Two Snoops Are Better Than One

This week’s post was enhanced by the efforts of Graveyard Snoopette, my new volunteer helper extraordinaire.

When I started this project, I intended to stick to just online resources. However, there are cool things out there in the real world, and Snoopette has kindly offered to help dig them up.

She was willing to make two visits to the Jimmy Granato Jazz Archive, at the University of Chicago, on the slim chance that there was anything Hal-related there. And she found something!

Welcome Snoopette!

smokey stover band
Photo tracked down by my crafty assistant.

Cora: Her Face in the Water (6)

Read the full Cora Stallman series here.


Thursday, Aug. 6, 1925. Coles County, IL.

Mattoon Daily Journal-Gazette; Aug. 6, 1925
Mattoon Daily Journal-Gazette; Aug. 6, 1925

By the sixth day, the people of Coles County were tired. The suicide-or-murder question still hadn’t been answered. Cora Stallman’s curious death had made national papers, bringing 19 press agents to Mattoon. They chased the story, and the locals, like a honking flock of geese. For the journalists, too, their time in small-town Illinois was getting old. Telegrams in their pockets barked: Get a story or get home.

Fortunately for everyone, on Thursday, Coroner FS Schilling and the other investigators — State’s Attorney Charles Fletcher, Sheriff Tom McNutt, and Deputy Sheriff Frank Shirley — were ready to talk.

Continue reading “Cora: Her Face in the Water (6)”

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