IL IL - Fay Rawley, Summum, Fulton County farmer and land owner, 8 Nov 1953

[Schoaff]

I was raised in the area and saw much of the mania associated with the excavations and drilling on the mine property under the supervision of Sheriff Ball.

Though I don’t have any direct evidence, I nevertheless used this as a key part of my first novel, “Twin Beeches. - an Illinois love story”. My theory was that a cuckolded husband killed and buried Rawley and the wife of the murderer, burying them, then disposing of the car either by the popular idea of the mine overburden covering it, or simply by cutting it up in his barn, burying the pieces.

More of my speculation is in the book

 

[behindthesugarcane]

Its been a while since you all posted but I wanted to join and add a comment. We are doing a podcast on this case. I am from a small town over there Prairie City. It will be on our podcast by the end of July. Behind the Sugar Cane on Facebook, Buzzsprout, Apple, and Spotify. We hope to take a field trip to the area soon. Anyone been there?

 

[STANDREID]

I did find that he reportedly wore dentures and that his girlfriend was named Helen Wagner. She was the last to see him and admit it.

 

[Quoththeraven]

The Times, Thu, Aug 01, 1957,Page 15, states that Fay and Hazel were married in Petersburg in 1919 on November 8, the same day he disappeared. That's too much of a coincidence, IMO, to not have a bearing on the case. His imminent divorce coming up on November 9, 1953, that I'm sure he knew about, and his girlfriend allegedly breaking up with him might have been too much for him to bear. Maybe he drove his vehicle into the mine himself.​

The article further states that the strip mine was directly across Route 24 from Fay's house. The article states Fay's son Robert, age 32 in 1957, lives in his father's house with his wife and two children.​

The article speculated Fay was worth $250,000 to $500,000, mostly in land holdings.​

 

[Keiri]

How do folks get something like this added to NamUs?

 

[cenazoic]

While researching this case and going through old photo files at the Journal Star, I found another file, jammed with notes from 1957. A reporter and editor — both now dead — traded those for several days during the dig. The notes hint toward a suspect, and the paper even secured his photo, apparently to run upon his arrest. That never happened, so his identity remained unpublished.

…

The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has no file on Rawley. So there's no confirmation available there.

But Virgil Ball's son says he knows who did it: his dad told him.

"I feel my father was very correct in who did the crime," says John Ball, 68, of Lewistown. "And I'm confident Fay Rawley's car and body are in that mine."

…

…he says the suspect was a husband upset about an affair between his wife and Rawley.

And that suspect is the same person indicated in the old Journal Star file.

Luciano: 60 years later, mystery still surrounds disappearance of Fay Rawley

Six decades later, Fulton County still echoes: "What happened to Fay Rawley?" As if passing down a treasured heirloom, generations continue to share conjecture and gossip about the case, making Fay…

www.pjstar.com

 

[Quoththeraven]

The Times, Thu, Aug 01, 1957,Page 15, states that Fay and Hazel were married in Petersburg in 1919 on November 8, the same day he disappeared. That's too much of a coincidence, IMO, to not have a bearing on the case. His imminent divorce coming up on November 9, 1953, that I'm sure he knew about, and his girlfriend allegedly breaking up with him might have been too much for him to bear. Maybe he drove his vehicle into the mine himself.​

The article further states that the strip mine was directly across Route 24 from Fay's house. The article states Fay's son Robert, age 32 in 1957, lives in his father's house with his wife and two children.​

The article speculated Fay was worth $250,000 to $500,000, mostly in land holdings.​

…

…

Luciano: 60 years later, mystery still surrounds disappearance of Fay Rawley

Six decades later, Fulton County still echoes: "What happened to Fay Rawley?" As if passing down a treasured heirloom, generations continue to share conjecture and gossip about the case, making Fay…

www.pjstar.com

…

…

Luciano: 60 years later, mystery still surrounds disappearance of Fay Rawley

Six decades later, Fulton County still echoes: "What happened to Fay Rawley?" As if passing down a treasured heirloom, generations continue to share conjecture and gossip about the case, making Fay…

www.pjstar.com

After reading the story I got the impression that someone in a supervisory position at the mine was involved in the alleged murder. Maybe not the excavation crane operator, but the one who told him to dump the dirt in a certain place.

The York Dispatch Thu, Aug 08, 1957, page 34 (Newspapers.com) states that 30,000 cubic yards of dirt, rocks and waste were moved in the 1957 excavation at the Peabody Coal Mine Company using a power shovel. The excavation left a 70-foot deep pit. University of Illinois technicians went over the pit bottom with magnetometers and detected nothing.

That kind of tells me the car was never buried there.

Some photos of mining cranes used in the 50's:

Leigh Creek - Old Town Project

leighcreek-theoldtownproject.squarespace.com

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Fay Rawley – The Charley Project