Edward McAllister Summary

The investigation into Ted McAllister’s life has been an interesting process.  I started out with very little information, Ted was married, his wife died, later he moved to Savannah where he had “bedded a married woman and was killed by her jealous husband.” 

Further stories said that Ted’s brother-in-law went down to Georgia  to take care of business and have his body returned to Pennsylvania for burial.  The question was, it this all true.

The answer is, yes, mostly.  We learned a lot more about Ted and his life and I learned a lot more about genealogical research.

First, Ted’s name was Edward Lamb McAllister. 

He married Violet Yellig about 1906. They had three sons, Edward, Albert, & Paul. Violet died in 1910. 

Sometime before 1918, Ted married Therisa Bauckmann.  They moved from Pittsburgh to Georgia sometime between 1920 and 1924.  Therisa died in November of 1924 of a cerebral hemorrhage. There is no mention of Ted’s children in Georgia in any of the documents in Georgia. In 1930 the two youngest boys were living with their grandfather, so I suspect they were with family when Ted died. We don’t know if they were in Pennsylvania before of after Therisa’s death.

Mrs. Bell indicated that they had “lived with Ted for about a month,” which provided the opportunity for Ted and Lillian to get to know each other while Lillian’s husband was at work. 

Animosity built between William Bell and Ted over a debt; that Bell said “if [McAllister] ties up my money I’ll kill him.”

Mr. M. H. Bagwell testified that William Bell made statements to the effect that “if McAllister broke up his home he would kill him.”

Wm. and Ted worked at the same place, on different shifts, So Ted would know Bells whereabouts. 

Ted was, in fact, murdered in his kitchen, stuck in the back of the head with a hatchet multiple times.

Ted’s youngest brother, Joseph, went to Georgia for the arrangements.  Joseph didn’t know that Ted was murdered until he got to Georgia, only that Ted died. 

Joseph swore the Arrest warrant for William Bell so he probably had knowledge of the investigation so that he could provide the information to the family.

William Bell seems to have had plenty of motive, however, the police couldn’t tie the hatchet or any other physical evidence to the crime. 

Ted was buried in an unmarked grave in “Strangers Ground” Laurel Grove Cemetery.

Yes, in all likelihood Ted did bed another man’s wife and was murdered for it. And no, Harold didn’t go down to take care of business and ship the body back. Brother Joseph went down and had the body interred in Georgia.  Harold may have gone with, but clearly Ted was the principal person involved (signed warrant and death certificate).

What happened to Edward Lamb McAllister’s children?
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office responded to a letter from me indicating that the The Chatham County Police Department was dissolved in 2004. They also indicated that jurisdiction was transferred to the Savannah/Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.  I wrote the Savannah/Chatham Metropolitan Police Department requesting more information from them on August 12, 2013 and am yet to receive a response of any kind from them. 

Chatham County Police c. 1930 Courtesy: Vanishing Georgia, Georgia Archives, Office of Secretary of State

I learned a lot about using Georgia’s Virtual Vault.  It is a really great resource.

I learned how to order microfilm using interlibrary loan using WorldCat and my local library.

The bloody hatchet