William “Curley” Shelton (b. November 1, 1925) was a talented musician living in Henderson, Kentucky. He had performed with several prominent musicians in the bluegrass and rockabilly scene, eventually joining Doug Oldham’s Dixie Six. He became a local celebrity performing on the popular television show “Hillside Hoedown,” which aired Saturday nights on Evansville, Indiana’s WEHT. You can hear one of Curley’s more well-known recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAfqSkYD3-c Since music didn’t pay all the bills, he was also employed at Mesker Steel in Evansville.

Curly, 32, was an attractive, slender man; reports have him standing about 5’10” and weighing 120-130 lbs. He was a big hit with the ladies, eliciting fan mail to the TV station and plenty of attention at live performances. A WEHT employee reported that Shelton showed up on set every Saturday with a different woman. As a local bar owner “Poss” Coomes told a reporter, “He sang those old love ballads, and women just went crazy. He had no trouble getting all the women he wanted.”

The Kentucky State Police cold case summary doesn’t romanticize Curley, describing him bluntly: “He was apparently involved with several women, some married. He was a heavy drinker and was deeply in debt.” As Poss Coomes noted, “There was a lot of people who could have killed Curley Shelton.”

The Murder of Curley Shelton

On Wednesday, December 4, Curley worked a shift at Mesker Steel. His stepfather reported that Curley got home from work, changed clothes, and headed out around 5:35 PM. Later that evening he hit the bars. His first stop was the Moose Club. Witnesses reported that Curley got a phone call and left the bar around 9 PM.

The last sighting of Curley was at the local VFW club on US 41-A just outside of Henderson. He entered the club, approached the bar, and asked manager Jesse Craig, “Where’s Betty?”

Craig later told police there were no women at all in the bar, and he wasn’t sure who Curley was talking about. After Curley’s unsuccessful attempt to find Betty, Craig watched as he left through the door to the back parking lot.

The next day, two children playing in the parking lot of the VFW found a wallet, a man’s black shoe, and blood on the ground. When the mother of one boy, Minnie Shuttleworth, came to investigate, she found a car with the driver’s side door open and blood on the hood. Curley’s body was face down in the front seat of his 1953 Ford convertible.

Curley was so badly beaten that at first investigators thought he had been shot in the face. State Police Detective Edward O’Grady stated that he was beaten only with fists, no weapon. His leg was broken and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The assault had taken place in the parking lot and then his body was thrown into his car.

On Saturday, December 7, the Dixie Six—now five—played a tribute to Curley on “Hillside Hoedown.”

Curley was buried on December 8, his guitar draped in flowers next to his coffin. The Dixie Six served as pallbearers. Over 1,000 people paid their respects, including a number of devastated young women. One ex-girlfriend pleaded with the funeral director to open the casket so that she could look at him one more time. June Cates, who claimed to be Curley’s widow and the mother of his three-week-old son Ricky Wayne, was so wracked with grief that she required assistance leaving after the service. Later June confessed they were not officially married, although Curley’s body was found wearing a wedding ring.

June said that Curley had stopped by her parents’ house, where she lived, on Tuesday night. He told June he had band rehearsal Wednesday night, but that he’d take her out on Thursday. According to band members, however, Curley wasn’t rehearsing Wednesday night.

Curley had been out drinking and looking for a woman named Betty.

The Investigation

Although police interviewed hundreds of people in the days following his death, there were few solid leads. Henderson County Sheriff Lee Williams recalled that in 1954, three years before his murder, Curley had approached the sheriff and said a man wanted to kill him because he was sleeping with the man’s wife. The sheriff told him to end the affair and stay away from the man, but this apparently did little to prevent Shelton from pursuing other married women.

After Curley’s death, it was also reported that they found over a dozen letters in his possession: some love letters from smitten women, as well as threatening letters from angry men.

Another person that came under suspicion was Dixie Six band leader Doug Oldham. After Curley died, Oldham quit “Hillside Hoedown” and started working at a gas station, fueling speculation about his guilt. Frustrated by harassing phone calls and accusations, he went to the sheriff and asked to take a polygraph. He passed and law enforcement no longer considered him a suspect.

I came across one social media post identifying a suspect as another man whose girlfriend had slept with Curley, but without further verification I am not listing either parties’ names here.

The next spring a man drinking at a local bar claimed that he was the last person to see Curley alive. Evansville police tracked the man down and took him to the station for a polygraph. They obtained the names of two suspects who were contacted and told to report to Evansville police for a polygraph. The two suspects, whose names I could not uncover, never showed, and according to reports the police made no effort to find them.

Epilogue

No suspects were ever arrested in connection with the murder of Curley Shelton.

In 1960, Mrs. Shuttleworth had the bad luck to find another corpse on the property of the same VFW club. Frankie Deon Whitney, 22, was shot to death over a monetary dispute.

“Hillside Hoedown” was cancelled not long after Curley’s death and Doug Oldham’s departure. The Dixie Six also broke up.

Doug Oldham would go on to be defined primarily as a gospel singer; in the 1970s and 1980s, he became a regular performer on “The Old Time Gospel Hour” with Jerry Falwell and “The PTL Club” with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. He has a recital hall named after him on the campus of Falwell’s Liberty University.

Questions

Curley’s frequent run-ins with his lovers’ boyfriends and husbands seems a strong possibility. Was “Betty” supposed to be at the bar, and her significant other found out and showed up instead?

Or was “Betty” just a lure to get Curley to the bar by another person or, as the Evansville police suspected, persons? A cuckolded husband or two? A jealous or pregnant ex-lover? Sheriff Williams himself did not discount the possibility of a female attacker, telling the Evansville Courier, “Curley was a little less than six feet tall but didn’t weigh more than 120 or 125 pounds. Get (a woman) mad and she can become awfully big in no time.”

Could this have been about June, his alleged bride-to-be and mother of his newborn son? Was someone trying to keep June from tying the knot with the philandering Curley? Or had someone flown into a rage hearing Curley asking about a Betty while his adoring fiancé was home taking care of their three-week-old son?

Or was this about Curley’s debts? With another man killed nearby over money, it seems possible that there could have been some enforcement that got out of hand.

Anyone with information about the case can contact the Kentucky State Police at (270) 826-3312 or use the form at the KSP post on the murder: http://ksponline.org/cold_case/post16coldcase2.html

Sources

“Henderson star slain.” December 6, 1957. Paducah Sun.

“TV ‘hillbilly’ star is beaten to death.” December 6, 1957. Linton Daily Citizen.

Frank Boyett. December 12, 1999. “‘Hoedown’ star’s murder never solved.” The Gleaner. http://hendersoncountyky.ushalls.com/history/hoedown.html

Brett Barrouquere (AP). December 3, 2013. “Police puzzled by ’57 slaying of TV star.” Messenger-Inquirer.

Jon Webb. August 14, 2019. “An Evansville-area TV star was beaten to death; who killed him?” Evansville Courier & Press. https://www.courierpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/jon-webb/2019/08/14/evansville-area-tv-star-beaten-death-who-did-it/1996005001/

Jon Webb. August 16, 2019. “Rumors ran wild after an Evansville-area TV star was found dead in Henderson.” Evansville Courier & Press.

https://www.courierpress.com/story/opinion/columnists/jon-webb/2019/08/16/rumors-ran-wild-after-evansville-area-tv-star-curley-shelton-beaten-death/2021349001/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Oldham

https://lists.rootsweb.com/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/thread/21223298/