also complicit. An informant told a private eye that there was no
doubt Hattie Whitehorn was a “prime mover in killing Charley
Whitehorn.”
An undercover private eye was placed in Savage’s
boardinghouse. “He could hear what was said over the telephone,”
another detective wrote in his report, adding that the undercover
“man will make good I think but will need some coaching.”
Meanwhile, Minnie Savage’s sister became a rich source of
information for investigators. She divulged that she had seen what
was likely the murder weapon: “Minnie was making up the bed
and the gun was under the pillow and Minnie picked it up....It was
a rather large gun, dark color.” Despite all this, the private
detectives somehow failed to secure enough evidence to prosecute
any of the suspects, or perhaps the private eyes were bought off.
When the first federal agents from the Bureau of Investigation
began to probe the case, in 1923, they also concluded that Savage,
Smitherman, and Hattie Whitehorn were responsible for the
murder. “From the evidence thus far gathered,” an agent wrote, it
appeared that “Hattie Whitehorn caused him to be murdered in
order that she might get hold of his estate.” Hattie denied any
involvement in the crime but told one agent, “I am as smart as you
are. I have been warned about you.” She added, “You are just
getting into my confidence, and if I tell you you will send me to
the electric chair.”
By that point, there had been several disturbing twists in the
case. Hattie’s new husband, Smitherman, had fled the country for
Mexico, taking with him her car and a chunk of her money. Then a
man named J. J. Faulkner—whom an agent called an
“unprincipled, hypocritical crook”—insinuated himself into
Hattie’s life, evidently blackmailing her with information that
she’d shared with him about her role in the murder. (One of