1974, Marion News in Brief

Annexations Big 1974 Marion Story

Marion may have overreached in its last effort, but 1974 was still a big year in annexations pushing the city limits outward.

About 125 residents in an area westward from Interstate 57 to and including the Boswell Addition voted 30 to 5 on July 23 to be annexed into the city.

A 4.5 acre subdivision in which 10 homes will be built in Moore Park west of the Marion limits was annexed into the city on September 23. Continue reading

1974, The Cold Case Murder of Dr. Donald Ripley

On December 4, 1974, Dr. Ripley’s chiropractic office at 1825 W. Main Street was full of patients awaiting treatment. At 9:30, an hour after the office should have opened, an unanswered telephone prompted one of the patients to answer it. Upon opening a hallway door he discovered the body of Dr. Donald Ripley. Ripley had been shot seven times with a .45 caliber hand gun. Most of the efforts to uncover his murderer centered around a mysterious, well-dressed black man, but his killer was never found and remains one of Marion’s cold cases to this day.  Continue reading