Remembering Ella: A 1912 Murder and Mystery in the Arkansas Ozarks

Product Description

In November 1912, popular and pretty eighteen-year-old Ella Barham was raped, murdered, and dismembered in broad daylight near her home in rural Boone County, Arkansas. The brutal crime sent shockwaves through the Ozarks and made national news. Authorities swiftly charged a neighbor, Odus Davidson, with the crime. Locals were determined that he be convicted, and threats of mob violence ran so high that he had to be jailed in another county to ensure his safety. But was there enough evidence to prove his guilt? If so, had he acted alone? What was his motive?Author Nita Gould weaves local history and short biographies into her narrative and draws on the official case files, early twentieth-century criminal law, original newspaper accounts, Ozarks beliefs and customs, Barham family documents, and more. Remembering Ella reveals the truth behind an event that has been a staple of local folklore for more than a century and still intrigues people from around the country. This examination of the murder of Ella Barham and the trial of her alleged killer opens a window into the meaning of community and due process during a time when politicians and judges sought to professionalize justice, by moving from local hangings to state-run executions. Davidson’s appeal has been cited as a precedent in numerous court cases and his brief was reviewed by the lawyers in Georgia who prepared Leo Frank’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915.

Review

Remembering Ella takes us back to what should have been the “good old days” in the rural Ozarks of northern Arkansas, but it’s hard to imagine a more gruesome and heartbreaking murder story than this one, an event so terrible that it scarred a community for decades. Yet Nita Gould, drawing on years of research and long-hidden artifacts, manages to tell the story with a combination of painstaking detail, objectivity, and compassion. 

–Brooks Blevins,
A History of the Ozarks, Volume 1: The Old Ozarks

Remembering Ella superbly tells this story of murder and a possibly flawed trial which results in the execution of the defendant. The author, Nita Gould, is a cousin of Ella Barham, but this book is no mere sentimental homage to a long-dead relative. Gould is a fine self-trained historian and a relentless researcher, and her writing is engaging. Most importantly, the author makes an ultimately successful effort to write a balanced account which is fair to the memory of Ella Barham as well as the man executed for her murder, Odus Davidson.

–Tom Dillard,
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 9, 2018

Among a crowded and thriving field, author Nita Gould has written a stand-out exemplar of the True Crime genre…this engaging work…aside from the true crime elements, includes historical, cultural, and genealogical tidbits about life in the Ozarks during a time period when the reality of the rural Ozarks often resembled the backwater stereotype that still plagues modern depictions of the region…It’s a glimpse into life before the technological revolution tore a hole in the social fabric… Gould does a thoroughly credible job maintaining her neutrality, despite her blood ties to the victim…you should read
Remembering Ella. She is worth your time.

–Victoria Howerton,
Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies, July 1, 2019

Remembering Ella offers the reader a thorough description of the events leading up to a truly grisly crime…the book is a compelling read as the reader revisits a rural world, its traditions, and intimate personal interactions as well as the effects of this culture on the crime and the crime’s effect on the culture…The author should be praised for attempting to present a definitive study of an event some one-hundred-plus-years-old that has been long the focus of local folklore and conjecture. Given her exhaustive study of newspaper accounts, legal documents, and the small number of available interviews, she presents a thorough account of th