A cruel man: Edward Arthur Moffett and his many wives.

Back when I was working on my Gibson Cemetery project in September, I stumbled upon quite a rabbit hole...and of course, I had to jump down it. Try to follow this twisted tale if you can.

Eula Jennette Gibson, the daughter of James Franklin "Frank" Gibson and Sarah Easley Mills, died young in 1919 - she was the wife of Edward Arthur Moffett. I found her obituary and it stated a burial in "Corydon, Ky," so I know this has to be Gibson #2. (I think her parents might be there, too.)

Anyway... I was working on her and decided to look into her husband, Edward Moffett, who was practically a ghost. I couldn't find anything on him until I figured out he was the son of Theodore Moffett and Delia Rapp. 

Theodore or 'Theo' was one of the husbands of Margaret Ellen "Maggie" Pritchett, (she married 4 times: William K. Gibson, then Theo Moffett, then Enos Lynn, then Charles S. Wright.) Maggie's first husband, William K. Gibson, is buried in Gibson Cemetery #1 in Corydon. 

Anyway... that opened up a whole world that I wasn't expecting in the very least!

Edward Arthur Moffett has been married at least 5 times and the fifth being his final. 

His first marriage was to Birdella Clark, October 23rd, 1901 in Posey County, IN. I have no idea where she went to or where she came from. She MIGHT be the Pearl Burdella Clark, b. 1884 who went on to marry a Frost in Sullivan Co, IN, in 1914. But I'm not 100% positive. 

His second marriage was to Mary Angeline "Mollie" Maynard who first married Gabriel C. Lilly (they divorced), then Robert Moffett (Edward's brother) (they divorced), then to Edward Moffett on December 14th, 1911. She's believed to have died around 1917 but I haven't found a death certificate. I found her divorced in the 1910 census, but nothing afterward other than her marriage to Edward in 1911.

His third marriage was to Sudie (Susie) May Kennedy on May 30th, 1914, in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Sudie died in 1938, so it's safe to say they divorced for sure.

His fourth marriage was to Eula Jennette Gibson on April 25th, 1917, in Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Their marriage ended with her death. They didn't have children that I know of. He definitely didn't kill her - cause of death on her death certificate is labor pneumonia. Eula is my distant cousin through us having Gibson blood.

Moffett's fifth and final marriage was to the widow Nora (Penrod) McIntosh who had previously been of Evansville, IN. Lovie Smith McIntosh, Nora's first husband, passed away in 1918. Prior to his death, the couple ran a drank stand in Evansville. Moffett and the widow Mrs. McIntosh married in Henderson, KY, in June of 1920. and then made the move to Akron, OH.

I say that his fifth was his final... because Edward murdered Nora. On March 30th, 1921, they quarreled and as the newspaper says... he decided to "end her." 

If you search on Newspapers and even the Lima News on Ancestry - you'll find SO many articles from 1921/1922 about the murder, his death sentence (electric chair), the stay of execution, him being sent for observation...and then living the rest of his life in the State Hospital. These are honestly just the "juiciest" and "most detailing" articles that I'll be including in this blog post.

In 1952, he had the audacity to write in to the Newspaper - that's the article below.

Finally, in 1961, this monster passes away.

Anyway... just wow. This was definitely a rollercoaster ride to have went on and discovered in the first place. I definitely wasn't expecting it! It's amazing sometimes what we can stumble upon while doing genealogy and it just takes our breath away.

It makes me wonder just HOW difficult this man was to ALL of his wives. He clearly was a "common denominator" in why all of his marriages failed (sans Eula Jennette, since she died of labor pneumonia.) It is a wonder he didn't kill all five of his wives, honestly.. The fact that he was able to get away with the murder, too, and live out his life in the state hospital -- I don't believe for a second he was insane or mentally incompetent. I really don't. I think he was an exceptionally good actor.

Sudie and Nora are both buried in Oak Hill in Evansville, by the way. So next time you're in Oak Hill, have a moment of silence for Nora McIntosh Moffett. (The tombstone photograph for Sudie isn't great, but I'll share the photo of Nora's tombstone. She's buried with her first husband, Lovie McIntosh.)

After initially posting about Edward, a few days later, I kept on digging and realized: Edward Arthur Moffett was horrible to his other wives, too, even if he blames one of them, Mollie, was horrid to him first. I'd say all of these women are incredibly lucky they weren't each murdered like what finally happened to the last one. 

I found all of these articles in the Evansville newspaper on GenealogyBank. This guy was just one hell of a nasty piece of work.