Revisiting 1954: The Brutal Chattanooga Valley Murder That Shook Walker County

Exploring One of Walker County’s Most Shocking and Bloody Crimes

Every once in a while, while browsing through old newspapers, I come across a story I have to share. This time I came across a crime in north Georgia so brutal it was impossible to ignore—and yet I had never heard of it. In 1954, Dorothy McDaniel, a 41-year-old housewife, brutally killed her father, J.W. Ellis, in an act of violence that defied explanation and produced one of the bloodiest crime scenes the sheriff and coroner had ever seen. Rather than recount the story myself, I present to you the three articles from the Chattanooga Daily Times, which followed the events and aftermath of this brutal killing.

If any readers know more about this case—or its aftermath and what became of Dorothy McDaniel in the end—I invite you to share. Comment or send me a message. Stories like this remind us that history often lies hidden in the margins, waiting to be rediscovered and understood.

Housewife Wielding Butcher-Knife Kills Father in Chattanooga Valley

Thu, Mar 25, 1954
By CHARLES PENNINGTON, Chattanooga Daily Times

A diminutive Chattanooga Valley housewife went berserk early yesterday afternoon and slashed and stabbed her 71-year-old father to death with a butcher knife.

Sheriff W. F. Harmon of Walker County, Georgia, said Mrs. Dorothy McDaniel, 41, told him she killed her father, J. W. (Wash) Ellis, also of Chattanooga Valley, after he first attempted to stab her with the knife.

Walker County Coroner Hill Pope estimated there were “more than 225 stab wounds in the body.” He said the throat was slashed, and the head was nearly severed from the body. The face and chest were pocked with stab wounds, as was the left arm, Pope said. The legs and right arm also had several stab wounds, he said.

Pope said Ellis weighed “more than 220 pounds,” while he estimated Mrs. McDaniel’s weight to be “less than 120 pounds.”

Sheriff Harmon said Mrs. McDaniel was being held in the Walker County jail at LaFayette on open charges. He said he was awaiting further investigation of the case by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation before placing charges. He indicated she might be held on a lunacy charge, at least temporarily, after the GBI investigation.

Ellis was killed in the living room of the four-room frame house he occupied near the Nazarene Church in Chattanooga Valley with another daughter, Miss Earlsene Ellis.

Mrs. McDaniel, who lives with her husband and three children some distance away, had gone to her father’s house to prepare supper for him and her half-sister, Miss Ellis, who was away at work, Sheriff Harmon said she told him.

The slight brunette housewife found her father alone, sitting on the front porch with a bedspread wrapped around his shoulders, the sheriff quoted Mrs. McDaniel as saying. Ellis, a retired farmer, had been suffering from a heart condition for more than a year, Harmon said.

The sheriff quoted Mrs. McDaniel as saying she told her father to come into the house and she’d “help you clean up and you help me get supper ready.” Sheriff Harmon said Ellis evidently went into the house and That apparently he and his daughter “got into a quarrel.” He said Mrs. McDaniel gave a wildly incoherent account of what occurred in the house, charging that her father knocked her down and grabbed the razor-sharp butcher knife and tried to stab her.

The sheriff said that although Ellis was a big man, his daughter obviously had gotten possession of the knife, which had an eight-inch, tapered blade, either from him or somewhere else.

Coroner Pope said the living room showed signs of a wild struggle. Furniture had been overturned, drapes had been pulled from the windows, and the walls were spattered with blood, he said.

Sheriff Harmon said he understood from Deputies Brady Morgan and Erwin Wilson, first officers at the scene, that Mrs. McDaniel had locked the doors after the bloody attack and refused at first to admit neighbors who evidently had heard sounds of the struggle. He said she had permitted two male neighbors to come into the house by the time the officers arrived.

Coroner Pope said an inquest will be conducted, but not until after the GBI has had a chance to complete its investigation and has all its laboratory reports available.

A Bryan ambulance had been summoned to the scene before officers arrived, but it was obvious that Ellis was dead before the ambulance was called, the sheriff said. The body was later removed to the Bryan Funeral Home in Chattanooga.

Chattanooga Valley Slayer of Father Declared Sane, Charged With Murder

Wed, Mar 31, 1954
By a Times Staff Writer, Chattanooga Daily Times

LAFAYETTE, Ga., March 30—Mrs. Dorothy McDaniel, 41-year-old Chattanooga Valley housewife charged with the butcher-knife slaying of her father, was back in jail here today after a lunacy commission refused yesterday to declare her insane.

A three-man commission, composed of two local physicians and a representative of the county attorney, ruled that Mrs. McDaniel was "not a fit patient for the state hospital for the insane," Ordinary J.C. Keown, who conducted the lunacy hearing, said.

Held Without Bail

The office of Sheriff W.F. Harmon said Mrs. McDaniel, who has admitted the multiple-stabbing killing of 71-year-old J.W. (Wash) Ellis at his Chattanooga Valley home last Wednesday, is being held without bail on a charge of murder.

Ordinary Keown said the lunacy hearing was ordered by Superior Court Judge Freeman C. McClure after the latter had denied the woman bail following her arrest shortly after the slaying.

Walker County Coroner Hill Pope estimated that "more than 225 stab wounds" were found in Ellis' body.

Sheriff Harmon earlier had reported that Mrs. McDaniel told him she stabbed her father after he had first attempted to stab her with the knife.

Ellis was killed in the living room of the four-room frame house he occupied near the Nazarene Church in Chattanooga Valley with another daughter, Miss Earlene Ellis.

Hundreds overflowed the Flintstone Baptist Church where Ellis' funeral was held last Friday.

Panel Reverses Self, Sends Woman In Butcher Knife Slaying to Asylum

Wed, Apr 07, 1954
By Joe Hall, Chattanooga Daily Times

LAFAYETTE, Ga., April 6—A three-man lunacy commission, reversing its last week’s decision, today ordered a Chattanooga Valley housewife, charged with the murder of her father, committed to the state hospital for the insane, with the provision that she be released only to the custody of the Walker County sheriff.

Ordinary J.C. Keown, before whom the second hearing was held, committed Mrs. Dorothy McDaniel, 41, who has admitted the butcher-knife slaying of J.W. (Wash) Ellis on March 24, and forwarded a certified copy of the warrant charging her with the murder to the hospital.

The lunacy commission, composed of the identical two local physicians and a representative of the county attorney, had declared Mrs. McDaniel "not a fit patient for the hospital for the insane" at a similar hearing a week ago.

County Atty. G.W. Langford said the commission made its decision today when it was assured that the petite Mrs. McDaniel would not be released from the hospital except to the sheriff’s custody.

Langford said that Supt. T.G. Peacock of the state hospital at Milledgeville had assured the commission that Mrs. McDaniel will not be released through normal channels.

Informed sources said the commission refused to declare the woman insane at last week’s hearing because it feared she might be released through normal channels at an early date and escape possible indictment by a county grand jury.

According to today’s arrangements, Mrs. McDaniel, if declared sane by the institution, can be released only to the custody of Sheriff W.F. Harmon, with the murder warrant still pending, Langford said.

In the event that the next term of the county grand jury should indict the woman for murder, she will be subject to trial no later than in Walker County Court, if and when she is declared sane by the state institution.

Meanwhile, the office of Sheriff Harmon reported that Mrs. McDaniel was transferred to the state hospital immediately following the hearing today.

Sheriff Harmon earlier had quoted Mrs. McDaniel as saying she slew her father after he first attacked her with the butcher knife. The killing occurred at Ellis’ Chattanooga Valley home, where Mrs. McDaniel reportedly had gone to prepare supper for him.

Coroner Hill Pope, who investigated the slaying along with Sheriff Harmon and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Ellis’ body was riddled with “more than 225 stab wounds.”

Investigating officers reported that rooms of the house showed evidence of a “terrific struggle” and called the slaying “one of the bloodiest” in the county’s history.