By Bonny Gable
Bonny Gable is a former theater professor and freelance writer based in Bristol, Virginia.www.bonnygable.com
Eight decades ago, in a peaceful neighborhood of a quaint Southern town, residents would pass by a spacious but modest home. Its white clapboards and tall windows trimmed in stained glass projected a quiet innocence. A rather ordinary house on an ordinary street. No one imagined the extraordinary aura that would come to surround it. This picturesque family dwelling became the scene of a grisly murder.
In his new book, “Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder,” Abingdon author Greg Lilly contributes a compelling addition to the true crime genre. In it, he examines the sad and astonishing events surrounding the shocking murder of a young World War II veteran, shot dead in his own bedroom.
In December 1944, a snowstorm trapped a traveling Jimmy Newton in Abingdon, Virginia. He took refuge at the home of a widow, Helen Clark, and her three daughters, a place he would soon call home. Less than a year later, he would breathe his last in that home after four bullets pelted his body on a fateful Sunday night. The widow who sheltered him wielded the pistol.
Leaving Jimmy to die, Helen tossed the gun under a neighbor’s porch and took a cab to the next town where she joined her daughters at a movie. She returned them home and tucked everyone safely into bed by midnight, while Jimmy’s body lay cold on the floor of his room.
The news jolted the quiet little town; everyone wracked their brains for a cause. Was it betrayal? Jealous fury? Trauma? Rumors were rampant—including those from the tongue of Helen Clark.
Lilly untangles the web of evidence as well as background events, personalities and life stories that compose the tapestry of this bizarre tale. His extensive study of news reports of the murder investigation and trial, history and in-depth interviews provide a solid foundation for the story to unfold. In the book’s preface, Lilly issues his promise to treat the players well. He is clear about what is fact and what is fictional narrative which has been created from his meticulous research. The result is an account that reads as a gripping crime saga.
Jimmy Newton was a 22-year-old ex-Marine injured at Guadalcanal in 1942, a talented musician and a former athlete with a keen intellect and strong work ethic. With good looks to boot, he was a young man who inspired hero worship, garnered unsolicited attention and sparked surprising feelings in unlikely acquaintances. He also suffered heartbreaking loss, both physical and emotional, and often drowned his pain with alcohol or drugs. Despite the slings and arrows life had hurled at him, he was searching for new dreams to pursue. Those efforts were suddenly snuffed out in a senseless, impulsive act.
Helen Clark was a beautiful and brilliant town beauty, who, as a young woman, fell into a fairy-tale romance. With a handsome, loving husband and a house full of healthy offspring, Helen was living a dream. But it was a dream destined to be a happily-ever-after gone terribly wrong. Widowed at age 40 with four children, Helen began a downward spiral that would lead to her ruin. From a fiery romance and life of perpetual happiness, a string of tragedies would chip away until there was nothing left but embers.
Both tragic figures were merely folks trying to make sense of their worlds and make peace with their personal demons.
From his deep-dive research, Lilly fleshes out features of each player to craft a captivating narrative. He takes you inside their minds and deep into their souls. Like characters in a novel, you feel what they felt, and get a sense of the inner workings of these very real people. It’s difficult to avoid being touched by the tragedy of it all.
Lilly beckons the reader into the milieu of the crime, creating a sense of presence alongside the characters as their complex tale plays out. The community dynamics, small-town politics and social life that have their part in the plot are vividly portrayed. The narrative is supplemented with photographs and images, windows into the world in which the characters lived, loved, and toiled toward their dreams. Local readers will recognize the geography and many names prominent in the town’s history.
Readers will appreciate Lilly’s deft handling of detail to serve the storytelling. Minute bits of information are often included that at first appear insignificant but prove to have a bearing on what happens next and beyond. Lilly takes care of the reader, guiding them through the maze of motives, moves and missteps leading to the fateful conclusion.
Lilly lets you live among the people in this story, bringing them to life in your imagination. Visiting this tragedy through his narrative makes you feel, but also think. You may ponder on the strange turns a life can take. The forces that affect us — some we can control but many we cannot. And what can unfold right in our own neighborhood, without warning.
