Mingo County, WV Newspaper Article Concerning MARSHALL Murders, 1938 ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Dated January 08, 1938 Press Slayers Search Numerous TIPS checked in search for McGuire for double slaying at Lenore School. While the last rites were being said and the bullet torn bodies of Mr. and Mrs Andy Marshall were laid to rest this afternoon, officers of three counties continued their search for their slayer. Willie McGuire 35 year old section worker and former Hardee district constable. Marshall, 55 years old, and his wife, Girda Marshall, 52 yrs old were brutally slain in the first floor hallway of the Lenore high school building Thursday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock. Marshall was employed as a janitor and Mrs. Marshall was helping him with his work. They were the parents of the slayer's wife, Polly McGuire. Five days before the double tragedy Mrs. McGuire is said to have separated from her husband because of his alleged attention to other women. With her three children she is said to have sought refuge with relatives in Wayne county but efforts to locate her, it was reported at the sheriff's office this morning, were unavailing. McGuire, it was reported to investigating officers sent word to an unnamed person soon after the tragedy, that he intended to kill his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John McGuire, and then commit suicide. Whether the slayer is hiding in the immediate neighborhood of Lenore or is seeking some distant retreat has not yet been established. One reliable report is that he was seen by an acquaintance late Thursday evening on the Pigeon creek branch line of the mouth of Trace creek. An acquaintance told officers that he passed McGuire near the mouth of Trace and was puzzled when McGuire did not speak to him. He had not heard of the tragedy. From the trace creek section McGuire could have reached Logan county by any one of several routes. He has two sisters,Mrs Harrieson Canterbury and Mrs. W.H. Evans Jr., in Holden. His brothers, Jonah, Clyde, and Clatus McGuire live with their parents near Lenore. Several uncles live in and near Paintsville, Ky. Another uncle is a government employee in the Panama Canal Zone. In their intensive hunt officers have visited and searched isolated homes of the slayers relatives and friends following numerous "tips" as to his whereabouts. When he quit work as a section hand Thursday afternoon McGuire is said to have gone to his home near the Damron store to change clothes. He seemed to have neighbors as well as Mr. and Mrs. Marshall under suspicion of having Mrs. McGuire to leave home. Officers were informed that before going to the school house he accused Mrs. Lloyd Mounts of encouraging Mrs. McGuire to leave him. He threatened to kill her, the officers were told. A short time later McGuire went to the school building and found Mrs. Marshall sweeping the hallway. He charged Mrs. Marshall with having caused the separation and becoming enraged fired two shots at her with a .38 calibre pistol. Both bullets took effect. Students in and near the hallway, waiting for a bus to take them to their home, fled in panic. Hearing the shots Marshall, at work in a nearby room, rushed to the hallway and McGuire turned his smoking pistol on him. Both Willie McGuire and his brother, Jonah, married daughters of the slain couple on the same day. Jonah and his wife were divorced and she is now Mrs. Lizzie Stevens, of Pikeville, Ky Submitted by Susie Morris Scarberry Email: March 1999 Transcribed from the Williamson Public Library Newspaper The Marshall's are the gransparent of the submitter.