Harold Tracy, aka Harold Thomas Tracy, akaJan Thomas, a prime suspect
in the murder of Clara M. Smith in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts in 1940,
walked out a free man after the state was unable to make a case
against him in the spring of 1946. He had served several prison and
jail terms for robbery and unlawful flight in Pennsylvania, Barnstable
and Kentucky. After 1946 he disappears. Is there an obituary or some
other source of information that explains what he did with the rest of
his life?

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Request for Question Clarification by luciaphile-ga on 16 Apr 2003 16:05 PDT

Hi mccook-ga,

While a genealogist may be of assistance, it's equally possible that a
researcher here can provide you with an answer. Can you give us any
more details than you already have? Anything would be helpful (e.g.
Tracy's approximate age at the time of the murder, unusual
circumstances, names of other parties involved, etc.) Where you've
already looked, etc.

Regards,
luciaphile-ga

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Clarification of Question by mccook-ga on 16 Apr 2003 19:27 PDT

Hello, luciaphile-ga.  I am writing a magazine story about the 1940
murder in Oak Bluffs, and almost all of what I know about it and the
people involved comes from newspapers on Martha's Vineyard, as well as
the Boston Globe, Boston Post, and New Bedford Standard-Times.  Tracy
was 35 when the murder was committed in 1940.  He had served time in
the federal penitentiary in Pendleton, Indiana for a robbery committed
in Hammond, Indiana in 1933. He also served time in the Lewisberg,
Pennsylvania prison from 1943 to 1946 for unlawful flight across state
lines after a jewelry store robbery in Owensboro, Kentucky.  He also
served a year in the Barnstable House of Correction in Massachusetts
on a concealed weapons charge before escaping in 1941.  After his
acquittal in Edgartown, Massachusetts on the murder charge in 1946 --
six years after the crime, the state no longer had enough evidence to
prosecute -- Tracy vanishes.  There is no record on Martha's Vineyard
of his whereabouts; he surely never returns after facing -- and
evading -- capital charges there. What little is known about him on
the Vineyard simply comes to an end after he walks away a free man. I
am deeply curious to know what happened to him -- and to the man
wrongly accused of the murder, Ralph Huntingdon Rice, who is acquitted
in Edgartown in 1941, and who also disappears from the known world
afterward. Thanks for your interest and help. mccook-ga.

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Clarification of Question by mccook-ga on 19 Apr 2003 15:37 PDT

luciafile-ga: Thanks so much for your intensive labors! I am new to
this service, and in my brief tour of several categories, I see how
assiduous and talented you are.  Just some further information for the
record:  The photographs at the University of Iowa library are
certainly of the R. H. Rice I am writing about, though the pictures
were taken some thirty years before the events I am covering. 
Phidelah Rice, shown in other pictures at the same site, is definitely
his brother.  The court transcript from the only trial held in the
case says that Rice was 53 in 1940 and Tracy, the putative killer, was
35.  The story is very strong even without knowing what happened to
these men, but I am most grateful to you for your hard work.  I'll
definitely post new questions of this kind when they come up.

Thanks again,
mccook-ga

4-16-2003

You need the assistance of a genealogist in the Oak Bluffs,
Massachusetts area to help you with research on this case.  Most
likely there is a newspaper article about his status or a check could
be done with correctional facilities in Illinois or Pennsylvania and
Kentucky or through police department databases.

Visit the www.rootsweb.com site, click on the MESSAGE BOARDS box, then
enter the phrase "DUKES COUNTY" in the "FIND A MESSAGE BOARD" box, and
you will see a page of results come up, and #2 shows
BOARDS-LOCALITIES--ETC.--MASSACHUSETTS--DUKES COUNTY in blue
lettering--click on the lettering and you can then post a message on
the Dukes County Message Board so that someone can assist you in doing
the research on this.

SINCERELY,
4keith-ga

Hi mccook-ga,

Unfortunately, I've had less luck than I'd hoped. I did find a handful
of NY Times articles that mentioned a few details, but only for the
year of the murder itself, 1940.

"Woman Beaten to Death." New York Times, July 1, 1940, 14:1.
"New York Teacher Accused of Murder." New York Times, July 9, 1940,
15:5.
"Rice Accused of Murder." New York Times, July 19, 1940, 36:3.
"Date for Rice Trial Set." New York Times, September 11, 1940, 15:8.
"Rice Acquitted of Murder." New York Times, October 10, 1940, 27:6.

Got absolutely nowhere on Tracy. Rice, however, I have a couple of
ideas for. The NY Times indicates that he was 54 at the time of the
murder. It's possible he is included in the Social Security Death
Index (although teachers were initially not required to participate in
social security and he may not have ever received benefits). If you
haven't already done so, you might want to check out:

Family Search
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

My other thought is that one of the articles indicates he was related
to the owner of the Rice Playhouse in Oak Bluffs which from what I did
turn up seemed to still be around into the 1950s. Might there not be
some leads there?

There is also the Vineyard Gazette. According to their site, they do
have a librarian who will assist in research.

Our Library/Vineyard Gazette
http://www.mvgazette.com/about/our_library/

Lastly, this is an extremely slim thing as I don't know too much about
Ralph, other than that he seems to have taught elocution, but there's
a photo and a PDF file of a Ralph H. Rice dated 1913.

Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century
http://lcweb4.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/tccc:@field(AUTHOR+@od1

Ralph H. Rice, Baritone and 'Cellist
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/chau1/pdf/ricer/1/brochure.pdf(Rice,+Ralph+H+))

Could this be your Ralph H. Rice?

Anyhow, I wish you luck with the article. It sounds fascinating. This
is my favorite type of question to research and I only wish I could
have answered it for you!

Regards,
luciaphile-ga