The death of George M. Nicholas in 1912 occurred under suspicious circumstances. Nicholas was a rich Virginia farmer who amassed substantial cash and property, aided by his miserly habits. He had been a recluse, never married, and left no will. His heirs were his four brothers. Surprisingly, evidence suggested Nicholas died by poison placed in his coffee. Three other non-fatal poisonings occurring in the area were similar, but authorities found no suspects.
Two weeks after his death, authorities received what appeared to be Nicholas’s last will and testament. This so-called will bequeathed his home, farm, and over half his property to a Missouri woman, Ella McClendon. She claimed to have helped him after his injury in a streetcar accident in St. Louis and received the will as his caretaker. His brothers countered that Nicholas never traveled to St. Louis. During the investigation, authorities found she had used the same type of scheme to inherit $9,000 from John Rowan, another wealthy farmer.
The strongest weapon Ella McClendon had in her bag of tricks was her spotless reputation. She was the former assistant postmaster of Sturdivant, Missouri, in Stoddard County. She learned the ins and outs of the post office workings to allow her to craft this and other frauds for over two decades. As a storekeeper and assistant postmaster to her father, William McClendon, who was the postmaster in Sturdivant and operated a dry goods store, no one suspected her of dishonesty.
Her schemes began simply. Because the nearest bank was 11 miles away, local men cashed their paychecks at the McClendon store. They would sign them over to Ella and she would deposit them. However, greed got the better of her. She would forge increases on the dollar amounts on the checks. Once the bank discovered the ruse, the fraud amounted to over $600 (over $19,000 in 2024 dollars).
Ella projected an “air of innocence” according to a newspaper account and returned the money. The bankers took her to court anyway. She claimed someone else had forged the amounts, and the jury bought it, awarding her $636.
In the case of George Nicholas’s estate, his brothers contested the will. Ella pleaded the fifth and won in the Virginia Supreme Court. The murder and estate fraud went unpunished. However, authorities arrested McClendon on October 14, 1913, for a completely different fraud. She deposited several checks supposedly signed by Rowan and made out to “Ed Elders.” She then paid checks from the forged account to herself. Bankers were unable to locate anyone named “Ed Elders,” arousing suspicion. Authorities arrested her and charged her with using the mails to defraud. Convicted on four counts, her sentence was five years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.
McClendon appealed her conviction. During the time she was out on bail waiting for the appeals case, she supposedly got pregnant and gave birth to a son in 1916. Residents in Sturdivant suspected she had obtained the baby through other means. She identified no father but changed her name to “Grayson.”
Ella lost on appeal and served her sentence. However, not to be outdone, she later sent bogus checks to mail order houses to purchase merchandise, leading to filing of charges in 1928. After conviction, she served time in the Federal Industrial Institute for Women in Talcott, West Virginia.
Either reformed at last or unable to hatch more schemes, she had moved to Detroit by 1940, where she worked in a private sanitarium as a nurse. She died in Detroit in 1962.
