Purnell and Keenan….what ever happened to them?

[novice]

Gregory Davis wrote regarding Keenan and Purnell in 2004:

“I have given you a starting place. Let's see what you folks can dig up out there.”

I’m a Johnny come lately to the search but I will try and address some additional public documents regarding Leroy Purnell.

There is no implication that they shed any light at all on the Adolph Ruth disappearance but Purnell was a prominent figure in the story.

Leroy was 20 years old when he was sentenced for Grand Larceny and sent to the Utah State Prison in Salt Lake City. He served almost a year and was given a pardon after completion of his sentence, restoring all of his civil rights. For anyone wishing more detail, I have posted the documents on the LDM document web site. See the link “Leroy Purnell, Utah State Prison Records”. This was in the 1909 – 1910 period.

Leroy married Eleanor Hart on April 5, 1917 in Logan, Utah. His obituary provided by Gregory, identifies his wife as Eleanor Porter. Porter was indeed her maiden name but she was married previously to Charles L. Hart on June 1, 1915 in Cache County, Utah.

The last record I have been able to find regarding Leroy is from the WW I Civilian Draft Registration Records. He was living in Bannock County, Idaho. This would have been about the summer of 1918.

I have been unable to locate Purnell in either the 1920 or 1930 census. The next public record is taken from Tom Kollenborn’s book A Ride Through Time in which he has L. F. Purnell staking the Mountain View Claim on March 2, 1931 near the Superstitions?

In the Gregory Davis, Fred Guirey interview, there is an implication that Leroy may have served time in the Arizona Prison at Florence. I have been unable to confirm this. There is a web site that lists prisoners in the Arizona Department of Corrections Historical Prisoner Register prior to 1972 and Purnell does not appear. Perhaps Greg or someone else can shed some light on this reference?

Garry

[novice]

I was trying to find some additional information on Jack and Marion Keenan and from their son Daniel’s Death Certificate, we find Marion’s maiden name Therrien and her birthplace as Lawrence, Massachusetts.

I was able to locate the family in the 1910 census in Lawrence, MA and Marion was three years old. She had an older brother Leo. Checking back in the 1930 census in Arizona we find Leo Terry living with Jack and Marion and he is listed as a brother-in-law.

Searching further we found the family living in Manchester, New Hampshire in the 1920 Census. The parents were dead. I had gone about as far as I could.

I knew Paul (Cubfan) lived in that area and I contacted him and he graciously agreed to do some additional searching. He went to the Library in Manchester, New Hampshire and BINGO, he located the marriage of Jack and Marion! He also found some references in the Manchester City Directories that may prove useful.

Below is the Marriage certificate he obtained;



Paul was unable to find any additional references to Marion’s brother Leo Therrien (Terry).

Jack and Marion appeared in the 1929 Manchester Directory and then show up in Arizona at least by early 1930.

This brings to mind a couple of questions;

What brought Jack, Marion and Leo all the way to Arizona from Massachusetts?

Why did Leo change his name to Terry in Arizona? (His sister continued to use Therrein on her son’s birth and death certificate.)

Marion and Leo appear to have been very close. She named a son Leo and Leo seems to have lived close for several years while Jack and Marion remained in Arizona.

Thanks again to Paul,

Garry

[don]

Woodreau,

Welcome to Ron's site.



Ruth's revolver was "unfired" leaving the only possibility of an accident
in the hands of "others".

Welcome, again.

Respectfully,

Joe Ribaudo

It appeared that Ruth,s revolver was "unfired" thats all..could be that the revolver was "tampered " with pre "discovery" couldnt it?
regards

[armchair]

Purnell seemed to be trading on his association with Ruth. This is from an article in the San Antonio Light July 25, 1937:

"L.F. Purnell, veteran prospector of Idaho and Nevada, who has seen "ghost cities" rise and fall, is heading to the Winnemucca, Nevada region. Purnell gained considerable fame in 1931 when he guided Adolph Ruth to the Superstition Mountains in search of the mystery mine in Arizona. He is a familair figure in mining camps. Born in 1889, he has traveled from Idaho to Mexico, and has been at most of the major mineral lodes of the Intermountain West.

Some day he hopes to rediscover the famous lost Dutch mine in the Superstition Mountains, said to be worth millions and to see the "ghosts" of the West come to life. He is on his way prospecting again this year, averaging thirty to forty miles per day toward gold county with his three burros, Tuffy, Jack and Topay."

It seems whenever someone wants good PR they give their animals cute names. Maybe he was also being prophetic that his old partner would take the historical blame for Ruth's death - Tuffy Jack To Pay!

[novice]

Armchair,

Nice find!

It took me awhile to pick up on the Tuffy Jack Topay. Jack would have been Jack Keenan.

It sounds like the writer was pretty familiar with the story, otherwise how would he have fingered Jack Keenan? I wonder if Purnell was in San Antonio, or the paper picked up the story from another paper? I'd love to know who the author was and where Purnell was when the author got the story. Surely Purnell wasn't that famous around San Antonio 6 years after Ruths death.

Why was Purnell seeking publicity in San Antonio or anywhere else for that matter? Was he still trying to run a scam on a Ruth map?

From the Dan Jones' letters, Purnell's girl friend claimed he told her he killed Ruth and he now had a map. Maybe Purnell was trying to deflect that episode a bit by pointing at Keenan?

Garry

Garry

[armchair]

Garry,

It was a very small section of a full page article about old ghost towns in Nevada coming back to life for various reasons. There was a long distance picture of Purnell leading three burros, but otherwise nothing else on Purnell or the Dutchman. I don't remember an author listed but there was a note indicating it was a syndicated article, so I imagine it was in several newspapers of the day. I found it while doing some searches on a website called newspaperarchive.com

It seems that Purnell was not worried about being associated Ruth and I suspect having a little fame to trade on helped him get his grubstakes. Desn't seem to be a man hiding from a crime.

I had gotten the feeling in reading one of Storm's books that those old Spanish tunnels were re-discovered in ~1937. If so I don't see how Purnell could have found at map there while at the same time we was in Nevada.

By the way, I noticed in the original post on this topic those tunnels were called the "antigua tunnels". Do you know if that was a name with some historical meaning, or perhaps the author was just indicating old tunnels???

[zentull]

The Antigua name has puzzled me for years. I figured it had to do with a previous claim in the area, but still have come up short. It is an interesting area. Randy found a huge rock filled with crystals on the cliffs above the pit. Hopefully when he gets a moment he will post a picture of it. We also found an old broken knife in a drainage.

Greg has some nice pictures in the Burbridge collection of monuments in the area of the tunnels. If there were papers around there, they were most likely from the Linesbee era and are gone much like the monuments and Williams camp.

Not a fun area above there. Lots of snakes, jumping cactus and loose rock.

[novice]

Armchair,

I was finally able to view the newspaper article you referenced. I hope you have better luck with newspaperarchive.com than I do. It always seems to be a hassle.

I was making an erroneous assumption and missed your quotes denoting the extent of the article! You came up with the Tuffy Jack Topay theory and not the newspaper writer. Not a bad idea but I was putting more into the newspaper writer’s familiarity with Purnell’s background than was there.

I think I’m back on a solid foundation regarding this story.

Thanks again for sharing,

Garry