Greene County Record, Stanardsville, Greene Co., VA, Aug. 29, 1946
Ralph Shifflet Arrested In Crawford Girl’s Murder
Youth Charged Cleared In Wyant Killing Last January
Ralph Shifflett, 23, was arrested Wednesday afternoon near his home in Albemarle county, and charged with the murder of Edith Crawford, 17, at the Ruckersville intersection on Route 29 last Friday about 7 p.m.
Shifflet was taken into custody by Sheriff R.A. Melone of Greene county and Deputy W.E. Deane after several days search and is now lodged in the Charlottesville jail.
It is reported that Miss Crawford was standing beside the highway, just having got off a bus from Richmond, when Shifflett fired at close range from a truck he was driving.
It is said the man used a sawed-off shotgun and that the girl died instantly.
Reports further say Shifflett left immediately after the shooting in the truck, a Ford, belonging to the Anderegg Lumber mill, where he was employed as a truck driver.
Sheriff Melone was notified of the shooting. When he arrived on the scene the accused youth had made his getaway. The truck was found Saturday morning near Nortonsville.
Miss Crawford is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Crawford of near Ruckersville. Funeral services were held from the Stephens Funeral home Sunday afternoon. Interment was near Amicus.
Shifflett is from the Free Union neighborhood. He was acquitted last January of the September killing of Lurty Wyant, who died as a result of a blow with an axe handle.
It is said information received by R.N. Early, commonwealth’s attorney, indicates jealousy was the motive in the shooting.
NOTE - Shifflett was spelled various ways in the original article.

Greene County Record, Stanardsville, Greene Co., VA, Sept. 5, 1946
Shifflett In Jail; No Date For Hearing
Object of a search by State and local officer for several days, Ralph Shifflett of Mt. Fray, was captured last Wednesday afternoon near his father’s home in the Earlysville-Nortonsville section of Albemarle County by R.A. Malone, Greene county sheriff, and his deputy, Wilburg D. Deane.
Shifflett, charged with the shotgun slaying Friday night, a week ago, in Ruckersville of 17-year-old Pauline Crawford, alleged to be his estranged sweetheart, was lodged in the Albemarle county jail.
Shifflett, about 25 years old, is charged with emptying a shotgun charge at close range into the back of the girl’s head as she was chatting with an acquaintance, James Dunnivan, at about 7:30 p.m. Friday. The girl died instantly, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney R. N. Early.
He said the shotgun was fired at a range of eight to 10 feet from the cab of a lumber truck which Shifflett, employed at the time by A. C. Anderegg of Stanardsville, had just stopped.
Mr. Early said Shifflett immediately drove away from the scene. Enroute to his Albemarle home, about 12 miles away, he stopped at the home of a former employer, where it is alleged he said he had “just killed a couple of people.” Mr. Early said Shifflett apparently thought he had also struck Dunnivan, who escaped without injury.
Shifflett’s truck was found Saturday, a week ago, about four miles from his father’s home.
Shifflett last January was acquitted of a murder charge growing out of the ax-slaying September 11, 1945 of Lurt Wyant of Quinque. Wyant was killed near a Ruckersville garage where Shifflett was employed.
According to Mrs. Henry Crawford, mother of the girl, Shifflett considered himself engaged. The couple “broke up” about two months ago and Miss Crawford went to Richmond to “get away from him,” she said. She was employed as a clerk by a Richmond drug firm.
Last reports indicate no date had been set for a preliminary hearing for Shifflett, nor had the amount of bond for his release been set.
NOTE – Lodged was misspelled in the original article.

Greene County Record, Stanardsville, Greene Co., VA, Sept. 19, 1946
Indict Shifflett For Murder
Ralph Shifflett, Albemarle county, was indicted by the Greene County Circuit Court Grand Jury Monday morning on a charge of murder in the shotgun slaying of his ersewhile sweetheart, 17-year-old Pauline Crawford, August 23 on Rt. 29 near Ruckersville.
Shifflett, who has been awaiting trial in the Albemarle county jail, is charged with emptying a shotgun in the back of the Crawford girl’s head as she was talking with an acquaintance, James Dunnivan, at about 7:30 P.M. The shooting took place as the defendant was seated in the cab of a truck which he had just driven to a stop about eight or ten feet from the spot where the girl and Dunnivan were standing.
Authorities said Shifflett, who early this year was acquitted by a Greene county jury of murder in connection with the death last September of Lurt Wyant, of Quinque, fled from the scene in the truck and was captured the afternoon of August 29 near his father’s home in the Earlysville Nortonsville section of Albemarle county after a search of nearly a week.
Trial date for Shiflett was set for this week by Judge Lemuel F. Smith. He will be represented by Morris and Ross, Greene county law firm.

Greene County Record, Stanardsville, Greene Co., VA, Sept. 26, 1946
Greene Co. Jury Finds Shiflett Guilty Of Murder In Crawford Girl’s Death
Ralph Shiflett, of Mt. Fray, Albemarle county, was found guilty by a Greene County Circuit Court jury Thursday night of first degree murder in the shotgun slaying of his 16-year-old former sweetheart, Pauline Crawford of Ruckersville, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The jury received the case at 5:30 p.m. and returned its verdict an hour late, but was ordered to return to the jury room twice more by Judge Lemuel F. Smith to correct the wording of the decision.
The first verdict said the jurors found Shifflett, “guilty of murder in the first degree, as charged in the indictment, and fixed his punishment as life imprisonment and no pardon.”
The judge informed the 12-man jury that the clause concerning a pardon was, in effect, an attempt to deny the governor a power given him by the Constitution and that it could not be accepted.
When the jurors returned to the court room with a re-worded verdict they had left out the word “murder” and it was found necessary for them to return once more to the jury room to make the correction.
Defense Attorneys John J Morris and Hugh R. Ross offered no motions following the return of the verdict and Shiflett, who had received the decision calmly, stood and was sentenced by Judge Smith. He was removed to the Albemarle county jail Thursday night to await transfer to the State penitentiary.
Shiflett, who told the jurors he was 23 years of age, was charged with emptying a single shotgun charge into the back of the Crawford girl’s head as she was walking away from the Shiflett’s truck which was parked near Chapman’s Service Station in Ruckersville. The shooting took place at about dusk August 23 and Dr. M. D. Foster, who testified, said the girl’s brain was severed from her spinal column by the blast. More than 100 shotgun pellets were removed from her brain he added.
Claims Self-Defense
The defendant offered a plea of self-defense, stating, in effect, that James Dunnivan, who testified he accompanied the girl to the truck to talk with Shiflett, had pulled a gun on him.
He denied he had ever threatened the life of the Crawford girl, who prosecution witnesses said had gone to Richmond to get away from Shiflett, with whom she had been going for about two years.
Taking the stand at 1:55 p.m. for 40 minutes of examination, he said the Crawford girl had asked him for 50 cents to buy cigarettes and had gone into Chapman’s filling station when Dunnivan walked up with a gun.
He quoted Dunnivan as saying: “You won’t get away this time.”
“And he outs with a gun,” Shifflett said, “and I ducked below the door of my truck. I thought about the shotgun under the back of the seat, pulled it out and put a shell in it. I raised back up and aimed the gun at Dunnivan and when the gun went off Dunnivan fell.”
Meant To Shoot Dunnivan
He further explained that Pauline must have returned from the filling station and stepped in the line of fire.
“You don’t deny that you shot Pauline Crawford?” Mr. Morris asked Shiflett.
“No, sir, I don’t deny it,” Shifflett declared.
“Whom did you intend to shoot?”
“Dunnivan.”
“Why did you intend to shoot Dunnivan?”
“To protect myself. I thought if I got up to the wheel to drive away he would shoot me. Somehow Pauline got in the way,” Shiflett replied.
Shiflett said Dunnivan’s remark about getting away was in reference to a request made my Dunnivan the night of August 8 that Shiflett drive Dunnivan from Ruckersville to Stanardsville in his truck.
Shiflett said he refused, and Dunnivan pulled a gun and made some reference to Lurt Wyant, for whose death Shiflett was acquitted last January in a murder trial in the same courtroom. He explained Dunnivan had made some remark to the effect that he had “gotten Lurtie Wyant, but you aren’t going to get me.”
Sought To Wed Girl
The defendant’s account of the August 8 encounter was supported in part by Sergeant Buford Hocutt who was a passenger in Shifflett’s truck that night. Hocutt, who had been hitch-hiking from Washington to his father-in-law’s home near Earlysville, said he heard the conversation but could not identify the “dark object” as a pistol, or the man as Dunnivan. Shiflett did not deny he was the father of the dead girl’s child, born in August, 1945, only to live a few months. He said he had asked the girl’s parents on numerous occasions for permission to marry their daughter, but had been refused.
Shiflett was cross-examined by E. C. Wingfield, Charlottesville attorney who assisted Commonwealth’s Attorney R. N. Early in the prosecution.
He explained the six days following the shooting during which he was a fugitive by stating that he “ran” because he wanted time to find out what happened.
He said when he heard of Pauline’s death “it hurt me so much, I didn’t know what to do.”
Mrs. Henry Crawford, the girl’s mother and Mrs. Ethel Knight, of Richmond, Pauline’s aunt, both told of occasions when Shiflett had threatened to take the life of the Crawford girl.
Mrs. Knight said Shiflett had come to Richmond looking for Pauline, but the girl was at a moving picture show with her cousin.
“He showed me some bullets, saying, “I’m going to put three of these in her (Pauline) and two in myself,” Mrs. Knight testified.
Delmas LeTelier, of near Advance Mills, testified Shiflett came to his house after the shooting and told him he was leaving, offering him a cow in final payment on an automobile, he had purchased.
LeTelier said he asked the youth why he was leaving and was told by Shiflett he had just killed two people in Ruckersville.
“He told me they were lying in the road,” Mr. LeTelier said. He added that Shiflett said one of them was a Wyant and he didn’t know who the other one was.
“They waylaid me and wouldn’t let me alone. I’m not going to let anyone run over me,” he quoted Shiflett as saying.
Jurors hearing the case are Roy McMullen, foreman, Whitelaw Snow, R. W. Coppedge, Lloyd Haney, L. L. Bickers, O. D. Cason, Sherwood Parrott, G. N. Collins, Jr., M. H. Deane, B. F. Marks, Frank Long and Howard Teal.

This page is part of the Shiflet Family Genealogy Website and is maintained by: