Timeline From The Past: Revisiting The Decker Murder Case
From the Files of the Kosciusko County Historical Society
Editor’s note: This is a retrospective article that runs a few times a month on InkFreeNews.
1921 — On the evening of March 12, 1921, the engineer of a freight train saw a buggy, with no horse harnessed to it, in the path of the train as it approached Robinson’s crossing, west of Atwood. Though he applied the brakes, the train struck the buggy. Following the collision, crew members found a young man lying between the two tracks. He was unconscious but alive. He was taken by train to Bourbon, where he died a few hours later.
Several factors pointed to murder. Examination of the body showed that the man had been tortured. His jaw was broken. Marks on his throat showed that someone had attempted to strangle him. Material had been stuffed into his mouth. His clothes were wet and covered in sand. A letter in his pocket identified the victim as Virgil Decker, 18, who lived on a farm with his brother, Fred, near Atwood.
Sheriff Charles Moon, Warsaw, was called to the accident scene.
An abandoned Ford vehicle was found not far away. The sheriff returned to the crossing and noticed a horse’s distinctly-shaped prints leading away from the crossing to the south, where the road leads toward the Decker farm and the Tippecanoe River. The sheriff found that the prints led to the Decker farm. In a barn on the farm, he found the horse, uninjured, in a stall with a harness on, though the ends of the harness appeared to have been cut with a knife.
The next day, Virgil Decker’s brothers, Fred and Calvin, along with their mother, Lydia, identified the victim as Virgil. However, the following day, there was a bizarre twist in the case. An Elkhart couple arrived in Bourbon stating they were the parents of 19-year old Leroy Lovett, a friend of Virgil Decker. Leroy had closely resembled Virgil. The couple were allowed to view the body, which they identified as that of their son. They told police their son had left in a vehicle with Virgil Decker two days ago and that Virgil was supposed to drive Leroy to Albion, to the home of Leroy’s sister. Leroy never reached his sister’s home. Up to the hour of the inquest, both families continued to claim the body.
Sheriff Moon’s investigation led him to the Tippecanoe River, about a mile south of the crossing, to an unoccupied summer cottage – the scene of the murder. Windows were broken, cupboards smashed and tables and chairs overturned. Blood was spattered all over the interior – on the floors, walls, windows and furniture. Bloody handprints were found on the door, both inside and out. It appeared that a struggle had shifted from the large room to the two bedrooms, as the walls and floors of all three rooms bore bloodstains, as well as the windows and doors. Sheriff Moon found marks which indicated that the victim had crawled on his hands and knees from the door down to the river bank and back to the cottage.
The following day, the body was positively identified as Leroy Lovett. The Deckers said they had no knowledge of where Virgil had gone. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Virgil Decker, charging him with the murder of his friend.
The next day, word was received that Virgil had been arrested and was being held in jail in Marion. He was brought to Warsaw and placed in the county jail. When questioned, Virgil maintained his innocence, insisting that on March 12 he was doing chores at his brother Fred’s farm, while Fred and his wife were visiting relatives. He said he left that evening to visit his uncle in Marion.
During the investigation, it was discovered that Virgil had recently taken out three insurance policies totaling $24,000, two of which paid double indemnity in case of accidental death. The three policies required the payment of $500 a year in premiums. Virgil’s brother, Fred, was named as beneficiary in each policy.
It was determined that Fred had been in Larwill and had not returned to Atwood until 10 p.m. on the night of the murder.
The Ford vehicle found abandoned near the crossing was claimed by Russel Gill, a garage owner in Elkhart, who testified that Virgil rented it from him on March 11, under an assumed name.
Virgil began making a series of alleged confessions. In the first two versions, he said an Elkhart man, identified only as “Guy,” committed the murder, though he did admit to renting the car.
In Virgil’s third confession, he admitted to killing Lovett; however, he refused to connect the slaying with the insurance policies. He gave no motive for his alleged crime other than, “The devil made me do it.”
A few days later, Virgil offered a fourth version of the events, in which he said a friend of the Decker family was the killer. This man was proved innocent. Each confession conflicted with the others, and the truth of all of them was questioned by investigators.
Meanwhile, the grand jury was called into session and the case was considered for five days. Indictments for first-degree murder were returned against Virgil Decker, his brothers, Fred and Calvin, and their mother, Lydia Decker. At this time, eight prisoners were being held at the jail in Warsaw on first-degree murder charges. Besides the Deckers, there were four Chicago bandits being held for the murder of a Culver merchant during a bank robbery. These men were later defended by the famed criminal attorney, the late Clarence Darrow. Floodlights were installed around the jail, and armed guards patrolled the place night and day.
The four Deckers were arraigned in the Kosciusko circuit court with Judge L. W. Royse on the bench. All pleaded not guilty. Virgil requested a separate trial, which was granted by the court. The trial began on June 1, 1921, with Prosecutor H. W. Graham, assisted by L. R. Stookey, representing the state.
Exhibits included blood-soaked pillows, a straw tick, an auto robe, a couch with a blood spot a foot square and the alleged death weapon – an iron bar 2 1/2 feet in length. A large pine door was placed near the witness stand bearing the bloody fingerprints of the victim. All pointed to the desperate struggle that occurred that March night in the cottage on the river.
Prosecuting attorney Graham opened for the state and demanded the death penalty. The state charged that the motive for the crime had been insurance money, and that the only true confession Virgil had made was the one in which he said that he alone killed Leroy Lovett.
The defense attorneys contended that there was no conspiracy to defraud the insurance companies. Fred Decker’s wealthy father-in-law testified that he had assisted Fred in meeting payments on his farm, and that Fred had no desperate need for money. The defense proved that all the insurance agents had solicited Virgil and that he did not first seek them out. It was pointed out that if Virgil had wanted to disappear, he would not have gone to Marion where he was well-known. Virgil’s reputation in the community had been good. His confession that Guy had been the slayer was accepted by the defense. Two witnesses testified to having seen a stranger near the cottage and the farm home on the night of the crime. Virgil was in Atwood several times during the day, and it was claimed that he would not have left Lovett in the cottage alone, giving him an opportunity to escape.
After deliberating three hours, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, with a sentence of life imprisonment. The brilliant defense had saved Virgil from the electric chair.
Virgil was sent to the state prison in Michigan City to serve his sentence. Four days later, Fred and Calvin were released on bonds signed by their friends and neighbors. Mrs. Decker was held not responsible and released. Fred later received a change of venue to Columbia City, was tried and found not guilty. Calvin Decker was never brought to trial.
Virgil later admitted that he killed Lovett, put his own clothes on him and then placed the body on the train tracks to cover up the evidence.
– Compiled by InkFreeNews reporter Lasca Randels