Joan Woodley

A gamble that ended in murder was the next crime to plague Oxford. Joan Woodley, Managing Editor of the local paper, was found shot to death in her office in the early hours of January 11, 1998.

Woodley, a veteran newspaperwoman whose efforts had garnered the local paper journalistic honors, had a tumultuous romantic relationship with Chase McFadden, the newspaper's city and crime reporter. Based on reports that McFadden had hit Woodley in public and that the couple had recently broken off their romance, officials suspected that the crack investigative reporter had applied his knowledge of crime to his own ends.

But with McFadden in custody, local resident Buck Friendly stepped forward to confess to the crime, claiming that Woodley's hard-hitting news coverage had prompted him to kill her.

In 1993, Friendly was acquitted of raping a 16-year-old baby-sitter who was staying with Friendly's son while Friendly's wife, Helen, was away visiting her mother at a hospital in a nearby county.

In his confession, Friendly said that despite his acquittal Woodley's coverage of the trial had ruined his reputation in the town and his convenience store business. But inconsistencies in Friendly's testimony led investigators to conclude that his confession was false. Friendly was released, and is currently undergoing psychiatric treatment at the Yoknapatawpha County Medical Center.

Less than a week after being released, McFadden once again became investigators' prime suspect, and was arrested and charged with murdering Woodley.

Once again, McFadden's stay in prison was short-lived. Tracing the origin of a key found hidden in Woodley's home, investigators found a safety deposit box in Athens, Georgia. The contents of the box included $10,000 in cash and photos Woodley used to blackmail U.S. Representative Harold Ivy.

The photos depicted Ivy gambling at the Tip-Top Lounge, one of a network of 14 gambling operations funded by the late Reed Chambeau, who engineered the execution of the late Sheriff Lamar. The discovery of the Chambeau gambling ring prompted the FBI to examine other possible illegal gambling operations in the Oxford area. Results of that investigation have not been released

Jimmy Gates, co-worker

Faced with the mounting evidence and after intense interrogation by Yoknapatawpha police, Ivy admitted his involvement in the death of Joan Woodley. In his confession, Ivy said Woodley had blackmailed him before the 1994 congressional elections, and had hoped to do so again this year, when Ivy had planned to make a Senate bid. But Ivy refused to pay off Woodley a second time, opting instead to end the high-stakes game by murdering her. In February 1998, Ivy resigned his post in Congress and pled guilty to arranging to have Woodley killed. Upon conviction, Ivy was incarcerated at Parchman State Penitentiary.

When asked to comment on his colleague's conduct, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott professed outrage at the Ivy/Woodley situation, calling it "a shameful display of how power corrupts someone. I've always known Harold Ivy to be an upright, trustworthy individual, but he has betrayed my trust and the trust of others with this incident."

Chase McFadden, who was released from custody after Ivy confessed, moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he is a reporter at the Commercial-Appeal.

It appeared the Woodley murder was the result of a deadly game gone too far and the guilty had been brought to justice. The community of Oxford breathed a collective sigh of relief but it would be short-lived. The scandal surrounding Woodley's murder had not yet played out to its finale. [ Continued --> ]