"VISITORS IN EXPENSIVE MOTORS CARS AT ALL HOURS"

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/

 

 

Osteopathy^

Alpha Stock Images

www.alphastockimages.com/ 

 

^Osteopathy is a pseudo-scientific system of alternative medicine emphasizing physical manipulation of muscle tissue & bones.

"15 POUND TURKEY, 3 CHICKENS & ALL THE TRIMMINGS"

LONE INMATE AT DETENTION HOME TO HAVE ALL HE CAN EAT THIS CHRISTMAS

Kansas City, Missouri (JFK+50) On December 25, 1923, the Associated Press reports sixteen year old Gus Smith "will have all he can eat" on this Christmas day.

It seems the young man, serving time for a parole violation, is the only inmate at a detention home here in Kansas City.

Gus will be served a fifteen-pound turkey, three chickens and "all the fixings."  He should certainly have a Merry Christmas!

JFK+50 NOTE

Merry Christmas to all of you who have been so kind to read my blog over the years.  This is a hard Christmas Day for me because it is the first without my wife, Beverli, who passed away in April, but I have lots of wonderful memories. 

SOURCE

"Three Chickens, Fifteen-Pound Turkey For Lone Prisoner," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., December 25, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Christmas Dinner

Photo by Ruth Hartnup

December 2012

EVERYTHING'S UP TO DATE IN KANSAS CITY

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2002

P. J. KENNEDY IS DELEGATE TO 1900 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

Kansas City, Missouri (JFK+50) President John F. Kennedy's paternal grandfather, Patrick Joseph Kennedy*, representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, arrived here in Kansas City as delegate of the Democratic National Convention 116 years ago today, July 6, 1900.

This marked the third time Mr. Kennedy had served as a delegate at a national convention.  P.J. Kennedy was known as a politician who was always willing to help constituents in need.

"Everyone who ran for political office would get $50 or $75 from P.J...."

Unfortunately, PJ's generosity did not do him any favors when he ran for Street Commissioner in 1908.  His defeat hit him and particularly his son, Joe, JFK's father, very hard.

Doris Kearns Goodwin writes that the lesson young Joe Kennedy learned from this experience was to "stay out of politics."

William Jennings Bryan and Adali E. Stevenson were selected as the Democratic Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees of 1900.

*Patrick Joseph Kennedy (1858-1929) was the 5th child of Patrick and Bridget Murphy Kennedy, immigrants from New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland.  PJ attended Boston College and by the age of 30 established a successful liquor-importing business.

PJ served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1884-1889) and the State Senate (1889-1895).

SOURCE

"The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, An American Saga," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1987.

P.J. Kennedy

JFK Library Photo