Intent to Kill: The 1946 Joseph McClain Shooting Spree

The path of Joseph McClain led from his rural Tennessee roots to a dramatic shooting spree in the heart of Dover, Ohio.

Joseph L. McClain (1909-1969) was born in Tennessee in late 1909 or early 1910, the son of farmer Charles McClain and his wife, Laura (Skillern) McClain. Recorded as four months old in the 1910 census, he grew up in rural Wayne County alongside his siblings. Joseph moved north to Tuscarawas County, Ohio by 1929, where he married Helen Simmers (1907-1983) and worked as a mill laborer. That same year he received a fine for public intoxication in Dover, an early indication of the personal and legal troubles that would follow him. Although he briefly returned to Tennessee with Helen and worked in a Lewis County sawmill in 1930, he was back in Dover by the mid-1930s, where he suffered an injury during a fight in 1936 and later worked at a local foundry.

Joseph and Helen lived on East Second Street in Dover with members of her extended family in 1940, and Joseph worked for the Shenango-Penn Mold Company. Their marriage soon deteriorated, however, and in late 1941 Helen filed for divorce citing both cruelty and infidelity; the divorce was finalized in January 1942. That August Joseph married Anna Incarnato Maurer (1903-1984) and the couple resided on West Third Street by 1943. In 1945 Joseph accumulated multiple disorderly conduct fines—once for beating and choking Anna, and again for an incident at a Dover beer parlor. Anna attempted to divorce him twice that year, first in August and again in November, on grounds of infidelity and cruelty. Both filings ended in reconciliation, leaving the couple still together at the close of 1945.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, August 18 1946, Joseph McClain went on a shooting spree in Dover, Ohio, firing multiple blasts from a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun at police officers. The incident began when McClain drove up to a police cruiser at a traffic light on the Public Square and opened fire, then continued to the nearby police station where he fired additional shots, sending the desk sergeant scrambling for cover before he could return fire from the station’s second floor. After escaping the police pursuit, McClain then returned to the police station, honking his horn and again firing toward the building. Officers resumed their chase, eventually forcing McClain to stop his vehicle a short distance away. McClain exited with his shotgun but surrendered after being ordered to drop the weapon.

Once in custody, McClain threatened to kill police and city officials. Officers later found large quantities of ammunition in his vehicle, indicating that he may have intended a much worse spree. When questioned about the shooting by Dover’s Mayor, McClain claimed drunkenness and memory loss, though his wife insisted he had abstained from alcohol for months. Police noted that he had held a long-standing grudge over one of his a prior arrests for disorderly conduct, potentially fueling the violent confrontation. McClain plead not guilty to two counts of shooting at Dover police officers with the intent to kill and his trial was scheduled for October 1946.

Shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin, Joseph McClain was offered a deal by prosecutors. Change his plea from not guilty to guilty and they would only hold him accountable for one of the shooting with intent to kill charges. Joseph decided to accept the deal and was sentenced in November 1946 to 1-to-20 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Shortly after his sentencing he was transported to Columbus to begin serving his sentence. Very shortly after his arrival he was transferred to the London Prison Farm in London, Ohio where he served his sentence.

Three years after her husband was imprisoned, Anna McClain filed for and was granted a divorce from Joseph. Shortly after the divorce, in October 1949, Joseph McClain was granted parole and returned to Dover, Ohio where he found work as a common laborer and lived for a period in the Central Hotel. He married again in February 1952 and lived his remaining years in Dover and New Philadelphia. Joseph McClain drowned after falling into the Tuscarawas River while fishing in August 1969 and was buried in the Dover Burial Park in Dover, Ohio. McClain’s death brought to a close a life shaped by discord, brief reconciliations, and the enduring consequences of his actions.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.