General & Widow

In the 60 years since he was born in Bowling Green, Ky., 6 ft.-2 in., 220-lb. Brigadier General Henry H. Denhardt has made his mark in law, journalism, war and politics. He served ten years as Bowling Green prosecuting attorney, two terms as Warren County judge. With his brother, he has long published the Bowling Green Times-Journal. He organized a company in the Spanish-American War, served as major in the 3rd Kentucky Infantry on the Mexican border in 1916, went to France with it in 1918. In the St. Mihiel offensive he was cited for valor, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. At the head of a troop of Kentucky National Guardsmen in 1921 he put down a riot in strike-torn Newport, was promoted to Brigadier General of the National Guard. Grateful Newporters presented him with a saddle horse, and for similar service citizens of Fort later gave him a set of silver. But as the years passed, hard-bitten General Denhardt won the dislike of many a Kentuckian for his use of troops in labor troubles. As Lieutenant-Governor of Kentucky from 1923 to 1927, he was praised as one of the best presiding officers in the history of the State Senate. In 1931 his good friend Governor Ruby Laffoon made him his Adjutant General. Last year, defying a court order, he marched his Guardsmen into bloody Harlan County to supervise the Democratic primary, charging that the forces of Albert B. ("Happy") Chandler were planning to steal votes from the Laffoon-backed candidate. Cited for criminal contempt of court, he hid for days, issued defies to Harlan County authorities, was pardoned by Governor Laffoon before going to trial. When Governor Chandler took office, General Denhardt retired to his 800-acre farm near La Grange.

In 1933 General Denhardt was divorced by his wife of 28 years. Last June he met Mrs. Verna Garr Taylor, reputed the most beautiful woman in two counties (Oldham and Henry). A respectable widow of 40 who was running her late husband's laundry business in La Grange, Mrs. Taylor soon became the General's dearest friend.

One evening last fortnight, after a day in Louisville together, Mrs. Taylor complained of a headache and General Denhardt took her out for some country air. Turning in a schoolyard five miles outside La Grange, his automobile battery went dead. Mrs. Taylor went to a nearby filling station for help. She looked, to a farm wife named Mrs. George Baker who was there, "very distressed." Mrs. Baker's husband got out his automobile, pushed the Denhardt car into his driveway. A passing motorist had offered to bring a new battery from town. The General and his companion settled down to wait.

About half an hour later Farmer Baker's dog began to bark furiously. Looking out, Baker saw an automobile coming slowly down the road from town, thought it might be the battery messenger. Suddenly he heard a shot. He discussed it with his wife for three or four minutes, then started for Denhardt's car. Half way across his yard, he heard a second shot, much less loud than the first. Continuing, he found General Denhardt standing beside his car. The General asked for a flashlight, explaining that Mrs. Taylor had gone back up the road toward the filling station to look for a glove. As Farmer Baker was returning with a lantern, the messenger and a mechanic appeared with the battery. The four men walked up the road, found nothing, went back and installed the battery. That done, they again set out to look for Mrs. Taylor. Two hundred yards from the car they found her crumpled in a ditch, with one of her shoes clasped under her arm, scratches on her thigh, a bullet through her heart. Beside her lay General Denhardt's .45 calibre revolver with two chambers fired. Walking back toward the car, the men found General Denhardt's automobile keys and flashlight lying beside the road.

The General had a ready explanation. He and Mrs. Taylor had planned to marry shortly, he said, but her two young daughters objected. Because of that, he believed, she had killed herself. Early last week a coroner and a police sergeant went to General Denhardt's farm to make a paraffin test of his hands* which would determine whether he had lately fired a gun.

The General submitted to the test good-humoredly, though protesting that he did not see why it was necessary. Before she was buried, a similar test was made of Mrs. Taylor's hands. Results were to be revealed at an inquest.

Twelve hundred Kentuckians packed the New Castle courtroom for the inquest. First witness called was General Denhardt. Marching to the chair, he announced in a loud, clear voice that he declined to testify "on advice of counsel over my protest." Up from the buzzing crowd stepped a sheriff, clapped a hand on the bald and portly officer's shoulder, said: "General Denhardt, I have a warrant for your arrest."

The warrant, sworn out by Mrs. Taylor's brother, charged the General with her murder. The inquest was promptly adjourned. General Denhardt was led off to the office of the County Judge, where bail of $25,000 was furnished by his old friend Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, president-elect of the American Public Health Association. A hearing was set for this week. Meantime Mrs. Taylor's body was exhumed. Examination revealed that she had been shot from the front, the bullet having struck her breast, pierced the heart, come out the back. At once officials attached great importance to a blood stain found on the road 410 ft. beyond Mrs. Taylor's body. "If it is proved," said Chief John Messmer of Louisville's criminological laboratory, "that this is human blood and the assumption that it came from Mrs. Taylor is established, then from the nature of her wound she could not have walked 410 ft. Somebody must have carried her."

Said General Denhardt: "If they had let me testify I'd have told them quick who killed her."

*Paraffin is poured on the subject's hands, peeled off when cool, tested with a hypersensitive nitric reagent. If nitrate (as from gunpowder) is present, purplish pinpoints will appear in the paraffin. The test is highly inconclusive.

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