Bank Robbery Gone Wrong
The Kitterman murders, Grandin, MO.
When I was twelve our family moved to the quiet little town of Doniphan Mo. Nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks and flanked by the Mark Twain National forest and the Current river, it was a page straight out of Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. The towns main street ended in a circle where the County Courthouse and jail were located. I used to wander town with my friends in the summer stopping by the courthouse where the old men gathered to play checkers on picnic tables under the shade trees.
It was the center of a quiet if not somewhat nostalgic painting of the old south. However that all changed on January 17, 1973 when the nearby community of Grandin MO. was rocked to its foundation by the murder of the local banker Robert Kitterman, his wife and their oldest daughter. What I remember personally has little to do with the story. The closest I came to the whole affair was delivering newspapers to the FBI officers who were staying at the motel. Beyond that I read what was reported and followed the case as it unfolded.
First reports started the night the Kitterman family disappeared. Bank employees had contacted authority's as soon as Mr. Kitterman left the bank carrying a bag containing $11,000. He had told an employee his wife and daughter had been taken, and that he was wearing a bomb the abductors had placed on him. An apparent bank extortion which immediately brought the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the case. Immediately both the Carter County and Ripley county sheriffs offices and the FBI were on the case. The homicide scene and bodies were located about 3:15 pm that afternoon. In a location just across the county line in Ripley county, kneeling tied to trees in the nearby National forest, where they each had been executed. The daughter Roberta, had been shot once in the head her parents had both been shot in their left temples.
In the nearby community of Grandin with its population of 243 almost everyone knew at least one of the victims, if not the entire family. The small town that had once been known for its lumber yards, now had a far more sinister reputation. Doors that had never been locked suddenly were checked and locked before bed at night. While conversations throughout the town turned to the triple murder.
At about 9:30 am Thursday two spent .32 cal auto shell casing were found by Sheriff Buford Westbrook of Carter County. He was quoted as saying, “boy's, I've had six murder cases before, but this is the worst”." Robert his wife Bertha, and their 17 year old daughter Roberta, a triple homicide. By days end the evidence collected was sparse. A .32-Cal. slug had been found earlier at the scene. The slug, the shell casing and a tire track were the only clues police had so far.
At 10:58 am Saturday authorities found what they believed was the murder weapon, a .32-cal. Automatic pistol beneath a pair of gloves in a wooded area about six miles Southeast of the place where the Kitterman bodies were found. A further search of the surrounding area produced the fake bomb that had been strapped to Kittermans chest, a bank bag with the words”please return to the Bank of Grandin” on it. As well as a major surprise, a pillow case containing the $11,000. All of the recovered items were found scattered through a wooded area on either side of Highway 21 near the junction of Ripley County road NN. Nearby about 50 yards away inside the forest a shelter made from car hoods was found. Later it was found that three men Dallas Delay 33, Lloyd Dwayne Cowin 20, and Jerry Wayne Rector 22 had taken turns staying there until late Friday. It is clear the trio were far from the worlds smartest criminals. They had taken turns watching their money.
All three men had already tallied lengthening records in local courts. But it was Dallas Delay that had been to the criminal college, the Missouri state penitentiary. Convicted on a charge that stemmed from an auto theft that was heard in Ripley County. Oddly, Robert Kitterman had served on that Jury.
On an anonymous tip received by Butler County Sheriff Clyde Hendrix, Cowin and Rector were arrested at 4 pm Friday in Popular Bluff at a garage operated by Donald Rogers. Authorities then waited nearby for Delay to appear. They arrested him at 8:20 pm outside the garage. All three men were charged and held without bail in at Butler County jail in Popular Bluff while they awaited trial in Doniphan MO on charges 1st degree murder. Interestingly enough there are several jurisdiction involved in this case. Federal because of the extortion/ abduction charge and federal murder charges. Carter county because this is where the abductions originated at. And Ripley County were the homicide scene was located.
Delays attorney argued for a change of venue because of the wide publicity the case had received. He also stated this in his appeal to the Missouri state appeals court. Nonetheless, the case was heard in Ripley County. Reporters and news crews from as far away as St. Louis swarmed into the sleepy southern community. The trial lasted about a week and ended with all three defendants charged with three life sentences each. (note I was thirteen and my mom wouldn't let me go to the trial)
While the killers have sat aging in the penitentiary the younger sisters of the Kitterman victims have grown up without a significant part of their family. Knowing the killers have given up their freedom is a shallow offering in the face of what this family lost.
