SUMMERY OF THE SHAMBLIN MURDER
ON
the 25th day of July, 1933, at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon Deputy
Sheriffs Roy L. Shamblin and George Dudley left the Kanawha County jail
in Charleston en route to Moundsville, 'West Virginia, carrying a
prisoner, Ralph Harper, to the penitentiary to serve a sentence of 25
years for armed robbery.
About 25 miles out of Charleston on the
state highway route No. 2L, between Sissonville and Kenna in Jackson
County, they were attacked by mashed gunmen, who had followed them out
of Charleston and forced them out of the highway into the guard rail
and firing into the car.... had killed Shamblin and his prisoner and
wounded Dudley.
After the shooting was over they took the body
of Ralph Harper from the car and placed it in their ear and fled in the
direction of Charleston. The driver had turned the car around while the
other two were getting Harper's body from the car. About two hours
later the body was found in an abandoned automobile in an alley a block
from his parent's home in Huntington.
The driver of this ear was
Charles Harper, a brother of the slain prisoner and his companions were
Leo Fraser and Henry Cano. On their arrival in Charleston, they crossed
the Patrick Street bridge, turned to the left going over the hill
to Ferry Branch, where Cano left the car and crossed the C. &
O. bridge and came back to Charleston, while Leo Fraser and
Charles Harper continued over the Davis Creek road, by way of
Hamlin to Huntington, where they abandoned the car and notified the
parents of the death of Ralph. They then went over on the hill on the
South Side and kept in hiding until dark, after which they started back
to Charleston, over State highway route 60, walking and hitch-hiking,
arriving in Charleston some time before daylight, they got a ride
up Elk River and on to New York, arriving there on the fifth day after
the murder. While loitering at a filling station they were
arrested and were found to be carrying guns, and afterwards one proved
to be the one taken from Deputy Dudley at the time of the
shooting. A telegram came to Sheriff Andrews from New Rochelle,
N. Y. The message read "I have Leo Fraser and Charles Harper
under arrest, charged with carrying guns, wanted by you for murder".
The message€ was signed by the Chief of Police of New Rochelle, N. Y.
Sheriff
Andrews and several deputies and Mr. J. Blackburn 'Watts' prosecuting
attorney, left immediately for New York and returned the pair to the
Kanawha County jail in Charleston.
THE HARPER - FRASER ROMANCE
A
few years ago pretty Louise Floyd, with light brown hair, rosy cheeks
and hazel eyes, came to Charleston, West Virginia to visit her sister.
At this time she met Leo Fraser. A short romance followed and she
became his wife. They started, life in the New River coal fields
around Glen Rogers. Leo worked in the mines. A year later Leo,
Jr., came to bless their home, and peace and harmony reigned
within, and showed no signs of the cloud that was later to darken their
lives. Leo became engaged in "rum running" and gambling, to which
Louise
bitterly opposed and when he refused to give it up for a
legitimate means of livelihood, she left him and returned to
Charleston. She found work in a laundry which position she held
for two years being - forced to give it up on account of failing
health. At the persuasion of Leo's parents she decided to try
life again with him, this time living in their home in
Charleston.
For a time it seemed that the happiness of their
first year of married bliss had returned but it was of short
duration. Leo soon fell in company with his former associates in
the rum running business, and it was at this time that Louise and Ralph
Harper met. Ralph was associated with Leo and was frequently in
their home. Louise admired him they became friends. Louise was in poor
health and Ralph suggested that he send her to a sanitarium, his
generosity accepted, and he secured a place for her in a Virginia
institution.
As time went on Leo and Ralph continued their rum
running activities and were quite successful. Ralph made frequent trips
to see Louise and in time the thing happened that has often happened.
before, love replaced the friendship in these two hearts and thus, the
beginning of their illicit love affair that had a tragic ending. After
a short time in the sanitarium her health improved. and she went home
to her parents. Ralph joined her there and they took up life
together in Virginia.
Later they came€ to Huntington,
then Charleston. Louise is quoted as as saying, "I never
knew real happiness and true love until I met Ralph." Ralph
Harper become equally attached to the heart strings of Louise
Fraser. Her activities that had its part in the tragedy that
brought about his death attests this fact. As she had once tried
to get Leo to give up his unlawful career, she also tried to
reform Ralph Harper, but the environment of the past year had embedded
itself and, instead of reforming him, he dragged Louise into his
life of crime which cost him his life. In company with John
Newall, he held up and robbed a store in Charleston for which he was
arrested. and lodged in the Kanawha County jail. 'While awaiting trial
he escaped., fleeing to Virginia, to the home of Louise's parents. She
immediately joined him there. It was through her movements that
he was apprehended and brought back to Charleston. She returned also to
be near her lover, visiting him often while in jail.
The days
that followed were filled with anxiety and hope for the release of her
lover. He was indicted and the day of his trial arrived, and he was
convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for a period of twenty five
years. Throughout the morning of his trial Louise sat in the court
room, and as he was returned to the jail she met him in the hall and
kissed him good-bye, not knowing that it was for the last time. She
didn't see him again. She learned that he would leave immediately for
Moundsville, and she hurried to the home of Henry Cano, picking
him up in her car and they drove to the home of another friend where
they found Charles Harper, a brother of Ralph, and her husband
Leo Fraser, telling them of the conviction of Ralph and his departure
for prison, and imploring them to go and rescue him from the
law. They responded to her pleading and hurried away in pursuit
of the car that was carrying her lover away while she waited in silence
for his return. That, evening as she sat h the home of Leo's sister
waiting for his return, his lifeless body was carried by within a
stones throw of her. For was at this time that Henry Cano, came
and related. the tragic story of how they had overtaken the deputies'
ear and in trying to rescue him had killed one deputy and wounded
another and in the barrage of gunfire had also killed Ralph. She buried
her face in her hands and wept. In a distant city as the
body of her lover was being lowered in the grave, Louise Fraser
sat alone in a cell of the Kanawha County jail thinking of her lover
whose body lies cold in death, and weeping at times over the days when
she done wrong.
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