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Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide
Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide
Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide
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Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide

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60th Anniversary of the Disappearance of Orville Gibson

The story of Orville Gibson, a Newbury, Vermont farmer whose frozen body was found in the waters of the Connecticut River on March 26, 1958, has remained controversial for sixty years. The investigation into Gibson’s death and the subsequent trials and acquittals made the case one of Vermont’s most famous murder investigations, featured twice in Life magazine.

In Orville’s Revenge, retired Judge Stephen B. Martin of Barre, Vermont offers the fullest account of the events leading up to the victim’s disappearance and death, including the individuals involved and the expert testimony that was brought to light during the court proceedings. Why did investigators twist the facts to suit their theories instead of relying on observation to draw inferences based on what they observed? The verdict still stands. Gibson committed suicide out of revenge.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 24, 2015
ISBN9781310517815
Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide
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Stephen Martin

An Adams Media author.

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    Orville's Revenge The Anatomy of a Suicide - Stephen Martin

    I: PROLOGUE

    In September of 1959, I began my clerkship to become a lawyer in Dick Davis’s law office. That fall, I had the very good fortune to pass the Vermont Bar Exam and I was admitted to the practice of law before the Vermont Supreme Court on March 6, 1960.

    Dick, who was to become one of the outstanding Vermont trial lawyers of his era, was already a prominent young attorney on the rise when he was hired to defend Frank W. Carpenter for the kidnapping and murder of Orville A. Gibson of Newbury, Vermont.

    Gibson had disappeared from his farm shortly after 4:00 a.m. on December 31, 1957, and his body was found floating in the Connecticut River on March 26, 1958. On November 5, 1958, Carpenter and Robert O. (Ozzie) Welch were arrested and charged with the kidnapping and manslaughter of Gibson. Both men were released after pleading innocent and posting $30,000 bail in the Orange County Court. Two weeks later, on November 18, 1958, an Orange County Grand Jury returned indictments of first degree murder against both. (Back in those days, a petit jury could award the death sentence for first degree murder) Again, they were arrested and released after entering pleas of not guilty and posting additional bail in the amount of $10,000 each. Ozzie was represented by Henry Black, a former Superior Court judge, and his law partner Peter Plante, highly regarded lawyers from White River Junction.

    Both cases were still pending when I began my clerkship. Dick gave me many tasks concerning the case which included doing legal research, interviewing witnesses, taking notes at the Welch trial held in the Orange County Court in October 1959, and preparing witnesses for the Carpenter trial which took place in April 1960, a month after I was admitted to the Bar.

    For those of you who have never heard of Orville Gibson, or have long since forgotten about the case, the following article, that appeared in the Burlington Free Press on December 30, 1960, will give you an outline of the story as it was perceived by Joseph P. Heaney, a young, aggressive Burlington Free Press reporter, who had set his sights on being an investigative journalist (Boston University, ‘53). Heaney had been following the case since Gibson’s disappearance and had spent more than seven months in the Newbury area doing his own investigation. He contacted scores of persons who lived there, and covered both trials. Here is his report:

    CHRONOLOGY OF A MURDER

    Here is a list of significant dates in the three years since Gibson’s murder. This chronology of perhaps the most notorious crime in Vermont history can be clipped and saved for reference.

    Dec. 25, 1957 - Gibson quarrels with Eri Martin, his hired man who has spilled milk in the barn during chores. Martin, 60, now of East Braintree, reports that Gibson beat him for the first time in his five years of employment. Gibson said Martin had been drinking and became abusive after spilling the milk. Sympathy for Martin and against Gibson mounts in Newbury.

    Dec. 30, 1957 - A threatening phone call comes to Gibson’s home at about 4 p.m. His wife answers. A man warns that Gibson should not appear in Newbury Village. Gossip over the Martin-Gibson quarrel continues. The extent of Martin’s injuries is exaggerated.

    Dec. 31, 1957 - Gibson leaves his house for barn chores at 4 a.m. and does not return. There are signs of a struggle in the barn.

    An investigation starts. Lie detector tests are administered to dozens of Newbury residents.

    The word spreads in town that Gibson ran away because he could not stand the hostility of townspeople and was afraid of a pending breach of peace charge.

    March 26, 1958 - Gibson’s body is recovered from the Connecticut River near Bradford. One piece of rope binds Gibson’s hands behind his knees and his ankles. The victim wears barn clothes. The body, frozen solid, was found by state police about seven miles downstream from the Gibson farm.

    Nov. 5, 1958 - Robert O. Welch, Newbury school janitor, and Frank W. Carpenter, West Newbury farmer (now living in Colchester), arrested and charged with kidnapping and manslaughter. They were freed under $30,000 bail each after pleading innocent.

    November 18, 1958 - Orange County grand jury indicts Welch and Carpenter for first degree murder. They plead innocent again and go free after a bail increase of $10,000 each.

    Oct. 6, 1959 - Welch goes on trial for murder in Orange County Court at Chelsea. One witness admits tar and feathers for Gibson.

    Oct. 15, 1959 - Welch acquitted by directed verdict. Evidence against him was so weak he was not required to testify. State drops first degree murder charge against Carpenter. Both men remain charged with kidnapping and manslaughter.

    Oct 23, 1959 - U.S. Justice Department announces FBI looking into case.

    Nov. 4, 1959 - State begins inquest in the case. More than 40 persons testify.

    Dec. 1, 1959 - Newbury man discloses he saw two additional men near Gibson barn the morning of the crime. State is proceeding on the theory that a group of men got drunk and laid in wait for Gibson.

    Dec. 14, 1959 - U.S. Justice Department announces FBI will not enter case. [See Appendix I] Many believed federal law had been violated after evidence showed Gibson was dumped into river alive from New Hampshire Bridge.

    Dec. 19, 1959 - Gaylord Hosmer, Newbury gravestone dealer, arrested and charged with perjury at inquest. Hosmer now lives in Franklin, N.H.

    Dec. 20, 1959 - Robert O. Welch dies of cancer in Cottage Hospital, Woodsville, N.H., 65 days after acquittal. A few days before death Welch said he was framed. He went to grave still charged with kidnapping and manslaughter.

    Dec. 21, 1959 - Hosmer pleads innocent to perjury. State charges he lied about whereabouts night before and morning of Gibson’s disappearance. He is freed under $7,500 bail.

    April 18, 1960 - Frank Carpenter goes on trial for kidnapping and manslaughter. He says he was home in bed when Gibson vanished. His lawyers say Gibson committed suicide.

    May 5, 1960 - Carpenter acquitted.

    June 2, 1960 - Attorney General Thomas M. Debevoise announces that perjury charges against Hosmer will be dropped.

    CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

    If nothing else, Joe Heaney was tenacious. Throughout, he remained convinced that Gibson was murdered by Newbury vigilantes despite the fact his own investigation came up with zero results. By December 30, 1960, Heaney’s view was so widespread it had attained the status of conventional wisdom.

    In the introduction of his book, Untruth, Why the Conventional Wisdom is (Almost Always) Wrong Robert J. Samuelson writes:

    John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist and writer, coined the phrase conventional wisdom more than four decades ago in his 1958 bestselling book, The Affluent Society. As Galbraith defined it, the conventional wisdom embodied the prevailing set of beliefs about any particular subject or topic. The beliefs didn’t have to be correct. They simply had to be widely held and respectable. Since then, the term has gradually filtered into everyday language, and although Galbraith’s original meaning has survived, it has also inspired modern variations. Galbraith’s conventional wisdom was solid, staid, and pervasive; newer versions often connote what’s trendy, intellectually fashionable, or hip. But whether new or old, the conventional wisdom is (as Galbraith noted) frequently wrong.

    Sometimes it is the opposite of the truth. More often it is an artful and selective arranging of facts and perceptions that creates a plausible – though misleading – rendering of reality. But it endures because it tells a story that, at one level or another, is appealing. The conventional wisdom draws its power from this ability to fulfill some psychological or political need. Our behavior then reinforces our beliefs. We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear. We search for authorities to repeat and strengthen our beliefs and prejudices. In some measure the articulation of the conventional wisdom is a religious rite, Galbraith wrote. It is an act of affirmation like reading from the Scriptures or going to church.

    Hopefully, this book will dispel Heaney’s conventional wisdom concerning the Gibson case.

    II: WHO KILLED ORVILLE GIBSON

    By 2006, the Orville Gibson murder case had become well entrenched in the folklore of Vermont. That year, Banjo Dan Lindner recorded the following song entitled Who Killed Orville Gibson. (Mystery and Memories, Banjo Dan’s Songs of Vermont, Volume III.)

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    Ran headlines round the State,

    Who had it in for that poor man that he met with such a fate?

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    The case was never closed.

    And after nearly 50 years nobody knows.

    Let’s take a journey back in time to 1957 and New Year’s Eve, the last day of the year.

    To a picture postcard village of Newbury, Vermont and a quiet winter morning cold and clear.

    It’s four a.m. and Orville Gibson grabs his milk pails and heads out to the barn for morning chores.

    He was never seen alive again, the only thing they find, was a milk pail lying crushed beside the door.

    And no one seems to have a clue, no one wants to talk,

    And silence in that town would make you shiver.

    Until the ice goes out and they find that missing man hog-tied and floating face down in the river.

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    Ran headlines round the State,

    Who had it in for that poor man that he met with such a fate?

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    The case was never closed.

    And after nearly 50 years nobody knows.

    Now some say Orville Gibson was the first to help his neighbor,

    While others claim he beat his hired man.

    And maybe some were jealous of his handsome dairy farm on the valley’s finest river bottom land.

    Oh they ran some lie detectors, even put some men in jail.

    For they had to take some action- don’t you know?

    But the evidence was flimsy and the testimony vague, and in the end they had to let ‘em go.

    And rumors kept on flying while the truth stayed underground and left it all to endless speculation.

    Was it vigilante justice or was it envy or revenge?

    It’s still the best kept secret in the nation.

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    Ran headlines round the State,

    Who had it in for that poor man that he met with such a fate?

    Who killed Orville Gibson?

    The case was never closed.

    And after nearly 50 years nobody knows.

    Now half a century has come and gone, the case is cold as death.

    The book on Orville Gibson should be closed.

    But folks around that little town will tell you to this day.

    That somewhere, somehow, someone out there knows.

    * * *

    The intent here is to close the book on Orville Gibson.

    III: THE TOWN OF NEWBURY

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    Newbury, Vermont is a beautiful idyllic community in Orange County nestled along the Connecticut River. Newbury was chartered by New Hampshire Governor, Benning Wentworth in 1763 to General Jacob Bayley and 74 others who lived in Newbury, Massachusetts. A plaque located on the Newbury Common reads:

    Jacob Bayley, Founder of Newbury and Revolutionary War General. Veteran of the Indian Wars. Bayley led a migration of settlers from Newbury, Mass to the rich lands of the Coos here at the Great Ox-Bow. A staunch patriot, he bitterly opposed the Haldimand Negotiations’ carried on with Canada by Ethan & Ira Allen during the Revolution.

    The town has a total area of 64.4 square miles, of which 64.1 square miles are land and 0.3 square miles are water. It served as the terminus of the Bayley-Hazen Military Road, begun by Bayley in 1760. By 1859, when the population was 2,984, Newbury had two gristmills, a paper mill and a steam mill to manufacture mackerel kits. The principal industry was raising beef cattle and sheep. Since then, Newbury has experienced a steady economic decline. By 1960, its population had dropped to 1452.

    Boston University, one of New England’s largest universities, traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute, a Methodist school founded in Newbury in 1839.

    IV: WHO WAS ORVILLE A. GIBSON

    Orville, the older son of Alice and J. Scott Gibson, was born on July 2, 1910 in Barnet, Vermont. Before they separated, the Gibsons had four more children, three daughters, Emma, Elsie, and Eva, and a second son, Scott.

    The family lived on a hardscrabble farm in the hills of Newbury Center. Orville’s parents could not read or write. Orville’s mother told the Burlington Free Press reporter, Joe Heaney, that when she was a youngster, she was hit in the eye with a crab apple and the next winter with a snowball. She said, I had to give up school because the doctor told me I would go blind if I didn’t. Orville’s father was stern and laconic, but farming was not his strong suit. He lacked foresight and thrift, and it was not surprising that his marriage did not last. His major claim to fame was driving his oxen in 4th of July parades.

    Responsibility for the family fell on Orville’s shoulders, and he rose to the occasion. Early on, he was driven to make something of himself. He got up every morning to milk cows. To earn extra money, he took on any small chore he could find. He boarded with a farm family in the valley while attending school, literally working his way through high school. At some point, he picked up the nickname Hoot after Hoot Gibson, one of the 1920’s most popular children’s matinee heroes. He had astounding energy and a remarkable work ethic.

    Orville become the valedictorian of his nine-member high school class of 1930, and he was proud. During his valedictory address, he pointed to the flag and talked about the opportunities and advantages of being an American. He exhorted his classmates to be proud of our community, and above all, to be willing to work hard to do our best. He stressed the importance of lifting up oneself by the bootstraps --- to succeed on one’s own merit.

    In the Depression year of 1930, Vermont was not an ideal place to bootstrap for a penniless high school graduate from the other side of the ‘tracks.’ But Orville took his own advice and worked hard. He was thrifty. To him, waste was shameful. And he had a dream. He wanted his own farm.

    After graduation, Orville attended a nine month program at an electrical school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Upon his return, he worked on a variety of jobs, including the Wilder Dam, Catholic Churches in Bradford and Wells River, and the telephone building in St. Johnsbury. At some point, he became a traveling salesman for Church & Dwight, a New England wholesale grocery firm that specialized in selling Arm & Hammer baking soda. He started at the bottom and spent most of his time on the road. Often he was away on weekends and sometimes more than a month at a time. His territory covered Vermont, Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and a small portion of Maine. (Joe Heaney interview with Orville’s mother, Alice Gibson, Burlington Free Press, March 11, 1960; William Bradford Huie’s article, Lynching --- Northern Style, Cavalier, April, 1960)

    Evalyn called him Ordie

    On June 22, 1936, Orville married his high school sweetheart, Evalyn Runnels. She called him Ordie. Evalyn was a year behind him in high school and she graduated second in her class. After high school she attended and graduated from Lyndon Teachers College, and taught school for a time. In high school, Freeman Placey (who testified at the State v. Carpenter trial as being Orville’s best chum) was one of Evalyn’s suitors. He lost out to Ordie and ended up marrying Evalyn’s sister, Elnah.

    After his marriage to Evalyn, Orville continued to work for Church & Dwight and occasionally Evalyn would travel with him. They maintained their residence with Evalyn’s elderly father, Arthur Runnels, on his farm in Newbury, together with her brother, Lester Runnels, and her father’s housekeeper, Florence Nelson. They had no children.

    Orville was not a member of the Armed Services during World War II. In 1942, he left Church & Dwight and went to work for Fellows Gear Shaper in Springfield, Vermont, until April or May of 1943. During this period, the couple lived in Chester, Vermont.

    Upon leaving Fellows Gear Shaper, Orville and Evalyn returned to the Runnels farm where Orville assisted with the farm work. This must have been a very difficult time, for the farm was not his. He wasn’t in control. But he put up with it because he was pursuing his dream of owning his own farm --- specifically the one next door --- 300 acres of prime river-bottom farm land, plus 200 acres of back pasture three miles away. At that time, the farm was owned by the Greer Brothers and they were not making a go of it. Orville had to know it, both from observation and through his father-in-law’s housekeeper, Florence Nelson. Florence was a notorious busybody and gossiper, and the Greers and the Runnels shared the same telephone line. It became clear that the Greers were in distress, and Orville kept close tabs on the foreclosure proceedings. When the Orange County Court granted foreclosure in 1949, Orville rushed to the Woodsville National Bank and bought the farm out from under several locals, including Walter Renfrew, who wanted it as badly as he did.

    Orville and Evalyn named their new farm Bonnie Acres. Needless to say, the Greers were not happy. It wasn’t long before they expressed their anger by destroying a portion of fence around the back pasture land. (See, Joe Heaney article in the Burlington Free Press entitled One Outward Expression of Dislike, November 17, 1959). In another article written for the Burlington Free Press on January 1, 2004, Candace Page quoted Orville’s sister, Elsie Church: He was killed not for his faults but for his strengths. Orville buying that farm was the whole cause of his death. She believed her brother’s crime was buying a bankrupt farm coveted by some of the town elders and then making a success of it.

    And what a

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