KANSAS CITY DOCTOR FOUND DEAD IN "HOUSE OF MYSTERY"
Kansas City, Missouri (JFK+50) On March 19, 1924, Kansas City police investigated "a mysterious circle of friends...to find a clew into the murder of Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins*."
Dr. Wilkins, a six-time married woman, was the widow of the late millionaire banker Thomas Cunningham of Joplin, Missouri. Her body was found in her "house of mystery" with stab wounds in the forehead and neck allegedly caused by the "rusty" pocket knife found nearby.
According to The Washington Times, neighbors reports visitors driving "expensive motor cars" came to the Wilkins home "all hours of the night." Thus, they dubbed it the "house of mystery."
Although the home was ransacked, police do not believe robbery was the motive in the murder of Dr. Wilkins.
*Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins (1885-1924) was born Huron, Ohio & attended a school of osteopathy^ in Kirksville, MO where she met her future husband, Dr. Charles Garring. He was shot in his wife's home shortly after their marriage.
Mrs. Wilkins admitted she shot her husband by accident mistaking him for a burglar. That was the beginning of a series of bizarre events in which Zoe Wilkins' future husbands met mysterious ends.
ZZW was 38 years old at the time of her death & is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Kansas City, Mo.
JFK+50 NOTE
The Washington Times (3-29-24) gives Mrs. Wilkins birthplace as Lamar, Missouri while according to WikiTree she was born in Huron, Ohio.
SOURCES
"Dr. Zeo Zoe Wilkins 1885-1924," WikiTree, www.wikitree.com/
"Widow, Wed Six Times, Slain In 'House of Mystery'," The Washington Times, Washington, D.C., March 19, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
"Zoe Wilkins' Slaying Recalls a Series of Mystery Tragedies," by H.C. Hamilton, The Washington Times, March 19, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
