Some may conclude that the case is not quite as black and white as it first seemed.
Last month you read a little bit about life in 1910 Montgomery, and a short synopsis of the Morris-Dumas murder. And, two weeks ago you read about the two people involved and their questionable entanglement. Now, after you read about the testimony of the individual witnesses, and the wrap-up of the attorney for Henry Morris, you may conclude that the case is not quite as black and white as it first seemed. Today’s technology would have made it possible to verify instead of merely speculate about the logistics of the shooting; and that, coupled with a clearer picture of the background and character of Mrs. Dumas, might have led to a different conclusion. What the jury did not hear was that Mrs. Dumas had been arrested a few years earlier in…
Henry Morris was not a very nice guy when he met Mrs. Dumas. But it doesn’t appear that he was a match for Mrs. Dumas, whose past was more than a little shady.
My last column ended with the promise by Aurora Police Chief Frank Michels that an eyewitness would come forth to testify at the Morris-Dumas murder trial. So, to learn who this was, I spent several days at the Aurora Public Library, reading through page after page of old newspapers. None of them revealed what the Chief promised. I’m sorry to disappoint you, and myself as well! Perhaps he had a lead that didn’t pan out. He didn’t explain. His hint that the witness was a female, and close enough to touch, created a lot of speculation about another woman being at the scene. It would have been a very different story. Of the three women who testified at the trial, none was present at the time of the murder. Grace Allen “intimate friend of …
