Woman Kills Teenage Girl Over Suspected Affair With Husband, 1920

Previously:

Click here for a list of my other Pulaski/Rockcastle/Laurel County KY articles

-----------

[November 5, 1920] -

Stabbed With Knife.  

Stella Cato, a colored woman living at Tateville, Ky., stabbed a fifteen year old girl by the name of Ross, also of color, with a knife Sunday afternoon.  The Ross girl died within a short time.  The knife penetrated the heart.  The cutting followed a quarrel between the parties. The Cato woman came to Somerset and gave herself up to the authorities and was placed in jail. [1]

---

[December 1, 1920] -

FEMALE KILLING CASE

Somerset, Ky.--The trial of Stella Cato, charged with having slain Dessie Ross, 15, whom she accused of alienating her husband, was continued to the next term of court. [2]

---

[February 25, 1921] -

Two murder cases are set for this term of court.  The Hansford case for killing the McKinney's which resulted in a hung jury last court, and the case of Stella Cato for killing a girl at Tateville.  The Hansford case was started Wednesday and the Cato case is set for Monday. [3]

---

[March 4, 1921] -

Stella Cato Freed. 

Stella Cato, of color, who killed another colored woman at Tateville last year, was acquitted by a jury in Circuit Court here yesterday. It will be remembered that she stabbed a young woman to death over domestic troubles, claiming that she was too intimate with her husband.  Evidence in the case was competed on Wednesday and arguments were presented by attorneys on Wednesday night, the jury reaching a verdict after a short deliberation yesterday morning. This is the second murder case tried this court and the second acquittal. [4]


------------------------


[1] "Stabbed With Knife." The Somerset Journal, Somerset, KY. November 5, 1920. Retrieved from http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/pulaski/newspapers/sj11_5_1920.txt

[2] "Female Killing Case." Richmond Daily Register, Richmond, KY. December 1, 1920. Page 6. LOC. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069168/1920-12-01/ed-1/seq-6/

[3] Excerpt from "Court Opens Monday With All Officials At Post." The Somerset Journal, Somerset, KY. February 25, 1921. Retrieved from http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/pulaski/newspapers/sj2_25_1921.txt

[4] "Stella Cato Freed." Somerset Journal, Somerset, KY. March 4, 1921. Retrieved from http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/KYPULASK/2002-12/1040099455

.