“The above title screamed across the entire front page of Monday’s paper. With so many individuals lost from such a prominent family practically all of the front and back pages (seven columns of print to each page) were devoted to the details of the this tragic event.
“Wife, daughters, granddaughters beaten to death Sunday morning; Judge found in cistern at rear of house.” Another headline says, “Marion man, Famous as Lawyer and Politician, Driven Insane by financial worry, – Victims Beaten with Furnace Shaker.” The story has been repeated for these 63 years that Judge Potter killed his family and then jumped in the cistern. I hasten to report that embalmer Bert Scobey declared that, “Oscar Potter did not drown himself; death was not due to drowning.” ‘There was no water in the dead man’s lungs.” “In my opinion, “Mr. Scobey said, “There is reason for any theory except that of suicide. But I’m sure Potter didn’t drown. That’s not a guess. It’s a fact.”
The undertaker said that the head of Judge Potter was lacerated in several places, the wounds being open to the skull. He said that the number of the wounds and the location of them made it a farfetched theory to suppose that they had been caused as the body went down into the cistern. It would have been possible, Mr. Scobey said if the man’s skull came in contact with the curbing of the cistern and was killed instantly, for him to have died without breathing any water into his lungs. But instant death, the undertaker said, would have been necessary to prevent water entering the lungs after the body touched the water.
The body was found face down in the water and the undertaker pointed to this fact and to the fact that there was no blood on the front of the dead man’s night clothes but that there was blood on the back of his clothes as circumstances supporting his belief that Potter himself was murdered. Scobey said that it did not seem possible that Potter could have killed the other members of the family in the manner in which they were killed without getting blood on the front of his own clothes.
The tragedy occurred in the beautiful Potter residence at 807 N. Market and was discovered by surviving son, Maurice Potter, age 26, who had returned from Murphysboro about 2:00 a.m. Sunday. Killed were Judge Potter’s wife, Myrtle Spiller Potter, 52; daughters Eloise, 16; Mrs. Lucille Potter White, 28; and granddaughters Phyllis White, 4; and Cynthia White, 3 weeks old.
Judge Potter, 55, was found in a cistern five feet in the rear of the house where he had entered head first into three feet of water. All family members were dressed in night clothes, and it is believed all were killed about 1:00a.m. on October 24, 1926, with a twenty pound furnace shaker which had been secured from their own basement.
From the bloodstains and footprints in the upstairs bed rooms and hall, it is believed that daughter Eloise was struck first. Then the killer surprised daughter Lucille White in the bathroom and crushed her skull. Blood stains then led across the hall to the room that had been occupied by Mrs. White and her two children. It is believed that Mrs. Potter was attracted by the cries of the children, and in going to their room to protect them was also struck down in the same room. Eloise, who apparently was not killed instantly, made her way to the bedroom where she was found dead along with her mother and the two children. In that bedroom and the bathroom were signs of struggle with blood stains on the walls, floors and ceilings and in the hall with bloody footprints leading down the back stairs.
There was nothing in Judge Potter’s demeanor that would have predicted the dreadful thing that occurred. He was in the court house (now the location of the tower in the center of the Square Plaza) late Saturday evening attending to some legal affairs, and as he walked out of the court house he joked with the janitor.
He walked home as was his custom even though there was a cold wind. He seldom, if ever, rode to or from his office. At the evening meal there was nothing unusual about his conduct, and afterward, he sat reading in the living room with his children and grandchildren around him. His son and daughter were dancing while a little granddaughter played the phonograph. As the son prepared to go out for the evening, the father advised, “Come in early tonight.”
While living in Johnston City William O. Porter was elected mayor in 1897. In 1901 he served two terms as Master in Chancery. Moving to Marion in 1902 he was elected State Senator for six years and was Marion City Judge. In 1922 he resigned as City judge to take up the work of Federal District Attorney. During his tenure of office as District Attorney, Judge Potter had offices both in East St. Louis and Marion. Although most of his work was in East St. Louis he maintained his home in Marion. He attended every Republican National Convention from 1904 to 1920 and was a delegate from this district to the Republican National Convention in 1904 and 1916. In 1898, 1900 and 1902 Judge Potter was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee and in 1920 he received the endorsement of Williamson, Pulaski and Alexander counties for Republican State Central Committeeman for the 25th Congressional District. At one time he was Corporation Counsel for the city of Marion and was Inheritance Tax Attorney for the State of Illinois for eight years.
Judge Potter was a noted horticulturist and was one of the principle speakers of the 1925 Northern Nut Growers Association. He was probably the most outstanding nut grower in Illinois. Besides the early plantings behind his home, he bought and developed forty acres, four miles west of Marion on the state “hard road” which came to be known as the “Free-nut Garden.” The farm became an experimental tract on which the Judge carried out his ideas on both fruit and nut growing. In addition, he had land for this experimentation in Baldwin County, Alabama and New Albany, Georgia.
To Potter’s friends, it was no secret that he was carrying a great mental load and that he was contemplating suicide. He had intimated his despair to several persons including two brothers-in-law. On the very Saturday morning that the family was found dead, after midnight, Judge Potter had met Judge D. T. Hartwell in the lobby of the First National Bank. Potter offered his hand and said he had had a terrible night, that when he came to himself he was about to do harm to his little girl. “Wouldn’t that be awful?” He remarked that he did feel better.
He confided to a friend recently that four years ago he had been worth $10,000 but that at the time of the conversation he couldn’t see his way clear to a bare living. He had suffered heavy financial losses during the past few years. At one time he was a large coal operator, but his business was not successful and he sold his interest. He lost heavily in Florida real estate and in the failure of an East St. Louis insurance company. An automobile business which he entered in Marion was not a successful venture and an investment company also proved to be a losing venture.
His losses hurt him financially to such an extent that he was forced to give up his fruit and nut farm on which he had spent thousands of dollars and ten years of experimental work.
Criticism of his conduct of the office of federal district attorney, which he had relinquished in July, 1926, hurt him deeply and he believed that somebody was trying to hound him with a frame-up investigation of his official records in that office.
Although frequently declaring his straightened financial condition, he had recently declined financial aid, saying that he was provided with funds for the present. He believed that he was in worse shape, financially, than he really was, relatives said. All those worries had undermined his health. In late weeks he had lost 25 pounds and frequently would break down crying.
It seems the questionable and incredible thing is that the bodies were found about 2 A.M. Sunday morning; a jury consisting of S.E. Storme, Lee Hudgens, Freeman Sisk, James Felts, J.R. Bradbury and Jean Burkhart was assembled by Coroner George Dell, in the City Hall, on that same Sunday afternoon and a verdict was reached at that time! After hearing evidence the jury returned a separate verdict for each of the women and children finding that they came to death at the hands of W.O. Potter. They returned a sixth verdict, finding that W.O. Potter came to his death by drowning, with suicidal intent. Those verdicts were reached even though States Attorney Arlie O. Boswell had had finger prints on the iron furnace shaker photographed and had the finger prints of W.O. Potter taken for comparison in order that there was no possibility of anyone else having a hand in the tragedy; but the coroner’s jury had reached verdicts without a report on the fingerprints.
As you enter Rose Hill Cemetery at the main entry (from Rt. 37), turn east going directly toward Goddard Chapel, about halfway between entry and the chapel on your right (south), you will see a dark grey monument with only “Potter” inscribed on it and individual foot markers for family members.
One can see the grave of Everett Spiller Potter, age 2, who was run over by a Coal Belt electric car that ran in front of the North Market Street Potter Home. This previous Potter family tragedy was witnessed by Mrs. Potter and the effect of the shock was so great that she never completely recovered from it.
Mrs. Susan Myrtle Porter was survived by eight brothers and sisters. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Lucille Porter White was a talented singer. She married Dr. Gilbert White in 1919 and besides their daughters, Phyllis and Cynthia, she was the mother of a son, Gilbert Jr., age 6. At the time Dr. White’s practice was in Miami, Florida; Mrs. White had come home for the birth of their second daughter; Gilbert, Jr. was staying with his paternal grandmother, Mrs. John White, in Olney, Illinois, making him and the son, Maurice Potter, the only survivors of the immediate family.
Eloise Potter was a junior at the Marion Township High School. She had been a class officer, participated in drama and was active in their church. At home, as the youngest of the family, she held a special place in the affections of her parents.
This lovely home later was the location of Ozment Funeral Home for nine years; Mr. and Mrs. Ozment were the parents of Mrs. Leonard Mitchell; later the Ozment Funeral Home moved to the location of what later became Mitchell Funeral Home and is now the Mitchell-Hughes Funeral Home.”—Original article excepted from Marion Daily Republican and compiled by Mary Lou Roberts ca 1990.
William O. Potter appears to be the original inhabitant of this turn of the century home. His name appears as the occupant in the 1907 street directory and continued to be listed through the date of the slayings in 1926.
After the murders, the home appears to have set for a number of years before being occupied by the Wilson Funeral home who used the home from the 1930’s to the early 1950’s, when the Wilsons moved their business to S. Van Buren Street and became temporarily Wilson/Frick Funeral home. The house also served a brief period as Maller Funeral Home in the 1950’s. It was occupied by Helen H. Mitchell through the 1960’s.
In the 1970’s, the home was subdivided into apartments and it served this purpose till it fell into disrepair and was eventually demolished in the 1990’s.
(Original lead article written by Mary Lou Roberts ca 1990 using Marion Daily Republican articles from 1926; additional data from street directories; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 01/24/2013)