The Murder of Frankie Bullock

The former citizen of Macon County and president of The North Carolina Federation of Republic Women, Frances Bullock or better known as “Frankie”, was well loved by everyone. Examples of these people who showed great love towards Bullock include neighbor Susan Wallace and good friend Flora Ellis. Two friends who will later become the discoverers of a great tragedy. Her life begins on the day of October 6th, 1922 causing her to be the first born out of five children. A number that would sadly drop to four, with the death of her infant brother Billy. Her childhood consisted of working on her family farm with parents, Grover Cleveland and Odessa Louise Frady Stanfield (Stone 2018).  

On that date of July 26, 1963, Frances Bullock was stabbed in her kitchen a total of six times then made her way to the dining room where her life of 40 years reached its end. She laid there a total of three days before being found by her neighbor and local nurse, Flora Ellis, who had been sent by Susan Wallace. When she was discovered, it was found that she was missing a large Black patent leather with brown bone handles. As well as a small pistol, which she kept for protection (McRae 2014).

Out of the six times she was stabbed, one was in the hand which was defined as a defense wound, because it looked like she had tried to grab the knife from the attacker. The other wounds were on her torso as well as a stab wound in her only lung. This caused great damage due to her having tuberculosis at the age of 18 which resulted in the loss of one of her lungs. The last injury included a stabbing below the stomach which reached her spine (Evans 2018).

While many articles were wrote about the murder, a book was also written, by her cousin Ronald Evans. He knew her quite personally and was around the age of 21 when the incident took place. Over a span of seven years, in his seventies, he collected research on the murder. He talked to many people associated with the killing such as the suspects family as well as authorities. With his wife’s suggestion to start a book with all the information, he wrote the popular “Frankie: A Life Cut Short”. He speaks of her passion for fashion, stating she was always a “sharp dresser”. He also mentions a shop of antiquities, which was located at her home. He fondly speaks of the great love she portrayed for her late husband Ebb Bullock. The home, where she would later be murdered, was left to her after her husband's work accident. The accident that  resulted in his death was electrification, leading him to be set on fire. While he could not speak or move after being taken to the hospital, he lived for a total of three day after the incident (Evans 2018). 

The murderer, guilty of this killing was never discovered, making it a cold case. While there were numerous suspects for this case, twelve to be exact, officials had three people as their prime suspects. One of these three people included her former fiancé by the name of Gordon Forrester, who worked as an IRS agent (Evans 2018). A few highlighted reasons as to why he was considerably focused on during the investigation consist of his record with domestic violence against previous wives, and drinking habits which caused him to act out in violence. A defining factor going towards proving him innocent was the time of murder. Forrester was residing in Elizabeth City at the time and officials found the scenario of him being able to commit the murder in Franklin and then return home in that time period quite unlikely (Evans 2018).

The next significant person of interest was Bullock's brother, Charlie Stanfield, who had a rocky history with Frankie, one filled with loans never repaid. As told by Ronald Evans, cousin of Frankie, Bullock had loaned money to Charlie, more than a few times, but he had never taken the initiative to repay her. On the day of the incident suspicious behavior was noted from Charlie. This suspicious behavior included avoiding the questionings of officials and when finally in the custody of police he displayed great rage. At first this was considered a symptom of shock, but when days later, police were trying to question him, the same results occurred. Contradicting this damaging evidence, is his alibi, which was attending a drive-thru theater with his wife (Stone 2018). 

The last person of interests, who was not focused on as much compared to the others is Lewis Clayton. Due to Bullock’s loss of interest in Forrester, she recently began seeing Clayton. Unlike Charlie, Lewis’s behavior towards the authorities was very cooperative, he displayed this by willingly participating in a polygraph test (Stone 2018). 

 The tragic event of Bullock’s case, till this day, remains one of the few unsolved murder cases in Franklin, making it well talked about and theorized. One of these theories consist of the idea, of Gordon Forrester committing the murder, due to his previous acts of his violence and the dispute with the former fiancé, Bullock. 

Evans , Ronald C. Frankie: A Life Cut Short . Franklin , Ronald Evans, 2018.

Stone , Jessi . Bullock Murder Case Remains Unsolved After 55 , Smoky Mountain News . August 29th 2018. Accessed February 26th 2021. https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/25442-bullock-murder-case-remains-unsolved-after-55-years.