This day in local history begins with a bang — specifically, a meteorite strike near Doniphan.
100 years ago
June 7, 1924
• A local farmer rushed to the newspaper office today claiming a meteorite struck near his property.
George Freeman lives north of Doniphan and west of Poplar Bluff. While outside around 4:45 a.m., he said he was nearly blinded by a flash of light, followed by a shockwave and a “roar something like thunder, but of shorter duration, like a blast.”
The Daily Republican received no other reports of the meteorite, but Freeman said his neighbors also heard the boom and thought it was thunder. No impact crater has been found yet.
• St. Louis detectives are reportedly converging on Hayti, seeking an armed an dangerous man accused of an attempted political assassination.
The fugitive is Hammie Shane, a Hayti native who was committed to an insane asylum last year after shooting and severely wounding his brother-in-law. Shane escaped the asylum a mere two hours before State Sen. Mike Kinney was shot four times. Kinney survived, and police matched his description of the shooter to Shane.
Shane is reportedly barricaded in a “dugout” in Hayti with firearms and food. Reports to law enforcement said he allows friends to visit if they walk to and from the site with their hands up.
The Daily Republican stated the detectives on the case are armed and intend to bring Shane in dead or alive.
The motive for the shooting is unknown. A prior article in the Poplar Bluff Interstate American cited Kinney’s resolution to crack down on narcotics rings, while today the Daily Republican speculated it could be retaliation for the 1921 death of a gang ringleader.
75 years ago
June 7, 1949
• A man is dead in Dunklin County, and investigators want to know what killed him: getting shot, or run over?
Shortly before midnight yesterday James Bartley, 57, of Peach Orchard forced his way into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Crump of Hornersville. The Crumps were his step-daughter and son-in-law, and Bartley’s estranged wife was staying with them. Armed with a club, Bartley claimed he had poison and intended to kill all of them before returning to his car. Mrs. Bartley quickly loaded a shotgun, believing he was getting another weapon, and when Bartley returned she warned him to stop.
“He kept coming and I fired,” she told police. “Then he still kept coming and I fired again.”
Bartley finally retreated and ran towards the road.
Shortly afterward, Albert Brannum arrived on the scene. He driving home from a fish fry and found himself blinded by the headlights of Bartley’s car, which was parked in the middle of the highway. Thinking it was an attempted holdup, Brannum pulled around the car and ran over Bartley, who was lying on the road.
No arrests have been made, but an inquest was ordered to determine the cause of death. Mrs. Bartley and other family members told authorities Bartley threatened to kill them on several previous occasions.
50 years ago
June 7, 1974
• Misdemeanor charges were dismissed today in the case of Claudie Hill, the only Poplar Bluff trucker arrested during the May independent trucker strikes.
Judge Jack Jolly of the magistrate court ruled the state didn’t make a submissable case against Hill, who was accused of threatening a rig driver and obstructing traffic in May.
The May strike was a smaller repeat of a nationwide strike in February. The first strike created tension between independent truckers, who faced bankruptcy from high fuel prices and low freight rates, and rig drivers who worked for larger corporations.
Hill also had misdemeanor charges brought against him in February, but those were dismissed in March.