigators disclosed that the victims purse had been cleaned of money, and that a glass in the back door had been broken. There was a safe in the back room, but it had not been opened. Coroner L. H. Owens said death was caused by skull fractures and strangulation. In addition to binding her hands and feet with bailing wire, the robbers had gagged the woman with a handkerchief and put tape around her face to hold the gag. "Looks as if they tried to force her to open the safe or tell them the combination," the sheriff theorized.

Officers checked the neighborhood. One man reported seeing Mr. Stamper pumping gas into a pick-up truck at 6:45 that morning. No one had seen her alive after that.

A farmer reported passing the general store on his tractor about 7:45 a.m. and seeing a car parked in front. He described it as a black Oldsmobile. He said he got a good look at the car while backing up twice in order to get around it. It had Magoffin County License, and was empty when he saw it.

Others in Grassy Creek had seen this same car and also a maroon colored car which did not belong to anyone in the neighborhood.

Authorities in Magoffin County, which adjoins Morgan County to the south, started a search for the back late model car, believed to be an Oldsmobile. It was not much to go on but it was all police had except for rumors.

One of these rumors concerned Henry Cantrell. There was talk that Henry had driven to Mount Sterling took him through Grassy Creek. It was also pointed out that Henry Cantrell's farm was not far from Grassy Creek. There were other rumors, but you can't built a case on rumors.

It was about this time that news of Mrs. Virginia Cantrell's disappearance cropped up. Virgie as she was called hadn't been seen around., she was a pretty woman, dark and petite. Throughout the years she was believed to have been a loyal wife to Henry.

The wind picks up the rumors in those hills, and blows it around the valleys and hollows. But trying to get definite information from people is something else again.

State Trooper Music was more than just passably interested in the rumors however. He had been interested in Cantrell's activities ever since the hardware store robberies.

I got a tip that Henry's been seeing a woman in Kermit, W.Va. Music told the county attorney. "She had admitted seeing Henry recently, and says he's drinking a lot and seems to have a large quality of money. When you ask Henry about his wife he apparently claims she left him and went to Ohio with his money. "That could be" VanHoose commented. "Could be" Music agreed. "But it doesn't sound like Virgie Cantrell and it doesn't sound like Henry either, I'm going to talk to more people.

Trooper Music asked questions around town, then went down to the hollow, some 14 miles from Paintsville, where Henry Cantrell's farm was located. there was a trailer house on the farm but nobody was at home.

Some people in the hollow told Music that they heard several shots fired one night, and that they hadn't seen Virgie Cantrell since that.

Music went to the house of Cantrell's father whose farm was a short distance up the hollow. The elder Cantrell admitted hearing the rumors about Virgie. "Someone is going to live hard for those rumors. he said.

Music told him neighbors reported hearing shots one night. "I' ve heard shooting at night, too" the man said. "But there's a lot of shooting around here, so what?

Music talked to almost everybody who lived in or had business in the hollow. One man who delivered groceries up that way and usually went through Henry's property to save time reported that Henry had stopped him once from going through with a deliver and explained that Virgie had broken a lot of glass on the road and he might get a flat tire. The deliveryman took a roundabout way skirting Henry Cantrell's property.

Sounds as if there was something on the place Henry didn't want you to see. Music commented.

Rumors and suspicions were high in the valley, but nobody made any missing person report, and there was no actual evidence that foul play had been committed. There was one report that interested Music concerning a 16 year old youth, close friend of Cantrell's who never held a good job, came from a poor family had bought a maroon colored car for $550. One of the cars reported seen at Grassy Creek around the time of Mrs. Evalena Stamper's murder was maroon. But there was no strong suspicion leveled at the boy nor at Cantrell and Music went on digging, interviewing and waiting for more solid information

He thought he had it early in 1959 when he received a report that someone had seen several bullet holes inside the trailer house on the Henry Cantrell farm. But before trooper Music could investigate the trailer mysteriously burned to the ground. If there had been any bullet holes in the trailer there was no chance of them being used as evidence now.

An insurance adjuster from Ashland said Cantrll was paid $500 for the burned trailer but not until after much investigation because there had been two other fire loses on the Henry Cantrell farm on which insurance claim had been paid. There once was some suspicion that the trailer had been deliberately set afire but no evidence or witness.

There was some talk that Virgie Cantrell might have been burned up in the trailer. But a through search of the debris failed to reveal any sign of human bones or traces to substantiate such a theory.

It was May 21 when the first definite evidence of foul play was uncovered. The gravel boat crew working in the Ohio River two miles west to Russell, and some miles northeast of Paintsville was disrupted from it's work by discovery of a submerged automobile.

The police were called, and the car was pulled out. It was a black 1957 model Mercury. The doors were closed, the windows were up, the car's gear shift was in neutral.

The car was registered to Henry Cantrell. It's been in the water for at least several days, one officer said. "There's been no missing report or accident report about this car. It looks phony. I can't figure it any other way another officer said. "Doors and windows closed... gear shift in neutral and ignition off...it couldn't have been driven into the river like this. And if by some freak it was, then if anybody was in it they surely couldn't haven gotten out with the windows and doors closed. This car was pushed into the river deliberately. If Henry Cantrell wants us to think he met with an accident, he's done a bad job of it.

When examination of the car produced no clues, the officers asking questions in the Paintsville area were told that Henry Cantrell and his daughter had been seen around town the previous day. Another probing led police to a loan company in Huntington, W.Va. where they were told the car was refinanced just two months ago when Henry Cantrell and a woman co-signed for the car loan.

He said the woman was his wife and she co-signed with him. a loan company officer said. "She signed Virginia Cantrell". Virginia Cantrell .... in here last March ... the officer exclaimed. "She' been missing for months. What did this woman look like? The man gave a description, but it was far from one that would fit Virginia Cantrell. Now the investigation was stepped up. An officer interviewed Cantrell's daughter, in Ashland, KY, but she denied knowing where Henry Cantrell was, although it was reported that she thought her mother was dead. So far she as knew, Henry was dead too.

She said the last she saw Henry was May 14, when he came to get the car. trooper Music assessed all of these reports and came up with his theory, based on the reports rumors, the substantiated reports and the missing cedar chest. I think Virginia Cantrell is dead and I think her body is buried somewhere on that farm. I've talked to about 200 people on this and I'm convinced of it. That's a fir sized farm one officer pointed out. "We couldn't dig it all up. You got any idea where to start?"

Music nodded. "I've been all over that place. Virginia had a garden...right over there where the trailer burned. Now, in the middle of this garden, Henry had his potato hole....but from the size of that hole, if three's nothing but potatoes in it, he has enough potatoes there to feed the county."

The next day, officers called at the home of Henry Cantrell's father. We're still looking for Virgie, he said. The man said had no idea where she was or where Henry was either. "We want to search Henry's place,'" Music said.

The man gave permission for the state to dig anywhere and arrangements were made for digging equipment from the state highway department.

On Wednesday, July 1, 1959, the equipment and a host of officers moved down Moon road, like a advancing army. A crowd gathered and followed in the army's wake, down into the hollow and to the farm of Henry Cantrell. The remains of the burned trailer were evident and the garden of Virgie Cantrell with the out sized potato hole, was not far from it. "We'll start here" the bulldozer operator was told.

The bulldozer went to work on the potato hole. There was the sound of grinding and digging, as the big blade plowed deep into the ground.

"Don't look like there's anything here but potatoes, one observer remarked. "They're more than six feet deep now. The bulldozer backed up then went forward again, digging deeper. There was the rasp of the blade on something hard, and anxiety heightened. More earth was cleared away and one of the officers shouted: "There it is. The cedar chest. It had been buried seven feet deep.

The crowd pressed forward and officers put up ropes to hold them back. The dirt was pushed aside exposing a 45-inch chest. Opened it revealed a pile of clothing. Officers started to pull the clothing out, until one officer called a half. "We'd better have the coroner here now>"

A restless feeling gripped the crowd as they waited the arrival of Coroner Jim Trimble. When he came, the rest of the clothing were taken out, and there was a spontaneous gasp. The body of a woman was on the bottom of the cedar chest, face down , with legs doubled up across the back.

While some of the officers were busy removing the body, others hurried off to Inez, KY 17 miles east of Paintsville, to check out a new lead concerning a relative of Henry Cantrell's.

The report was that Henry and his relatives had been seen in the hollow one night last October, driving their cars in a caravan and stopping a number of times en route to converse with each other.

Virginia Cantrell was never reportedly seen alive in the hollow after that night. This relative was reported to have remarked when asked about Virginia Cantrell's disappearance, "He should have h=killer her soon." Officers picked up the relative early that afternoon and told him they were going to take him to Paintsville for questioning. While they were still in the sheriff's office in Inez, before starting the ride to Paintsville, the relative turned to Deputy sheriff Garman Horn, handed him some papers, and asked him to keep them for him until he returned.

At Paintsville, state police questioned the relative. He denied knowing anything about the body in the cedar chest, or the whereabouts of Henry Cantrell. He also denied being at Henry's home the night in October when the strange procession of cars was reportedly observed and he said he never had any such experience.

But even as he was denying knowledge of Henry's whereabouts, Deputy Horn was checking into the slip of paper the man had left with him. It carried the address of a Miami, Fla. Hotel.

State Police Lieutenant Billy Lykins made a long distance call to Miami police. He gave an officer the address, a description, and a rundown on the case, "We 've got a murder warrant out for Cantrell now, and I'll send you a telegram requesting he be held on the warrant.

Miami police went to the hotel checked the guest list and found no Henry Cantrell but a man listed as Henry Pendleton fitted the description of the 51-year old Kentucky man. Police learned he worked as a dishwasher in a Miami restaurant. He was picked up and acknowledged he was Henry Cantrell.

He was taken to the office of Detective Lieutenant James Reese who showed him the telegram from Kentucky.

"I don't know anything abut it," Canter said, without asking who he was Cantrell with murdering. Reese asked him about his wife, and Cantrell said "She up and left me last October."

"Did you report her missing?" he was asked "It's no use reporting a wife running off in that neighborhood," Cantrell replied; Asked why he was going under a different name. Cantrell said, "I got tired of using the name Cantrell, I never did like it.

In Paintsville the next morning, a Pikeville pathologist had a report for Coroner Trimble. The woman in the cedar chest had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the back. The body was identified as that of Mrs. Virginia Cantrell, by a daughter, and the identification was substantiated by Paintsville dentist who identified a partial plate found in the victim's mouth as one he had made for the 41 year old Virginia Cantrell.

Henry Cantrell was returned to Paintsville on July 17, charged with murder, he maintains he was framed.

On July 15, a preliminary hearing was held and Henry Cantrell was ordered held in jail without bond on the charge. At this writing he is in jail awaiting action on the murder charges.

Police however are not through with their investigation. Officers intended to drain and clean out a well on Henry's farm. some expect the well to contain the rest of Mrs. Cantrell's wardrobe and possible some of the loot from the hardware store robberies

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