INDIANA: A Letter Home

The letter arrived about midmorning. By noon, thanks to motherly Mrs. Florence Ethel Colby, 60, who minded the village switchboard in the parlor of her white frame house, everyone in Geetingsville, Ind. (pop. 27) knew what the letter said: "Dear Mom and Dad: This is awful hard to tell. My chaplain told me to write and tell you that I am charged with murder and have been sentenced to be shot. Get an attorney and try to have this sentence reduced." It was signed: "Bob."

From the nine farm houses of Geetingsville the...

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