sounds like fun to me... well, the searching part... not the event. I visited Townville, SC one time on a very cold day, in 1992. Went into an old country store and a bunch of older men were gathered about the woodstove. They all knew the story about a Civil War family... when the coffin with their son came home. So here I knew nobody, yet, stumbled upon a community memory from some 130 years previous....(and also of interest, they all had my grandfather's accent; another clue that I was very close to origin point.) Point is, people may remember some of the facts of the case that still live in the community. I would visit there and ask around. next, look at newspapers of nearby counties... they may have a write-up of the murder or of the courtroom dramas. maybe a lawyer or judge was borrowed from a nearby county. finally, *I* would try to find some Gossett folks, make amends and trade stories with them. That family was in some ways also a victim of the crime. warmest, charles Charles <lmnoNOSPAM@mindspring.com>