Hobart Ison

Hobart Ison was born 15 Mar 1897 and died in 1978. He was the son of Grant Ison and Susan Frazier. His family came to Kentucky in the late 19th century, and their wealth was tied to the land. In the 1920s, during the coal boom, Ison had several local businesses including a car dealership, but lost all his wealth except his inherited land in the Great Depression. A lifelong bachelor, he had been engaged once but his fiancee called off the wedding. Ison had already built a home for them, and chose to leave it furnished but unoccupied for 30 years rather than live in it or rent it.

He used money from the sale of some of his land to a railroad company to build several rental cottages in 1947. By 1967 he was renting them out to mining families for $10 a month.

Hugh O'Connor (born 1921 in Scotland) worked for the National Film Board of Canada. Apparently unaware of the hostilities locals had for outside journalists and filmmakers because of the negative way in which filmmakers had portrayed the Appalachias, he came to Kentucky in 1967 to make a documentary.

Journalists and filmmakers had descended upon Appalachia in the late 1960s to document the living conditions there. This offended many local residents, who objected to the stereotyping and criticism by outsiders, as well as their tendency to show only the poor of Appalachia. (One more recent example of the negative portrayal of the great folks of that area is the documentary about the family of Iree (Rice) and Bass Bowling in American Hollow 1999 by Rory Kennedy, daughter of Robert F Kennedy and Ethel Skakel).

Hugh O'Connor had gone to the property of Hobart Ison to film the residents of his rental property. Hobart Ison confronted O'Connor and told Hugh O'Connor and his film crew to leave his property. They left Hobart's property and on September 20, 1967, Hugh O'Connor's film crew returned to film a group of rental homes owned by Hobart Ison.

Against Hobart Ison's wishes, the crew had returned and paid the renters $10 and had them sign a release to film them. Hobart Ison resented their 2nd intrusion upon his property. Ison did not want to be their object of ridicule as he had seen in previous negative documentaries about Appalachia. Witnesses said Hobart Ison approached O'Connor and his crew for the 2nd time as they filmed a coal miner. Hobart told them to leave his property again. The crew did not want to leave so Ison fired, first at the cameras and then O'Connor, who died soon after. According to a story in The New Yorker O'Connor's last words were "Why'd you have to do that?"

Although many were shocked by the crime, local residents rallied to Ison's defense. About 100 residents attended his bond hearing to support and offer assistance in paying the bond. According to a 2001 book "Review of a Stranger With A Camera" by Robert E Snyder: "Locals defended Ison not because they approved of murder and not because of an innate, clannish suspiciousness of outsiders, but because they perceived the prying eyes of reporters to be an assault on manners, common decency, and the integrity of their communities."

Unable to find an impartial jury in Letcher County, the trial of Hobart Ison was moved to Harlan County and held in March 1968. The prosecution was led by veteran Commonwealth's Attorney Daniel Boone Smith, who recalled that even in Harlan County it was assumed he would not push too hard for Ison's conviction, and many citizens approached him expressing sympathy for Ison. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

On March 24, 1969, a week before a second trial was to begin, Ison pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was paroled after serving one year of his sentence, and died in 1978. He never expressed any remorse for O'Connor's death. The weapon Ison used to kill O'Connor was a 1904 .38-calibre Smith & Wesson revolver.

(Source) Hobart became enamored with a young lady and decided that he would marry her. Part of his wooing her was to build a house for her which included all of the most modern of conveniences of the time (running hot and cold water, built in kitchen, and bathroom). She spurned him for another and Hobart kept the house and it was not occupied during his lifetime either by himself or anyone else. He never married, apparently out of regret for the failure of this experience.

He owned a strip of property near the above house upon which he built some rental houses. They were designed for low income renters. They consisted of three rooms and a porch with an out house with each of the houses. They were always filled with renters. If there was anything wrong with the condition or size of the houses there would not have been anyone willing to rent them. At least the folks living in his houses were not sleeping in card board boxes or under bridges. However, there was a reporter who had come into the area looking for another "Poverty in Appalachia" documentary which seems to have become the standard trade item for writers who can not produce anything of value and need a sensational item for the hungry "Enquiring minds".

Hobart apparently had seen and read enough of that sort of trash that he was determined that his rental property would not become grist for the tabloids and when he heard that there was someone snooping around he found him and asked him to leave. The fellow left but came back later on 20 September, 1967 and Hobart confronted him again and in the heat of the moment killed him. The sympathy of a very large percentage of the population was with Hobart for the mountain area has been ridiculed over and over in the press. There has never been a favorable documentary made about the mountainous area of Kentucky and folks who are proud of their homes are a little raw about the one sided publicity received by their homes. (The Canadian "film maker" was Hugh O'Connor).

Hobart served some time for the killing.