Murderers & Millionaires

Murderers and millionaires, two words that leave you with a sense of curiosity. Each person talked about in this episode has a different story, some happy and inspiring, others are dark and terrifying. It's interesting to learn about the people buried in these cemeteries, knowing that people mourned and loved them, regardless of who they were, and what they did.

Elmwood Cemetery

Entrance into Elmwood Cemetery

Timothy Smith's swing, put up for his son to have a place that made it more comfortable to go visit his father's grave.

Memorial statue at James Napoleon Falls grave.

The Falls Memorial. What do you think it means?

Robert Reed Church First Black Millionaire in the South

Photo of Robert R Church. Scanned from Robert R. Church Family Papers, Mississippi Valley Collection, Special Collections, University of Memphis Special Collections. Robert Reed Church The original photograph was taken by Bingham & Craver Studio.

posted Jan 29, 2018 by Lucy (Selvaggio)

Church Family Mausoleum

On the side of the building, the names of the occupants are placed.

Robert Reed Church memorial

Robert Reed Church Jr. who later took over his father's business.

Memphis girl Frederica Ward is murdered by her friend and love, Alice Mitchell

Newspaper articles telling the story of Alice Mitchell

Drawing by unknown person of Alice in a Newspaper

Drawn renderings of Freda Ward and Alice Mitchell

The public at that time were almost as upset by the girls homosexuality as by the murder itself

Alice Mitchells headstone

The grave of Frederica Ward. Victim of Murder at the hands of Alice Mitchell.

Alma Thedde, or Vance Ave. Alma , Murdered 3 of her husbands

You can see a big difference in Alma's demeanor from her young photo to this older version.

"Mother" Alma W. Theede. Looks sweet, but we now know what lies beneath

Meet our Co-Host:

Dallin Scott!

Dallin will be a Jr. in High School this fall. He enjoys playing football, target shooting, Hunting, Playing guitar and banjo. He's been in musical theater, where he played Crutchy in Newsies and his favorite role Marius in Les Miserables. He's full of talent and fun! Thanks Dallin for being our co-host today.

To the left is a photo of Dallin with a Magnolia the size of his head at Elmwood cemetery, when we visited there in 2016.

Sources:

• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/51876007/

• https://darkheartedwomen.wordpress.com/tag/alma-theede/

• https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-commercial-appeal/20130207/282269547785377

• http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2011/09/vance-avenue-alma-alma-theede-black.html

• https://www.elmwoodcemetery.org/

• https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/robert-r-church-jr-1885-1952/

• www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/robert-reed-church-sr-1839-1912/

• http://historic-memphis.com/biographies/robert-church/robert-church.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reed_Church

• https://ww2.tnstate.edu/library/digital/churchrs.htm

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Mitchell

• https://murderpedia.org/female.M/m/mitchell-alice.htm

• https://tngenweb.org/fayette/biography-falls-james-napoleon-1841-1919/

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8491416/james-napoleon-falls

• https://deadlywomen.fandom.com/wiki/Alice_Mitchell

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmwood_Cemetery_(Memphis,_Tennessee)

• https://www.memphistravel.com/attractions-activities/elmwood-cemetery

• https://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/elmwood/elmwood.html

• https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mitchell-alice

Duggan, Elizabeth. The Trials of Alice Mitchell: Sensationalism, Sexology and Lesbian Subject in Turn-of-the-century America

Duggan, Lisa. Sapphic Slashers: Sex, Violence, and American Modernity

Lindquist, Lisa J. “Images of Alice: Gender, Deviancy, and a Love Murder in Memphis.” Journal of History of Sexuality, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 30-61.

Sim, F.L. “Forensic Psychiatry: Alice Mitchell Adjudged Insane,” Memphis Medical Monthly, Aug., 1892, 379-90.