Slaying Over Stove Priority

As you research historic true crimes, you come across stories that are too brief to be worked into a book chapter, but offer fascinating snapshots in time:

From The Washington Evening Star, October 28 and 29, 1944: The kitchen of the Tilden Gardens Apartment Hotel saw “[a]n argument over priority on the use of a stove” that led to Forrest Hill and Archie Medley, both 47, to battle it out with “a large roasting fork and a carving knife, respectively, to settle a dispute over who was going to use the stove first….[w]hen the battle was over, Hill was removed to the Freedmen’s Hospital, where he died from deep stab wounds in the chest”. Medley was held for a coroner’s inquest the next day, and walked away a free man that same day when the inquest determined it to be a case of justifiable homicide. Press coverage of crimes can offer insight into the society of the times, and as was standard in this time period, the paper made sure to note that both men were “colored”. The tone of the articles is factual, but possibly has a slight but disconcertingly light-hearted edge with likely racial overtones, although the writer undoubtedly also was reflecting the bizarre and rather absurd nature of Hill’s death.