2018
Alexander Jason
Charleston, WV
The local schoolmarm was fatally shot as she attempted to unlock the one-room schoolhouse early one morning. The weapon was a shotgun. The fatal wounds were in the left side of her head where pellets had penetrated. There were also pellet strikes on the school house door which was behind her. There were no witnesses but one key piece of evidence was a shotgun wadding found between a nearby tree and the school house. The wadding was a small section of paper which, after an investigation by the local sheriff, incriminated a young man who was charged with murder. A basic shooting reconstruction was performed by placing a broom straw into one of the perforation holes in the schoolhouse door. The straw pointed back towards a location near a tree where footprints were found in the dirt which also implicated the suspect. The presenter obtained the historical official records of the trial and the details of this incident which made possible a review of the investigation and the trial testimony which was hand recorded in the courtroom. The trial resulted in the defendant being found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. This presentation will show how the trajectory reconstruction was performed and how the paper wadding was used to convict the suspect. A video demonstration and re-enactment will be utilized to demonstrate the operation of the double barrel black powder shotgun used in the incident and how the paper wadding was identified to the suspect.