Menu
The year they canceled Halloween
In 1973, there were two events in McCook that shook up the citizens of McCook to their very core. In the spring there was the bizarre death of an 80-year-old woman in her own home. In September was the mysterious disappearance of Ed Hoyt and his wife. Foul play was suspected in both cases. As Halloween day approached the murderer or murderers involved in these two events had not been apprehended, and folks were afraid. Rumors were rampant. There was talk that "Devil Worship-pers" were responsible for the deaths. City officials urged that Halloween parties be scheduled in private homes and churches, and asked that children should not be out alone and that door-to-door "trick or treating" be abolished. The public complied.
On April 25, 1973, a woman in the 900 block of West First Street reported a fire at the home of her neighbor, Miss Ida Fitzgibbons. When firemen arrived they found a hole had burned through the floor between the living room and the dining room. Miss Fitzgibbons' body was lying beside the hole. She had been stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife and "ligature of electric wire" was coiled around her neck. Her ankle was broken. County Attorney Clyde Star-rett said that Miss Fitzgib-bon's death was an apparent murder, but he appointed Dr. John Batty as his coroner's physician and convened a coroner's jury for an inquest to determine whether or not a crime had officially been committed.
After a month of deliberations, the jury twice deadlocked 3-3 on whether a crime had been committed. At that point Starrett dismissed the jury and turned the case over to the State Attorney Gen-eral's office to decide on the next procedure.
McCook Police Chief, Bill Green, a former FBI Investigator with 25 years experience, issued a terse summary of his investigation of the case on May 29. The report acknowledged that the death had been violent, but listed the reasons why his department concluded that the death was a suicide. Among these reasons were:
1. All doors and windows were locked when firemen arrived. 2. Miss Fitzgibbons herself apparently inflicted the knife wound in her chest. 3. The electric wire was wound around her neck toward the front, like a scarf, so could not have caused death. 4. Her broken ankle could have been caused by a falling colonnade or a fireman tripping over the body. 5. Her hair was neatly done; her eyeglasses were in place -- both indicating that a struggle had not occurred. 6. The deceased could have been despondent over loss of a brother and sister, the prospects of caring for an ailing sister, and disposal of house if she moved. 7. Few if any of the people the police contacted knew the deceased well, inferring that Miss Fitzgibbons had few friends.
(In December, 1973 the Nebraska State Patrol, after their own investigation, concluded that the McCook police were correct in their finding of "suicide.")
When the news first came out that Miss Fitzgibbons' death was to be ruled a suicide people were visibly upset. "Impossible!" said her friends in the 900 block. And, far from no one knowing the deceased well, it would seem, from comments made, that Miss Fitzgibbon had been one of the most popular citizens of McCook.
An Oklahoma pathologist who had been consulted, issued the statement, "Never in my wildest imagination!" Ordinary folks went from being credulous over the report, to questioning the whole procedure and wondering as to the reasoning that caused the McCook Police Department to reach their conclusions.
In March, 1978 Mike Freeman became the Red Willow County Attorney. He made the coroner's report public, and it became quite apparent why the coroner's jury had not been able to reach agreement. Among some of the problems revealed were: 1. The pathologist from North Platte changed his mind, first calling the death homicide and later having second thoughts. 2. The report came from the State Lab labeled, "Hom-icide, Ida Fitzgibbons." 3. A Catholic Priest had been described by the police as "looking at the body … turned on his heels and walked out … no prayers or anything." This priest later disputed the statement and said that he did offer prayers over the body and he not feel that the death was suicide. 4. A State Patrolman, William Tumblin, and a Deputy Sheriff, Don Haegan, contended that the probe into the death was unsatisfactory, though Red Willow County Jim Short agreed with the McCook Police. (Trooper Tumblin lost his job with the State Patrol, largely because of his stand on the Fitzgibbons investigations.
In the years that followed, Tumblin became a crusader to create legislation that would create a medical examiner system in Nebraska. Referring to the Fitzgibbons case in a statement to the Omaha World Herald he said, "I'd like to be able to forget the whole thing. I can't. I can't forget it. It's happened. It's changed my life profoundly.")
Five years later, in May, 1978 a Nebraska Legislative Committee, chaired by John DeCamp, issued a report on the Fitzgibbon case, branding the investigation by local and state agencies as inadequate, and raised the possibility of a cover-up.
This report was vigorously criticized by then Police Chief Brunswick and then Mayor Don Blank, and caused former Police Chief Bill Green to sue John DeCamp, all the other senators on the committee, and Committee Attorney Red-man, for violating Green's constitutional rights of due process, and asked that the committee be enjoined from making further "unfounded and malicious conclusions and accusations" about Green.
In February 1979, District. Judge Urbom rejected Green's suit.
The nature of the Fitzgibbons case provoked considerable interest in the Nebraska Unicameral. Bills were introduced on two occasions, which would authorize the employment of a state examiner and four district medical examiners who could investigate to determine the cause of almost any death not attended by a physician. The two bills died because of the cost involved and a general lack of interest.
Debate on the Fitzgibbons death continued for years, "Was it suicide? Was it murder?" The official ruling has remained "suicide," but many people familiar with the case are not so sure.
While people in McCook took Miss Fitzgibbons' death and the subsequent investigations seriously that was not necessarily the case with people outside our area. Our problems settling the matter even garnered national attention. Paul Harvey, on one of his newscasts referred to the questions arising from the investigations, ending, "It is easy to see why the authorities had difficulties settling the case. The Police Chief was Green. The Sheriff was Short. The coroner's physician was Batty, and the Mayor was Blank."