Newlin, Wm - murder Frank McClure - Putnam

Greencastle, May 26 – A Putnam County jury convicted 52-year-old Crawfordsville truck driver of first degree murder yesterday in the three-year-old slaying of his housekeeper’s father. Frank S. McClure was found guilty of the murder of William Newlin, 72, a Crawfordsville odd-jobs man. The jury, which deliberated one hour and 12 minutes recommended life imprisonment. McClure will be sentenced Monday in Putnam Circuit Court here.  Newlin’s body was found in a creek near Crawfordsville in 1947 and the case first was called an accidental death. Sheriff Roy Hardaker reopened the investigation. Newlin’s daughter, Mrs. Margaret Edwards of Crawfordsville told Hardaker that McClure informed her he killed her father and tried to implicate another man. A Montgomery County grand jury indicted McClure last October and the case was brought here this spring on a change of venue. - kbz

Source: Unknown newspaper article (this typed from the article cut-out of the paper) and unknown date – “By the Associated Press – title – “Prisoner freed, state must prove slaying”

Greencastle, Ind – June 20 – Frank McClure, 53-year-old Crawfordsville trucker, has another murder trial coming if the state can prove that William Newlin was actually slain. Circuit Judge John H. Allee ordered McClure returned here from the State Prison where he has served 13 months of a life term for first-degree murder. He was convicted in the death of Newlin, whose body was found in a Crawfordsville Creek April 6, 1947 (so must be a June 20 or 21st probably Indianapolis 1948 or 1949 newspaper).  In his decision yesterday. Judge Allee ruled the state had not proved that Newlin’s death was a slaying.  In McClure’s trial here, the prosecution submitted a statement in which Newlin’s daughter, Mrs. Mary Edwards was quoted as saying McClure told her he had killed Newlin.  However, both McClure and Mrs. Edwards once his common law wife, denied that on the witness stand. Beecher Young, now prosecutor at Crawfordsville said he’ll study the trial evidence before he decides whether McClure shall be tried again.

Source: Lafayette Journal and Courier 25 Oct 1949 Tue p 12

Crawfordsville, Oct 24 – Frank McClure, 51 was indicted on two counts today by the Montgomery County grand jury in the 30-month-old slaying of William Newlin.  Newlin, 70-year-old trash hauler, was robbed, beaten and thrown in Dry Branch Creek at the south edge of Crawfordsville, April 5, 1947. The grand jury charged McClure with first degree murder and with murder during the commission of a robbery.  He had been held in jail here since Sept 7 when he was arrested at the end of a penal farm sentence for drunken driving.  Harry Stonebreaker, who had been held along with McClure, was not indicted and officials said he would be released.  One of the grand jury witnesses was the dead man’s daughter, Mary Newlin, she had been housekeeper for McClure.