Maud Crawford
Encyclopedia
Maud Robinson Crawford was the first woman attorney in Camden
, Arkansas
; her disappearance and presumed death sparked attention for more than three decades. The case remains officially unsolved.
, east of Dallas
, Texas
, the oldest of four children of John W. "Jack" Robinson and the former Ida Louise Faucett. Because her mother died when Crawford was only nine years of age, she was reared in Warren
, the seat of Bradley County
in southern Arkansas, by her maternal grandmother, Mary Louise Faucett Ritchey, who operated a boarding house
with a second husband, Thomas Ritchey. Maud Crawford was the valedictorian
of her 1911 Warren High School graduating class. She then attended the University of Arkansas
in Fayetteville
for the 1911–1912 academic year.
In 1916, she began work as a stenographer at the Gaughan law firm in Camden, the seat of Ouachita County in south Arkansas. In 1925, she married Clyde Falwell Crawford (1894–1969), a scion of a pioneer Camden family. The couple had no children. In 1927, Crawford took the bar exam at the University of Arkansas School of Law
, having learned the principles of the law while she was employed in the Gaughan firm. She passed the exam and ranked first in the class. Crawford's expertise was estate management and title work, important to an area of considerable petroleum
drilling. Her admission to the bar occurred only ten years after women were first permitted to practice law in the state of Arkansas.
, a counterpart to Boys State
, which permits high schoolers to spend a week at the state capital in Little Rock
to learn the mechanics of state government. Crawford was elected president of each women's civic organization in Camden of which she was a member, including the Business and Professional Women's Foundation, the American Legion
Auxiliary, and Pilot Club International, sister organization of Rotary International
before Rotary admitted women. In 1954, the Pilot Club designated her "Camden Woman of the Year." In 1955, when Camden won an achievement award for "Outstanding Community Improvement," Crawford was named to go to Little Rock to speak and accept the honor on behalf of the community.
Crawford's law firm was later named Gaughan, McClellan and Laney. The McClellan in the firm was a then inactive partner, Democratic
U.S. Senator John L. McClellan, formerly of Camden.
to intimidate McClellan. No ransom note was ever delivered. No body was ever found. Police never solved the case.
The night that Crawford disappeared her husband went to the Malco Theater and thereafter a liquor store, a routine which he followed nearly every evening. At 8:30 p.m. Maud spoke by telephone with a cousin. When Clyde returned home about 11:30 p.m. the house was fully lighted inside and outside, and the television set in the living room was in operation. Maud's car was in the driveway with the keys. Her purse, with $142 in cash, was on a chair. Her Dalmatian
guard dog called "Dal" was patiently awaiting for Maud's return. When Maud did not return home by 1 a.m., Clyde drove around Camden to search for her. At 1 a.m. on March 3, he stopped two police officers to ask if there had been an automobile accident that might explain her absence. An hour later, he drove to the police station to report his wife missing. An extensive hunt for Crawford followed.
Two weeks after Maud's disappearance, The Camden News
reported that Police Chief G. B. Cole had declared the investigation "stalemated." The newspaper also quoted then Sheriff
Grover Linebarier (1899–1986) as having said, "We have not turned up a single clue." The Camden News declared the case "at a dead end."
Clyde Crawford continued to live in the house on Clifton Street. He died in 1969, the same year that the Ouachita County Probate Court declared his wife dead: "It is the finding of the Court that Maud R. Crawford is deceased and has been dead since March 2, 1957, as a result of foul play perpetrated by person or persons unknown."
, now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
, owned since 1991 by Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
, who was also reared in Camden and is the official publisher of The Camden News. The Arkansas Gazette series implicated Henry Myar "Mike" Berg (1909–1975), a wealthy Camden businessman and a former state police commissioner appointed by Governor Orval E. Faubus. Berg's widow, Helen Berg, threatened to sue the Arkansas Gazette over the series, which was nevertheless published over a five-month period. Mrs. Berg never brought forth the threatened suit.
The series revealed that a state police detective, Odis A. Henley (1919–2001), found evidence linking Mike Berg to Crawford's murder. Henley claimed that he was quickly removed from the case, and all of his files vanished from police headquarters. The Gazette series uncovered for the first time a financial motive for the murder of Crawford. A deed filed in the nearby Hempstead County Courthouse in Hope
, Arkansas, transferred timber assets belonging to Rose Newman Berg, Mike Berg's elderly aunt who had been declared incompetent in 1955 by the Ouachita County Court, to Hugh Moseley, a timber owner who worked for Mike Berg. A second deed with the same date transferred the identical timber holdings from Hugh Moseley to Mike Berg. Former Arkansas Attorney General
Jim Guy Tucker
(later a U.S. Representative
and then governor), considered the deeds "powerful evidence" that Mike Berg sought to defraud his aunt.
Henley claimed that Maud Crawford confronted Mike Berg over the timber assets. Crawford was Rose Berg's attorney and personal guardian. Maud drew up a will
for Rose Berg, who in 1957 was confined to a nursing home with what would now be called Alzheimer's disease
. Rose Berg wished to leave more than $20 million to three nieces who lived in other states, Jeannette Newman Simpson, Marian Newman Peltason (1908–1979) of Santa Barbara
, California
, and Lucille Newman Glazer. Mike Berg was not mentioned in his aunt's will. According to the nieces, Crawford had informed them before her death that she intended to bring a lawsuit against Mike Berg to expose the fraudulent deeds. Then, other timber deeds were found in the Ouachita County Courthouse that transferred additional assets over a period of years from Rose Berg to Mike Berg. One deed with a questionable signature of Rose Berg, conveyed to Mike Berg, large acreage of timber in fifteen counties, as well as properties in Camden and an estimated 150 active oil royalties. With the disappearance of Crawford, Rose Berg's will also vanished. Mike Berg ultimately secured all of his aunt's estate. Thereafter, he granted $187,000 to each of Rose Berg’s nieces in exchange for a relinquishment of all claims to their aunt’s estate.
The Arkansas Gazette articles led Bill McLean, the prosecuting attorney in El Dorado
, the seat of Union County in southern Arkansas, to reopen the case in 1986. McLean came to Ouachita County, against the wishes of then Sheriff Jack Dews, to interview Jack Dorris (1915–1986), who had been a Mike Berg bodyguard. Dorris, however, was dying of cancer and never revived long enough for McLean to question him.
Camden, Arkansas
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
; her disappearance and presumed death sparked attention for more than three decades. The case remains officially unsolved.
Background
Crawford was born in GreenvilleGreenville, Texas
Greenville is the county seat, and the largest city, of Hunt County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,557....
, east of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, the oldest of four children of John W. "Jack" Robinson and the former Ida Louise Faucett. Because her mother died when Crawford was only nine years of age, she was reared in Warren
Warren, Arkansas
Warren is a city in and the county seat of Bradley County, Arkansas, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated population in 2006 was 6,219....
, the seat of Bradley County
Bradley County, Arkansas
Bradley County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. The United States Census Bureau estimated the population to be 14,683 in 2006. The county seat is Warren. Bradley County is Arkansas's 43rd county, formed on December 18, 1840, and named for Captain Hugh Bradley, who fought in the...
in southern Arkansas, by her maternal grandmother, Mary Louise Faucett Ritchey, who operated a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
with a second husband, Thomas Ritchey. Maud Crawford was the valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
of her 1911 Warren High School graduating class. She then attended the University of Arkansas
University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...
in Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...
for the 1911–1912 academic year.
In 1916, she began work as a stenographer at the Gaughan law firm in Camden, the seat of Ouachita County in south Arkansas. In 1925, she married Clyde Falwell Crawford (1894–1969), a scion of a pioneer Camden family. The couple had no children. In 1927, Crawford took the bar exam at the University of Arkansas School of Law
University of Arkansas School of Law
The University of Arkansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a state university. It has around 445 students enrolled in its Juris Doctor and Master of Law programs and is home to the federally-funded National Agricultural Law Center and the...
, having learned the principles of the law while she was employed in the Gaughan firm. She passed the exam and ranked first in the class. Crawford's expertise was estate management and title work, important to an area of considerable petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
drilling. Her admission to the bar occurred only ten years after women were first permitted to practice law in the state of Arkansas.
Community leadership
A community leader, Crawford was the first woman elected to the Camden City Council, having served from 1940 to 1948. In 1942, she was among the founders of Arkansas Girls StateBoys/Girls State
Boys State and Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary for high school students between their junior and senior years. Boys and Girls State programs both began in 1937 and are held in each of the U.S. states ,...
, a counterpart to Boys State
Boys/Girls State
Boys State and Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs sponsored by the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary for high school students between their junior and senior years. Boys and Girls State programs both began in 1937 and are held in each of the U.S. states ,...
, which permits high schoolers to spend a week at the state capital in Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
to learn the mechanics of state government. Crawford was elected president of each women's civic organization in Camden of which she was a member, including the Business and Professional Women's Foundation, the American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
Auxiliary, and Pilot Club International, sister organization of Rotary International
Rotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
before Rotary admitted women. In 1954, the Pilot Club designated her "Camden Woman of the Year." In 1955, when Camden won an achievement award for "Outstanding Community Improvement," Crawford was named to go to Little Rock to speak and accept the honor on behalf of the community.
Crawford's law firm was later named Gaughan, McClellan and Laney. The McClellan in the firm was a then inactive partner, Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
U.S. Senator John L. McClellan, formerly of Camden.
The disappearance
The disappearance occurred on a cold, foggy, rainy Saturday night, March 2, 1957, between 8:30 and 11 p.m. CST from Crawford's colonial-style, Corinthian column home at 330 Clifton Street, constructed in 1909 and located in what is now an historic district relatively close to the First Presbyterian Church. At the time of the disappearance, McClellan chaired a high-profile Senate investigation into alleged mobster ties to organized labor. The case was international news for a time when it was speculated that Crawford had been kidnapped by the MafiaMafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
to intimidate McClellan. No ransom note was ever delivered. No body was ever found. Police never solved the case.
The night that Crawford disappeared her husband went to the Malco Theater and thereafter a liquor store, a routine which he followed nearly every evening. At 8:30 p.m. Maud spoke by telephone with a cousin. When Clyde returned home about 11:30 p.m. the house was fully lighted inside and outside, and the television set in the living room was in operation. Maud's car was in the driveway with the keys. Her purse, with $142 in cash, was on a chair. Her Dalmatian
Dalmatian
Dalmatian may refer to:* Dalmatia, a region mainly in the southern part of modern Croatia* Dalmatae, an ancient people from the region* Dalmatian language, an extinct Romance language* Dalmatian , a breed of dog...
guard dog called "Dal" was patiently awaiting for Maud's return. When Maud did not return home by 1 a.m., Clyde drove around Camden to search for her. At 1 a.m. on March 3, he stopped two police officers to ask if there had been an automobile accident that might explain her absence. An hour later, he drove to the police station to report his wife missing. An extensive hunt for Crawford followed.
Two weeks after Maud's disappearance, The Camden News
The Camden News
The Camden News is a daily newspaper in Camden, Arkansas, which covers local news, sports, society, and business. It has a weekday circulation of 4,368.-Background:...
reported that Police Chief G. B. Cole had declared the investigation "stalemated." The newspaper also quoted then Sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
Grover Linebarier (1899–1986) as having said, "We have not turned up a single clue." The Camden News declared the case "at a dead end."
Clyde Crawford continued to live in the house on Clifton Street. He died in 1969, the same year that the Ouachita County Probate Court declared his wife dead: "It is the finding of the Court that Maud R. Crawford is deceased and has been dead since March 2, 1957, as a result of foul play perpetrated by person or persons unknown."
Arkansas Gazette investigation
In 1986, the Crawford case was reopened in an 18-article investigative series by Beth Brickell, who was reared in Camden during the 1950s. Brickell's work was published by the former Arkansas GazetteArkansas Gazette
The Arkansas Gazette, known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River, and located from 1908 until its October 18, 1991 closing at the now historic Gazette Building, was for many years the newspaper of record for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas...
, now the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...
, owned since 1991 by Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr.
Walter E. Hussman, Jr. , is a third-generation newspaper publisher and chief executive officer of a mass media conglomerate known as WEHCO Media, Inc...
, who was also reared in Camden and is the official publisher of The Camden News. The Arkansas Gazette series implicated Henry Myar "Mike" Berg (1909–1975), a wealthy Camden businessman and a former state police commissioner appointed by Governor Orval E. Faubus. Berg's widow, Helen Berg, threatened to sue the Arkansas Gazette over the series, which was nevertheless published over a five-month period. Mrs. Berg never brought forth the threatened suit.
The series revealed that a state police detective, Odis A. Henley (1919–2001), found evidence linking Mike Berg to Crawford's murder. Henley claimed that he was quickly removed from the case, and all of his files vanished from police headquarters. The Gazette series uncovered for the first time a financial motive for the murder of Crawford. A deed filed in the nearby Hempstead County Courthouse in Hope
Hope, Arkansas
Hope is a small city in Hempstead County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2008 United States Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,378...
, Arkansas, transferred timber assets belonging to Rose Newman Berg, Mike Berg's elderly aunt who had been declared incompetent in 1955 by the Ouachita County Court, to Hugh Moseley, a timber owner who worked for Mike Berg. A second deed with the same date transferred the identical timber holdings from Hugh Moseley to Mike Berg. Former Arkansas Attorney General
Arkansas Attorney General
The Arkansas Attorney General is an executive position and constitutional officer within the Arkansas government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement/legal officer and lawyer for Arkansas. The position is elected every four years, e.g...
Jim Guy Tucker
Jim Guy Tucker
James "Jim" Guy Tucker, Jr. is an Arkansas political figure. He served as the 43rd Governor of Arkansas, the 11th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, Arkansas Attorney General, and U.S. Representative...
(later a U.S. Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and then governor), considered the deeds "powerful evidence" that Mike Berg sought to defraud his aunt.
Henley claimed that Maud Crawford confronted Mike Berg over the timber assets. Crawford was Rose Berg's attorney and personal guardian. Maud drew up a will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
for Rose Berg, who in 1957 was confined to a nursing home with what would now be called Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. Rose Berg wished to leave more than $20 million to three nieces who lived in other states, Jeannette Newman Simpson, Marian Newman Peltason (1908–1979) of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Lucille Newman Glazer. Mike Berg was not mentioned in his aunt's will. According to the nieces, Crawford had informed them before her death that she intended to bring a lawsuit against Mike Berg to expose the fraudulent deeds. Then, other timber deeds were found in the Ouachita County Courthouse that transferred additional assets over a period of years from Rose Berg to Mike Berg. One deed with a questionable signature of Rose Berg, conveyed to Mike Berg, large acreage of timber in fifteen counties, as well as properties in Camden and an estimated 150 active oil royalties. With the disappearance of Crawford, Rose Berg's will also vanished. Mike Berg ultimately secured all of his aunt's estate. Thereafter, he granted $187,000 to each of Rose Berg’s nieces in exchange for a relinquishment of all claims to their aunt’s estate.
The Arkansas Gazette articles led Bill McLean, the prosecuting attorney in El Dorado
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...
, the seat of Union County in southern Arkansas, to reopen the case in 1986. McLean came to Ouachita County, against the wishes of then Sheriff Jack Dews, to interview Jack Dorris (1915–1986), who had been a Mike Berg bodyguard. Dorris, however, was dying of cancer and never revived long enough for McLean to question him.