On March 22, 1927, Governor W.J. Fields pardoned Condy Dabney, an innocent man who had spent nearly a year behind bars for the “murder” of a girl who wasn’t even dead.
Dabney, who had come from Coal Creek, Tennessee to Coxton, Kentucky, to work in a coal mine there and later began a cab service, became a suspect in the disappearance of a local girl, 14-year-old Mary Vickery.
In October 1925, authorities in Coxton discovered a decomposed body in a mineshaft. Since Mary had vanished two months earlier, police concluded the body was hers. The identification rested on circumstantial evidence—a ring and stocking found with the body, which Vickery’s father claimed were hers. However, the corpse was too decayed for visual identification, and the father admitted under cross-examination that he was not “perfectly sure” it was his daughter.
Six months later, Marie Jackson came forward, claiming to have witnessed Vickery’s murder. She testified that on the morning of the crime, she and Vickery hailed Dabney’s cab. Jackson alleged they drove to a restaurant and later to a secluded area, where Dabney made sexual advances toward Vickery. When Vickery resisted, Jackson claimed Dabney struck her with a stick, knocking her unconscious. Jackson said she was forced to accompany Dabney as he dumped the body in the mine.
Jackson claimed she stayed silent for months because Dabney threatened to burn her at the stake—or have a friend do it—if she spoke out.
Dabney was arrested on March 3, 1926. During his trial, multiple witnesses contradicted Jackson’s timeline. While Jackson claimed to have been with Dabney and Vickery all day, three of Vickery’s friends testified they had been with her that afternoon. Their account was corroborated by two adults, including the man who had driven them around.
The defense also challenged the body’s identification. Two witnesses testified that the corpse had dark hair, while Vickery’s was light. The extensive decomposition further called into question whether the body could have been dead for only a month. Despite the conflicting evidence, Dabney was convicted on March 31, 1926, and sentenced to life at hard labor.
Nearly a year later, while Dabney’s appeal was pending, fate intervened. On March 1927, a police officer in Williamsburg, Kentucky—85 miles from Coxton—spotted the name “Mary Vickery” in a hotel register. Recognizing it, he questioned the girl. She confirmed her identity, revealing that she had run away the year before due to issues with her stepmother.
Vickery had no connection to Marie Jackson, who had apparently fabricated the entire story to claim a $500 reward offered by Vickery’s father.
On March 22, 1927, Governor W.J. Fields officially pardoned Condy Dabney. The very next day, Dabney confronted Jackson during a grand jury proceeding. He accused her of framing him out of revenge, declaring, “Miss Jackson swore me into the penitentiary because I refused to desert my family for her.”
Jackson was held in the Harlan County jail on perjury charges. Five days later, she was convicted.
Despite the resolution of Dabney’s wrongful conviction, the mystery was far from over. The body in the mineshaft was never identified. The fate of the unknown victim remains a mystery.
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