On Thanksgiving Day 1934, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma found the dead body of John Gorrell Jr., a Kansas City dental student, slumped behind the wheel of his car, which had come to a stop at a downtown intersection. Gorrell had been shot in the head twice with his own gun and his wallet and other valuables were missing, leading police to conclude he had been killed in a botched robbery. Just one day later, the residents of Tulsa were shocked to learn that Gorrell hadn’t been killed by a robbery, but by his friend Phil Kennamer, and his motive wasn’t robbery.
At the peak of the Great Depression, newspaper reports of violent crime were nothing new. In this case, however, the victim was the son of a prominent local physician and his killer the son of a well-known US District Court judge. The privileged backgrounds of the victim and killer were enough to captivate the residents of Tulsa, but as the strange details of the story slowly emerged in the days that followed, the case quickly grew from local sensation to national fascination. In the weeks and months that followed, countless front pages (and then some) were dedicated to the lurid details of what the press soon dubbed the “Society Gang Killing;” a story of disaffected youth who, bored with their wealth and privilege, turned to crime and violence for the sake of entertainment and excitement.
Thank you to the incredible Dave White of Bring Me The Axe Podcast for Research!
References
Biscup, Walter. 1935. "Verdict of jury leaves punishment of Gorrell's slayer to Judge Hurst." Tulsa World, February 22: 1.
Frates, Kent. 2014. "The Society Gang Killingg." This Land, July 15.
Freese, Jim. 2016. Murder in the Name Of Love: The Phil Kennamer Trial. Tulsa, OK: Freese Publishing .
Miami Daily News-Record. 1934. "Sheriff refuses to act on Phil Kennamer's version of case, involving associates." Miami Daily News-Record, December 13: 1.
—. 1934. "Doubt cast on gang theory in Tulsa slaying." Miami Daiy News-Record, December 3: 1.
Morrow, Jason. 2015. Deadly Hero: The High Society Murder that Created Hysteria in the Heartland. Tulsa, OK: Independent.
Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat. 1935. "Counsel declares he could not tell right from wrong." Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat, February 15: 1.
New York Times. 1934. "Death car driver a suicide in Tulsa." New York Times, December 10: 38.
—. 1935. "Girl takes stand to Aid Kennamer." New York Times, February 16: 30.
—. 1935. "Kennamer reveals 'extortion letter'." New York Times, January 27: 15.
—. 1935. "Kennamer tells of fatal shooting." New York Times, February 19: 10.
Phillips, Harmon. 1935. "Kennamer Case goes on aftwer threat of mistrial." Tulsa Tribune, February 13: 1.
—. 1935. "Phil Kennamer back to jail with 25 years in prison as penalty for Gorrell killing." Tulsa Tribune, February 24: 1.
—. 1935. "State blocks quick opinion by doctor that Kennamer shot youth while insane." Tulsa Tribune, February 16: 1.
Tulsa Tribune. 1934. "Anderson tells plan of Kennamer Trial." Tulsa Tribune, December 15: 1.
—. 1935. "New clues seen in notes from Phil Kennamer." Tulsa Tribune, January 3: 3.
—. 1934. "Phil Kennamer inisists slaying his own actions." Tulsa Tribune, December 2: 5.
—. 1934. "Police call Born suicide." Tulsa Tribune, December 10: 1.
—. 1935. "Opposing Kennamer case legal batteries promise fiery clash of courtroom tactics." Tulsa Trribune, January 23: 7.
Tulsa World. 1935. "Judge Kennamer weeps as he describes Phil's abnormalities." Tulsa World, February 16: 1.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Плейлист
Morbid
When Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, the media called it a senseless crime. But online, a different story emerged—one of rage, reckoning, and a suspected killer turned fol...
On the night of August 14, 1985, twenty-year-old Kristin O’Connell left a party in Ovid, NY to go for a walk. Two days later, her nude body was discovered near a cornfield along a rural county road; s...
Weirdos! Today we just wanted to be ourselves- and enjoy some Listener tales that are brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you! Throw on a comfy sweatshirt and join use as we ta...
January 15, 1919 was an unusually warm day in Boston, a welcome change from the typically cold temperatures Bostonians had experienced in the previous days. A little after 12:30 pm, the residents of t...
On December 18, 1994, twenty-seven-year-old Alison Botha was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment in Port Elizabeth by two men she didn’t know and had never seen. After forcing her into her...
A little past midnight on July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis, a US Navy cruiser, had just delivered the uranium that would be used in the first nuclear bomb dropped on Japan, and was returning to the...
Spooky Lakes time, everyone! Alaina brings us to Big Moose lake in New York State and shares the tragic story of Grace Brown’s murder. Grace’s ghost has been seen many times at the lake since she was...
When Jean Harris met Herman Tarnower in the winter of 1966, she quickly fell in love the charming doctor. Having just come out of a disappointing twenty-year marriage, Harris was desperate to find the...
Join us for a special bonus episode with Tobias Forge, the man behind the mythos that is The Band Ghost. Hear exclusive news about their latest album, the process behind the music and some you heard i...
When Jean Harris met Herman Tarnower in the winter of 1966, she quickly fell in love the charming doctor. Having just come out of a disappointing twenty-year marriage, Harris was desperate to find the...
Weirdos! Today we've got a special guest -Andrew McMahon of 'Something Corporate', 'Jack's Mannequin', and 'Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness'. In addition to heating about his journey as an artist, Al...
Weirdos! Grab your sleepingbag, bags of snacks, and facemasks, and get ready for a slumber party! This month, we're giving you a fresh batch of listener tales brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you...
You know those messages that you get all the time, the ones that pop up out of nowhere? They could be real, but something about them seems fishy. You likely dismiss these texts and emails as mere anno...
On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter spotted something pale and white lying in the weeds of a vacant lot. When the woman walked closer to get a better look, she...
On the morning of January 15, 1947, a woman walking with her young daughter spotted something pale and white lying in the weeds of a vacant lot. When the woman walked closer to get a better look, she...
On the afternoon of August 7, 1972, sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma left her house in Springfield, NJ and was never seen alive again. Six weeks later, Jeannette’s remains were discovered when a nei...
Two decades before the Lindbergh baby became America’s most famous missing child, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar, went missing in Opelousas, Louisiana, setting in motion one of the strangest kidnapping st...
Today we are joined by Emmy award winning film directors, Chapman & Maclain Way to discuss the wild story behind their Netflix Documentary "The Kings of Tupelo: A Southern Crime Saga". This documentar...
After his arrest, investigators would learn that, by the time he appeared on the game show, he was also a killer. In the year that followed, Alcala would go on to murder several other women until he w...
At the time of his appearance on The Dating Game in 1978, Alcala was a convicted sexual predator who had served time for sexual assault and had only avoided a charge of attempted murder on a technical...
Weirdos! We're giving you a fresh batch of listener tales brought TO you, BY you, FOR you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you!Today we have ghostly peaches, possessed dogs (question mark?), dolls in a wal...
When Cheryl Bradshaw appeared on the popular game show The Dating Game in 1978, she was charmed by bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala, and by the end of the episode, she’d chosen him to take her on a...
On December 1, 1994, nineteen-year-old Melissa Witt planned to meet her mother at a Fort Smith, Arkansas bowling alley, but by all appearances, she only made it as far as the parking lot. Two days lat...
On October 13, 1972, a chartered aircraft carrying forty-five passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians’ Club rugby team, departed from Montevideo, Uruguay bound for Santiago, Chile. Abou...
In the winter of 1924, the boroughs of New York City were plagued by a series of robberies ostensibly committed by a young couple. This was not the first time a woman had been involved in armed robber...
In February 1942, Gordon Cummins, a twenty-eight-year-old Royal Air Force Serviceman, murdered four women and attempted to murder two others over a six-day period in London, leading the press to dub h...
In response to the onset of German bombing raids during World War II, many of England’s most vulnerable citizens evacuated or were temporarily evacuated out of urban areas to safer, more rural parts o...
On January 12, 1983, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department received a call from a frantic driver who reported they’d just witnessed a shooting on the side of the side of the road in Fulton, Californi...
Happy New Year, weirdos, and we're celebrating the holidays with Holiday tales brought TO you, BY you, For you, FROM you, and ALLLLL about you!Today we have boogens, a Hanukkah haunting, horrible Four...
When a girl walking on a Provincetown, Massachusetts beach discovered the decomposing body of a young woman in the summer of 1974, it began an investigation into what would become one of the most noto...