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A bizarre story of choking his wife to death in San Antonio, killing her son at her shallow grave, and slaying a hitchhiker for his money was related to Pecos, Tex., authorities yesterday by a 33-year-old Army deserter who formerly lived at Rio Dell. Balding Oscar A. Kernohan, Jr., an AWOL deserter from Ft. Knox, Ky., led officers to the grave in a remote area 40 miles south of Pecos, where the bodies of Mrs. Jo Anne Kernohan, 37, and her son by a prior marriage, Roger Gipe, 2., were unearthed by shovel. The grave of the wife and child was about 2's feet deep in a desolate sector 20 miles east of Balmorhea. It was about 200 feet off a road and shielded by bushes. District Attorney R. B. Mc Gowan said the bespectacled Ker nohan signed a statement admit ting the murders, as well as an other slaying for which he orig inally was arrested Tuesday night. McGowan said the suspect told him he choked his wife in San Antonio, her home, on December 18 and drove westward with the body and with her son. After digging the shallow grave, McGowan said Kernvohan told him he shot the boy twice in the head Mrs. Kernohan’s body was tied hand and foot. FBI agents, led by Robert Right myre, special agent in charge of the Albuquerque, N.M., office, ar rested Kernohan at the town of Truth or Consequences Tuesday night. The fugitive was sitting in a motel watching television when the agents closed in on him. He gave up without a struggle. He was arraigned before a U.S. commissioner Wednesday on fed eral charges of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the murder of an Arkansas hitchhiker. That charge was temporarily pushed aside when Kernohan waived ex tradition to Pecos for prosecution on the murder charge. Kernohan confessed slaying his wife and the child during the trip back to Pecos with sheriff's depu ties Wednesday night. The body of Norman V. Cox, 21, of Benton, Ark., was found in a culvert near Van Horn February 25. Officers said Kernohan got ‘only four or five dollars for killing the young hitchhiker. Cox was killed at about the same date as Mrs. Kernohan and the boy. He had been shot twice through the head. Robbery was the motive in Ker nohan’s slaying of Cox, but no reason for his killing his family was disclosed. Kernohan was traced to Truth or Consequences after some of his bad checks began showing up in the area. Prior to the murders, he had been sought for passing more than $1000 in bogus checks while fleeing Army authorities. Kernohan, a professional soldier most of his life, lived with his parents at Rio Dell during his younger years. A concentrated search for him spread to Humboldt county ear lier this month when it was learn ed the fugitive had told an un identified source that he then was en route to Rio Dell to kill his father, Oscar Alton Kernohan, Sr., a mill worker.
Newspaper Details
Eureka Humboldt Times
Eureka, California, US
Fri, Mar 31, 1961
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Amanda K.
USA 20 Feb 2026
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