Atlanta Daily World

Court Holds "Insurance Slayers Must Die In April"
Two Race Men Among Trio To Pay for Crime
MEMPHIS, Tenn.--(SNS)--One year after the "insurance" slaying of a young filling station attendant, whose murder was revealed as the conceived plan of J. O. Martin, white, station operator, and two colored accomplices, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the trio must die in the electric chair April 10.
The decision of the high court sustained the verdict of a petit jury which convicted the men of first degree murder in the Shelby Criminal Court last spring.
The two doomed Negro men who will die with Martin are Joe McKay, well known resident of New Chicago Subdivision; and James Smith, the "trigger" man who fatally shot Oliver George, white, on the night of February 17, 1937, as he prepared to leave his service station on Front St.
During the trial of the trio, it was disclosed that Martin, station operator, had insurance policies on young George to the amount of $13,000. The victim worked for Martin and earned from $8.00 to $15. per week. From this meager salary it was not probable that George could keep up such premium on such a large policy, it was brought out in court. All three men confessed to their part in the crime.
The Court said:-
"Martin requested McKay to get someone to kill George, promising McKay $1250. McKay got Smith to do the killing on the promise of
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JOE McKAY
Court Holds
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$500. At the trial Smith admitted he killed George and implicated McKay and Martin.
Each of the defendants made written confessions after arrest.
Martin and McKay, at the trial, sought to repudiate their confessions on the ground the same were not freely and voluntarily made.
The trial judge found against their contention, as did the jury.
"The corroborating facts and circumstances are ample, and we find the evidence does not preponderate in favor of the innocence of the defendant."
Regarding the appeal filed in behalf of Smith, the Court declared. "It is nothing more than a plea for mercy." and added:
He was the actual perpetrator of the murder His position is that he acted under coercion and fear of McKay and Martin. The answer to this is that he could have gone to the sheriff or police at any time and exposed the plot to kill George."
McKay operated an automobile junk shop in New Chicago, and for many years had a good-paying job with a local dealer of cars. His implication and subsequent conviction in connection with the murder plot proved shocking to numerous persons who were acquainted with him.