Chapter One: Murder in Downtown Brazil

The founder of Brazil, William Stewart, originally from Massachusetts, picked the town’s name while reading newspaper coverage of the revolution occurring in Brazil, South America, in 1838.

He thought the name would be catchy and easy to remember. Brazil grew from a single farm into a waystation with a blacksmith for settlers traveling west. It had a thriving lumber industry, but coal and clay led to its greatest growth.

As of 1900, 10 clay works and 13 coal companies drove an economy that supported a population of 11,600, four banks, an opera house, a half-dozen newspapers, 19 attorneys, eight dentists, 19 physicians, five railroad depots, nine hotels, 43 saloons, nine restaurants, eight confectioners, two milk depots, 11 meat markets.

Growth continued in the next two decades. In 1908, a piano factory and a boiler works were added. A new post office was built in 1912 and the Court House in 1913. By 1916, a second high school was built. Brazil was no longer part of the backwoods that Indiana had been for much of the previous century.

The town was bustling around 7:30 p.m. on November 3, 1919, when Dr. Lewis L. Williams got out of his car to enter the Schultz-Weinland drug store that housed his office. He immediately encountered George Peter Franklin Muncie, one of his patients. A half-hour earlier Harry Weinland, the pharmacist, had responded to Muncie’s inquiry about the doctor’s whereabouts by saying that the doctor was at dinner and would return shortly. Muncie and Weinland chatted amiably as George waited.

Many people going about their business that evening saw George Muncie walk up to Dr. Williams and shoot him in the chest at close range. Many more heard the gunshot. As the doctor fell to the ground, pleading “George, don’t shoot me!” many people, including Charles Sawyer, a police officer running to the scene, saw Muncie bend over the doctor and shoot him four times in the head and neck at very close range.

Sawyer, with weapon drawn, demanded that Muncie hand over his gun. George obeyed immediately. By this time, he was surrounded by his fellow Hoosiers, but in any case, he seemed to have no desire to resist. Police back-up arrived, and the officers led George to the town jail while more and more townspeople congregated around the site of the shooting to discuss every detail.

The mystery regarding the doctor’s untimely demise was not who done it; it was why had George Muncie done it. The story was national news, receiving intense newspaper coverage, particularly by The Brazil Times’ predecessor, The Brazil Daily Times.

Chapter 2: Prelude to Murder

Members of the Muncie family were among the earliest settlers of Clay County. George’s great-grandparents Peter and Frances (Woods) Muncie came to Clay County by way of Virginia, going first to Kentucky where Peter bought land. Perhaps looking for land that was more tillable than Kentucky’s, Peter then acquired 40 acres near Brazil in 1839, and the family settled in to farm it.

George’s grandparents continued to farm, and both George and his dad, Albert, spent years as teenagers laboring on that farm. Albert took his young family to Kansas to acquire his own land, but they returned to Clay County after a few years. Albert then went to work in the coal mines.

George had a lame left leg since shortly after birth caused by “scrofula,” a term for tuberculosis when it affects body parts other than the lungs. One leg was about an inch shorter than the other and the foot of the shorter leg wore a shoe three sizes smaller than the other. He had tried work in the mines but was not physically suited for it. He married Joanna Pedlar, who was living with her family in Brazil, in 1908 when both were 23 years old. Joanna’s friends and acquaintances described her appearance as ordinary.

They were a bit older than the average marrying age at the time, and George’s disability might have held him back from the courting scene. George said that they married “after about two years of me trying to get her,” and then when he got up the nerve to propose, she told him that she had intended to marry him all along. He commented, “Now isn’t that just like a woman?”

In 1909 the couple traveled to Hammond, Indiana, where George took a job with the Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad (C&EI) as a clerk for about two years. George and Joanna had their first child, Ruby, there.

By 1912, when son Oscar was born, they were back in Brazil, where George worked as bill handler and freight clerk for C&EI. A third child, daughter Ruth, was born in 1914. George was well-liked by all who made his acquaintance and was an excellent employee—quiet, capable, and dependable. He had studied telegraphy on his own, which showed intelligence and initiative and may have increased his value to C&EI.

George took pride in maintaining his home and garden, was a devoted father and husband, attended church regularly, and helped run the Sunday school. He played the piano. Nothing in the next several years of his life signaled the possibility that he would conduct Brazil’s crime of the early 20^th century. Friends, family, and acquaintances shared the view that he was the last man they would have expected to commit an extreme act.

When Dr. Williams arrived in Brazil from Jeffersonville, Kentucky, in 1891 with his second wife, Kate, and daughter Anna, he worked to establish a record of public service that would make him a community leader. He was secretary of the city board of health and served on the Clay County Conscription board. Lewis and Kate had a daughter, Kathryn, in 1900.

During the influenza epidemic in 1918, Williams volunteered his services to the federal government to help combat the disease in army camps in the eastern United States. Upon his return to Brazil, the city put him in charge of its own anti-influenza campaign, which had similarities to today’s anti-Covid-19 campaign. Despite criticism, he fearlessly closed stores, churches, and businesses and imposed other regulations to control the spread of the disease. He was also the physician for the three railroads in town, including the one for which George worked. As one newspaper noted, “It was remarkable that he seemed to be on hand at every bad accident, fire, or other disaster.”

To be continued . . .

Chapter 3: Dr. Williams’ “Treatment” for “Female Trouble”

It was Lewis’s service as a general practitioner for CE&I that brought the doctor into contact with the Muncie family and led to his demise. The doctor had successfully treated Joanna and the children when they came down with the flu in February 1919 and when the children caught the measles soon thereafter. During these spates of illness, the doctor would attend to the family almost daily.

George respected Lewis, who was in his mid-sixties, a great deal as a doctor. In May 1919 when Joanna began having spells of feeling tired, achy, and run down, it was automatic for George to call in Dr. Williams, who diagnosed 35-year-old Joanna’s problem as “female trouble.” From that time until his death some months later, the good doctor made 25 house calls to tend to the family’s ailments.

Meanwhile, George lived an idyllic life with a good job, a lovely home, three wonderful children, and what he thought was a loving wife. It was Joanna, herself, that burst this bubble when her conscience got the better of her.

George was sitting at the piano in his house after coming home from work on Saturday, November 1^st. He had eaten supper and had a rowdy play session with his three children. He finished playing a selection he had never tried before and turned around to find Joanna standing behind him. He arose from the piano bench and exclaimed, “Jo, what do you think of that? Don’t you think I am some musician?”

He kissed her and was about to embrace her, when she pushed him away, saying softly, “I have something to tell you. It will be the hardest blow that you ever had in your life. It is not because I don’t love you but because I love you more.”

George said, “What is it?”

Joanna replied. “I am going to leave you. I don’t feel worthy to be your wife any longer and to live in your house.”

“Well, Jo, what is the matter?”

“It is the doctor.”

“Oh, Jo, not that! Anything but that!”

George fell to the floor in shock and heartache. Joanna bent down next to him and said, “Oh, George, I am terribly sorry this has happened. Won’t you let me send for a doctor? Isn’t there anything I can do for you?”

George didn’t reply. He got back on his feet and walked the floor for two or three hours, holding his head between his hands and crying.

Finally, he stopped and told Joanna that she could stay that night but would have to be gone by the next night. She acknowledged that she had done something unforgivable but insisted that she needed to tell him the full story before she left.

George was silent for a minute or two and then said, “Well, Jo, when did this thing begin anyway, and how many times did it happen?”

Joanna told him that that the first time it happened was when George had called Dr. Williams to diagnose her ailment in May. The doctor had placed a handkerchief over her face for reasons of modesty and used various instruments to examine her female parts. Before she knew it, the sensations of her treatment had changed, and Dr. Williams was engaged in sexual activity with her.

She proceeded to tell her husband that the doctor had engaged in such acts with her seven or eight times under the guise of treating her female trouble. She described the episodes in terms of the date and the circumstances that led the doctor to give her “treatment.”

To be continued . . .

Chapter 4: George Plots Revenge

After hearing his wife’s sordid story, he went to the phone and called one of Joanna’s relatives, Josiah Pedlar.

“Josiah, will you do something for me? Go down to see Amelia and Nick and tell them for God’s sake to come over here as soon as they can. Don’t tell anyone I sent for them. They will tell you when they come back.”

Amelia and Nick were Joanna’s sister and brother. Joanna came from a family of 10 children, and several of them continued to live in Terre Haute even though their parents had moved on to Arkansas, where they had died. Amelia and Nick were the two siblings to whom Joanna and George remained closest. They arrived at the Muncie home Sunday morning at about 9:30 a.m.

George asked Joanna to recount to Amelia and Nick the events of the previous evening.

At this point, George was calmer and was focusing on next steps. The discussion with Nick and Amelia apparently had altered Joanna’s and George’s previous night’s decision to separate because Joanna continued to stay at the house Sunday night. George was thinking that moving his entire family out of Indiana would be wise.

George had another sleepless night, and by the next day, Monday, he had become fixated on what he should do about the man who had wrecked his home. He went to work as usual but could not settle into his routine, and his coworkers asked him what was wrong. Around noon he told his supervisor that he was going to visit a relative and would return later.

By the time George left his office, he had decided that his only acceptable option was to kill Dr. Williams. Leaving town and letting Williams live would mean the doctor would remain unpunished for wrecking his family’s life.

He borrowed a gun from his brother Sampson. Sampson later testified in court that he gave George a .32 caliber revolver because George said he needed a gun out of concern that someone was following him at night. It was not the best gun in the world--each shot George fired at the doctor required George to rotate the chamber manually.

Shortly after his arrest, the Brazil Daily Times reported George as saying he had intentionally killed Lewis Williams because the doctor had destroyed his home by taking sexual advantage of Joanna. George later denied making such an admission. The local and Indianapolis press thoroughly explored this intriguing angle, reporting rumors that George and Joanna were now estranged. Although the press also covered Dr. Williams’ dedication to public service, the coverage did not include testimonials regarding the physician’s bedside manner.

In fact, Joanna’s allegations against the doctor did not seem to be questioned, and the assumption that Joanna’s story was true played an important role in the trial held by the Clay County Circuit Court, Judge Thomas W. Hutchison presiding. During the trial, George’s attorneys attempted to present additional evidence beyond Joanna’s statements to prove the licentiousness of Dr. Williams, but the judge sustained the prosecutor’s objections to such testimony.

To be continued . . .

Chapter 5: The Unwritten Law

George’s lawyers devised a defense based on two reinforcing pillars—temporary insanity and the “unwritten law,” which fit the circumstances of this murder very well. Lawyers used the unwritten law relatively often and somewhat successfully from 1850 to 1950, to claim that murder was justified if the accused killed someone in defense of the sanctity of his home and the virtue of his women. The defense was common enough that George might have taken it under consideration as he was pondering what to do about Dr. Williams.

The legal process had various hurdles to surmount before reaching trial. After the grand jury met and official charges were brought, George took a couple of days to enter his plea. Maybe his lawyers had to use this time to convince him to opt for an insanity defense.

Jury selection began on January 12, 1920. An unusually large venire of 100 men was summoned so that the lawyers for both sides could find a satisfactory jury of 12. The issues of willingness to impose the death penalty and willingness to accept an insanity defense ruled out a number of the veniremen, but attitudes toward the victim were also of concern. Dr. Williams’ toughness in exercising his role on the draft board and on controlling the flu epidemic had alienated many of his townsmen.

Testimony in the trial began on January 28, 1920. The trial was expected to be short—no need to present a lot of evidence on “who done it”—but the defense and prosecution each had several witnesses to call on the issue of George’s sanity and on other matters. The defense lawyers dredged George’s past for insane relatives—they found one or two—and used their existence to try to create the impression that insanity ran in the Muncie’s bloodline. George’s mother testified that George’s bad leg and an injury he had sustained during his brief time working in the coal mines could have affected his mind. Joanna and several of George’s work colleagues testified that George regularly had severe headaches.

George’s behavior after Joanna told him about Dr. William’s actions helped lay the groundwork for temporary insanity, but even then, the fact that it took him two days before he attacked Dr. Williams and spent time plotting his actions undercut the impression that it was a spur-of-the-moment crime of the passion. George didn’t have a history of wild or illegal behavior. Far from it. Prosecution witnesses testified that they knew or worked with George and saw nothing to indicate insanity or a propensity to commit impulsive acts. George was not called to the stand.

Spectators packed the courtroom throughout the trial, lining up for entry sometimes hours before the court session convened to get a seat. The flu epidemic was still raging, and signs warned that individuals with a cold or sore throat should not enter the court room. The room was emptied and fumigated every day at noon.

To be continued . . .

Chapter 6: The Verdict Is In

Newspaper reporters and spectators scrutinized George’s and Joanna’s behavior. The couple sat together in the courtroom, talked with one another, and embraced at times. For the most part, George appeared confident and upbeat, but Joanna looked tired and careworn. Joanna and Lewis’s widow and two daughters attended most of the court sessions.

The testimony of Joanna, Nick, and Amelia kept the crowd riveted. Whether George realized it at the time, his decision to have the siblings hear Joanna’s account benefitted him when his case went to court because they served as witnesses who could corroborate Joanna’s testimony and describe George’s mood and reactions.

The prosecution successfully objected to Joanna’s testimony of what she had told George about her physical ailments in May 1919 on the grounds that she would be sharing a confidential conversation between husband and wife. Arguments on this issue took almost a full day with the jury out of the court room. This legal issue arose two other times during Joanna’s testimony, leading to another excusing of the jury. Fortunately for George, the restriction of his wife’s testimony didn’t hurt his case because Joanna had related similar information to her siblings, and the siblings’ testimony did not count as revealing a confidential conversation.

Joanna testified in intimate detail about her interactions with Dr. Williams—details so intimate that newspapers would not print them. During her testimony, George audibly wept. The prosecution questioned Joanna about the circumstances surrounding her contacts with Williams, for example, asking if she locked the doors to prevent the two from being interrupted. If it could be shown that Joanna was willingly submitting to the doctor’s affections, it would undermine the unwritten law defense by showing that Williams was not solely at fault.

After several days of testimony by George’s work colleagues and others who had interacted with George on the day of the murder—all stating that the normally outgoing and gregarious George had appeared quiet and ill on that day, the jury began deliberating on the evening of Saturday, February 14^th. After a few hours, the jury called the judge back in to repeat his instructions.

On Sunday morning, February 15, 1920, the jury came to a unanimous decision: not guilty by reason of insanity. The trial had lasted five weeks and cost Clay County $3000. The verdict handed George’s future over to Judge Hutchison, who had to decide whether George should be confined to a mental institution and if so, for how long. The judge took over a week to make this determination while George remained in jail.

To be continued . . .

Chapter 7: True Love Conquers All

The trial and its outcome were the talk of the town, and everyone seemed to have a strong opinion about whether George should be sent to a mental institution. People who believed that the jury should have found George guilty called for Judge Hutchison to sentence George to a lengthy stay in a mental institution as the next best thing to imprisonment.

In post-trial discussions with the judge on the sanity issue, the attorneys for the defense and for the prosecution switched positions from what they had argued in court. The defense, which during the trial had made the case for George’s insanity, told the judge that George was sane. The prosecutors told the judge that the question of George’s sanity was unclear and that he needed to spend time in a mental institution so that his mental state could be evaluated.

Acknowledging that townspeople disagreed over the jury’s verdict, Judge Hutchison wrote an extensive opinion of the court that the Brazil Daily Times published. He ruled out confining George to a mental institution, noting that the evidence produced regarding George’s insanity was weak. He ordered that George be released from jail on February 23, 1920.

The trial crushed Dr. Williams’ reputation, overwhelming his civic contributions. Suspicions regarding the doctor’s relationships with other female patients must have circulated widely. Mrs. Williams, who had been with her stepdaughter in Washington, D.C., visiting her daughter when her husband died, also took social and personal blows. Not long after the trial, she moved east to live with Kathryn. Anna had married locally and remained in Brazil.

George and Joanna stayed together. They sold their house to a family member and moved to Mississippi with their children, settling in Jackson. At about the same time, George’s parents, Albert and Eliza Muncie, moved to Clinton, Indiana.

George and Joanna had two more children in Mississippi. George became an ordained Methodist minister and served as an itinerant preacher, going to various churches, hospitals, and nursing homes rather than preaching at just one church. He noted that he tried to keep his sermons short, judging that signs that congregation members were struggling to stay awake meant that he had spoken too long. He also worked as a carpenter and as an engineer at a local store.

George was in the hospital being treated for heart trouble when Joanna, after years of being an invalid, died in 1981 at the age of 95. He went from the hospital to an assisted care center and joined the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, a federal program in which people 60 years and older could volunteer their time for community service.

George died two years after Joanna at the age of 98. A year before he passed, he told a Jackson newspaper reporter, “I have never wanted for anything I actually needed in all my days. I consider that one of the greatest miracles I have beheld.”