After years of abuse, a Newcomerstown woman took the law into her own hands.
Content warning: The following story contains references to domestic violence. If you are experiencing domestic abuse or violence and need help, please visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Willa May Kennedy (1909-?), born in Nashville, Tennessee moved to Ohio with her parents. She lived in Newcomerstown by 1924, while her parents resided in Cincinnati, and that year she married Georgia-born William Ware (1889-1928) in July. Their marriage, unfortunately, was fraught with violence from the start. A year after their marriage, they lost their infant son, who was born dead at Union Hospital. Willa May later testified this resulted from William knocking her down and tramping on her body while on a railroad track. She also carried a scar on her breast where he had struck her with a crutch, an incident later recalled by local law enforcement.
The events leading to the fatal confrontation began on Tuesday, January 31, 1928, during a card game at a neighbor’s home. William Ware was reportedly consumed by jealousy over William Coker (1907-1941), a young man whose presence he found “hateful”. After forcing his wife to leave the party, a state of tension between the couple persisted for two days. On February 2, this resentment boiled over in their home on Clow Avenue in Newcomerstown.
Marriage of William Ware (misspelled as Wile) and Willa May Kennedy reported in the New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper, July 1924. (Source: newspapers.com) 
The death of the Ware’s infant son reported in the New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper, June 1925. (Source: newspapers.com) 
The Clow Avenue neighborhood in Newcomerstown, Ohio where the Wares lived depicted on the 1933 Sanborn Map. (Source: loc.gov)
The final quarrel began in the Wares’ kitchen, where William started beating Willa May, and continued into the front room. Fearing for her life after he allegedly threatened to kill her, she grabbed a shotgun from behind a dresser and fired a single blast into his right groin. The wound severed his right femoral artery, and William, a 39-year-old laborer for James B. Clow & Sons, bled to death quickly.
Following the shooting, Willa May fled to the home of a neighbor and confessed to the act while maintaining she acted in self-defense. Coroner James F. Lewis (1899–1977) categorized the death as a homicide, and William was buried on February 3, 1928, in Newcomerstown. Willa May was then taken into custody and arraigned before Justice Eli N. Fair (1865-1943), where she entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper headline and story on the killing of William Ware, February 1928. (Source: newspapers.com) 
New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper headline Willa May Ware killing of William Ware, February 1928. (Source: newspapers.com) 
Detail from New Philadelphia, Ohio newspaper article on Willa May Ware’s release, April 1928. (Source: newspapers.com)
The legal case, formally recorded as The State of Ohio against Willa Mae Ware, saw her remanded to the county jail after being unable to post a $2,000 (the equivalent of over $36,000 today) bond. During her stay, her father arrived from Cincinnati to support her. On April 12, 1928, the Tuscarawas County grand jury reached a “surprise” decision to ignore the murder charges. The official criminal court docket reflects that by April 16, 1928, her bond was released because no indictment was found.
Willa May Ware was released from custody on April 13, 1928, ending the legal ordeal that followed years of domestic suffering. She remained in the area and, on March 31, 1931, she married Harry Fife (1896-?), a foundry laborer who lived on the same street. By April 1940, records indicate she was boarding a room in Cincinnati with a three-year-old daughter, having moved away from the community where the 1928 tragedy occurred. Her life after 1940 remains to be discovered.
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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.
Tuscarawas County Stories 