In February 1933, on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona, Margaret Edwards was found beaten to death along a lonely footpath, hours after a bitter argument with her husband. He was Silas John Edwards, a charismatic Apache medicine man and founder of the Holy Ground religion, which had alarmed reservation officials and missionaries alike. Suspicion quickly fell on Silas John, though the evidence against him was strange and flimsy, including a rock found near the body that had been scratched with his initials. It was a case that would one day capture the attention of Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason.
My guest this week is Jack El-Hai, author of The Case of the Autographed Corpse: A Medicine Man and a Mystery Writer in Pursuit of Justice. He joins us to talk about Silas John’s complicated life, the murder that upended it, and the unlikely bond that formed between a famous mystery writer and an Apache spiritual leader.
The author’s website: https://www.el-hai.com/