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Examination _Discloses Roy Daugherty Beaten Before Shooting HERRIN. April 24—The super stitions among the audience at yes terday afternoon’s inquest into the death of Roy Daugherty, found slain yesterday morning beside the road way just west of the Crab Orchard Lake, were wondering today if Daugherty’s luck ran out Tuesday night because he didn’t have his two-dollar-bill luck- piece with him. According to testimony of the dead man’s wife, he always carried a $2 bill in the watch pocket of his trousers as a luck charm. Search of his clothing failed to produce the bill. Daugherty, according to State’s Attorney Lan Haney, once paid a fine in Williamson County Court on a gaming charge and was recogni zed by law enforcement officials as a professional gambler, although he had not been known to have op erated in Williamson County for some time. Testimony offered at the inquest, held by Coroner Sam Simmons in the Storme Funeral Home, failed, according ,to law enforcement of ficers, to provide any information which might give them a concrete lead toward apprehension of the slayer or slayers. Besides Daugherty’s wife, the only other witnesses to testify were the two men who fond the body at about 8:30 yesterday morning and the two Williamson County sheriff's deputies who started their investigation at the scene of the killing. Wife Tells Movements Mrs. Daughterty told the coroner that her husband had left her at the entrance to a motion picture thea ter, telling her that he would meet her in a certain tavern after the show. She said that shortly after 10 she arrived at the tavern where she received a message to the ef fect that Daugherty would “be back later.” She said she joined Roy Arms who was waiting for his wife, also at the movies. She said that the other woman eventually joined them and that they remained at the tavern until closing time at 1:30 after which they went in a taxicab to Colp where the taverns remain open indefinitely. Mrs. Daugherty said they sought her husband in a couple of spots there, leaving at about 3 to return to Her rin. Discussing the case last night, the state’s attorney said he was at a loss to map any investigation which might lead toward an arrest because he and the sheriff didn't know where and among whom Daugherty might have made en emies. Was Beaten Before Shooting Further examination of Daugh erty’s body at the Storme Funeral Home yesterday afternoon by po lice officers and the mortician re vealed that the man had been beat en before three .38 caliber bullets were pumped into him. The officers said that he had a bad bruise under his chin, a bruise on his face and a lump on his forehead. The first shot fired into him, of ficers said, was apparently aimed from behind, the bullet entering the back of his head and coming out through his forehead. A bullet hole in the front of his hat showed that he was wearing his headgear when first shot. One other shot en tered close to the right ear and the other through his groin. It was the contention of officers that he was shot while lying on the ground. Efforts to secure finger prints from Daugherty’s automobile, a black sedan found parked on a city street, proved fruitless, Deputy Sheriff Robert E. Norman said. Only things found in the auto, he said, were a couple of packs of playing cards, an empty beer bottle, an empty coke bottle and a sack of doughnuts. A local tavern keeper said Daugherty purchased the beer and coke from him when he and his wife went fishing Tuesday. “He wanted me to go with him,” the tavernist said, “but I was too busy.”
Newspaper Details
Murphysboro Daily Independent
Murphysboro, Illinois, US
Thu, Apr 24, 1947
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Keith W.
USA 29 Aug 2026
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