Graveyard Stories, Night # 24: The Murder of George Ketron

As with so many of these stories, I start to follow the leads from the story to try to find out where everyone lands after the event. In those case, I discovered that a bunch of transient characters seemed to have gathered in Bastrop, Louisiana for a murder…and then left for lands unknown!

HH Dougherty (sometimes spelled Daugherty or Doherty) aged 35 lived in Bastrop with his wife. They ran the Maxwell’s restaurant and also rented rooms out of their home to boarders. Dougherty had rented a room out to a fellow named George Ketron (sometimes spelled differently as well: Ketchron or Ketchrin). And this is where the trouble started.

George Ketron was married with one small son. His wife and son were living in Monroe, Louisiana although they were from Tennessee. Ketron was working temporarily with the new paper mill in Bastrop to get the machinery running. So he would live with the Doughertys during the week and would stay in Monroe with his family on weekends. And so it was rumored that George and Mrs. Dougherty got along very well and quickly formed a friendship. Despite Mr. Dougherty’s suspicions, I strongly believe that there actually was no infidelity involved. But Mr. Dougherty was very unhappy that Ketron and his wife got along so well. So he sat around and stewed over it for several weeks. In the meantime, Ketron and Mrs. Dougherty continued on with their daily lives seemingly oblivious to Mr. Dougherty’s sulking.

And so it came to pass that Mr. Dougherty had to go out of town for a few days on business and he came back into town convinced that Mrs. Dougherty and George Ketron had had relations while he was gone. In fact, he was so paranoid that he had convinced himself that Ketron had forced himself on Mrs. Dougherty! There is no evidence that anything untoward ever occurred between Ketron and Mrs. Dougherty other than his many compliments on her cooking.

Finally, Mr. Dougherty had had enough. He would avenge his wife! He was at his restaurant working when he saw Ketron walk into the barber shop across the street. HH Dougherty walked into the shop and found Ketron in the first chair, Ketron was laying back with the hot towel on his face.

“Getting a haircut, George?” Dougherty said, and then he drew his weapon and shot Ketron in the head. The bullet went into the side of Ketron’s head and exited from his chest due to the angle that he was laying. He literally had no chance to defense himself. The bullet severed his carotid artery and immediately he began to bleed profusely in front of the horrified barbershop patrons. Within minutes, George was laying dead in the barber chair and the shop was covered in blood. The barber JW Pierce went for the doctor but it was never going to help. Everyone exited the barber shop quickly during the bleeding and shooting so the police had the unusual ability in 1925 to see the undisturbed crime scene. HH Dougherty was taken into custody.

Once in jail he began to tell his side of the story which was that Ketron had attacked Mrs. Dougherty and that he had insulted her. Mrs. Dougherty seemed bewildered. There had been no affair, no attack, nothing other than laughing and joking over dinner that they all shared together. She certainly had no idea why her husband shot Ketron. In the end, it appears that Dougherty was just very paranoid. And that George Ketron paid the highest price due to Dougherty’s mental illness.

Ketron’s widow and their young son boarded a train bound for Kingston, Tennessee with his body. George Ketron is buried in Arcadia United Methodist Cemetery, Sullivan County, Tennessee.

In October of 1925, HH Dougherty was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 17 years in Angola. And that’s where his trail ends. I could not find him again on any records. I believe that I located his wife (by then ex-wife) on the census living in Monroe, Louisiana. But then her trail goes cold as well. It’s possible that Dougherty himself died before the 1930 census or he became paroled and left the area.

I tried to track down the poor barber who witnessed the entire incident and could not find him either! I do see where JW Pierce’s wife died in Bastrop a few years later but apparently her grave is not marked nor documented.

But by far the most interesting thing my research turned up was the obituary of George Ketron which was run in the local paper in Tennessee. His obituary stated that he had died in a work accident instead of being murdered! Had his family been able to hide the fact that he was murdered from the entire community? It seems impossible to believe that but that is what it appears!

Kingsport Times, June 14, 1925.

From Monroe Newsstar, June 13, 1925.