Alan March

One Wednesday morning, when she had been the editor of the weekly Price Hills News for just a year and a half, Kate March stood talking to a journalism class at the Cincinnati Bible Seminary (later known as Cincinnati Christian University).  Her mission was to teach students how to deal with the press.  Kate had prepared material that showed how to get good works into print.  After talking for about 12 minutes, she invited questions and was bowled over.  Those nice youngsters never got close to the sorts of questions she was prepared to answer.

 

"How," they asked, "would you have covered the Posteal Laskey case if you had been here then?"  This was a high-profile murder case in Cincinnati.  Laskey was a black man who became known as the "Cincinnati Strangler."  He was convicted of murdering a young white woman from Price Hill.  The students were unhappy by what they considered sensationalism by the press.  Kate was stunned by the questions.  She told the class that frankly, she didn't know, that she had never been in such as position, that she believed she would handle the story with accuracy and professionalism.

 

The opportunity to find out how she would handle such a story came quickly.  As she walked out of the seminary lobby, she was called to the phone.  It was her office.  "Kate, you better get back here quick.  There's been a hold-up in Delhi.  Four women have been shot."

 

Kate would win an award from the Ohio Newspaper Association for her coverage of the tale of the "Cabinet Supreme Murders."  Her book, No Witnesses - The Story of Robbery and Murder at the Cabinet Supreme Savings and Loan, gives a full coverage of what happened before, during, and after that horrendous crime.

 

Kate March worked as a newspaper journalist for 18 years, mostly editing weekly newspapers in suburban Cincinnati and Lombard, Illinois.  She was also a stringer for the Cincinnati Enquirer and wrote a feature column titled "The Cop Shop," for the Pulitzer Prize Winning Xenia Gazette, in Xenia, Ohio.

 

She has covered crime stories and police departments large and small, and has been exposed to such strangeness as being called as a juror in a sensational murder case in which she had written the original stories.

 

The most gripping of all her stories, she said, is the Cabinet Supreme murders.  Kate tells the full story in No Witnesses, from the dissolute and corrupt youth of the shooter, to the investigation led by a small but professional police department, to multiple murder trials, and time in prison for the killers.  Kate covers the impact the murders had on the victims' families and the entire community for years after the grisly crime.

 

Kate won numerous awards for her writing from organizations including the Ohio Newspaper Women's Association, the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association, and the Ohio Newspaper Association.  She was recognized by the Price Hill Civic Club as Woman of the Year in Business Life.  The Greater Price Hill Improvement Association and Delhi Wing of the Civil Air Patrol honored Kate with certificates of appreciation for her support in their work.

 

Kate was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi) since 1977 and a member of the Miami Valley Literary Council since 1988.

 

Kate March died in 2007 in her 80th year of life.

 

No Witnesses was published posthumously by her family.