From: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2003310270305 "Mystery Will Never Be Solved" Article by Cinnamon Bair; 27 October 2003 Even after 76 years, the murder of Lessie Wilkerson still leaves researchers scratching their heads. Conflicting evidence. Unexplained occurrences. Possibly even police duplicity. It all adds up to one of the odder occurrences in Polk County crime history. "There's so much about it that doesn't stack up," said Joe Spann, director of the Polk County Historical and Genealogical Library, who recently presented his research to the Polk County Historical Association. "It's a pretty neat story." The story, as Spann tells it, began in 1923 when Lessie Wilkerson of Levy County married Polk County's Ranzy Rutledge. Wilkerson was just 13 years old, while Rutledge, 35, was on his third marriage. The Rutledges eventually settled in Bradley Junction -- close to Ranzy's job as a boilermaker in a Pierce phosphate mine -and had one son, Chester. But all was not marital bliss, Spann said. The couple's regular fights drew the attention of neighbors. "There's a history of domestic violence," he said. Things came to a head in October 1927, Spann said. After entertaining a friend at their home for the evening Oct. 20, the Rutledges were seen leaving together in their car. They were spotted again the next morning, driving north near Polk City and apparently on their way to Green Pond. It was the last time Lessie Rutledge was seen alive, Spann said. Ranzy Rutledge returned home alone that night and told questioning neighbors that his wife was visiting family, Spann said. Rutledge acted strangely for the next few days, Spann said. He quit his job and claimed he was going to Cuba, but then asked for his job back the next day. He dropped his son off with an aunt and told her he was separating from his wife. And he drove all the way to Bronson to tell his father-in-law he and Lessie Rutledge had an argument on their way to visit and that Lessie was therefore let out of the car in Dunnellon. Finally, on Oct. 28, Lessie Rutledge's father and brother arrived in Bradley Junction to find the 16-year-old girl. And that, Spann said, is when things really got odd. The father and brother found blood stains throughout the bedroom. Soon the neighborhood was up in arms, causing Ranzy Rutledge to turn himself over to Sheriff A.H. Wilder for his own protection. The sheriff eventually placed Rutledge in a private cell on the second floor of the jail -- and Rutledge started asking to be released. "Unless I am out of jail today, I'm never coming out," Rutledge told a friend on Oct. 30. Rutledge's body was found perfectly arranged on his jail cell cot the next morning. One day later, Lessie Rutledge's body was found sticking partially out of a gopher tortoise hole near Green Pond. It was generally assumed that Rutledge killed his wife -- who turned out to be six months pregnant -- and then committed suicide. But many so-called facts don't compute, Spann said. Police, for instance, found shotgun shells near Lessie Rutledge's grave and determined she was killed near where she was found -- not at her home, which leaves the bedroom blood a mystery. "You wonder whose blood was that," Spann said. Meanwhile, initial reports in The Tampa Tribune on Nov. 2 claimed a "hurried examination of the girl's body by the officer failed to reveal any gunshot wounds about the head or shoulders." Yet the very next day, the Tribune reported Rutledge had fired a shotgun at close range, blowing half her head away. (Apparently the first officer wasn't very thorough.) Also, police said Rutledge killed himself by taking poison, but no container was ever found. Adding to the intrigue, the sheriff had Rutledge's cell cleaned and repainted a few days later. "Other inmates heard bumping and groaning in the night," Spann said of the night Ranzy Rutledge died. "I personally think the sheriff let the father and brother of the woman in the cell in the middle of the night to take care of him." What really happened may never be known, Spann said. With both Rutledges dead, the sheriff's office quickly dropped the case and nothing further was stated in local newspapers. Cinnamon Bair is a Polk County native. She can be reached at cinbair@hotmail.com. |
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