In 1924, a Southeast Missouri man is the prime suspect in the wake of a failed political assassination. Headlines in later years highlight Poplar Bluff civic growth and the ongoing effects of the 1974 independent trucker strike.
100 years ago
June 5, 1924
• Police are on the hunt for a Hayti man after the attempted assassination of a senator.
Hammie Shane, termed a “homicidal maniac” by the press, escaped from the St. Louis City Sanitarium on June 3. Just hours later, Missouri Sen. Michael Kinney was shot four times. He survived and remains hospitalized but recovering today, and identified a Shane as the gunman from a police photo.
Kinney recently declared his determination to combat narcotics rings, and police theorized members of the rings could have directed the attack. The senator received several threatening letters leading up the shooting.
A $500 reward was issued for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
75 years ago
June 5, 1949 — No issues available.
50 years ago
June 5, 1974
• Two bond issues passed by a wide margin in a special election yesterday. The Poplar Bluff R-I District will issue $400,000 in bonds, half of wich will be used to add onto to Oak Grove Elementary School. The rest of the money will go towards street paving around other schools, among other projects.
The city passed a $450,000 bond issue to finance sewer expansion into northwest Poplar Bluff.
• A Poplar Bluff man is the first person to be arrested for violating a court order against disrupting shipping during two truck strikes.
Claudie Hill was arrested by Callaway County authorities today and is being held in Fulton for “willful, unlawful and illegal disobedience” of a Feb. 7 injunction against harassing and delaying truck drivers. During the nationwide truck strike in Feburary, Hill reportedly vandalized a truck to prevent it from leaving a truck stop. He is also alleged to have threatened the lives and property of three other truckers during a less widespread strike in May.