Dark Venture also
Please Murder Me

Murder or Suicide?

The mystery-cloaked case of Elmo Benner Johnson, spotted with violence over the past 4 1/2 months, provided a genuine puzzler for law officials late Sunday when Johnson's body was found face downward in about three feet of water, near a sandbar below O'Neal Bridge.

Two bullet wounds from a small calibre pistol were found, one in the left side of the chest, where powder burns were found and another one just over the right ear. The gun has not been found . . . 

The coat, belonging to Johnson, was brought to the police station by officers and later was turned over to a brother, Larry Johnson.

The note, which has been turned over to the family, stated, "I feel like I am a burden," and gave other evidence that Johnson was depressed, however there was no statement concerning any possibility of a shooting.

Another note found in the coat listed six persons who should be pallbearers, however.

Mr. Johnson had last been seen on Thursday night in Florence, according to Sheriff Earl Romine and Coroner Bill Chisholm, meaning he could have been fatally wounded any time between Friday afternoon and when he was found Sunday at 2 P.M . . . 

Bobby: "Jonny, that period to me there—I tell you, was so many unpleasant things that happened during that time—it's hard for me to establish. Now Elmo . . . " (to Stanley) "I talked to your father about his problem . . . you know, Elmo had some family problems."

Stanley: "Right."

Bobby: "And he came to me and talked to me about it. That was after he had been to Memphis and tried to shoot Geneva, you know."

Stanley: "I'd forgotten about that ."

Bobby: "Elmo came to me and he says, Bob, what am I gonna do? Says, I walk up the street, and he says, Kids yell at me, Murderer! Murderer! I says, the best thing you can do,

Florence police today were confronted with a first class mystery in connection with the serious wounding of Elmo Benner Johnson, 52-year-old house manager of the Princess Theatre, who was found with a head injury on the sidewalk in front of the theatre this morning at 4:45 o'clock.

Johnson, long-time employee of the Rosenbaum Theatres, had been free under bond in recent days in connection with the shooting of his estranged wife Geneva, 34, at Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, June 2.

He was found lying on the sidewalk in front of the Negro entrance to the Princess this morning by Marvin (Shorty) Lindsey, a cab driver from Florence Taxi Company, Inc., for a number of years. Lindsey called police, who rushed Johnson to Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted at 5 A.M., and where x-rays of the head injury were to be taken today.

Chief of Police Noah H. Danley said that Johnson was wounded on the right side of the head in the vicinity of the temple and that officers were unable to determine whether the wound had been inflicted by a bullet or by Johnson having been struck with some blunt instrument. If it was a bullet, Chief Danley said, he believed the shot must have been fired from some distance.

Chief Danley said that the cab driver told officers that although he had known Johnson for years that he was so covered with soot and dirt when he caught his attention while lying on the sidewalk early this morning that he did not even recognize him. The police chief said the soot was all over Johnson, especially on his arms, and in his hair, and that police had been unable to find a trace of even a drop of blood or any spot on the theatre premises inside or outside, where Johnson could have gotten so dirty.

The police chief quoted Johnson, who was reportedly conscious, that he was in the narrow alley between the Princess Theatre and the Ryan Piano Company, next door, when he heard something that sounded like a gunshot, and that the next thing he could remember he was crawling out of the alley to the point in front of the theatre where he was found by the cab driver.

Elmo, is just ignore it . . .  Because I'm no psychologist, I didn't know what to tell the man, but I thought the best thing to do was for him to get it off of his mind."

Mimi: "He was a very quiet person, he took everything into himself."

Bobby: "He was very disturbed at that point."

Mimi: "Very depressed."

Bobby: "And I'll tell you what I told him when he came and talked to me about this. Of course, he was a veteran, and I advised him to go get psychiatric treatment at a veterans hospital. I said, That'd be the best thing in the world for you. And shortly after that, when—I don't know, something else minor happened—your dad called me in the office one day and asked me about it, and I told him all this background. He said, Well, it's a" (lowering voice) "a darn shame that he hadn't talked to you before that. And I said, Well, Mr. Rosenbaum, I didn't know what to tell him—"

Stanley: "Well now, I'll tell you what the other thing that happened was . . . He said there was a tramp sleeping in there who shot him."

Bobby: "Well, you know, Stanley, that was—I figured that thing out. I don't know

Police surmised that it was possible that Johnson was unconscious for several hours, inasmuch as he was apparently unable to account for about 5 or 6 hours between the time the theatre closed Wednesday and the time he was found this morning. They also surmised that it was possible that he had been wounded at some point and then dumped in the narrow alley between the theatre and the piano company.

Negro attendants at the theatre, in the presence of newsmen, told police that to the best of their knowledge Johnson had left the theatre premises around 10 P.M. and that he had deposited the day's theatre receipts in the night depository at the First National Bank.

They told officers, however, in answer to questions that it was not unusual for Johnson to come back to the theatre to check the premises, air conditioning fans, etc., or to paint signs used in promotion of the theatre's offerings  . . . 

Chief Danley said he was not sure whether Johnson had wounded himself or whether someone else had inflicted the wound, but expressed the belief that the wound was inflicted by someone else.

Prior to the time that Johnson shot his wife in the Memphis tiff, she was employed for a while as a concession stand operator at the theatre. When she became ill she reportedly went to Memphis to stay with her sister, Mrs. Virginia Landers, on Trigg Street.

Memphis Police Captain W. W. Wilkinson, of the Homicide Bureau, said Mrs. Johnson had been with her sister about a week when her husband took an overnight bus to Memphis and appeared at the Landers' home on Sunday, June 2, at about 8 A.M. He asked for his wife. A few minutes later, Mrs. Johnson's relatives told Memphis police, they heard Johnson say:

"I told you that if you ever left me I'd kill you."

Johnson then reportedly pulled a pistol out of his shaving kit and fired, the bullet striking his wife in the upper left chest. Mrs. Johnson's 18-year-old nephew, Marion Landers, wrestled with Johnson and took the gun away from him after one additional bullet was fired into the wall.

Then he rushed Mrs. Johnson to St. Joseph Hospital there where she reportedly since has recovered. Later, according to reports, she returned to the home

whether I did or not—I thought I did. A couple days after that happened, you had asked me to go down there to the Princess—you or your father, one—and take over and kinda get the place straightened out. And that's when your father was thinkin' about puttin' Tom in charge, Tom Stafford. So Tom and I went down there and we went over the place to see what it needed, because it had gotten rundown. And we were sittin' down there in the front checkin' some of those seats—if you remember, we had put some wedges in there, it came out of another theay ter that was on a different pitch floor, and we had to put wooden blocks under the front of the seats, and they kept comin' loose all the time. Well, what I wanted to do when we put 'em in there was to get new standards to fit that slope floor, but Louis Wates from, uh, you know, Atlanta, talked your dad into usin' the same seats with blocks under 'em. Well, we couldn't keep them fastened down because—" (Laughter)

Stanley: "Those standards were costly, and he was trying to avoid that."

Bobby: "I know, because at that time I realized he didn't want to spend

of her sister in Memphis and was planning to return to Florence.

The Johnsons, who have been married for about 14 years, have no children.

Johnson was booked at Memphis for assault to murder and carrying a pistol and was later released on bond after being held over to the Shelby County, Tennessee, grand jury by the District Attorney's office.

After making bond, Johnson returned to Florence a few days after and resumed his duties at the theatre. A long-time theatre employee, Johnson had never been in any trouble, according to police, until the Memphis incident occurred.

Chief Danley said that when he questioned Johnson at the hospital this morning he was informed that Johnson was not aware of anyone who would want to harm him and that he had not had words with anyone . . . 

"We have no one under suspicion and no real clues to go on," the Chief added. "We have had no report from the hospital or doctors as to what the x-rays showed and we do not know whether the wound was inflicted by a bullet or by some blunt instrument or in whose hands the gun or instrument may have been."

He added that Johnson appeared to be fully conscious when questioned and "talked sense." However, he was unable to account for the lapse of time between the closing of the theatre and when he was found wounded on the sidewalk at 4:45 A.M. The police said he did not know the present whereabouts of Mrs. Johnson.

much on the place, but—it was where he started out, he still wanted to keep that his number one theater, in one sense of the word. And so anyway, gettin' back to this other problem, when Tom and I were sittin' there, here comes Elmo . . . And, you know, we were completely surprised that he was even comin' round the place after what happened. So after we both spoke to him, he went backstage, and he was not back there over five or ten minutes. When he came out, I made some gesture to him, but he never did answer me. He just walked on out. Well, shortly after that Tom and I went backstage to see how the conditions were back there, and then we went in the basement to check the airconditioning equipment. And there was a spot right next to one of the pans that cools the water—drips in after it cools the condenser—and right there, next to the unit, was a puddle of water that was freshly spattered there. It went over toward the stairway a little bit, and then it disappeared. So we decided that the gun he used to try to kill himself the first time—which I never thought was anything else but suicide—that is where the gun was. Because they

The second story, written by Dillon, concludes:

When Johnson was wounded on July 20 [sic ], no weapon was ever found by law officers. Johnson had told lawmen at that time that he did not know what happened.

Officers never officially decided whether Johnson, at this time, had shot himself or was the victim of an unknown assailant.

Mr. Johnson, a resident of 822 East Mobile Street, Florence, had been a resident of Florence since 1925 when he came to the Shoals area from Wayne County, Tenn., where he was born. He was a veteran of World

War II and a member of the Florence-Lauderdale American Legion post.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 P.M. Tuesday at Chisholm Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Shirley Lowery, assistant pastor of the First Methodist Church, officiating. Burial will follow in Florence Cemetery.

Military rites, under direction of the American Legion, will be held at the graveside  . . . 

Active bearers will be Craston Faulkner, John R. Barnes, John Bevis, Emmett Rodin, Robert E. Stewart, and Estes Flynt.

Arrangements by Chisholm Funeral House.

never could find a gun that was—"

Jonathan: "And so he came back to get it, you think."

Bobby: "And he came back to get it. Because there was no other reason in the world for any fresh water to be disturbed down there around that air-conditioning unit."