APPENDIX IV

MUTILATION  and  MURDER  in  HOCKING COUNTY

The Johnston murder  case reminded Hocking County, amateur  historians  of  a  similar  case in 1877. Known as  the Weldon murder case,  it had been the most sensational  one in Hocking  County’s history until Oct. 14, 1982.

The victims  were farmer John  Weldon, his widowed sister and her daughter. The motive was robbery.

Weldon was shot four times  and his body hacked up with a  corn cutter. His  sister’s throat was  cut and  her   head  was  chopped  with   an  ax.  The 16-year-old niece’s head was nearly severed by the ax.

“The  Weldon case  generated songs,  poems and all kinds  of wive’s  tales,” said  Sandra Starner,  a Logan sixth grade teacher.

On the day the bodies were found, William Terrell, 19, while  at a Logan saloon,  called attention to himself  by flashing  a roll  of money  and a gun. After  he   was  arrested  for   being  drunk  and disorderly, he  admitted he had been  a witness to the murders. He claimed  another man, Joseph King, was the murderer.

King  was  arrested.  A  lynch  mob  of  about 400 started  moving toward  the first  jail in  Logan. Both men were then moved to a safer jail.

King   was  not   indicted  because   he  produced witnesses  who provided  him with  an alibi. After King’s release, Terrell was indicted, convicted of second  degree   murder  and  sentenced   to  life imprisonment in the Ohio Penitentiary at Columbus. Six years later he  died of tuberculosis. His last years  were spent  in the  prison section reserved for the insane.

Starner is convinced Terrell was telling the truth when  he  said  he  only  witnessed  the killings. “Terrell was  probably retarded. I  think he would be  what  we  call  a  developmentally handicapped child today.  I think he  was taken advantage  of, and I think this Joe King was the murderer and got away scot-free.”

Starner’s daughter was in  the 4-H club that Dale Johnston advised,  before he was caught  up in the murders  of Annette  and Todd.  “Having known  Mr. Johnston personally,” she said, “I find it hard to believe he would do a thing like that. I just hope to  God they  have the  right guy.  But, I’m  not sure. And I don’t know if I ever will be.”