October: Haunted Columbus – Dr. James Snook
If you think there’s scandal and mess going on today; this is nothing compared to what went on way back when. The ladies and gentlemen may have presented and carried themselves with class and dignity; they may have been dressed in suits and dresses that made them always look like they were about to attend a function…but there was plenty going on under the surface. A world of scandal, mayhem, lies, adultery and murder…to name a few. This particular story is about an extremely popular Professor at Ohio State, who was a distinguished member of the university community, turned murderer; Dr. James Howard Snook.
A 1908 graduate from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and one of the founding fathers of the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Psi Fraternity’s where his name appears on the Charter. Snook was part of the United States pistol team who won an Olympic gold medal at the 1920 Olympic games in Antwerp, Belgium. After teaching at Cornell University, he returned home to Columbus where he became head of the Veterinary department as well as an equine surgeon. While building his reputation as one of the nation’s leading educators in Veterinary medicine, he invented the Snook Hook which is a medical device still in use in spaying procedures. He was also a husband and father to a young daughter. So as you can see; this was a very accomplished man. Even in his personal life, Dr. Snook earned a reputation as a taciturn, somewhat reclusive man. His colleagues later remarked that many didn’t really know him. He didn’t seem the kind of man to throw it all away for a woman half his age. So what happened?
Excerpts taken from OSU College of Veterinary Medicine website
In the summer of 1926, Dr. Snook met Theora Hix, a 21 year-old coed who was enrolled in Medical School and working for the College of Veterinary Medicine as a stenographer to earn her tuition and board at a dormitory at OSU. One day she became stranded by one of Columbus’ frequent summer thunder storms. Theora and another secretary accepted a ride from Dr. Snook to their dorm rooms at Mack Hall. Not long after, Theora and Dr. Snook began a steamy affair, which was a most poorly-hidden secret among the small, close-knit community of the Veterinary College. The Dean of the College later testified that Dr. Snook’s work began to take a turn for the worse as he apparently became increasingly distracted by Theora.
By early 1929, the lovers had rented a little lovenest (in Snook’s real name) on Hubbard Avenue. Even in this endeavor, Dr. Snook demonstrated his frugal nature by insisting on a less comfortable room because it cost a dollar less per week. Theora and Dr. Snook enjoyed taking long car rides in his Ford coupe and went pistol shooting. Snook had given Theora a pistol three years earlier when she told him that she was awakened one night by an intruder in her first-floor dorm room. As to the events of June 13, 1929, we have only Dr. Snook’s account, as there were no other surviving witnesses.
On that evening, Dr. Snook had picked up Theora, taken her by the Hubbard Avenue room, then to the Scioto Country Club to retrieve his shooting glasses and finally to a rifle range a short distance away. He testified that she had been very angry about his plans to take his family to visit his mother in South Lebanon, Ohio. He states she was so angry that she allegedly threatened to not only kill Dr. Snook but to kill his wife and daughter as well. She suddenly reached for something in her purse as she stepped out of the car.
Dr. Snook reportedly startled by her sudden motion and frightened that she was reaching into her purse for the little Remington derringer he had given her, reached out for the first object he could find to defend himself a ball peen hammer. He hit Theora’s in the head with it. She struggled to get away (Snook later testified that he thought she was leaving to kill his wife and daughter), but Snook struck her again and again with the flat of the hammer as she reportedly cursed him. Finally, Dr. Snook struck her with a stunning blow, and she fell semiconscious at his feet. “She was moaning. I didn’t want to see her suffer.” Snook later testified. To ease her suffering, Dr. Snook withdrew the small pocket knife pictured above from his pants, opened it, and reached over and cut her jugular vein. After a few more movements, her struggling ceased.
Dr. Snook, apparently in shock at what he’d done, left a broad trail of evidence leading toward himself, including tire tracks matching his car, blood stains matching Theora’s type in his car, more blood on his clothing, and Theora’s broken keychain and keys left at the murder scene which led police to her safe deposit box and bank accounts. These contained more money than Snook’s yearly salary convincing the police that she had a generous boyfriend. The police’s suspicions were proved right when the landlady from the Hubbard Avenue lovenest identified a photo of Theora as “Mrs. Snook”. Perhaps most damning was a hat, exactly matching one her friends testified that Theora had worn her last night alive, which was found inside Snook’s Hubbard Avenue room.
Snook was arrested on suspicion and later interrogated when he eventually confessed to accidentally harming Theora and then taking her out of her misery so she wouldn’t suffer. The trial began on July 24, 1929. At the time, this had been called Columbus’ own “Trail of the Century.” For weeks, it dominated the local press, and national news services sent reporters to the Franklin County Courthouse to cover the sensational trial. The verdict, however, was never really in doubt. After deliberating for only 28 minutes, Snook’s jury convicted him of the murder. Judge Henry L. Scarlett sentenced Snook to die in the State’s electric chair at the Ohio Penitentiary.
Snook was executed on February 28, 1930. The family had a quiet, pre-dawn service by Reverend Isaac Miller of the King Avenue Methodist Church and was laid to rest in his nearly-unmarked grave in Greenlawn Cemetery. For years no one could locate his grave because he was never buried under his last name. The grave markers of those who are executed are usually buried in great secrecy. And some say he walks the grounds at night, distinctive in his fedora and glasses, perhaps remorseful for the disgraceful turn his promising life took in its final years, maybe thinking about all he lost by pursuing one of his students. Ghost hunters have claimed to have spoke with Dr. Snook via EVP voice boxes and he’s always crying while trying to communicate. Is he sorry for the murder, for destroying his family or is it from getting caught? Most psychopaths are usually devastated and remorseful in their own selfishness from getting caught for what they did…especially when they blame someone else for it and still have to pay for what they did.
Another great story on this crazy murder from Columbus Underground
