E7-P2 Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman

In Part Two of Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman, The Coroner’s Report presents a story that turns darker and more violent. What began as whispered plans between husband and wife explodes on Thanksgiving night, 1977. Before Ruth can even step inside the Columbia County jail, she lures Shorty Cooper into the woods—where liquor, sex, and violence end in his brutal murder and mutilation.

With Shorty’s car, 22 year old  Ruth then storms the jail armed with a pistol and knife, forcing jailer Tim Rainwater to release five inmates, including her husband, Warren Sumlin. The chaos that follows is almost cinematic: desperate escapes, botched getaways, gunfire in the Arkansas woods, and terrified civilians caught in the crossfire.

Told through original police testimony, investigator David Hendershott’s vivid recollections, and Ruth’s own shocking letters, Part Two captures the frantic hours of a jailbreak that left the state reeling.