Less than reputable
people lend spice to histories. A while back we heard about the dissolute Samuel
Tapscott, son of Henry of Kentucky and a chief protagonist in The Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley. Here
is the story of Samuel’s grandnephew Omer Frank Tapscott, who is also appearing
in the book.
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| 77-year-old Omer walks up the Coles County courthouse steps for a preliminary hearing on a murder charge (Decatur Herald, Decatur, Illinois, Fri 24 Apr 1959, p. 4.) |
Omer, son of James Byron
and Sabra Ellen (Mundy) Tapscott and great grandson of Henry of Kentucky, worked
for many years as a brakeman for the Illinois Central Railroad and for a while
as a pipeline laborer in Marshall, Illinois. But only briefly married (another story) and living with
his parents most of his life, financial security eluded him. In 1939, at the
age of 56 and the sole support of his widowed mother, he worked only ten weeks
and earned but $200.
Either his failure
brought him to a wayward life or his wayward life led to failure, but in either
case he suffered from numerous brushes with the law. In June, 1915, he was
arrested in Decatur, Illinois, for selling bootleg whiskey in nearby Arthur,
Illinois. The arresting official was none other than Arthur’s Mayor. Omer was
fined $100 (a huge sum in those days) and sentenced to 40 days in the county
jail. In January, 1919, Omer was one of fourteen arrested in a gambling raid in
Champaign, Illinois. Once again a mayor, Mayor Tucker of Champaign, was
directly involved in the arrests.
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Menard Penitentiary (now Menard Correction Center),
Chester, Illinois, Omer’s temporary residence (2010).
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Omer's biggest scrape with the law occurred in Charleston, Illinois. There, Cooley’s Pool Hall at 505 Monroe Avenue, run by Purne A. Cooley, was a center for Coles County gambling and a magnet for Omer. In 20 April 1959, while playing poker in the back room of Cooley's, Omer became involved in a violent argument with one Buford Hill. Some say that Omer went home and returned with a pistol. Wherever it came from, Omer pulled the pistol from his coat pocket and shot Hill, who died the following day, just shy of age 51. In part because of Omer's age of 77, a Coles County jury failed to reach a verdict and the charge was reduced to manslaughter. Omer pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and requested probation. His lawyer claimed that his client was acting only in self-defense and shot Hill because he feared for his life. The lawyer went on to say that “Any sentence, even if it be only one year, is a death sentence because age and poor health have numbered Tapscott's days.” The judge refused probation. On 14 Nov 1959 Omer was sentenced to four to ten years at Menard Penitentiary. He took his sentence well, stating “I’ll have over $3,000 saved up from my pension checks when I get released.”
Omer failed to learn
from his lesson. Several years later, in 1965, at 4:30 pm on a Thursday, 9 December,
Illinois State Police simultaneously raided three Coles County establishments
suspected to front gambling activities—Knight's Buffet, White Owl Truck Stop,
and Cooley's Pool Room. Thirty-four people were arrested. One was Omer, at age 83 still a
frequenter of Cooley’s.
Omer passed away less
than two years later on 6 April 1967. Today, only a parking lot is found where
Cooley's Pool Room once stood. Omer rests alongside his mother in the city
cemetery in Marshall, Illinois. Buford lies in Roselawn Cemetery in
Charleston.
