In 1920, before Perry Browning entered the business, Leon Renaker reigned as the Turkey King for his highly successful poultry business in Winchester and several other towns in the Bluegrass. In addition to turkeys, the Renaker Poultry Company sold dressed chickens, ducks and geese. They also sold other meat, fruit and vegetables at the business house on North Main Street. Renaker was an active member of the Southern Poultry and Egg Shippers’ Association. He built his bungalow-style house in 1917.
A tragedy was revealed on Wednesday, July 26, 1922, when Nancy Renaker returned home and found her husband had been murdered in his bed. His clothes were bloody and his skull had been crushed. He was only thirty-five years old.
The couple had gone to Cincinnati to visit Leon’s brother. On Sunday they attended a Reds baseball game, and Leon returned home on Monday, arriving on the train about midnight. Nancy came back on Wednesday and found her husband’s body about 11 a.m.
A police investigation found blood stains on a curtain in his bedroom and bloody fingerprints on the back door. The electric and phone lines had been disconnected, indicating that the murderer was likely familiar with the house. His wife claimed Leon had between $100 and $600 in his pocket when he left Cincinnati, which was not found in the house. She suggested robbery may have been the motive.
Within a few weeks police charged Scobee Hardman with the murder and Reese Fox as an accessory. Later, Mrs. Renaker was charged with conspiracy.
The case went to trial in Winchester in December before Judge W. R. Shackelford and a jury empaneled from Fayette County. The prosecution claimed that Hardman, who had worked briefly for Leon Renaker, was romantically entangled with his wife, Nancy Renaker. Hardman was said to be attracted to older women who had money, and they cited as an example his first wife, who was considerably older and had money when they married. Eleven months later, when they divorced, the money was gone. Hardman was also familiar with the Renaker house.
Witnesses stated that Hardman had been in company with Mrs. Renaker so frequently that it caused friction with her husband. Leon reportedly told her to cease or leave and go off with Hardman.
The case against all three defendants was almost entirely circumstantial. A neighbor claimed she saw a car pull up on Hickman Street behind the Renaker house between 12:30 and 1 a.m. A man got in the car and said, “I finished it” or “I finished him,” then they drove off.
The ferryman at Boonesborough stated that he took a roadster across the Kentucky River between 1:30 and 2 a.m. that night. He saw two men in the car, Scobee Hardman and Reese Fox.
Police discarded the robbery motive as nothing in the house was disturbed and no jewelry or other valuables were missing. The fingerprints on the back door proved unusable.
Prosecutors stated at trial that there was a large life insurance policy on Leon.
Dozens of witnesses were called, and much of the testimony was contested. The trial lasted eight days. The jury went out on the 18th and returned on the 19th with a verdict of not guilty for Hardman. The cases against Fox and Mrs. Renaker were continued and later dismissed. No one was ever convicted for Leon Renaker’s murder.
Never miss a thing with our FREE weekly newsletter.
Hardman left Kentucky the following year, and in 1924 it was reported that he was living in South America. Fox died in 1928 in Detroit.
In 1923 Nancy sold her Winchester property, married McCallum Williams and moved to Lexington. She spent three years trying to collect on her deceased husband’s life insurance policy. The policy excluded death by murder unless the motive was robbery. The case ended in the U.S. Court of Appeals, which declared that there was no credible evidence of robbery.
I wish to thank Jennifer Mattern and Jerry Cecil for their help and acknowledge the work of the late Frank Vermillion, who amassed a thick volume of information about the Renaker murder.
The Rodney Haggard House stands at 117 Boone Avenue. The location of today’s “mystery house” will be revealed in next week’s column.
