Casper Tribune-Herald, 1934
Evidence piles up -- Throughout the week of June 15, excited headlines screamed of the presumed solution to the previous week's top story. "MRS. COMBS ARRESTED
"WIDOW FACES FIRST DEGREE MURDER CHARGE
"In a startling climax to investigation into the murder of S. S. Combs, his widow, Mrs. Hazel Combs, was placed under arrest. ... A warrant charging the first degree murder of the former (Casper) city attorney was served on the slight, steel-nerved woman. ...
"(Combs) had been shot five times at such close range that powder burns were left by some of the shots. ...
"Prisoner Visibly Shaken When Shown Weapon
"To the rear of the (Combs) cabin, about 50 feet distant, is the outhouse where an important discovery was made. Beneath fresh wood ashes ... was found the revolver with which, the officers said, the murder was committed. It contained six empty shells. ...
"MURDER WEAPON IDENTIFIED
"EXPERT LINKS REVOLVER WITH BULLETS FOUND
"Insurance Collection Is Held Motive
"... Mr. Combs was husband No. 4. ... He was an attorney who represented her in divorce proceedings against husband number 3. ... Harley Atwood, the second husband of Mrs. Combs, died ... from asphyxiation by gas, when a coffee pot boiled over on a gas stove in the room where he lay asleep on a couch
Monday, June 15, 2009
Followup to the Combs murder, discussed below
The CST's history column follows up on the murder of attorney Combs.
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2 comments:
Sewell Stanley Combs was one of 10 children, the oldest. He was from Hazard, Perry County, Ky. which is obviously a good distance from Casper. He and his brother, Arthur, moved from Hazard, along with their sister, Mae, upon contracting Tuberculosis in the early 1900's. Sewell was a decorated WWI vet. graduated from U of Ky. law school in 1916 before going off to war. His brother, Patrick Henry Combs, fought along side him in Europe and was also well-decorated. Arthur was much younger and would go on to attain an engineering degree at U of Wyoming. I have a boat load of pictures from that bygone era. Sewell Combs had been a mystery to me until traveling out west to do some research. Arthur was my grandfather. Mae died in 1996 at the age of 98. She had five husbands, all of whom died of tuberculosis. Arthur died in 1984. I was seven years old. Nobody ever talked about Sewell. But Arthur did have a stillborn son, whom he named Sewell Stanley Combs, in 1940. The other two Combs Siblings moved back to Hazard, Ky. after Sewell's death. The two sons of hazel combs and Sewell Combs ended up hanging themselves in a tree in front of my grandfathers house some time later.
Wendell Combs,
Danville, Ky.
Wow, thanks for coming in and posting. What a fascinating, and tragic, family history.
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