Author: Julie Musick

1934 James Marvin Gleason, 21, was arrested for the murder of his father, Lloyd C. Gleason, the owner of the Yorktown meat market.

By Barbara Swander Miller March 2021 Newsletter

During February and March of 1934, newspapers from Ohio to Nebraska ran updates about the grisly murder of Lloyd Gleason, 40, in his butcher shop in Yorktown.  On February 26, 1934, Gleason’s sister, Pearl Jefferson, discovered the body. The well-known businessman had been shot by a small caliber revolver, once above the eye, a second time below the left ear, and again in the back of the head.  (The Muncie Morning Star, 28 Feb 1934).

The following day, James Marvin Gleason, 21, was arrested as a suspect in the murder of his father.  The son, a 1931 graduate of Yorktown High School, told reporters, “There has been trouble in our family ever since I can remember.” The youth described his father as a heavy drinker and womanizer. (The Evening Press, 27 Feb 1934). 

By Wednesday, February 28, 1934, Marvin Gleason had confessed to killing his father over a bottle of whisky and attempting to make it appear an accident.  A fan of detective magazines, Marvin confessed when the local marshal found blood stains and grease on his clothing. Gleason said he tried to stop his father from drinking, but a fight ensued.  The boy grabbed a gun he had hidden in the basement “for practice.”   He admitted being too weak to move his father’s body into the furnace; he planned to incinerate it to save funeral expenses. Burns were found on the left ankle and leg on the elder Gleason’s body (The Muncie Morning Star, 28 Feb 1934). Burn marks were also found on the youth’s right hand.

Later that day, the funeral of Lloyd Gleason was held at the Yorktown M.E. Church, conducted by Rev. W.H. Hamilton of Pennville.  Lloyd Gleason was buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery northeast of Selma. Marvin Gleason did not attend at the request of his mother (The Muncie Morning Star, 1 Mar 1934).

After Marvin’s confession, Dora Gleason told reporters about her son’s disinterest in his peers and weak health.  She reported that she had taken him to the Detroit Clinic and was advised to move Marvin to a sanitarium out West to cure his dementia praecox, a generic term used for schizophrenia at the time. Mrs. Gleason said after returning from Detroit, Marvin had lived with his grandparents, stayed at the YMCA and camped in the woods near Lynn to “feel better” (The Muncie Morning Star, 28 Feb 1934).

Four days after the murder, Marvin implicated his mother, Dora Brady Gleason, in a premeditated murder plot.  The young man claimed that he and his mother had “reached an understanding” that he would kill his father and dispose of the remains in the butcher shop’s furnace (The Evening Press, 5 Mar 1934).  Mrs. Gleason was exonerated by a grand jury.

At YHS, Gleason participated in the school play “Alabama Bound” and was a school newspaper reporter, but his main passion was radio according to the school newspaper’s “Senior Futures.” Neighbors described the boy as “a genius in book learning” (The Muncie Morning Star, 28 Feb 1934). Marvin Gleason was awarded but did not accept a Rector Scholarship at Depauw University. 

A sanity inquest was held on May 28, 1934 in Muncie. Judge L. A Guthrie found Gleason incapable of standing trial mentally and physically, and sentenced him to the Michigan City state hospital for insane criminals.