On this day 75 years ago the pastor of a snake-handling church in Southwest Virginia, Harvey O. Kirk, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his wife, Anna, who was bitten by a rattlesnake during a service.
Kirk was originally indicted on a charge of murder by the Wise County grand jury, along with church members Leander Ely, John Wilson and Paul Dotson.
The year before, on September 1, 1945, Mrs. Kirk, according to witnesses, had been next to her husband when he was handed a rattlesnake. She had reached over to pat the snake on its head when it struck her. After two days in which Anna refused medical attention she died. Tragically, she had been pregnant at the time and had prematurely delivered a stillborn child just hours before she passed away.
Judge George Morton sentenced Harvey Kirk to two years in prison but Kirk’s attorney made a motion to set aside the verdict, which was denied at a hearing on August 29, 1946.
That decision was appealed and in October, 1947, the Virginia Supreme Court overturned it.
A new trial was held in August, 1948, in which Kirk agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of his wife in return for a three-month sentence. He asked for a few days to wrap up his business and Judge Morton granted it. When the day came for him to return to court, Kirk never showed up. It turns out that he apparently had a change of heart and had skipped town.
In November, 1948, he was located in a tourist camp near Winter Haven, Florida, and captured by Polk County authorities and returned to Wise County.
