The Christmas Presents Murder

Aged sixty-two, all Allen Presley wanted was to live out his life in peace at a small place about twenty miles east of Wenatchee, Washington. Selfish and cruel greed stole that from him shortly before Christmas of 1927. Some news reports would describe Presley, a lifetime bachelor, as a “recluse.” However, while he did avoid crowds and had only a small circle of close friends, he was widely known in the region. After he was murdered, an acquaintance in Clarkston, Washington took steps to insure that Presley was buried in Tennessee near where he grew up.

Presley was born in Loudon County, Tennessee, about thirty miles southwest of Knoxville. He moved to Douglas County, Washington in the early 1890s, about the time the Great Northern Railway laid tracks through the region. In 1899, he claimed a homestead on the high wheat-growing plains northeast of Wenatchee. Twelve years later, he claimed more land next to his first plot.

Coincidentally, just a few months earlier, Arthur “Art” Woodin, a man who would figure in Presley’s future, claimed wheat acreage only fourteen miles to the north. The Woodin family had moved to Douglas County in 1909, when the Great Northern ran a branch line through the heart of the wheat country. In September of that year, Arthur’s older brother Thomas, age 29, married Viola Thompson. A couple weeks later, Arthur, age 22, married Viola’s sister Lillian.

By 1920, Thomas and Viola had a brood of six children, including James Earl. Thomas had a farm, but that apparently did not work out. He drove a delivery truck for a time, but scrambled to find steady work. Arthur and Lillian had three children, and he was working for a wholesale grain company. He would eventually be promoted to a manager’s position with the firm.

Meanwhile, some time in the early Twenties, Allen Presley decided to take it easy. Reports do not say whether he sold his land or leased it. Either way, he had enough for his simple needs so he moved down off the high plains. His cabin was a few hundred yards from McCue station on the Great Northern branch rail line. From there, he could easily travel to nearby Palisades or into Wenatchee.

Steam Train at Palisades. Washington Heritage Register.

In December of 1927, Art Woodin was apparently at McCue station regularly. (News reports don’t say why, but he was probably traveling by rail from Waterville to Wenatchee and back.) During the week before Christmas, he realized he hadn’t seen Presley around for several days. Even with the freezing temperatures, normal for this time of year, it was unlike the old man to stay cooped up that long.

Thus, on Wednesday morning, Art stopped by Presley’s cabin. Inside under a cot, he found the Tennessean’s body. The corpse was stiff, not just from rigor mortis, but from the frigid cold. Robbery seemed to have been the motive, since the victim’s pockets were turned out and the cabin had been ransacked.

A medical examiner concluded that a small-caliber gunshot to the eye had killed him. However, he also observed severe trauma from a heavy blow to the same wound area. At the crime scene, investigators had found a stick of firewood with a splotch of blood and perhaps hair on its surface. Thus, the sheriff surmised that Presley might have been clubbed, and then shot to make sure he was dead.

McCue was only a tiny hamlet (it’s totally gone now). Interviews quickly established that the last person seen anywhere near the Presley place was Art’s seventeen-year-old nephew James. The previous Friday, he had been hunting rabbits in the hills during the day. He left after a while, but came back on a late-afternoon train. After walking toward the Presley place, he returned to the train shortly after 6:30.

When questioned, “Jim” made a token denial, but then admitted that he had, indeed, killed the old man. Earlier in the day, he had given Presley a couple of rabbits he had shot. He went back, he said, to leave his .22-caliber rifle at the cabin. Why was unclear, but he perhaps said he did not want to carry it back and forth. Jim claimed the rifle “went off” as he handed it over. In a panic after this “accident,” he had shoved the body under the cot and hurried back to the train.

Authorities then confronted him with the other damning evidence they had collected: The forceful blow to Presley’s head, obvious signs of robbery, and the fact that James had afterwards gone on a shopping spree in Wenatchee. The boy finally confessed that he had murdered the old man and used the money he stole to buy Christmas presents for his girlfriend.

James later repudiated the confession, but the evidence remained. About ten days before the boy’s trial was to begin, the Douglas County sheriff and prosecuting attorney traveled to Seattle to consult with criminologist Luke S. May. (It’s unclear if they had sent the physical evidence ahead or carried the items with them.) Some of May’s results were fairly routine. He verified that the death bullet and a shell casing found at the crime scene had come from the youth’s rifle. Embedded in the surface of the firewood, May detected human blood and distinctive eyebrow hairs that closely matched those of the victim.

However, one finding changed the crime reconstruction a bit. May also detected unburned grains of powder, similar to those found on the body, intermixed with the blood and hair on the wood surface. That is, Woodin had first shot the old man, at close range, and then fractured his skull to make sure. Knowledgeable observers suggested that such a brutal action might help Woodin’s court-appointed defense attorney with an insanity plea.

But about the best hope for the defense was the fact that “Jimmy” had never been in trouble before and was “generally regarded as a good boy in the community.” They did manage to avoid a death penalty, but James Earl Woodin received a life prison sentence. He was, however, released after a little over twelve years in prison, which seems odd, given the brutal and senseless nature of the crime. Woodin registered for the draft in Portland, Oregon, on December 26, 1940, but never entered any branch of the service.
                                                                                

References: Paula Becker, “Douglas County – Thumbnail History,” Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, HistoryLink.org, Seattle, Washington  (October 15, 2006).

Luke S. May, Crime’s Nemesis, The Macmillan Company, New York (1936).

Luke S. May, Luke S. May Papers, Special Collections, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1969).

Gary Neumann, ed., Washington Heritage Register: Palisades Store, Department of Archæology and Historic Preservation, Olympia, Washington (2017).

“[Presley Murder News],” Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Olympian, Olympia, Washington; The Oregonian, Portland; Sweetwater News, Tennessee  (December 22, 1927).

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