Seven-part series on famous Brazil murder begins Friday

Tuesday, January 18, 2022
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Indiana native Jane Green has chronicled a famous murder on Brazil’s main street in the 1920s in a seven-part series which will begin on Friday in the Brazil Times.

Green’s parents were born in Fontanet in Vigo County, and her father’s parents were from Clay County. Her father, Arthur Dowell, was a professor at Indiana State University

The story revolves around George Muncie, a Brazil resident who undeniably murders Dr. Williams in front of the Schultz-Weinland drug store.

Green’s family is related to Muncie, hence her interest in penning the story.

Green was born in Michigan, while her father was teaching there, but grew up in Terre Haute. She graduated from Terre Haute South High School and Indiana State before heading east to attend graduate school at Georgetown. She now lives in Maryland, retired from a career as an analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Green does a lot of genealogical research, and came across George Muncie and his story in her studies. Someone had linked an article to the murder case to her information, and she became enthralled with the case upon further digging.

“I’m always looking for things to write,” she said. “This is something that is interesting to people. It’s true, and it just had all the makings of something that was interesting. The more I dug into it, the more interesting angles I found.”

The story was originally a 3,600-word document, but Green broke it into seven chapters of approximately 500 words each to better fit newspaper publication.

She was able to research the case through the Brazil Daily Times (forerunner of today’s newspaper) and other national publications through the popular website newspapers.com.

Green has a subscription to a genealogy site, which includes newspapers.com.

While the title of the series may give away the ending, Green was happy to be able to find an interview in a Mississippi newspaper with Muncie years after the killing that showed how his life evolved.

“I’m a big true crime binge watcher, and it’s a side interest to me,” she said. “I am always curious why people do thigs like this.”

Green was able to use some of her career skills in the research, having been responsible for finding (or “targeting”) foreign terrorists.

“The whole story of George Muncie was interesting to me,” she said. “There were articles after articles on newspapers.com about what was the ‘Murder of the Century” for the young century, at least in this part of the country.”

Green had to sift through the information, some of which was “sensational” and similar to false news claims in today’s journalistic world.

“I had to make sure I was getting the ‘real’ story and not the hype that originally surrounded the case. It was very much like TMZ in newspapers in those days. There were huge headlines designed to bring the reader in. It was so interesting that this guy would shoot a well-respected member of the community. I hope Times readers enjoy it.”

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