Theodore Smith Child Molester

The fiendish murder of a 9-year-old, golden-haired Lexington school girl and the suicide of her 27-year-old slayer left a southern Richland County farm community stunned and bewildered today.

Lured from school yesterday by a story that her mother was seriously ill, the child, Lena Marjorie Gamble, was slain by her father’s farm hand, Theodore Smith, 27, a suspected child molester, after he had attempted to assault her.

Unsuccessful in the attempted criminal attack in his bedroom, Smith then shot the child in the chest and sent a bullet into his own head, Sheriff E.P. Long said. Smith used a .22 caliber repeating rifle that was in the Gamble home.

The double shooting occurred at the Gamble home on Route 42 just inside the Richland County line, 9 miles south of Mansfield.

Already aroused by recent arrests of child molesters and reports of other attempts to harm children, the community was stirred up to a high pitch after Thursday’s tragedy. Members of the Gamble family and neighbors who know Smith were as much bewildered to learn he had committed the crime. He was regarded in the community as a good, hard-working farm hand.

Meanwhile, Boyd Robinson, Richland County superintendent of schools, issued an order today to rural school superintendents and teachers to require a written excuse signed by at least one parent or guardian before letting a child leave school.
“We’re going to make some attempt to stop this business of letting children out of school on pretext,” Robinson said.

He said he did not hold the Lexington teacher responsible for dismissing the Gamble child yesterday, since the teacher had no way of knowing it was a hoax and was told that Smith worked at the Gamble home.

The bodies were found by the child’s mother, Mrs. P.A. Gamble, about 2:30 p.m. when she returned from a shopping trip to Mansfield.

The golden-haired girl was the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Gamble. She was a fourth-grade pupil in the Lexington school. Smith had worked at the Gamble farm for the past three months.

Both parents were in Mansfield at the time of the tragedy. The father was at work at the Erie freight yards, where he is a brakeman, and the mother was shopping in the city. She had gone to Mansfield with Gamble about 9:30 a.m.

The child’s body was sprawled on Smith’s bed in an upstairs room at the back of the house. Smith’s body was on the sofa in the living room at the front of the house. A bullet had entered the middle of his forehead. The rifle was laying across his chest.
Coroner Hugh C. Winbigler said both the girl and Smith had been dead since shortly after noon. There was evidence that an attempt had been made to attack the child, but she had not been assaulted, his examination revealed. He gave a verdict of murder and suicide.

Shot in the right side of the chest, the child apparently struggled after she was wounded for the bed clothing was disheveled and splattered with blood. The sheet bore bloody fingerprints from her hands. She died from hemorrhage of the lungs, the coroner said.

After making the gruesome discovery, the grief-stricken mother ran to the home of a neighbor, Mrs. D.P. Gardner just across the highway, calling for help. Mrs. Gardner went out to the highway and hailed two automobiles. Ernest Kiser, of near Shelby, driver of one of them, called the sheriff. In the other car were Mrs. Clyde Turner, 117 E. Dickson Avenue, and Mrs. Margery Ludwig, 501?2 Park Avenue West.

“I just knew there was something wrong when I went in the house and saw Marjorie’s dinner pail in the kitchen with nothing taken out of it,” the mother sobbed.

“Then I went into the living room and saw Theodore’s body and I dreaded to go upstairs. I went up anyway and found her there.”

She said she saw the child’s snow suit on a chair in the living room and called for her. When there was no answer, she went upstairs and first looked in Marjorie’s room, then in Smith’s room, where the body was found.

A frail woman in poor health, the mother was prostrated with grief and was taken to the Gardner home soon after sheriff’s officers and neighbors arrived.

The bodies were taken to the Snyder Funeral Home in Lexington. Funeral services for the child will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Gamble residence and at 6:30 p.m. at the Grace Evangelical Church in Johnsville. Rev. C.A. Thompson, pastor of the Congregational church at Lexington, will officiate. Burial will be in the Schauck Cemetery.

Ora O. Snyder, Lexington funeral director who had charge of the bodies, said attempts to contact Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Smith of Lindside, W.Va., Smith’s parents, had been unsuccessful at noon today.

Snyder said funeral arrangements for the suicide victim would not be completed until the parents had been reached. Smith also is survived by an aunt, Mrs. Walter Fleshman, of Lexington.

The first officers to reach the home were Deputy Sheriffs Glenn Freeman and J.R. Hetler, who were in the Lexington area when the sheriff’s office was notified. They were told of the shooting by Deputy G.C. Humphrey, who received the call at the sheriff’s office in the county jail.

At the scene a little later were Sheriff E.P. Long and Coroner Winbigler.
Sheriff Long said Smith, knowing that Mr. and Mrs. Gamble would be away from home most of the day, planned the crime carefully before going to the school for the girl.

A back door to the kitchen was blocked from the outside by a washing machine, which had been shoved against it to prevent the child from escaping, the sheriff said. Other doors in the house were locked.

Smith never talked much about himself, Gamble related.

“He came here from West Virginia and we understood he was in California last year before he came to work for us,” the victim’s father said.

The sheriff said he learned Smith bought a tank full of gasoline for his car in Lexington before calling at the school for the Gamble child, indicating he may have planned a getaway if the assault on the girl had not been frustrated.

Mrs. Avanell C. Hall, the girl’s teacher, said a young man whom she believed to be Marjorie’s brother came to school and asked for her at the close of the morning recess at 10:45 a.m.

He said Marjorie’s mother was very sick and wanted her to come home right away and had sent him for the child, Hall related to officers.

“I told Marjorie, and she went with him after getting her coat, books and dinner pail. She seemed to know him well, so I didn’t suspect there was anything wrong,” the teacher said.

Hall, who returned to school recently after recovering from serious injuries received in an automobile accident several weeks ago, was highly nervous and upset over the tragedy.

Gamble said he had sent Smith to the back of the farm in the morning to cut briars.

“When he left the house he was dressed in his work clothes,” Gamble said, “but he must have come back and changed them after we left.”

The father of the girl said he couldn’t remember that Smith had ever gone to school for the child. She always rode in the school bus, he told officers.

Smith was dressed in his best clothes when his body was found. His overalls and jacket were on a chair in his room.

Marjorie was the only child at the home. Another daughter, Mrs. Blanche Texter, 20, lives in Lexington, and a son, John, 22, also of Lexington, is employed at the Mansfield Tire and Rubber Company plant. Both were called home as soon as the bodies were discovered.

Gamble has been employed as a brakeman for the Erie Railroad of Mansfield for 23 years. He goes to work about 9 a.m. and works until late in the afternoon, driving home every night. He has always had a hand take care of his 80-acre farm, he said. The Gambles have lived on the farm for 15 years.

The Gamble residence is a large brick house on the west side of Route 42, just south of the roadside park at the edge of the county. The home is less than 200 feet from the Morrow County line.

Smith had worked on the Gamble farm since the middle of last December, taking care of most of the farm chores while Gamble was at work in Mansfield.

“He was the best worker I have ever had, and he never did anything to make us suspect him,” Gamble said.

The father was surprised when Sheriff Long told him that officers were searching for Smith last fall. He always had been well behaved around the home and had never shown that he was interested in the child, Gamble told the sheriff.

Deputy Sheriff Freeman said Smith had also been a suspect in a robbery in Mansfield several months ago, but authorities were unable to find enough evidence against him to make an arrest.

Sheriff Long pointed out that Smith had traded automobiles since he was sought last fall for molesting small girls in Lexington.

At that time, officers were looking for a dark coupe they knew he was driving, the sheriff said. Since then, Smith had acquired a small coupe with yellow wheels. It was parked in the garage back of the Gamble home yesterday.

The sheriff said he suspected Smith early when it was reported he was attempting to lure small girls into alleys at the outdoor movie shows in Lexington.