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The Goat Castle Murder
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Author:
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Callon, Sim C.
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Set In . . .
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North America, USA, Natchez, Mississippi
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Genre:
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Other
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Time Frame:
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None
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Published:
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Description:
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When eccentric, wealthy recluse Jennie Merrill was murdered in her Natchez manor in 1932, suspicion immediately fell upon her neighbors, the even more eccentric Richard "Dick" Dana and Octavia Dockery. Dana and Dockery lived next door to Ms. Merrill in Glenwood, a once-opulent mansion fallen into extreme disrepair. Once members of the Natchez aristocracy, Dana and Dockery had suffered a long, slow slide into abject poverty. At the time of the murder, they were barely supporting themselves by raising goats, chickens, cows, and pigs, all of which were allowed to roam freely through the deteriorating mansion. Their behavior was regarded as bizarre by the genteel folk of Natchez long before the time of the murder. Dockery, in fact, had had her own housemate, Dana, declared legally insane. Bitter blood developed between the neighbors when the goats began wandering onto Ms. Merrill's property, and Ms. Merrill responded by shooting them. When Ms. Merrill's bullet-riddled body was found in a thicket behind her home, the police headed for Glenwood. The utter squalor confronting them was more bizarre than any could have imagined. The huge, filthy mansion was overrun with livestock, its entire interior covered with dust, fleas, and animal droppings. Wallpaper peeled in sheets from the crumbling walls, framed pictures lay shattered on the floor, and banisters and balustrades hung at crazy angles. Goats had eaten an entire library of leather-bound volumes once perused by Robert E. Lee. The floors were strewn with piles of garbage, and the and the draperies were chewed as far up as the animals could reach. Dockery had been smoking goat meat in the fireplace in her bedroom; long strips of it were stretched over rusty bedsprings to "cure." The Natchez Democrat dubbed the foul mansion "Goat Castle," adding that the strangest thing about the place was that the goats could stand it.
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