Life in the Fast Lane
The Death of Stanley Ketchel
Part II
by
Harry Shaffer
The train bearing Stanley Ketchel, R.P. Dickerson, Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith arrived at Conway in the early afternoon of October 12th , Thursday they proceeded by carriage to Dickeson's ranch approximately 7 miles from Conway.
Dickerson had dismissed the present farm manager, C.E. Bailey, ( Bailey claimed he resigned) and was replacing him with Ketchel. Dipley was hired as a ranch hand and Goldie was to work as a cook and housekeeper for Ketchel.
Walter Dipley a.k.a. Walter Hurtz and Goldie Smith had known each other one day over a month at this time. They were not husband and wife. Dipley reportedly had asked Goldie to marry him, however she refused noting that she was not certain she was divorced from her former husband. Nonetheless, when Walter Dipley applied for the jobs on the ranch listed he and Goldie as husband and wife.
Dipley and Goldie spent that Wednesday night in a log house some distance away from the main house. Ketchel and Dickerson shared a room in the main house and Bailey, his wife and hired girl also stayed in the main house. The next morning, Thursday, October 13th R.P. Dickerson returned to Conway and subsequently Springfield he was accompanied by Mrs. Bailey and her hired girl .Mr. Bailey moved out of the main house but was to remain for a few days while Ketchel became familiar with the operation.
Ketchel spent Thursday in the main house alone as Dipley and Goldie Smith continued to reside in the log house. Goldie workied during the day at the main house as cook. That Thursday evening after supper Walter Dipley borrowed Stanley Ketchel's .22 rifle he wanted to shot varmints. Ketchel also had a .45 Colt which he carried conspicuosly in his waist band and practiced with daily.
Friday, October 14th. (Ketchel now has 36 hours to live.)
Walter Dipley worked in the fields and Goldie spent the day at the main house cooking and cleaning. Upon his return to the main house that evening Walter Dipley testified,
"I seen there was something wrong with Goldie and I ask her what was wrong; she said nothing was the matter. I asked her two or three times and she said Ketchel had made bad threats. She said, " I want to leave here."
The former ranch manager Bailey was scheduled to leave the ranch the next morning. Dipley visited him that evening asking if he and Goldie could ride to Conway with him.
" He said yes. He said, " What is the trouble?" I says, "I have quit." He said, "What's the trouble?" I told him that there hadn't been any trouble but I was leaving to prevent trouble.
Dipley then returned to the main house where he and Goldie spent the night sleeping in the kitchen area while Ketchel occupied one of the bedrooms.
Dipley later testified that Goldie had told him that Ketchel had attempted to have sexual intercourse with her.
In sworn testimony Goldie Smith stated,
Goldie: " He threw me on the bed and accomplished the biggest part of what he undertook."
Question: "He threw you on the bed for what purpose?"
Goldie: " I don't know what you call it."
Question Delaney: " Use the words; what did he throw you on the bed for-to have sexual intercourse with you?"
Goldie" "Yes, sir"
The Mr. Patterson, special hired prosecutor on cross examination questioned Goldie Smith as follows:
Patterson: You didn't halloo?"
Goldie: "No sir. I was afraid to halloo because I was afraid he would kill me: he had his gun on him."
Patterson: "And you thought he would kill you?"
Goldie: "Yes sir; I did. Then he threw me on the bed and that is where he done the rest.."
Patterson: "Were you're clothes torn any?"
Goldie: " No, sir."
Patterson: There wasn't any mark on you?"
Goldie: "No, sir."
Patterson: " Was not a scratch."
Goldie: " No, sir."
Patterson: " Well, did he have intercourse with you and you were just laying there."
Goldie: "I didn't."
Patterson: " Did you struggle any?"
Goldie: " Yes, sir; I fought him all I could."
Patterson: "Was there any marks on him when you got through."
Goldie: "Well, sir, I don't know: I didn't look to see."
Saturday, October 15th. Ketchel has 12 hours to live.
Stanley Ketchel arises a few minutes after Walter Dipley and Goldie.
After having breakfast Dipley went out the front porch to smoke a cigarette upon his return Ketchel was seated at the table,
"He (Ketchel) said, what the hell are you doing around the house at this time of day; why hain't you out in the field." I says, " Why, I am not going out in the field today, I have quit." He says, " What the hell is the matter with you this morning?" I says, " I suppose you are awful innocent that you don't know what is the matter." He said," Don't you start nothing here or I will give you some of this." and he opened his shirt and showed me his gun. I says, " I guess you would give me some of that all right." He said, " Yes. God Damn you, if you start anything I will shoot you in two" I says, " Will you?" and I jumped to the foot of the bed and grabbed the little rifle that was setting there. "
In grabbing the rifle Dipley jumped through the entrance to the kitchen area Ketchel remained at the table.
"He got up from the table was standing and looking over his left shoulder and had his hand on his gun in his bosom. I told him, I says, " Throw up our hands" or "Take your hand off your gun." I don't know which I said. He said, "By God, I won't." Then I shot."
Ketchel stumbled to the middle of the room past Goldie and fell. She ran to the front porch and Dipley ran out the back door through the kitchen.
"...Then I heard a noise back in there and I come back in. I thought my husband was in there with him. I run back in and went to the door of the kitchen there and just as I got there I seen my husband right there and knew he wasn't in the other room. My husband said to me, " Come on Mamma, let's go."
"Then he went back in there and picked up the gun and taken it from him" (Goldie was referring to Ketchel's .45 Colt.)
At approximately 6:45 AM C.E. Bailey arrived at the house and saw Dipley and Goldie just outside the main house. Dipley was carrying the .45 Colt revolver. "What's the trouble?" Bailey called. " I shot the (expletive deleted)." Dipley replied."
The Bailey and Dipley then returned inside the house where Bailey found Ketchel on a cot in a side room , he apparently had crawled to the bed. Dipley picked up some of his and Goldie's possessions and after Bailey told him how to contact the local constable, Alex Anderson, Dipley left.
Bailey placed a phone call to R.P. Dickerson. Dickerson assembled two Springfield physicans, Emmet Newton, a Springfield newspaper man and local policeman, Alfred Sampley. Dickerson had to hire a special train as the morning train to Conway had departed. In the ensuing confusion, Dickerson crashed his Hudson roadster into the curb in front of the Metropolitan Hotel breaking the axle.
The train arrived at Conway at 11:00 AM and Dickerson and his party had made the 43 mile trip from Springfield in 45 minutes and had stopped to pick up the Sheriff. Dickerson rented two carriages and rushed to the ranch arriving at 11:45 AM.
Upon arrival they found a small group gathered at the house. Dickerson and the reporter Newton went to Ketchel's bedside. They later testified that Dickerson said" Stanley, speak to me. How did this happen?" "I was sitting at the kitchen table and I was shot in the back by this man Hurtz (Dipley)." "Get the woman too, for she robbed me." No money was found on Ketchel's person although he was wearing his diamond rings.
George Noland, a carpenter rebuilding a barn on the Dickerson ranch was one of the first to arrive after the shooting and spent most of the morning at Ketchel's side testified that Ketchel said, " I guess they got me." This alleged statement by Ketchel led to much speculation in the press that Ketchel had been killed by gamblers for unpaid debts. The prosecution pointed to it as further evidence of Goldie's involvement.
At this point Dickerson offered a reward of $5,000 for Dipley. In the ensuing hours Dickerson repeated the offer many times stipulating he would pay only for Dipley dead, "not one cent for him alive."
The doctors brought by Dickerson informed him that there was nothing that could be done for Ketchel but that he would be more comfortable in the Springfield hospital.
According to court testimony, Dickerson proceeded outside and told the group assembled to find Dipley, to shoot first and then yell "halt". He said, he wanted Dipley's head or arm to hang on his living room wall. The offer of the $5,000 reward spread rapidly throughout the county.
Stanley Ketchel died shortly after 7:00 PM at a Springfield, Missouri hospital. No autosy was held.
Goldie Smith had been arrested and jailed, charged as an accomplice. Walter Dipley surrendered quietly to Joe Hoggard, Tom Hoggard and Zib Murphy . They delivered him to Sheriff Cobe in Marshfield by 10:00 AM Sunday, October 16th Dipley was in custody. He had Stanley Ketchel's .45 Colt revolver on his person when he surrendered to the Thomas brothers.
Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith stood trial for the murder in the first degree of Stanley Ketchel on January 16, 1911, in Springfield, Missouri. The state was assisted by a special hired prosecutor, Roscoe Patterson. Attorney Patterson's fee was paid by R.P. Dickerson. Dipley and Smith were represented by one of Missouri's most noted trial attorney's, Thomas Jefferson Delaney. According to all available information Delaney essentially represented Dipley and Smith without fee. ( It was reported the Dipley family raised $1,500 for legal fees far short of the amount expended in the trial and subsequent appeals.)
The State charged that Dipley had "stealthily approached Ketchel from behind and assassinated him." The further charged that Goldie had deliberately placed Ketchel's chair at breakfast with his back facing the kitchen. Ketchel had sat at the opposite end of the table at supper the night before. The State claimed premeditation the motive being robbery.
Dipley and Smith's attorney plead on their behalf not guilty and in Dipley's case claiming self defense. The incident having been precipitated by Ketchel's rape or attempted rape of Goldie Smith. They further claimed that charges should be dismissed against Goldie Smith as she was not party to the murder.
The trial lasted eight days, on January 24, 1911, after 17 hours deliberation the jury found both Dipley and Smith guilty of murder in the first degree and recommended life imprisonment.
Goldie Smith was freed 17 months later her conviction overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court. Walter Dipley served 23 years and paroled by Governor Park from the Missouri State Prison at Jefferson City in 1934. He died in 1956.
R.P. Dickerson spent a reported $5,000 to erect a 12 foot 6 inch monument over the grave of Stanley Ketchel. Dickerson died in 1938.
Footnote: Joe Hoggard, Tom Hoggard and Zib Murphy sued R.P. Dickerson for the $5,000 reward. The jury found for the plaintiffs the reward of $5,000 with interest a total of $5,612.50. Dickerson appealed, but in May 1914 ruled on behalf of the plaintiffs ordering R.P. Dickerson to pay the amount stipulated. Dickerson was represented by Roscoe Patterson, the same attorney who had acted as hired special prosecutor in the murder trial.
Note: All quotations are taken from the court transcript of the State of Missouri vs. Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith.