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By PAULA BLACKMON and REBECCA ROBERTS Staff ReportersOne of Joe Harrell’s tenants was behind in his rent, so Harrell dropped by the man’s Whiskey Road apartment Monday to talk tohim about it. %“No one was home, so I left and then andcame back on Tuesday with a pass key,” he said later. “I let myself into the apartment.” The place smelled funny, he said. His first thought was that the renter had left some foodin the refrigerator. The bedroom was dark, so Harrell shined a flashlight in that room.And hanging from the ceiling was JamesJoseph Shively, 25.“When I shined the light on him, I just couldn’t believe it,” Harrell said. He said he shuddered. “I don’t even remember comingout the door.”Authorities estimate that Shively had been dead five or six days when he was discoveredearly Tuesday afternoon.He left no note, but his death has been ruled a suicide. Now some of those who knew him are wondering why Shively might do such athing.Jack Wilson of 204 Midland Drive was Shively’s first landlord. Wilson rented him a room when Shively first came to Aiken Coun-and remembered him as a nice guy with a lotof pride.“He was a super nice guy,” Wilson said. “Itwas a life wasted.”Shively, who had graduated from high school in Nebraska, had come to Aiken, after serving in the military. He had made friends with some people from Aiken, Wilsonsaid.After he’d been living in Wilson’s apartment three or four months, Shively bought a bicycle. His car had broken, and he couldn’t afford the $1,000 repair biU. He began peddling a bike to his job at the Graniteville Company. He worked the graveyard shift, midnight to 8 a.m.Wilson said that Shively worked all night and then went to classes during the day at USC-Aiken, where he was majoring in English. Shively rode his bicycle everywhere — rain or shine — accepting a ride only whenone was offered.“He would never ask you to do anything forhim,” Wilson said.Scott B. Hunter, who taught Shively in a journalism course last fall, said Shively was a bright student but not an active participant in the class. He did well on his quizes, but he stopped coming to the class about mid-term.In mid-May, Shively moved from Midland Valley to the Medical Arts Apartments, 1204 Whiskey Road. He told Wilson that he wanted to be closer to town and to his friends inAiken.“I rented him the apartment. He was verynice, a clean-cut boy,” said Harrell, Shively s second landlord. “He wanted an education.the Whiskey Road apartmentThursday.“He’d come up to my apartment sometimi or I’d go down to his. He’d drink a beer with usand listen to music.”The neighbor said that Shively likedEnglish rock groups and enjoyed listening todifferent kinds of music.“He seemed to get along with ail of us,” hesaid. “I went down there a couple of times to see him and didn’t even know he was hanging there.”Wilson said that Shively had applied for a job in Maryland but wasn’t hired. He thinks Shively may have been upset about not getting the position. And he also said he thinks Shively was running out of money and was amonth behind in his rent.“If I had known, I just feel like I could havegone to him and said, Hey Jim, come back over here and live until you get back on yourfeet,’” Wilson said.“I feel like maybe this wouldn’t have hap-that he was shocked to learn pened. It just broke. He had seen Shively last slt;ly heart. Thehard. He just gave up in the end.”
Newspaper Details
Aiken Standard
Aiken, South Carolina, US
Fri, Aug 07, 1981
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USA 23 Aug 2020
Other Publications Near Aiken, South Carolina
Aiken Daily Mail
Aiken County Rambler
Aiken County Register
Aiken County Journal
Aiken Standard
