Two Newspaper Columns I Wrote About William Lee, a/k/a “Deaf Bill”

by

John J. Dunphy

Author’s note: I wrote these columns a decade apart. The temper and tone of the second column is much different than that of the 1986 piece. Let the record show that Lee was (finally) laid to rest on June 24, 1996.

I also wrote a piece on “Deaf Bill” for issue 3:5 of Springhouse magazine (www.springhousemagazine.com).

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10.27.1986

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6.3.1996.

John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois, Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials, Lewis and Clark’s Illinois Volunteers, Murder and Mayhem in Southwestern Illinois and From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois. He is also the author of seven collections of poetry.