William McLean
William McLean (1913-1933) was a man with Scott County ties who was hanged for murdering a man in Canada.
Biography
Born in 1913, William McLean was the son of Kenneth McLean and Cassie Sharp. His siblings included Helen M. Frederick (1936-1991), Joseph Kenneth McLean (1920-2001), Frank Samuel McLean (born 1923), and Martha McLean (born about 1931). His maternal grandparents were Joseph Jonathan Sharp and Caroline Lewallen.
William McLean was not born in Scott County. His parents had fled the community by that point, after his father was convicted of killing Harrison Lowe in November 1911 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but escaped. The family later lived in Canada, under the alias Shea. William went by Jim Shea. His father went by John Shea.
Murder of Walter Parsille
Walter James Parsille, a 55-year-old wheat farmer from Manville, Alberta (Canada), was found dead on his farm on Oct. 2, 1932. It was determined that he had been killed by a rifle shot through the heart on Sept. 28, 1932.
Both Kenneth McLean and his son, William McLean, worked on Parsille’s wheat fleshing crew. When the Canadian Mounted Royal Police began an investigation, they focused on Parsille’s 10-man work crew and determined that all but two of the crew were accounted for. The two missing men were John and Jim Shea, which were turned out to be aliases that Kenneth and William McLean were using.
Authorities traced the duo to Calgary by uncovering records where John Shea had signed for liquor with a signature that matched the signature of John Shea in Parsille’s payroll records. With no further clues to go on, the investigation might have reached a dead end if not for an unidentified witness who stepped forward to say that he knew a man named Kenneth McLean who was a “bad man” and who matched John Shea’s description.
Armed with Shea’s true identity, Canadian authorities were able to determine that the McLeans had ties to Scott County. They circulated wanted flyers for the two men in Tennessee. Authorities in Chattanooga had arrested a man calling himself James Peart, charging him with stealing a vehicle in Montana. They believed he matched the description of William McLean, and phoned the Canadian Mounties.
It was a short time later that Canadian authorities arrived in Scott County. Kenneth McLean was arrested and ordered to Nashville to begin serving the 10-year sentence that was outstanding from his 1911 murder of Harrison Lowe. However, a federal judge later ordered their extradition to Canada. The Mounties had determined that shell casings found on Parsille’s farm belonged to a gun owned by the McLeans. That gun was never recovered. It was said to have been turned over to a garage owner in Oneida.
While William McLean was being held in a Knoxville jail, he shared a cell with a candy salesman named Eugene B. Ward, who was charged with assaulting a woman. Ward would later testify that the younger McLean told him that his father had shot Parsille with a rifle and William had stolen cash from the dead man’s body, before taking Parsille’s rifle and fleeing the scene.
William McLean vowed to kill Ward for the testimony.
Kenneth McLean, meanwhile, escaped from jail by sawing his way out, along with another prisoner. He was captured a short time later.
Later, after the two had been returned to Canada, William McLean was found to have two thin saws hidden inside his suit.
William, age 21 at the time, was the first to stand trial. He was sentenced to death by hanging at Fort Saskatchewan on Oct. 6, 1933.
His father, Kenneth, was later sentenced to the same fate. William testified against his father, arguing that it was the elder McLean who had killed Parsille and that he had tried to stop him.
A Canadian court later delayed the executions to allow William McLean time for an appeal. A solicitor, Ernest Hay, called the hanging of the 21-year-old man “wicked,” saying he was “under the domination of his father.”
The appeal failed, and both men were hanged on Nov. 24, 1933. William McLean was the first to hang. His last words were “goodbye father.” His father responded, “Goodbye, son. We’ve traveled many a rough trail together and we’ll travel this one. We’ll keep going along the same way.”
After learning that the appeal had failed, Kenneth McLean had told reporters that he was not surprised but that he had hoped “they would spare Bill.”
See Also: The Mounties Got Their Men (Murders in the Heartland)
Aftermath
Cassie Sharp McLean returned to Scott County after her husband and sun were executed. She died on Oct. 12, 1952, at age 59, and was buried at Potter Cemetery in Huntsville.
Her son, Joseph Kenneth McLean, was arrested by Scott County Sheriff Frank Butler in 1938, after being charged with stealing a car in Canada so he could return to the U.S. and seek work. Two other men, Woldeman and Hans Sagstuen, were also arrested. All three were turned over to the FBI. Joseph McLean died in 2001 and is also buried at Potter Cemetery.
At the time of the McLeans’ arrest in 1933, Canadian newspapers hinted that the death of Kenneth McClean’s brother-in-law, Lemuel Phillips, Esther Sharp’s first husband who died in 1930, was linked to him. However, the idea was not expanded on.