By Ralph A. Monaco II

His character, charisma and career once held prominence and dominance on the local, state, national and international stage.

As United States senator from Missouri from 1911 through 1929, he led the fight against President Woodrow Wilson’s goal of American entry into the League of Nations following World War I.

He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine on March 7, 1927, as he considered another presidential run. His opposition to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal catapulted him from the Democrats to the Party of Lincoln.

Today the name of James A Reed is remembered for a road in Kansas City and a nature preserve in Jackson County. This was not the case during his lifetime, as no one held a more commanding and dominating presence. He was a gladiator in the courtroom and an uncompromising politician. And while his legal and political careers were compelling and domineering, Reed’s personal life was filled with intrigue, scandal, and secrecy.

His exploits were leading headline and tabloid news stories. His cohorts included Tom Pendergast and his political machine, Johnny Lazia and the Kansas City mob, Harry S Truman, the man from Independence, and Nell Donnelly Reed, also known as “Nelly Don,” the fashion mogul of Kansas City and Reed’s second wife.

Somehow he was able to overcome all obstacles he encountered to become one of the most famous citizens of his adopted community of Jackson County, Missouri.

Early Years

Reed’s story began in Mansfield, Richmond County, Ohio, where he was born on November 9, 1861, the son of John A. and Nancy Reed.

At age three his family moved to a farm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Tragically, his father died when he was eight years old, leaving his mother a widow with five children and forcing young James to work the farm.

In 1880 Reed graduated from Cedar Rapids High School but the school principal refused to award him a diploma because he believed Reed’s valedictorian speech entitled “Free Thought” promoted atheism. Reed then attended the Presbyterian Parson’s Seminary (later Cole College) in Cedar Rapids and studied law at night at the law firm of Hubbard, Clark & Dowley.

In 1885 Reed was admitted to the Iowa Bar and entered the private practice of law. At the outset of this new career Reed found himself embroiled in his first - but not last - scandal. He became involved in an extramarital relationship with Lura Mansfield Olmstead, a married woman several years his senior, who had two children. Fearing repercussions of their meretricious relationship, Lura divorced her husband and married Reed in 1887.

The rumors of their scandalous affair were too much for the sensitivities of the folks in Cedar Rapids. Leaving her two children in Iowa with her ex-husband, Lura opted for a fresh start, relocating with Reed to the fast-growing community of Kansas City. There is no record of Reed having any involvement with his new wife’s children once they departed Iowa.

Early Political Career in Kansas City

After Reed and his bride arrived in Kansas City, he commenced a private law practice and entered the public venue of politics.

His mastery of public speaking and outspoken speechifying for Democratic candidates and religious freedom attracted the attention of the Irish Catholic Jim Pendergast and his younger brother, Tom. Jim at this time represented the First Ward on Kansas City’s Board of Aldermen and led the Pendergasts’ “Goats” faction. Tom would assume leadership of the Pendergast “machine” after Jim’s death in 1911.

It didn’t take long for the Goats to recognize and tout Reed as their up-and-coming star on the political horizon. Local politicians dubbed Reed the “Bosky Dell,” a nickname referring to his speeches, sometimes considered “too flowery.”

During a Democratic Club meeting in 1896, the Goats made it clear that their new mouthpiece was to be elevated to the high-profile position as Jackson County Counselor. From that moment forward Reed’s political future was sealed, as he was sworn in as counselor in January, 1897.

Even as the “non-partisan” county counselor, Reed was well known for his combative and partisan style. He frequently subjected his political foes to scandalous ridicule or physical threats.

Among Reed’s enemies was the Republican mayor of Kansas City, James M. Jones. Throughout 1898 Reed accused Mayor Jones as “being immoral and a drunkard.” On April 1, 1898 Reed encountered the mayor in Kansas City’s stockyards district.

What transpired next depends on whether the storyteller was a proponent or opponent of Reed. His friends proclaimed the mayor had called him a liar. The mayor’s friends insisted that no such comment was ever made.

What is unquestioned is that a fist fight broke out, and which was no April Fool’s Day joke.

Reed smacked the first blow, striking the mayor in the mouth. Thomas C. Bell, the Republican candidate for auditor, attempted to interfere and Reed knocked him to the ground as well.

The opening round went to Reed, but the mayor quickly composed himself. He “gave Reed a blow in the face which laid him out,” according to one account. “Reed’s head struck the pavement when he fell, and he was unconscious for a minute or two.” Reed was assisted to his feet and was not seriously injured, except perhaps for his pride. There would be ample opportunity for future political retaliation.

The pugilistic encounter did not derail Reed’s political career, as the Goats nominated him as the Democratic candidate for the prestigious office of Jackson County Prosecutor that November.

The endorsement and political clout of the Goats ensured Reed’s successful election. Soon after his victory Reed began to name each of his assistant prosecutors in both Kansas City and Independence.

This new position marked the beginning of Reed’s illustrious career.

Reed’s Prosecution of Jesse E. James, Son of the Bandit

The newly elected Jackson County prosecutor immediately faced a daunting legal and political challenge.

With his election he had taken over as lead prosecutor in the high-profile criminal case, “State v. Jesse Edward James,” involving the son of the bandit, Jesse Woodson James. Young Jesse had been charged with having robbed the southbound Missouri Pacific Train No. 5 at gunpoint.

The story of the robbery began at the Union Depot in the West Bottoms of Kansas City on September 23, 1898. At around 9:15 that evening the Missouri Pacific train departed the depot in route to Little Rock, Arkansas and Wichita, Kansas.

When the train reached the unincorporated section of Jackson County known as Leeds, some six to seven miles southeast of downtown Kansas City, a gang of desperadoes stopped the train at gun-point. Known for its coal mining industry, Leeds was a well-traveled railroad junction with a telegraph station and post office that had been in operation since 1890.

The surrounding circumstances of the train robbery more closely paralleled an account like ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight’ than the escapades of a well-trained professional criminal enterprise.

After uncoupling the passenger cars the bandits guided the engine, tender and express car down the track line into Swope Park - land given to the Kansas City by the philanthropist Thomas Hunton Swope two years earlier.

The crooks placed seven sticks of dynamite on top of a safe and an explosion soon followed with the safe destroyed along with the express car and tender.

Pinkerton agents and other gumshoes descended upon Jackson County to find the gang of crooks responsible and eventually they untangled an elaborate web. Their efforts included sweating a confession out of co-defendant William W. Lowe at the Savoy Hotel in downtown Kansas City, resulting in charges being laid at the feet of Jesse, Jr.

The local public, which had held young Jesse in high esteem since his bandit father had been slain on April 3, 1882 by what many considered the “dirty little coward” Robert Ford, were aghast and in disbelief.

No one wanted to believe that the sins of the father had stained little Jesse. Nationally the Evening Times of Washington, D.C. proclaimed on Dec. 26, 1898 that Jesse’s trial was shaping up to be “one of the most interesting trials ever held.”

Locally, the Kansas City Journal described it as potentially “the most and far-reaching…in the history of Jackson County.”

Reed, even before taking the oath of office, knew he had to promptly prepare for trial, as it was scheduled to begin on Monday, January 16.

Sitting in his prosecutor’s office in the New York Life Building on 9th Street (the same building in which students then attended evening law classes and today is home to the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph), Reed was not only fully cognizant of the sensationalism of the James case, but he wanted to ensure the public that no one responsible for the robbery would escape justice.

That included young Jesse, regardless of his popularity. Reed was not to be distracted by local or national implications of putting Jesse on trial.

“Too many men in this town seem to enjoy immunity from the consequences of their misdeeds,” Reed said. “As public prosecutor my aim shall be to see that no guilty man escapes, no matter or how powerful are his political friends.”

The trial of Jesse Jr. began on February 20, 1999, and before a packed courtroom - everyone wanted to see and be seen. To the enthusiasm of those assembled, Jesse’s notorious uncle, Frank James, sat directly behind his nephew.

The trial brought together a celebrity cast of renowned criminal attorneys and prosecutors. Jesse’s lead criminal defense attorney, Frank Walsh, was the highly touted mouthpiece of the Goats’ competing Democratic Party political machine, the Shannon “Rabbits,” named for its Irish Catholic founder, Joseph Shannon.

The Rabbits dominated the Democratic Party in Westport - a community that only earlier in the year had been incorporated into the larger Kansas City.

Reed and Walsh soon became embroiled in a courtroom struggle like gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. This trial marked neither the first nor the last time in which Reed and Walsh would battle in court. It also served as a foreshadowing of a marquee criminal case in which the two lawyers would become hotly embroiled some 10 years later – and in the same courthouse.

Reed mounted a serious assault upon Jesse and the James’ family reputation. Walsh, in turn, countered his every move with jabs like a prize fighter. The jury received the case on February 28 and – after deliberating less than one hour – reached a resounding verdict of “Not Guilty.”

For Reed, the case had worn on him and he departed the courtroom embittered and angry. The following day, disgusted over the verdict, Reed dismissed the cases pending against the other eight men under indictment for the same crime.

Reed would later proclaim that this was the only jury trial he ever lost as prosecutor (he actually lost two criminal trials in that role.)

Two-Term Mayor of Kansas City

Reed’s loss in the James’ trial failed to deter his political ambitions or his standing with the Pendergast Goats.

When his two-year term as Jackson County prosecutor expired in 1900, the Goats ran Reed for mayor of Kansas City. Once again, with the weight of the Pendergast machine squarely behind him, Reed became mayor, his victory serving as a revenge punch to Mayor Jones, whom Reed defeated.

Voters re-elected Reed in 1902 and during his two terms in office he also enhanced the power of the Goats, ensuring that the Pendergast machine held dominion over city patronage positions.

Reed did not to seek reelection in 1904 but, even though he no longer held office, his renown remained constant and compelling.

Reed as Special Prosecutor

Soon he again found himself embroiled in another criminal battle, and against his nemesis in the James’ trial, Frank Walsh. This trial would also showcase yet another political and legal showdown between Reed and the Goats against Walsh and the Rabbits. Their subsequent courtroom struggle would be more sensational than that of Jesse Jr. trial.

It was the murder trial, “State v. C. Bennett Hyde.”

Hyde was the Kansas City doctor charged in the death of Kansas City’s great philanthropist, Thomas Hunton Swope.

The surrounding facts and devilish plots alleged against Dr. Hyde for the murder and poisoning of an entire family is more haunting than that of Robert Louis Stevenson’s, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

By 1909 Margaret Chrisman Swope - known as Maggie, and the daughter of William Chrisman, 19th century Independence banker and lawyer - had seven children born of her marriage to her late husband, Logan, who had died in 1900.

Her son Thomas was married and living in a sizable stone house on an area estate which he called Esperanza.

Her daughter, Frances, was living with her husband, Dr. Clark Bennett Hyde, in Kansas City, a union that Maggie had vigorously protested.

Living with Maggie that year at the Swope mansion located at 406 S. Pleasant Street in Independence were her five unmarried children: William Chrisman, Lucy Lee, Stella, Sarah and Margaret. Also residing in the Swope castle was her late brother’s cousin, Moss Hunton, and her brother-in-law, Col. Thomas Hunton Swope, the philanthropist and namesake of Swope Park.

On October 1, 1909 Moss Hunton died. Two days later Col. Swope died. Both had been under the medical care of Dr. Hyde.

By December 1909 a cholera epidemic had erupted in the Swope household, during a time the Swope family remained under the medical care of Dr. Hyde.

When Maggie’s son, William Chrisman, died and as she soon watched several of her children suffer from cholera, she began to suspect that the deaths and illnesses were because of Dr. Hyde’s desire to inherit the fortune of the late Col. Swope.

She soon turned to Reed and hired him as special prosecutor to assist in the prosecution of her son-in-law, Dr Hyde.

Through Reed’s efforts an indictment was issued against Dr. Hyde. He was accused of murdering Moss Hunton, Col. Swope and Chrisman Swope and also attempting to murder several members of the Swope family.

The Hyde trial began in April 1910 in Kansas City with Judge Ralph S. Latshaw presiding. The trial lasted over three weeks and the jury’s verdict was Reed’s revenge against his loss to Frank Walsh in the Jesse James, Jr. trial, as the jury convicted Dr. Hyde on all counts.

The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately overturned the verdict, and subsequent attempts to convict Dr. Hyde were unsuccessful.

However, by then the political career of Reed had only grown more prominent.

Photograph of James A. Reed on the Cover of Time The Weekly Magazine March 7, 1927

US Senator James A. Reed

Following his successful prosecution of Dr. Hyde, Reed - through the influence of the Pendergast Goats – was elected to the United States Senate in November 1910, where he would go onto to serve through 1929.

Following World War I, Reed protested President Woodrow Wilson’s plan for the United States to join the League of Nations. The protests of Reed – a Democratic – were unprecedented, as his objections to the League were made against a sitting Democratic President.

Reed’s efforts in the Senate brought a defeat to President Wilson’s efforts to see the United States become part of the League. Some would say Reed single-handedly defeated the League of Nations.

As the 1922 U.S. Senate election approached, Reed’s reputation and political future was in doubt. He had already lost the support of state and national Democrats over his defeat of the League of Nations. President Wilson considered him a “marplot” and spoke out against Reed.

Rural Missourians, meanwhile, staunchly opposed Reed’s reelection over his outspoken opposition to Prohibition. The Ku Klux Klan rallied against Reed over his objection to Prohibition and his staunch endorsement of freedom of religion, especially for Catholics. Lady suffragists came out against Reed over his open distaste for suffrage for women. Yet Reed still had his supporters and chief among them was “Boss’ Tom Pendergast and his machine.

By the early 1920s Pendergast was, without question, the leading political force in Missouri, and his support alone would ensure Reed’s reelection. Reed also

received endorsements from urban residents, as well as Catholics and isolationists. The election was close but Reed was reelected by a narrow margin to his third, and what would prove to be final term as senator.

Reed had national ambitions beyond the Senate. He was a candidate for President in 1924, 1928 and for a last time in 1932. His reputation was considerable, and his face appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1927.

In his later years, Reed switched party affiliations and became a Republican, disagreeing vehemently President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” initiatives

Back to Private Practice of Law

After retiring from the Senate in 1929, Reed resumed his private law practice in Kansas City.

His long list of clients included large corporations, wealthy business owners, banks and a remarkable lady who lived with her husband in a ‘mansion’ located at 5235 Oak St. in south Kansas City.

Reed and his wife Lura owned a majestic house of their own at 5236 Cherry St. The Reeds’ backyard abutted that of his famous client, Nell Quinlan Donnelly, now known to many as “Nelly Don.”

She was Kansas City’s most prominent woman, known across the country as a clothing manufacturer, designer and distributor. She was the head of the Donnelly Garment Company, which she had founded in 1916 and which by 1931 employed more than 1,000 workers.

Nelly was not just Reed’s client, however. She and her attorney were privately entangled in an extra-marital affair.

As events would reveal, the year 1931 proved to be the most tumultuous in Reed’s life, as it began with his defense of one client and ended with his rescue of another.

Photograph of Myrtle Bennett Circa 1929. Courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections.

As the year opened Reed was defending Myrtle Bennett, who had been charged with gunning down and murdering her husband John Bennett during a bridge game in their fashionable Park Manor apartment, located on Ward Parkway in Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza district.

Reed’s defense of Bennett, in part, was based upon “battered wife syndrome.” It is believed that this was the first time this defense was successfully utilized in Missouri, as Myrtle Bennett was acquitted after the jury had taken eight ballots.

During the Bennett trial, however, Reed received a shocking surprise—his mistress was pregnant.

Defending any client in a criminal case always enhances one’s stress level, and this was even more pronounced when representing a client in a newsworthy criminal case, as was Myrtle Bennett’s.

Myrtle Bennett, James A. Reed & J. Francis O’Sullivan. Following trial on Wednesday, March 4, 1931— the photo that caused Reed’s wrath and Cauthen’s retaliation. Courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collection.

Perhaps that explains Reed’s reaction to an encounter he had with George Cauthen, a Kansas City Journal columnist and photographer. At the end of a long day in court, Cauthen sought to interview and capture an image of Reed. After Cauthen took the photograph, the former senator returned to his pugilist ways and struck a blow against the reporter’s face.

Reed then threatened Cauthen not to publish the story. The Journal was not going to abide by Reed’s edict and the story of Reed’s assault appeared the following morning, along with a photograph of Reed, his client Myrtle Bennett, and Reed’s co-counsel, J. Francis O’Sullivan.

Meanwhile, Reed crafted a scheme to conceal Nelly Don’s pregnancy.

According to “Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time” - a 2006 documentary directed by Terence O’Malley, a Kansas City lawyer, filmmaker, and a great-great nephew of Nell Donnelly Reed – Nell left Kansas City in the summer of 1931, telling friends she was going to Europe to adopt a child, as she and her husband Paul Donnelly were unable to have children.

That September, however, she gave birth to her son David in Chicago (or, as some accounts have claimed, in Europe) on September 10, 1931, and soon brought her “adopted” son back to Kansas City, where she and Reed privately continued their secretive relationship.

The narrative of Reed and Nelly Don did not end with the birth of a son. Their tale would prove to be as interesting, nefarious and mysterious as Dr. Hyde’s trial. Their story sounds fictional but it demonstrates why truth may be stranger than fiction. Their tale has it all: affairs, kidnappings, revenge, the mob’s Johnny Lazia, scandal, divorce, and the union of Reed and Nelly Don.

And, in the final month of 1931, Reed would be called upon to save Nelly Don from potential death in the same way in which he had saved Myrtle Bennett earlier that year.

Kidnapping & Rescue

On December 16, 1931, Donnelly and her chauffeur George Blair were returning to her Oak Street mansion following a meeting at a law office downtown.

As Blair pulled the 1928 Lincoln convertible into the Donnelly driveway, he and Nelly were abducted at gunpoint.

A ransom of $75,000 was demanded by the kidnappers. Word of the kidnapping hit the national wires and spread across the country. The report soon reached the ears of James A. Reed, who was in a court hearing in Jefferson City.

Reed was promptly granted a postponement of the hearing and quickly rushed back to Kansas City. Although it wasn’t fully appreciated at the time, his actions resembled something out of Camelot legend - like Lancelot having returned to save his Guinevere from the torch.

As legal counsel for the Donnelly family, Reed declared that the ransom would be paid. But, he also delivered a stringent declaration and warning to the criminals – that “if a single hair of her head be harmed” he would spend his life “hunting down the kidnappers and seeing they get the full extent of the law-hanging.”

Reed turned to political allies as well as criminals to help solve the dastardly deed. He placed calls to Missouri Governor Guy Park as well as to “Boss” Tom Pendergast for their assistance in locating the fiends who had kidnapped “Nelly Don.”

Park and Pendergast immediately went to work. To head-up the investigation Pendergast assigned the job to the perfect man—his mob enforcer, Johnny Lazia. Eventually the kidnappers released their hostages safe and unharmed—and without any money having been paid.

The message was clear: Don’t mess with Reed’s political might - or his allies Tom Pendergast, his Goats, and the ruthless mobster boss, Johnny Lazia.

Death, Divorce, Marriage and Final Years

With Nelly Don home safe, she and Reed secretly continued their relationship. She knew that Reed was adamant about not divorcing his wife, Lura.

But Lura died in the fall of 1932. Nelly Don promptly divorced her husband and she and Reed were married in December, 1933. After their marriage, Reed formally adopted his biological son.

Like his father, David Q. Reed would practice law in Kansas City.

On September 8, 1944, James A. Reed at the age of 83 died at his summer home in Fairview, Oscoda County, Michigan. His body was returned to Kansas City, and he was buried at Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence.

His widow, Nelly Don, never remarried. She died at the age of 102, outliving her husband by forty-seven years to the day—September 8, 1991.

Today Reed and Nelly Don – as well as their son, David - are buried married together at Mount Washington Cemetery in Independence.

Mr. Monaco is a current Director of JCHS, and he is the past President of the Society. He has written six books, and three of them include stories pertaining to James A. Reed as a trial attorney in each, to wit: Jesse James & the Leads Gang (Reed’s prosecution of James as the Jackson County Prosecutor for train robbery in 1899), The Strange Story of Col. Swope & Dr. Hyde (Reed’s prosecution of Dr. Hyde as the special prosecutor for the alleged murder of Col. Swope in 1910), and the Last Hand at Park Manor (Reed’s successful criminal defense of Myrtle Bennett for the murder of her husband John in 1931).

SOURCES

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/r/reed/index.html.

Evening Times of Washington D.C. on December 26, 1898

Kansas City Journal, April 2, 1898

Kansas City Journal, September 24, 1898

Kansas City Journal, February 15, 1899

New York Times, January 14, 1910

Plattsburgh Dailey Republican (Plattsburgh, New York), December 18, 1931

Time Magazine, March 7, 1927

Jackson County Historical Society, Vol. 53, Issue 01, Summer 2015, Last Hand at Park Manor: The Trial of Myrtle Bennett, by Ralph A. Monaco, II.

Larsen, Lawrence, and Nancy J. Hulston, Pendergast, University of Missouri Press, 1997.

Meriwether, Lee, Jim Reed Senatorial Immortal, Mound City Press, St. Louis, Missouri, 1948.

Monaco, Ralph A., II, Last Hand at Park Manor, Monaco Publishing, LLC (2015).

Monaco, Ralph A, II, Son of a Bandit, Jesse James & the Leeds Gang, Monaco Publishing, LLC (2012).

Monaco, Ralph A., II, The Strange Story of Col. Swope and Dr. Hyde, Three Trails Publishing (2009).

Official Manual of the State of Missouri 1913-1914.

O’Malley, Terrence, Nelly Don: A Stitch in Time (2006).

Pomerantz, Gary M., The Devil’s Ticket, a Night of Bridge, a Fatal Hand, and a New American Age, (2009).

The James A. Reed Papers, 1903-1950 (revised edition, 2006).

Western Historical Manuscript Collection—Kansas City (James A. Reed Collection).

James A. Reed: Politician & Statesman