Ethel Price Newville Baptist Church Cemetery Newville, Alabama (Henry County) Submitted by Roberta Whiddon Childs Inscription reads: MURDERED BY HER HUSBAND H. C. PRICE, JR. SO HARD IN THE BLOOM OF LIFE TO HAVE HER LIFE STOLEN BY THE ONE WHO PROMISED TO KEEP AND PROTECT THROUGH THIS LIFE. SLEEP ON PRECIOUS CHILD AND MOTHER. WE HOPE TO MEET AND SEE YOU SOME SWEET DAY.

Photo courtesy of Roberta Whiddon Childs

Price, Ethel Wright b. December 23, 1906 d. November 9, 1931 Ethel was the daughter of Forrest Wright and Eliza Jane Griffin Wright.

The following articles were extracted and submitted
by Roberta Whiddon Childs.

The Abbeville Herald
November 12, 1931

Newville Woman Is Killed; Husband Is Injured In Wreck

Mrs. H.C. Price, Jr., 24 of Newville was killed and her husband was seriously injured when a lightless automobile in which they were riding went over an embankment into a dirt fill near Hartford on the Hartford and Bellwood Road.

After the lights on the machine went out sometime before the accident, the couple obtained a young man to pilot them over the road according to reports of the accident. While detouring around a washed out section of the road the machine made the fatal plunge. The boy piloting the couple leaped from the machine before it rolled into the gully and was not injured. The name of the boy was not known here. Striking the bottom of the gully, the car landed on its radiator and did a complete summersault and up-righted itself.

Mrs. Price was killed instantly. Mr. Price was brought to a Dothan hospital for treatment.

Physicians attending the injured man said that he would recover unless there were unforeseen complications. No bones were broken, but he was severely bruised on the body, attendant said.

Prices’ escape from death was described as miraculous.

Funeral arrangements for Mrs. Price have not been completed today (Tuesday), pending the arrival of her sister from North Carolina. Besides her husband, Mrs. Price is survived by one daughter, Winnie Ruth; her father, H.F. Wright, Newville, one sister Mrs. Larry Jemerson, of Raleigh, N.C.; seven brothers, Orice and Bryan Wright, R.D. Wright, of Ashford, L.A. Wright of Headland, C. C. Wright, of Headland and W. E. Wright of Ashford; her father and mother-in –law, Mr. and Mrs. H.C. Price Sr., of Newville.

The Wiregrass Farmer
Headland, Alabama
November 19, 1931

Wallace Bowen’s Statement Throws New Light on
Mrs. Price’s Death

The second phase of the sensation of following the death of Mrs. H.C. Price, Jr., of Newville was entered into Monday night when Wallace Bowen made what is reputed to be a confession of the manner in which Mrs. Price was killed. This statement charges Price with full responsibility for the alleged murder. It is as follows:

Bowen’s Statement
Following is the written statement signed by Wallace Bowen after midnight in the Geneva County jail:

Geneva, Ala., November 16, 1931 My name is Wallace Bowen and I live in Newville, Ala. Last Monday afternoon, November 9, 1931, at about 6 o’clock, H.C. Price, Jr., saw me in Newville, Ala. and invited me to go with him and his wife, Ethel Price, to Mr. Billie Wells’ house in Geneva County, Ala. I got on the car with them in Newville, Ala. and we went through Dothan and Hartford on our way to Mr. Well’s house.

Sometime after we had passed Hartford, H.C. Price, Jr., who had been driving the car all the way from Dothan, complained of having indigestion and requested me to drive the car for him. Price at that time got into the rear seat of the car and I began driving with Mrs. Ethel Price seated by me. We had gone about three-fourths of a mile after this when H. C. Price, Jr., struck Mrs. Ethel Price with a piece of iron. I knew nothing of his having this piece of iron. Nor did I know anything about his intention to kill his wife. She said “Oh, H. C.!” and then H.C. hit her againg on the head. She said nothing more.

I stopped the car and got out. H.C. got over the seat by his wife. He speeded up the engine of the car and then jumped out and the car with Mrs. Ethel Prince in it went into the big gully. H.C. then turned to me and said, “If you ever say anything about this I’ll kill you.” I then ran down the road and H. C. called me and said, “Wait, I will not hurt you.” I waited and he came up with me. He had the iron in his had.

He then told me to go on over to his Uncle’s, Mr. Billie Wells, and tell him the car had run into the big gully with H.C. and Ethel in it and that Ethel was dead and H.C. just about dead. He then told me again if I ever told this, he would kill me. He went on with me as far as the creek and threw the piece of iron. I went on to the home of Mr. Wells and told Mr. Wells what H.C. told me to tell him.

He went back with me to where the car went into the gully. We found the man and his wife lying on the ground near the car in the gully. Mrs. Price was dead and H.C. was just lying there. Others then came upon the scene. We went to the hospital at Dothan, H.C. and I in the ambulance. On the way to Dothan H. C. told me to stick to my story and that everything would be all right. He then told me that he was not hurt at all, but that he would go to the funeral in the ambulance.

Witness my hand, this the 16th day of November 1931.
(signed) Wallace Bowen
Attest: J. A. Driver, J. F. Hall

Bowen’s first confession is said to have been made at Newville in the presence of his father and Policeman Roney. Relatives of Mrs. Price at that time were in Hartford for the purpose of obtaining warrants for arrest of the two men on circumstantial evidence. When it was learned that Bowen had made a statement warrants were issued against Price and Bowen charging first-degree murder. Both were locked up Monday night in the Geneva county jail, one on one floor, and one on their other. So far as is known, Price has not made a statement subsequent to his arrest. It is further stated that Mrs. Price carried an insurance policy for $3,000 containing a double indemnity clause, of which her husband was the beneficiary.

Price was arrested in a Dothan hospital where he had been since the death of his wife.

The Abbeville Herald
February 18, 1932

Price Given Sentence Of Life Imprisonment By Geneva County Jury

Geneva, Ala., Feb. 14 – A Geneva County Jury after 21 hours of deliberation last Thursday convicted H.C. Price, Jr., 25 year –old son of a wealthy planter, of murdering his 23 year old wife last November 9 and fixed his punishment at life imprisonment. Price was unmoved as he heard the verdict.

The State, through Wallace Bowen, a companion of the Prices the night she was killed charged that the young man struck his wife twice over the head with an automobile axle and then sent his car over an embankment to conceal the crime.

Price at the time of his wife’s death, said lights on the automobile failed while in route to his uncle‘s home near Hartford and that in the darkness the car plunged over the embankment.

Several days later Price and Bowen were arrested, and the latter told authorities Price had killed his wife, then sent the car plunging over the embankment, and threatened, “to kill me if I ever told it.”

In the trial, the defense sought to establish that the death was accidental and to impeach Bowen’s testimony through another witness who testified Bowen had said he “could make some money out of this case if I tell what they want me to.” Price was taken to Kilby prison last week to begin serving his sentence.

Bowen Acquitted
The same witnesses that testified in the Price trial were called by the State against Bowen and testimony during the trial Thursday afternoon was virtually a repetition of that on which Price was convicted.

The jury hearing the Wallace Bowen case acquitted him of charges of first-degree murder Saturday.

Bowen accompanied by his mother and father, received the verdict without comment, although he later shook hands with members of the jury, and thanked them for their decision.

The jury deliberated less than 3 hours, receiving Judge Emmett Thigpen’s charge at 8:45 p.m. Friday and returning the verdict at 8:45 a.m. Saturday after being locked up for the night, Friday night.