Clarendon AR: Where We've Been: Orr Murder

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A little more than 100 years ago, the beautiful Arkansas river town of Clarendon became a focal point for the nation when a sensational, headline-grabbing murder captured America's interest.

Early in 1890 John Tunnel Orr (going by the stage name "Orton") arrived in Prairie du Chien, Wis. with the theater group he was managing. He remained to direct an amateur production at St. Mary's Institute. One of the players was pretty 16-year-old Ernze Mabel "May" Barker of Waupon, Wis. John admired her dramatic ability and fell in love with her. May became infatuated with the dashing young actor and they corresponded secretly after he left. Her father, W.C. Barker, disapproved of their relationship, so an elopement was planned. They married on July 23, 1893, and according, to her wish, John trained May for the stage. Mr. and Mrs. John T. Orr took to the road as "Ortons' Comedians."

The troupe came to Clarendon in 1893 for a nine day run at the Opera House. John Orr was getting tired of life on the road and was ready to settle down with his wife and start a family. He liked Arkansas and after short stints in Batesville and Newport, he decided that Clarendon suited them best. His young wife, May, however, craved the adventure that traveling the country had provided. This conflict proved to be the couple's fatal flaw.

At 9:30 on the Saturday evening of July 30, 1898, John T. Orr, a successful young hardware merchant and by all accounts an exemplary citizen of Clarendon, was in the dining room of his home preparing a glass of lemonade. He had just returned home from choir practice at the Methodist Church. As Orr paused for a moment by the icebox, a shotgun blast tore through the window.

Five pellets missed their mark, passing through a partition and breaking a picture in the next room. One pellet struck Orr just above his right eye, penetrating his brain, and he crumpled to the floor, groaning loudly.

Orr's wife, May, ran in from the bedroom, where she and their four-year-old daughter, Geneva, had been sleeping. Finding her husband lying face down and bleeding profusely, she knelt down and cradled his head in her lap while wiping away the blood that was seeping from the hole in his skull.

Captain W.J.F. Jones and Mrs. Laura C. Seale, who lived across the street, heard Orr's agonizing groans and were the first to respond. A doctor was called for and a neighbor was sent to the jail to alert Sheriff Jackson and Deputy R.F. Milwee. Milwee immediately telegraphed Pine Bluff, requesting Constable Philpot bring his bloodhounds to Clarendon as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it began raining heavily about one hour after the crime had occurred. When the hounds finally arrived at 4 a.m. Sunday morning, any scent that could have led officers to the gunman was irretrievably destroyed.

A large number of people visited the Orr house that night, attesting to the popularity of the young man. For the rest of Sunday morning and into the early afternoon, Orr slipped in and out of consciousness as the doctor vainly attended to him. Due to the bleeding and swelling of his brain, he apparently never realized he had been shot. Some who were at his bedside claimed that in his sporadic moments of coherence when asked if he knew who had shot him, Orr expressed belief that it had been a lightning bolt that had felled him because of the thunderstorm that raged over Clarendon at the time he was shot.

Mrs. Orr avoided the room where her husband lay, choosing to visit and chat with the ladies who dropped by to extend their comfort. When she began asking her visitors whether it would be appropriate for her to dress in mourning, she was reminded by one that Orr was not dead. "No," she replied, "but the doctor says he will surely die."

At 2 p.m., 17 1/2 hours after being shot, Orr was pronounced dead. When Mrs. Orr was told of her husband's death, she dropped to her knees, her hands clasped tightly to her face. She didn't shed a tear.

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