Cold Case Murder Clue

Greetings, internet friends and neighbors, and a great good morning to you! And to those family members who have made their way here, I surely would appreciate the return of the big Tupperware containers. My gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, made a bodacious portion of mac and cheese (it's the ONLY mac and cheese I will willingly eat) and I have to put it in the icebox. If you can't bring it in person, at least send me a text (or comment on this post) and tell me where you might have hidden the larger food storage items.

I ain't playin' wit' you!

I need to store this!

This morning, I was thinking about a death, under mysterious circumstances, that was THE talk of the nation, a little more than a half-century ago.

Lacking anything that might reasonably be considered as proper crime scene evidence, for as contemporary documentation we have only the record (ummm...literally) of certain allegedly non-involved local residents discussing the death of a local teen. While this claims that the death was a suicide, the location and circumstances of the young man's death were sufficient to stir widespread speculation as to what really happened.

Time: Early summer. The actual date of the death of William Joseph McAllister is somewhat vague, but probably took place on or about June 1 or 2, 1967.
Location: rural Mississippi. Although a cursory impression of the community is that of just one more sleepy, dusty Delta farming settlement, appearances can be deceiving. Just shy of 12 years prior, another teen-age male had been killed in the exact same location. Despite the similarities between the cases, there has evidently been NO official effort to link the two murders. (Both were teens; both were guilty of nothing that could be regarded as a crime; both bodies were discovered in the very same river.) -FOOTNOTE 0-

Although the circumstances surrounding the death of a young man in rural Mississippi were vague in the extreme, that did not stop speculation. It is, perhaps, the very meaninglessness of this death that has provided so many with the desire to find answers. No one likes to believe that violent death can visit innocents without warning, but it was becoming quite difficult to hold on to this fantasy in the light of the casualty lists coming back from Viet Nam. Perhaps, the more a belief is challenged, the more we tightly hold on to it.

And yet, that attempt to hold on to the belief, plus our tendency to believe the FIRST witness to an event, blinded everyone to a critical clue, found in the opening lines of the single record we have. Admittedly, most of the speculation came from those living in cities and towns, places where the rhythms of agricultural life are unknown.

Still, once revealed, the blatant lie stands out, and cannot be unseen. To point it out, I must disclose certain agricultural truths.*FOOTNOTE 1: SPOILER CONTAINED IN FOOTNOTE*

Although farm life is a 24/7, 365 day/year occupation, there are DEFINITE seasons where some tasks MUST be done in a timely fashion, or dire consequences result. Most of these are related to the life cycle of plants, although animal husbandry needs prevail at times. During the (few) moments when neither of these tasks demand immediate attention of the farmer, the time is devoted to repair and maintenance of fences, equipment, and shelter.

With a proper understanding of this agricultural rhythm, we can evaluate the alibis offered by those seemingly most interested in the death of the young man, especially since the actual date is disclosed. The first task mentioned is carried out by the narrator. It is tedious work, but does not require the massive upper body strength that certain tasks do. Cotton is a cash crop for farmers, and the health of the crop requires that each plant be given clear access to sun, rain, and not be in competition with those pesky weeds that seem to proliferate without cause. The cotton can be planted, depending on local conditions, any time from the first of April through Memorial Day, and, as soon as the young plants begin to show, and have developed a strong enough core, a trustworthy family member or hired hand is sent out to kill everything that isn't cotton. This process is referred to as 'chopping cotton,' although the cotton itself is NOT chopped.

A second essential farm task is haying. There are any numbers of grasses that can be used to make hay, and those are selected based on the needs for feed, as well as the needs and nature of the soil.  For reasons not fully developed here, however, **FOOTNOTE 2: SPOILER CONTAINED IN FOOTNOTE**, it is essential that the  selected grasses reach a certain degree of maturity, at which time the proper balance of nutrients is reached, and the non-nutritive woody components have not become dominant. As well as the time spent growing, the time of day when harvesting is critical; grasses cut in the early morning will not have stored the maximum of photosynthetic sugar, and will be wet with dew, making them likely to mildew while on the ground waiting to be baled.

The clue. And THIS provides us with the clue that we need***FOOTNOTE 3: SPOILER CONTAINED IN FOOTNOTE*** in order to determine a false statement in the alibi. For reasons related to local ground chemistry, weather, and common planting schedules,  IT IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE for the two tasks mentioned to be performed simultaneously on the date mentioned. Thus, we have a broken alibi, leading us directly to the (figurative) smoking gun. And, after more than a half-century, the case is solved.

From the record:

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day,
I was out chopping cotton, and my brother was baling hay.
(Ode to Billy Joe, Bobby Gentry, 1967)

Peace be on your household.

******************SPOILERS************
Footnote 0:  I have seen no record that Bobbie Gentry had this in mind, but the Tallahatchie Bridge crosses the river in Money, Mississippi, immediately adjacent to the site of the store where Emmett Till allegedly whistled at a white woman, for which he was lynched on August 28, 1955. And yes, my 2020 mind just created the association between the two murders.
Footnote 1:  I don't know any agricultural truths. I used Google to look at stuff.
Footnote 2: They aren't fully developed, because I don't fully understand them, and they are boring to anyone without a vested interest in growing hay.
Footnote 3: No, it's NOT true, as far as I know, that chopping cotton and baling hay couldn't be performed on the same day. I just made that part up, because the story needed it.