Horror Among The White Oaks: The Strange Case of Roy Rickey Part 9: The Verdict & Conclusion

  

Carter County Courthouse in Grayson, KY

For five full days prosecution and defense fought a legal battle such as has seldom been seen in Kentucky, with two lives as the stake.  Defense Attorney Sparks paced up and down in front of the jury for two hours using all the oratorical effects he could summon to the aid of his client.  He claimed much of the feeling against the woman had been stirred up because she was stepmother to little Roy.

“Stepmothers,” he said, “don’t get much credit for the good they do, but I had a stepmother and she was a wonderful woman.  This woman, Mrs. Rickey, is a stepmother too.  I believe a stepmother is capable of caring for a boy with the love of a real mother, and I believe Mrs. Rickey did just that.”

The poor boy’s horrible end didn’t seem to uphold this statement and there were some quiet smiles.

In closing his case Sparks called attention to the feelings of hatred for his client that existed throughout the county.  “Do not heed the mob spirit,” he pleaded to the jury, “for they are seeking the conviction of Mrs. Rickey just to avenge the unfortunate death of little Roy.”

Clever as it was, the defense attorney’s oratory went for naught.  The jury brought in a verdict of guilty against Mrs. Eliza Rickey and sentenced her to life imprisonment.  The death penalty which the prosecution had hoped for was thus passed over, doubtless because of Jim Andy Day’s failure on the witness stand to substantiate his original story.

County Attorney McGill then asked the Court to completely exonerate the dead boy’s father, Clyde, of any connection with the crime, as he had no knowledge of it.  The innocent husband of a faithless wife was then discharged.

A day later Jim Andy Day went on trial for his life on a charge of murder.   Just as it was about to proceed in Judge Wolford’s court, the prisoner whispered to Attorney Albert J. Counts who had been appointed to defend him.

Lawyer Counts asked for a brief recess to consult with his client and when he returned to court he asked the prosecutors if they would agree to the same sentence for Jim Andy Day that Mrs. Rickey had received, if his client pleaded guilty.  The prosecution agreed and Day was also sentenced to prison for life.

That same day, the convicted pair left the ancient Carter County courthouse to begin serving their sentence in the State Penitentiary.  Day appeared to accept his fate nonchalantly, but Mrs. Rickey was just as defiant as ever and her eyes flashed scorn as she gazed on the crowd lining the pavement to watch the prisoners taken away.

Four years later a terrible punishment came to this black-eyed and unbelievably cruel woman who had choked her step-son to death.  The glossy black hair had by that time turned snow white, and one morning, wild-eyed, she was taken to the Eastern Kentucky Hospital for the Insane.   She had become a raving maniac, tearing out half of her hair and slashing her abdomen with a piece of broken mirror, in an attempt to take her own life.