KENTUCKY: Seven Bullets

In November of last year Kentucky was shocked when one of its most prominent citizens got into serious trouble. Brigadier General Henry H. Denhardt, strapping 60-year-old War veteran distinguished for valor, was co-publisher of the Bowling Green Times-Journal, had been an able lieutenant-governor of the State. Divorced in 1933, he courted a comely widow named Verna Garr Taylor. One night Mrs. Taylor was found shot to death on a dark road, with the general and his automobile nearby. The pistol which had killed her was the general’s and the coroner found traces of gunpowder on his hands. Nevertheless, General Denhardt claimed that Mrs. Taylor had committed suicide (TIME, Nov. 23 et seq.).

In April, General Denhardt was tried for murder. The jury disagreed. The dead woman had three brothers who muttered, but kept their own counsel.

This week Kentucky was shocked again and General Denhardt’s troubles were over forever. Free on $25,000 bail, on the eve of a second trial, he was walking with an attorney on a dark street in Shelbyville. Three men got out of a car, fired a fusillade of shots. Seven bullets struck Denhardt, and he died almost instantly. Within a quarter hour the sheriff had taken Mrs. Taylor’s three brothers—Jack, Roy and E. S. Garr—into custody.