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| Roy Gilbert Smull (1912-1940) |
What do you do when your mom is a brothel madam? In this case, it didn't turn out well. Roy Gilbert Smull was born 24 Feb 1912 in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois to Russell Grant Smull and Della Gilbert Kornfeld Smull. Roy's parents divorced and his brother Don lived with his father back in Missouri, from whence he came.
Early on Roy was in trouble. He affiliated himself with all the wrong kind of people and did basically whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. One of his earliest serious run-ins with the law was in February 1931 when he, his brother, Norman, and his fifteen-year-old bride, were arrested by Macon county deputies for robbing a market and a restaurant in nearby Pana. On the surface, the story appears quite funny - they were arrested because the butcher at the market could identify the unique way he cut the ham they had, among their other bounty, stolen during the robberies. The men both ended up pleading guilty and were sent to the state reformatory at Pontiac, Illinois. Jessie Louise Hughes, the bride, was present with the Smull boys during the commission of the robberies, but both boys stated she had nothing to do with either crime and she was released. Immediately after sentencing, the mother of Roy's young bride moved to have the marriage annulled.
Norman kind of disappears after his stint in prison. In 1938 he's driving a taxi and married. His brother, Roy, however, continued on with his life of crime.
In 1933, Smull was arrested with Harold Preston, aged 38, for stealing an automobile and for their participation in two holdups. Preston had previously served a term in Leavenworth. They were found with revolvers and a sawed-off shotgun. Smull went to prison for a while on the automobile theft and was released on parole. He was still on parole when he committed his last crimes and met up with his final judgment.
Police were searching for Smull and two accomplices for a series of robberies in the weeks previous, when they drove past him changing a tire. The police turned around and Smull took off, running. Police fired and a bullet struck Smull in the leg and passed through to his other leg and he was arrested and sent to the local hospital, where it was initially reported he was expected to live. He did not. He died that following early morning of his wounds. There was little doubt that Smull had committed the crimes for which he was stopped and his co-conspirators were later arrested. His automobile would reveal revolvers, ammunition, the keys to pay telephone boxes, a machine gun, and other items.
This was the end of the young life of Roy Gilbert Smull, who died a villain at the age of 28.
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