I think your ideas on why Paola wasn't linked are spot on. The reputation of Anna Hudson goes without saying.
As far as Paola is concerned, like you said, there was such a long time in-between events. The public has a short attention-span when it comes to events that don't directly concern them.
Certainly, the Villisca event would have been SOOOOO much bigger and would have easily drowned the Paola event as far as coverage & headlines are concerned.
The Titanic sinking was such a huge deal then too. Good luck trying to get people to care about a couple of deaths in little ol' Paola, KS.
It's amazing how back then...just like today, the media decides what is a story and what isn't & how long something is in the news.
Today, the media is all about blogs, HD, Twitter & Satellite trucks. Back then, it was ink & paper, flash bulbs & big box cameras. One thing remains though...the powers that be at media outlets really control what is news & how long people hear about it.
Also, I'm always curious as to just how well police agencies worked with each other back then. I wonder if there are more events that should have been linked but weren't, thanks to a bull-headed Sheriff or Police Chief.
CJL - It was very hard for police agencies to colaborate in cases like this. However with this particular series of murders, they tried. The Clackamas County (Oregon) sheriff made a trip to Colorado Springs to compare notes. After Villisca, Ellsworth, Colorado Springs and Monmouth investigators showed up but decided none of the crimes were related. The biggest impediment to collaboration was the use of national detective agencies like the Pinkertons and Burns. They were competitors after the same reward money and billable hours so they were very reluctant to share information with each other. Fingerprint expert M. W. McLaughry was perhaps the first to really propose the crimes where the work of one person but his hypothesis fell on deaf ears. For the record, I disagree with his suspect (Henry Lee Moore) but not his hypothesis. Thanks for the comment!
Inspector: I would agree with your reasoning why paola was neglected over the years, but would like to add an observation or two. When I first visited Villisca in the 1950's everyone knew about the murder and many people had strong ideas regarding who was guilty. When I visited the other four murder sites in the 1970's I spent hours just finding someone who even knew there had been a murder in their town.
Why the difference? I believe three factors were involved. First the relative social economic position of the victims. Joe Moore, while not yet wealthy, was from an established family in the community. He was also on his way up the economic ladder in Villisca when murdered. The victims in the other cases were all poor, extremely so in some cases. The second factor was that there was a local suspect in Villisca with a semblance of motive. (F.F.Jones)None of the other murders had such a suspect. Finaly the arrival of detective Wilkerson insured the local citizenry would not forget the case. He canonized the rumors and constructed a logical case against Jones, if you accepted his tortured assumptions. Ed Epperly
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