Deadly Hero: The High Society Murder that Created Hysteria in the Heartland by Jason Lucky Morrow Page B

happen. One hour before the murder, Kennamer told
friends he was going to kill Gorrell, and then afterward, he not only told a friend
he’d done it, he offered to show him the body.
    Jack Snedden, Virginia’s boyfriend and the son of
a recently deceased oil millionaire, was a primary target of Phil’s boasting.
Warping Snedden into his conspiracy was necessary because someone close to Virginia
would have to tell her what a hero he was. Like her brother, Snedden told
Virginia about the alleged plot. On November 20, Kennamer asked the nineteen-year-old
to drive him to the Spartan Airport so he could catch a Braniff Airways flight
to Kansas City to confront Gorrell.
    “He said he was going up there to see if Gorrell
was going through with the extortion plot and, if he was, he was going to kill
him,” Snedden told police and reporters that first week. “He said Gorrell had a
gang up at Kansas City that was planning to kidnap Virginia Wilcox. That he
would be back the next day and asked me to be at the airport at three o’clock
to bring him in to town.”
    When Snedden returned to the airport on November 21
to pick up Kennamer, he learned no planes were flying that day because of bad
weather. Later that afternoon, he got a telegram from Kennamer which was sent to
the Owl Tavern, addressed to him.
    “Grounded in Kansas
City. Keep your mouth shut.”—K
    Huff was telling the truth when he said Kennamer
sent a telegram from the airport. And why would Jack Snedden have to keep his
mouth shut?
    When more witnesses came forward that first week
of the investigation, all Kennamer’s movements and nearly every word he said Thanksgiving
night were documented by detectives. When they were done piecing it all
together, Kennamer had cooked his own goose. A timeline of how the murder began
and ended on Thanksgiving night was constructed by detectives and given to
reporters during the week after the murder.
    At approximately 7:30 that Thanksgiving night,
Judge Kennamer gave his son a ride to the Crawford Drug Store, across from St.
John’s Hospital, where Phil ran inside and bought his father some cigars and a
magazine. When he returned to the car, Judge Kennamer claimed he asked his son
to come home because the weather was bad. Phil begged off and said he’d be home
between 12:30 and 1:00 a.m. After his father left, John arrived, [12] and the two made
plans to meet up later at eleven o’clock. Gorrell then walked across the street
to pick up his date at the hospital and returned home to pick up Charlie.
    Kennamer was next seen at the Owl Tavern a little
after 10:00 p.m., where he met up with Snedden, Randall “Beebe” Morton, and
George Reynolds. Morton and Reynolds were also the sons of oil millionaires.
    “That afternoon, he called me and told me to meet him
down there [later that night],” Snedden told police. “He called me in the back
and pulled open his coat and showed me a hunting knife. He said he had a date
with Gorrell at eleven o’clock. Beebe Morton took the knife off of Phil; it was
in a scabbard. I asked him if he was going out there to kill Gorrell and he
said ‘yes,’ then I talked to him about his mother and the Gorrells and the
trouble it would cause and he put his hands in his pocket and started
whistling.
    “I left him talking to Beebe Morton. He turned and
went out the front door and yelled back that he would be back in five minutes.
I waited there, [but] he never did come back. I imagine it was around 10:30 or
quarter to 11 when he left.”
    Kennamer then walked to the Quaker Drug Store, two
doors east of the Owl Tavern, where he ran into his close friend and confidant,
Sidney Born Jr. The Owl Tavern, Quaker Drug Store, and Sunset Café were
clustered together on 18 th Street and were the main hangouts for the
children of Tulsa’s elite. They referred to it as the “Jelly Bean Center,” and
it was where they often congregated before and after dances or movies. Born was
the president of the Hy-Hat