January 14, 1927 — A.J. Mathis, a wealthy, elderly chicken rancher, is missing. One of the last of the cowboy sheriffs, Jim McDonald, is convinced A.J. is dead. Murdered. And McDonald says he knows who did it and vows to “prove it on her.”
McDonald’s leading and only suspect is a former saloon singer and prostitute, Eva Dugan. Short, stocky, and plain, Eva takes off with a younger man in A.J.’s Dodge Coupe. They drive from Arizona to Texas before Eva makes her way to White Plains, New York.
While on the run, her young friend, Jack, vanishes. And A.J.’s skeleton is discovered buried in a shallow grave.
After she’s captured, Eva proclaims her innocence but is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Eva says if she was more attractive and a “flapper,” she would not have been convicted nor sentenced to death by hanging.
A movement grows among people opposed to capital punishment to spare Eva’s life. They fail, and Eva walks to the gallows, proclaiming her innocence.
What follows changes how Arizona treats those sentenced to death for capital crimes. Never again will anyone hang for murder in Arizona because of what happened the day Eva Dugan died. Was justice done? KILL. BURY. FORGET: A Shocking True Crime Story-Rod Kackley