Two crimes, 50 years apart, kept law enforcement busy on this date. In 1924, Qulin police made more arrests in an illegal gambling operation. Highway patrolmen in 1974 responded to a shooting outside a Doniphan-area bar.
100 years ago
Sept. 11, 1924
• Qulin police arrested five more members of an illegal gambling ring today.
The accused include Roy Jeffords, Moses Massingham, Hershel Burns, Henry Cato and Charles Abney. Two were released on $25 bond. The fifth man will be surrendered to police after finishing his shift with a road crew today, the contractor having taken personal responsibility for bringing him to the police station.
The arrests followed a robbery claim filed Sept. 6. After being interviewed by Qulin law enforcement, the alleged victim confessed he lost the money while gambling and pointed officers to other members of the ring.
• The Daily Republican will give boxing fans round-by-round updates thanks to a ringside telegram connection. Heavyweights Harry Wills and Luis Angel Firpo will go 12 rounds in New York this evening, and results will be announced in front of the newspaper office. Fans can also call the paper’s three-digit phone line to tune in.
75 years ago
Sept. 11, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
Sept. 11, 1974
• A Doniphan woman stands accused of shooting her estranged husband to death outside a bar.
Mildred Smith allegedly killed Carl “Cotton” Smith, also of Doniphan, in the parking lot of Fuller’s Tavern yesterday. Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Rob Berry said both Smiths had been drinking there with another woman since 11 a.m. that day. At almost 4 p.m., Mildred Smith stood, announced she had a gun and was going to kill her husband, and left the building. Carl Smith followed. When he stepped outside, she shot him twice from within her car with a .22-caliber automatic rifle. He died at the scene.
Berry said Mildred Smith needed her stomach pumped at Ripley County Memorial Hospital afterward because she’d swallowed “a large quantity of pills.” She was arraigned today on first-degree murder charges and is being held at the Butler County jail, since Ripley County lacks adequate facilities for women.