Christmas Double Mu
At 8:45am, Christmas morning, 1904, young Perry Kinkannon, rowed his mother, Amelia Mauldin, and his sister, Rachel Kinkannon, across the White River in Jackson County, AR. The family had a camp along the banks of the river and they were hoping to go into the town of Newport, and see what sort of Christmas activities were taking place.
A few hours later, James Thomas, a driver, spotted what he thought to be a dead body along the second bridge on the road. He reported the find to the police who arrived and found the woman in a horrible state. She was dead, but her body still warm. She had been shot twice by bullets from a Colt 45 and one of the shots caught her bonnet on fire and it was burning. She had also been "outraged" according to newspaper reports.
Mrs. Mauldin's daughter, was nowhere to be found, but there was a sign of a great struggle along the river bank. Blood and claw marks were everywhere and it looked as though Miss Kinkannon had fought for her life and slid into the icy river.
For months, searchers dragged the river with grappling hooks and even discharged dynamite into the river in hopes of finding the missing girl, but nothing seemed to work. It was thought that she was long lost.
In late February of 1905, a raftsman was traveling down the White River, about 5 miles from where the murders took place and spotted a woman's dress caught up on a log. Making his way over to examine it, he found the body of a dead woman. It was that of Rachel Kinkannon. She had finally surfaced, almost two months later.
There were many witnesses that came forward in the investigation, but one man's name kept coming up – Newton Allwhite. It was stated that he and his father were seen talking to the women that morning and claimed to be checking some traps they had set along the river.
Although he claimed to be innocent in the beginning, his conscience must have gotten the better of him and he confessed to the crimes. He even described where he shot the women and the wounds matched up with the coroner's report perfectly. They knew they had their killer.
Newton Allwhite was sentenced to 21 years in the Arkansas State Penitentiary for the murders and barely escaped the wrath of an angry mob that set out to hang him.
Mr. James Kinkannon, the father and husband of the two murdered women, was very grieved as he loved and depended upon them very much. He was a very old man and unable to take care of himself. The citizens of Newport, were very compassionate to him and took up a collection to help make his way. The bodies of the two ladies were buried in paupers graves in the city cemetery.
Newton Allwhite, must have been paroled sometime before 1919, because I noticed while visiting his grave, that was the year he was married and began to father several children.
No further information was found about him and if he was ever suspected of any other crimes. He is buried at Blue Springs Cemetery in Newark, Arkansas. I was unable to find the graves of Mrs. Mauldin and Miss Kinkannon, as they probably never received headstones because of their great poverty.
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