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If you grew up in Searcy, chances are you have heard about the 1963 abduction and murder of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton, or you know someone who was affected by the case.
Photo courtesy of Harding College Petit Jean Yearbook
Authors Deana Hamby Nall and Mike S. Allen have published a true crime book titled “The Abduction of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton,” which gives an account of the beloved English teacher at Harding College and the decades-long investigation by federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The incident received extensive coverage throughout the central United States, including a front-page photo and accompanying article in the Chicago Tribune.
While true crime sometimes gets a bad rap for revictimizing families, Nall and Allen hope that by shedding light on a still unsolved case, perhaps it will bring answers. And even more importantly, they seek to share a fuller picture of the person Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton was.
Allen, a native of Searcy, grew up hearing about the crime from his father, Dr. Jimmy Allen, a faculty member at Harding with Mrs. Stapleton. The book itself was a four-year collaboration between Allen and Nall, and it follows their previous true-crime bestseller, “A Murder in Searcy,” published in 2021.
“We mentioned Mrs. Stapleton briefly in our previous book, A Murder in Searcy,” Allen said. “The crime against Mrs. Stapleton took place 11 years prior to the murder of Mrs. Fern Rodgers. Two prominent women in Searcy had been killed — about a decade apart — and the respective investigations captured the attention of people throughout Arkansas and the surrounding areas. In the case of Mrs. Stapleton, word spread quickly throughout the Harding and Church of Christ communities as well. After publishing our first book together, Deana and I talked about a second project, and the Stapleton case seemed compelling.”
Nall, who lives in Bryant and teaches as an associate professor at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College, echoed this sentiment.
“Our first book was about the Porter Rodgers murder case in Searcy, and while we were researching it, we kept running across references to the Stapleton case,” Nall said. “Also, Heather Bates, Ruby Stapleton’s granddaughter, was in the process of suing the Arkansas State Police for access to the case file while we were working on the Rodgers book, so the Stapleton case stayed on our radar.”
Bates became an invaluable resource for the authors as they researched the case. She provided them with access to the 200-page police file. As they stated in the book preface, “first and foremost, the authors wish to express our appreciation to Heather Heffington Bates, the granddaughter of Ruby Stapleton. Heather shared a copy of the Arkansas State Police file with us and diligently answered our questions.”
Photo courtesy of Harding College Petit Jean Yearbook
Another resource was Joel Anderson, chancellor-emeritus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who was president of the Harding student body in 1963. “We have waited a long time for this comprehensive account,” he said. “The abduction of Ruby Stapleton has to be the most shocking and disturbing event in the history of Harding University. With relentless research in law enforcement records and in other sources, Nall and Allen have spent years gathering the available information and evidence and have laid it all out for us in a spare, readable account with numerous pictures of people and places in the story.”
The book is a compilation of many primary sources and interviews. Although he wasn’t interviewed, I was shocked to find my own husband’s uncle mentioned prominently in the book, as he was dating Mrs. Stapleton’s niece at the time of her abduction.
Allen and Nall also expressed their own surprises that arose from their thorough investigation.
“I’d say the most surprising thing to me was that the police never searched the Stapleton residence,” Allen said. “From my perspective, there might have been a clue in Mrs. Stapleton’s correspondence or something else that could have led to a possible suspect.”
For Nall, it’s the extent of Ray Stapleton’s “extracurricular activities.”
“Before we got into the case file, I assumed it was small-town gossip that had been blown out of proportion,” she said. “But the police interviews showed that he truly lived a double life. It made me sad that he seemed to be pursuing something he could never quite pin down, and it made me sad for Mrs. Stapleton that their marriage was not what she had thought it would be.”
As a reader, I also couldn’t help but feel a bond of my own with Mrs. Stapleton, who at one time served as adviser for The Bison newspaper and Petit Jean yearbook at Harding, a position I currently hold.
That deep connection to Harding is what the authors hope readers get a sense of. Nall said she wants readers to know “what a significant role Mrs. Stapleton played in Harding’s history. She had attended college there, and as an employee in 1934, she supervised the college’s move from Morrilton to its present location in Searcy. Then she taught there for almost 30 more years until her tragic murder. She basically devoted her life to Harding, and she cared deeply about her students.”
Allen agrees. “She was such an integral member of Harding College during its first 40 years,” he said. “She is certainly worthy of special recognition for all of the contributions she made, from excelling in the classroom and sponsoring student publications to serving on numerous faculty and alumni committees and helping move the school from Morrilton, Arkansas, to Searcy.”
The book is available for purchase on Amazon in both e-book and paperback formats.
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