Virgil Decker

I began reading a book about old Indiana cases called “Murders That Made Headlines” by Jane Simon Ammeson. The book is full of cases from the 1920's and before that happened in Indiana. I have not read every story but I did skim it to see what the cases were and added them to my list to research. In fact, I sat down all day yesterday researching a case and putting it together only to realize when I went to publish it that I had already done it in the past! I have double checked the others now :)

When you search about this case you are given the impression that an entire family is involved. Four people from one family were arrested for this crime but in the end it appears that only one was convicted. I say “appears” because when you are looking up old cases, such as this one, I often find some conflicting evidence. Cases like these often prove difficult to research because things that are actually rumors or legends within the story often are passed down as fact and it is difficult to determine which of those things are true and which are not.

On the night of March 12, 1921 a train was on the tracks near the unincorporated town of Atwood Indiana, near Warsaw Indiana. Basically what that means is that the “town” does not have a local government and today, more than 100 years later they are described as “existing by tradition.” In order to be an official town there must be a post office. Yes, I know that sounds odd but that is how it works. There are many of these little places all over, particularly in the northern part of the state where there is a lot of farmland. Also, many areas were named prior to this “rule” and the names have just kind of “stuck.” That being said, in 1921 the town was considered to be Atwood. As the train was on the tracks the conductor saw a horseless buggy on the tracks but it was too late for him to stop.

Eventually the train did stop but not before it hit and ran over the buggy. While the buggy was not little more than kindling, between the tracks laid a young man, unconscious but alive. He was taken to the nearby town of Bourbon presumably for medical care. It was said that he never spoke and he died just a few hours later. Several things at the scene, and the condition of the body, led law enforcement pretty early to determine this was not an accident.

First, it was discovered that the victim appeared to have been tortured. His lower jaw was broken and there were marks on his neck that indicated there was an attempt to strangle him. It was also said that “escelsior” was stuffed in his mouth. I had never heard of this and as long as the definition I found is correct, it was said to be “softwood” or softwood shavings. The victims clothes were wet and he was covered in sand.

Near the tracks was an abandoned Ford vehicle. At the time it was unclear if this vehicle had anything to do with the crime. Then there were horse tracks. It was said that the shoe of the horse was very distinctive. Law enforcement officials followed the horse tracks that led away from the crossing and it went to a farm owned by Fred Decker. In fact the horse was in the Decker barn. The horse had a harness on it still but it appeared as if it had been cut by a knife.

From the information I gathered, Fred Decker lived on the farm with his wife and at least his eighteen year old brother, Virgil lived with them. It is not clear whether law enforcement attempt to speak with anyone at the farm that night. I got the impression that this crime happened at night but I could not find anything that gave me any sort of time and it was later said that Fred and his wife had been out of town until about ten that night and that had been verified. It was said that in the “coach pocket” was a letter that “identified the victim as Virgil Decker.” I too this to mean as being part of the buggy that the train had destroyed and not necessarily on the victim himself.

The following day, on March 13^th Fred Decker, along with his mother Calvin “Cal” and their mother, Lydia identified the body as that of Virgil Decker. However, the next day an Elkhart couple arrived and viewed the body and said it was their son, nineteen year old Leroy Lovett. According to the parents Leroy was a friend of Virgil Decker's and that two nights previously Virgil had picked up Leroy in a vehicle and was supposed to take him to visit Leroy's sister but he had never arrived.

Law enforcement learned quickly that both Virgil Decker and Leroy Lovett looked very similar to each other so they were not sure what to think. The Decker family insisted they did not know where Virgil was at the time so the local sheriff believed he needed to be looking for another person. What he did not know was whether he would find another body or a live person. It was said “up to the hour of the inquest both families continued to claim the body.” On March 15^th the coroner positively identified the body as being that of Leroy Lovett and the Decker family withdrew their claim. At that point there was a warrant issued for Virgil's arrest charging him with first degree murder.

It is unclear at what point the sheriff discovered what he believed to be the primary crime scene. I cannot say if this was before or after the body was positively identified. There was a “summer cottage” along the Tippecanoe River about a mile south of the railroad tracks. It had been empty since the previous fall. Inside there were broken windows and cupboards. Furniture was overturned but most importantly there was blood apparently everywhere. Some was just blood splatter but it was said that there were bloody hand prints on the door both inside and out. There was also an indication that someone had at some point crawled from the river back to the cottage.

On March 16^th “word came that Virgil had been arrested” and was being held at the jail in Marion Indiana. The local sheriff went there and brought him back to Warsaw that day. Initially Virgil claimed innocence. He said that on the 12^th he had been doing work on the farm. Apparently several people witnessed him several times in town throughout the day also. It appears that no one seemed to find anything odd with him, but to be fair I cannot say that with complete certainty. According to Virgil he left on the evening of the 12^th and went to Marion to visit an uncle.

It was discovered that within three months leading up to Leroy's murder that Virgil had obtained three life insurance policies on himself that totaled $24,000. Two of those policies paid double if he were to die accidentally. The policies cost $500 a year for the premiums and Virgil's brother, Fred, was the beneficiary on all of them. The theory became that Virgil had tortured and later set up Leroy to be murdered because he looked so similar to himself that people would believe it was him and his family, and ultimately he, could cash in on the policies.

Then it seems that Virgil began making a series of confessions. In the first two he alleged that another man from Elkhart, only using the name “Guy,” was the killer of Leroy. In his third confession he admitted that he was the murderer but could not give a reason with only saying “The devil made me do it.” He admitted that he had rented the abandoned car that was found, this was proven by a man who identified Virgil as the person to rent the auto only under a different name, and said that Leroy had decided not to visit his sister and it had been suggested they go to the “cottage” and “cook some chicken.” Still in a fourth confession Virgil named a family friend as the murderer but that man was proven to be innocent of the crime.

The case was sent to a grand jury and five days later they returned indictments of first degree murder not just against Virgil but also against his two brothers, Fred and Cal, and his mother, Lydia. Presumably the other indictments were due to the fact that the grand jury must have believed that the family was in on the murder to procure the insurance policies Virgil had taken out. Virgil requested that his trial be separate from the others and that request was granted. His trial began on June 1, 1921, less than three months after the crime. Prosecutors brought in pieces of things from the cottage showing the blood and evidence that had been found there. They also alleged that the “death weapon” was an iron bar that was about 2.5 feet long. Whether they produced that weapon is unknown. They also of course pushed the issue about the insurance policies but interestingly enough, despite the fact that there were others awaiting trial for the murder it was said that the prosecution claimed that Virgil, and Virgil alone committed the crime.

As far as the defense goes, they proved that it was the insurance agents that had approached Virgil and not the other way around indicating that at the very least there had not been a plan in place to fake his death or at least prior to obtaining the policies. Of course that does not mean that after getting them the idea had not come to him. They also pointed out that while Fred was listed as the beneficiary on all the policies he not only did not appear to have money problems, hence needing the money, but his father-in-law was apparently fairly wealthy himself so if Fred needed money he could have gone to him. The defense also argued that Virgil was well known in the Marion Indiana area and it would have made no sense for him to “run” there to hide if he had committed the crime. As we know he was found rather quickly after the warrant for his arrest was issued. The defense also provided two witnesses who stated they saw a “stranger” near the cottage and farm on the night of the crime. It appears that between this and the fact that it was allegedly proven that Virgil had been seen in town several times throughout the day the defense was banking on the idea of reasonable doubt.

On June 10, 1921, after three hours of deliberations the jury returned with a verdict of guilty. The prosecution had asked for the death penalty but the jury had recommended a life sentence. It is unclear how much of his sentence he served but according to Findagrave.com his name was actually James Virgil and he died in 1984 at the age of eighty-two. It also claims that he was married to a woman named Elizabeth who died in 1974. There were no children listed but then again that is not unusual whether there were children or not.

This is where it gets a little confusing. My initial information said that four days after Virgil's conviction Fred and Cal were released on bond and that Lydia was held not responsible and was released, with all charges dropped. It went on to say that Fred was tried for the murder in Columbia City at some point but was found not guilty and that Cal was never tried. However, according to a genealogy site that allegedly quoted The Elkhart Truth from January of 1922, Lydia had also been tried and given a life sentence but had been released on her “own recognizance” only to have the charges dropped later. This seems rather odd that she would have been convicted and given a life sentence only to be released and charges dropped. I feel as if this was likely misquoted or had misinformation and that it is more likely that charges were dropped before she ever went to trial. Lydia died in 1938 and I can say that at that time it appears that Virgil was still in prison in Michigan City.

There was one report that allegedly Virgil had placed his own overalls on Leroy's body and that may account for the letter that was found that initially had law enforcement believing that it was he who had died, but I cannot confirm this. I do agree that all of the evidence pointed to Virgil. There was the fact that a car that he was known to rent had been abandoned nearby, the horse that had presumably pulled the buggy to the tracks was found in the barn of the home he lived, and it was known that he had picked Leroy Lovett up at his home. It is less certain as to whether his family was in on it. It does seem that there was enough belief that they were involved because while doing a search you will find things that indicate they were all involved. Theoretically, the insurance policies could have been obtained, making Fred the beneficiary without anyone's knowledge of any sort of plan, but they would have had to eventually been in on it. It does not mean that when they identified the body as belonging to Virgil they were being deceptive. There is no way of knowing whether they would have known at that point that Virgil was still alive. I suspect that the prosecutor knew this too and after Fred was acquitted at trial he knew there would be no way to convict the others. Fred would have been the next best shot at a conviction. He lived at the home with Virgil, he owned the farm in which the horse had come from, he lived near the scene and he was the beneficiary on the life insurance policies. Failing to obtain a conviction there pretty much ensured the others would go free.