Leon Jordan murder reopened

KCPD is going to reopen the Leon Jordan murder case, Mike McGraw reports this morning. You might remember that Mike and Glenn Rice had a big article recently about the slaying of Jordan, who was the most powerful black politician in Missouri when he was gunned down outside his bar, the Green Duck, in 1970. It was a high-profile murder, but it never came to any conclusions. (Possibly because there was no shortage of suspects.)

The other big surprise in today's story? Police -- who originally said they had lost the murder weapon -- have tracked it down, and it was actually in use by KCPD today, though it had been updated and modernized quite a bit. The crime lab, meanwhile, has found old fingerprint cards lifted from the shotgun at the time, and technicians are going to enhance and analyze them.

I'm still skeptical about the odds of finding the killer or killers. As Mike notes, this is the oldest unsolved case that KCPD has handled. Even if detectives are able to find enough principals who are still alive, who knows how reliable their memories are. Of course, the DOJ and FBI have spent the last few years trying to solve a long list of murders from the civil rights era. Few of those ended up in prosecutions, but investigators were able to "solve" many of them -- i.e. laying out what happened, who did it and why, even if nobody was found guilty.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Pat!

Comments

[The Weasel (Pat)]

The timeline for the Remington is pretty odd....

[Joe Joe]

The headline on the front page of the Star is rather misleading.

[James Hart]

Joe Joe: My headline? Or the one higher on the page?

[Joe Joe]

The one that was on the front page of the online edition. (Sorry, James!)
It says"...after gun turns up - in use by police." It just makes it sound like the gun has always been a police gun. You can see why THAT would really make the story interesting!

[Brad]

I long for the days when you could buy a gun at the hardware store...it was a much more peaceful time.