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Jul 21, 2023

A murder, still unsolved 71 years later

Our History The horrific murder of William Cochrane and the two-year

Our History

The horrific murder of William Cochrane and the two-year investigation was reported in newspapers from Los Angeles to Memphis, Ontario to Spokane. The weekly Mount Airy News ran pictures of the blast scene. Rumors flew through the communities where people knew the young couple and people clamored for an arrest and conviction. When Imogene's wedding plans to a second husband were made known in 1954, another bomb was placed, and this time she was the apparent target. The swift response of the agents unsettled the alleged murderer who took his own life rather than face justice.

Bill and Imogene Cochrane lived in the Franklin Apartments at the corner of McCargo and Franklin streets in Mount Airy. The couple were married in August and planned to build their lives together in White Plains where they were looking to buy a home. After Bill's murder, Imogene never spent another night in the apartment. (Photo courtesy of Kate Rauhauser-Smith.)

White Plains School 1957. Bill Cochrane was teaching here when he fell victim to a bombing that left him with mortal wounds.

The blast tore through the chilled morning air, glass shards from shattered windows raining down on Mount Airy citizens as they ran to investigate. The scene of destruction must have been jarring.

A heavy fog shrouded the carnage, clinging to trees and adding to the surreal affect. Twisted metal, fluttering pieces of paper, and the mangled remains of a Ford pickup truck littered Franklin Street and the neatly kept lawns that lined it. The acrid scent of burning fuel filled the air as people tried to make sense of the wreckage.

Twenty feet from the truck lay the body of their neighbor William Cochrane. Someone brought a blanket to cover the young man out of respect as others called for emergency services.

It must have been a shock when Bill pushed the fabric from his face. "Don't cover me. I’m not dead."

It was 8:05 am, Monday, Dec. 31, 1951. Bill was headed to White Plains High School where he was an agriculture teacher who worked with the Future Farmers of America and also GIs returning to family farms after their tour of duty was done.

At 23, he wasn't much older than many of his students. Athletic and affable, he was popular with students and staff at the school where he’d been teaching since he graduated from NC State in 1949. The Franklin native had deep roots in the far-western counties of Macon and Buncombe where his ancestors had lived since at least 1800.

He met Imogene Moses, a graduate of Appalachian State and Surry's assistant home demonstration officer, here. Imogene grew up near Pittsboro, Chatham County, near Raleigh. The couple married August 25, 1951. They were looking for a home in White Plains where they regularly attended services at the Friends’ Meeting House.

The blast put an end to all of that.

The bomb was under the driver's seat. It ejected Bill through the roof of the cab and amputated both legs. Police, recognizing the severity of Bill's injuries, asked if he knew who could have done this.

"I don't have an enemy in the world," was the confused reply before he was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital on Cherry Street.

His students flocked to the hospital to donate blood but, despite extraordinary efforts by the medical staff, the trauma and shock were beyond them. William Homer Cochrane Jr. died 13 hours later. More than 3,000 mourners attended the funeral.

Rumors flew as the investigation got underway. Mount Airy Police Chief Monte W. Boone met with James Powell, director of the State Bureau of Investigation. Mount Airy Police Captain W. H. Sumner worked with SBI Agent Willis Jessup, former Mount Airy Police Chief.

City leaders posted a $2,100 reward for information leading to an arrest. The state added $400 and Bill's hometown of Franklin where his own father was chief of police, added $1,300.

People were incensed.

Governor W. Kerr Scott decried the indiscriminate nature of the murder that could have killed anyone. "The flames of righteous anger continue to run high in Mount Airy… every citizen should cooperate to the fullest with the Mount Airy police officers."

Sumner and John Edwards and Guy Scott, SBI agents based in Elkin, tracked down Imogene's former beaus here, at App State, and in Chatham County where she grew up.

They sent what they could find of the bomb to the FBI's Crime Laboratories in Washington, D.C., where it was determined dynamite or nitroglycerine had been used. So, they tracked down dynamite sales.

The process was made more difficult by a dry season where many local wells dried up causing a spike in dynamite sales. Ed Draughn, a worker at the W. E. Merritt Hardware Store on Main Street, remembered selling two sticks and five blasting caps to a stranger the week before Christmas.

But there the trail ran cold — until April 1954.

Imogene moved back east to Edenton to be closer to family and to escape painful memories. There she met George Byrum, a city councilman. Two weeks before they were due to wed a bomb was found in her car. Not as powerful or sophisticated, when this bomb exploded it didn't kill anyone, just put Edenton Police Chief George Dail in the hospital with burns.

SBI agents John Edwards and Guy Scott headed to Edenton to talk with a man they suspected from the start but couldn't find enough evidence for arrest.

George Henry Smith, a childhood friend of Imogene's, had asked her out a few times over the years. She never accepted. After being questioned he drove to the family farm where he lived with his parents, ran into the woods and committed suicide before they could charge him.

Imogene and George Byrum married and raised a family in Edenton. She and George both died in 2008.

There are those who believe young Cochrane's spirit haunts the apartments and homes along Franklin Street where he lived and died. His story is recounted on the museum's ghost tour each Friday and Saturday night. The tragic emotions of a life cut short ripple through time as he continues to wonder, "Who could have done this? I don't have an enemy in the world."

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a volunteer for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours.