In one of my recent wanderings through the Internet Archive Scholar database, I happened to come across the two notices below about a pair of Alabama physicians. Let's investigate.
The 1913 item describes the shooting death of Dr. Frank Walton on August 18 at the hands of Gid Weaver, an electrician working for the Woodward Iron Company. "Domestic trouble is said to be the cause" of the killing, which took place in Weaver's home in Mulga in front of his wife. I've written about a similar case in Birmingham in 1901 in which a doctor named John Payne was murdered by James Cook, presumably a jealous husband.
Walton was a 38 year old Virginia native who worked as a mining company physician, possibly also for Woodward, a huge supplier of pig iron from 1881 until 1971. In 1899 he graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville and was licensed by the Alabama state medical board. At the time of his death he was a member of the American Medical Association.
As the two brief newspaper articles note, Weaver was arrested, made bond, and in October was indicted for second degree murder. I did not find the results of a presumed trial. Weaver lived until 1943 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery. I was unable to find more information on Walton.
See below for something about the second physician, Dr. G.R. Norman.
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Source: Southern Medical Journal 1913, vol. 6, no. 10, page 701
Birmingham Age-Herald 24 August 1913
Source: Birmingham Age-Herald 10 October 1913
According to the Alabama Deaths and Burials Index, 1881-1974 via Ancestry.com, Weaver was a grocer living in Homewood at the time of his death. His wife's name was Iva.
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This second note concerns Dr. G.R. Norman and his accomplice Kelly Adams, once a janitor at the State Capitol. The pair was accused in 1915 of stealing medical examination papers from the office of the State Health Officer, Dr. W.H. Sanders, in Montgomery and selling them to medical students to substitute during the annual examinations.
A sting operation conducted by Dr. W. A. Avery, working for Sanders, paid Adams $25 to substitute correct exams for the originals. Adams originally wanted $100, but Avery talked the price down. Norman and Kelly had apparently worked a widespread fraud scheme at recent exam sessions.
As the first Age-Herald article below notes, nine "prominent" doctors from Birmingham and Montgomery were called by the prosecution to testify. These included William H. Sanders, prominent in medical education and public health in the state at this time. Two other physicians working in the state health department were also included.
Norman and Adams were both found guilty. Norman was sentenced to six years imprisonment and Adams two. According to Alabama convict records, Norman's sentence took place June 8, 1915 & he was paroled April 23, 1918. He also received 30 and 60 day paroles in 1916 and 1917. I did not find Adams in those records. Sentences would have been to the Wetumpka State Penitentiary, which served the state until the original Kilby Prison opened in 1923
According to his Find-A-Grave listing, George R. Norman was born in Alabama on January 10, 1886. He attended Birmingham Medical College and graduated in 1911. His class photo can be seen here. Norman took the medical certification exam in Montgomery and passed. The Transactions of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama [p. 582], has him listed in 1913 as practicing in Arley, Winston County. That volume also notes he had moved that year to Jefferson County.
I found George R. Norman in the U.S. Census for 1920 and Norman, his wife Helen and their two children in the 1930, and 1940 listings. In that first one Norman was living on Blackwells Island in Manhattan; the city hospital was located there and perhaps that was his place of work. The census notes that both his father and mother were born in Alabama. Norman was apparently living in a boarding house; the household had nine people of different last names.
By 1930 his circumstances had changed. He was married to Helen, more than a decade younger, and they lived in a house they owned at 2529 Admiral Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Norman worked as a "material" doctor in private practice. Others in the household were children George R. Jr. and Charles A. Norman. A niece, Docia Stricklin, also lived with them. By the 1940 census Helen was listed as a registered nurse.
The Normans remained in Tulsa, and he died on January 21, 1942, at the age of 56. He is buried in Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa; his gravestone can be seen below. Helen died in 1963 and is also buried there, as is Charles who died in 2017 at age 83. I did not investigate George R. Jr.
Other than the gravestone seen below, I have found nothing else on Kelly Adams.
Birmingham Age-Herald 4 March 1915
Columbia (Tenn.) Herald 12 March 1915
Alabama Convict Records 1886-1952 via Ancestry.com
This marker may be that of Kelly Adams and his wife. The stone is located in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery.
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