When Reverend Clarence Sheatsley found his wife, Addie, in the parsonage furnace, he believed that she had committed suicide. The county prosecutor thought that it was murder. What really happened to Addie Sheatsley?
Sources
Police Check Minister’s Story After Wife is Burned to Death. The Dayton Herald, 11/18/1924
Find Pastor’s Wife Burned in Furnace. The Daily Times, 11/18/1924
Perplexity. The Cincinatti Enquirer, 11/19/1924
Fails to Find Any Evidence as to Cause of Woman’s Queer Death. The Daily News-Tribune, 11/19/1924
Mrs. Sheatsley Could Have Killed Herself In Furnace, Authority on Insanity Says. The Dayton Herald, 11/20/1924
Test of Lungs Likely to Solve Furnace Death. The Dayton Herald, 11/21/1924
Confession Rumor in Furnace Case. The Dayton Herald, 11/22/1924
Fire Death Mystery Deepens; Full Medical Finding Awaited; Prosecutor Consults Alienist. The Cincinatti Enquirer, 11/23/1924
Furnace Murder Theory Gains By Discovery of Stains Like Blood. The Dayton Herald, 11/24/1924
The Body of Columbus Furnace Victim May Be Exhumed; New Evidence. The Daily News-Tribune, 11/25/1924
Sheatsley Family Will Get Respite Over Thanksgiving, When Inquiry is Resumed. The Dayton Herald, 11/26/1924
Furnace Case Suspect Under Eye of Police. The Dayton Herald, 11/27/1924
Bloodstains on Furnace Found Not Human. The Dayton Herald, 11/28/1924
Probe of Furnace Crime is Halted. The Daily Times, 11/29/1924
Clues Traced in Vain. The Cincinatti Enquirer, 11/30/1924
Rev. Sheatsley Bares Soul to His Students. The Daily News-Tribune, 12/1/1924
Tests Disclose Wife of Pastor Was Murdered. The Dayton Herald, 12/2/1924
“You Kill My Wife, I Kill Yours” –Note to Sheatsley. The Dayton Herald, 12/3/1924
Suicide is Sheatsley Verdict. The Dayton Herald, 12/4/1924
Pastor’s Wife Destroyed Self, Is Furnace Mystery Verdict; Findings of Experts Disputed. The Cincinatti Enquirer, 12/5/1924
Continue Furnace Inquiry. The Cincinatti Enquirer, 12/6/1924
Sheatsley Back in Pulpit Sunday. The Daily Times, 12/22/1924
Mystery Will Long Enshroud ‘Furnace Case.’ Dayton Daily News, 12/14/1924
Pastor, Whose Wife Died in Furnace, Dies. Dayton Daily News, 1/20/1943
Mrs. Sheatsley’s Furnace. Strange Company, 7/29/2013
Tsai, Michelle. Bar-B-You: What’s the smell of burning human flesh? Slate.com, 3/26/2007
Addie Sponseller Sheatsley. Findagrave.com
Clarence Valentine Sheatsley. Findagrave.com
United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. M1509, 4,582 rolls. Imaged from Family History Library microfilm.
Year: 1920; Census Place: Marion, Franklin, Ohio; Roll: T625_1379; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 18
Marriage Records. Ohio Marriages. Various Ohio County Courthouses.
Bexley. Touringohio.com.