A Daughter’s Testimony: The Killing of Ella Lenarz

Ella Lenarz’s life ended in violence, her family torn apart, and justice proved painfully short-lived.

Oella “Ella” Kelley (1900-1936) was born in Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio, to James Kelley (1880-1930) and Catherine Brannan (1881-1968). She grew up in a working-class family that endured both hardship and loss. Her early years were marked by the birth of several siblings and Ella also had half-siblings from her father’s later relationship. The family lived in Steubenville in 1910, and Ella helped to shoulder family responsibilities as the eldest daughter. When she was just 16 years old she married Jesse Clayton Lenarz (1898-1969).

Jesse Clayton Lenarz was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, the eldest son of William A. Lenarz (1868-1927) and Carrie Gilbert (1875-?). He grew up in Dover, Ohio, where the family was recorded on both the 1900 and 1910 censuses. Jesse was part of a working-class household, his father was a coal miner, and had several siblings. After his marriage to Ella in 1917, he also found work as a coal miner and the couple settled into a home on West 8th Street in Dover. The couple welcomed seven children into their household between the years 1918 and 1930.

On November 11, 1936, a dispute between Jesse and Ella at the home of their neighbors Martin (1902-1971) and Alice Steiner (1907-1943) on Center Street in Dover, set in motion a tragic chain of events. The Lenarz’s sixteen-year-old daughter later told authorities that she watched her father strike her mother with a club after an argument escalated. Ella collapsed from the blow, suffering a fractured skull. Though she attempted to recover, her condition worsened, and she was admitted to Union Hospital on November 19, where doctors discovered a serious infection at the site of the fracture.

As Ella lingered between life and death, Jesse told shifting stories. He at first told authorities that a clothesline pole had accidentally fallen and struck his wife, even cautioning a witness not to reveal what he claimed had been an accident. When pressed, he offered another version, and suggested he had tripped and sent a club flying unintentionally. The truth, however, was betrayed by the autopsy, which revealed a fatal brain abscess directly linked to the violent blow to Ella’s head. On December 3, 1936, she died, leaving behind seven children.

Jesse was arrested days later and arraigned on second-degree murder charges. It was not until January 1937 that a grand jury indicted him for first-degree manslaughter, setting the stage for a trial that began in March. Jesse’s defense team sought to deflect blame and argued Ella’s death was the result of an operation following a self-induced abortion rather than her fractured skull. The jury however was not persuaded to dismiss the Lenarz’s daughter’s testimony though and, on March 25, 1937, Jesse was convicted of first-degree manslaughter.

The court sentenced Jesse Lenarz to one to twenty years in prison, and Jesse began serving his term in the Ohio State Penitentiary in April 1937. Justice proved fleeting though. Despite the brutality of the crime and the testimony of his own daughter, Jesse Lenarz was paroled in March 1938, less than a year later. He lived the remainder of his life in Dover and, when Jesse died in 1969, his obituary briefly mentioned that he was preceded in death by his wife Ella without mentioning his role in her death.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.