A Conversation...

I have been asked to participate in this Saturday’s Founder’s Day celebration in a most unusual way. I paused, and thought about the request for a few days before agreeing. I will interview Ruthie Shelton on a stage to discuss her family. She is the daughter of Carl, better known as “Little Carl” Shelton…..a member of the Shelton Gang.

I took pause because I do not want to do anything that could be considered insensitive to the crimes committed by Ms. Shelton’s family. And while the Gang fled Fairfield and Wayne County in 1951 or long before she….or I were ever born…..the stain remains. There are people here who remember the fear and simply won’t talk about it.

The organizers of the 200^th anniversary of Fairfield felt it was important to remember The Shelton’s and their dark role in the history of the city.

For her part, Ruthie Shelton had no idea of the family’s past when her father started reliving his past while under anesthesia after an operation in 2003. When he awoke from an imposed coma, she had questions. Slowly he had answers. After his death, she used her background as a writer to get to the bottom of the stories which led to the publishing of a book entitled: “The Shelton Gang: One Daughter’s Discovery.”

I’m doing this because I was asked and because I have questions of my own. I’d accept questions from our listeners, if you wanted to send them to me here at the radio station.

The Saturday Evening Post called them “America’s Bloodiest Gang,” in an article in 1950. The Shelton’s are, undeniably, a part of Wayne County’s past. It’s a shameful episode in history which we will revisit next Saturday afternoon in downtown.

Not to glorify….but to amplify.