I visited River View Cemetery on a pleasant, sunny afternoon in August 2020. The cemetery is located just south of the southeastern Indiana city of Aurora along the Ohio River in Dearborn County. Established in 1869, River View is a gorgeous cemetery with lots of historic character, occupying 30 acres of heavily wooded, rolling hills a stone’s throw from the river.
I spent my first half-hour there wandering the grounds just past the main entrance in search of five members of the Johnson Agrue family, buried there in 1941. I found them side-by-side near the top of the hill. A casual cemetery visitor might pass by these small markers and never imagine the horrific, senseless death that had befallen each grave’s occupant.
I spent my first half-hour there wandering the grounds just past the main entrance in search of five members of the Johnson Agrue family, buried there in 1941. I found them side-by-side near the top of the hill. A casual cemetery visitor might pass by these small markers and never imagine the horrific, senseless death that had befallen each grave’s occupant.
The fact is, the shotgun massacre of Johnson and Nina Agrue, their adult sons Leo and Will, and their 11-year-old granddaughter, Mary Elizabeth Breedon, was one of the bloodiest mass murders in the history of the county.
 Virginius “Dink” Carter | Thirty-three-year-old Virginius “Dink” Carter is one of the worst of the deplorable monsters featured in my book. He never could say exactly why he hitchhiked to his in-laws’ farm on Laughery Creek, six miles south of Aurora, on that Friday morning in May of 1941, and then, one by one, killed his wife’s parents, her brothers, and her niece, shooting each of them execution style. Nor could he explain why he returned to the crime scene the next day and attempted to blend in with the shocked onlookers, who were anxious for answers. His indifference to the catastrophic deaths of his relatives attracted the attention of the local sheriff, who started quietly asking people in the crowd about Carter’s whereabouts the day before. Three of the Agrues’ neighbors reported seeing Carter near the farm around the time of the shootings, and that was all the sheriff needed to hear. He immediately took Carter to jail, grilled him relentlessly, and broke him 48 hours later. Carter made a full confession and was later tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. |
Carter was executed February 9, 1942, in the electric chair at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. His body was returned to River View Cemetery, south of Aurora, for burial within eyeshot of the five graves of the innocent victims whose lives he had brutally stolen nine months before.
After I’d paid my respects to the Agrues and little Mary, I strolled down the hill, not at all certain where and how I would find Virginius “Dink” Carter’s grave among the scores of tombstones in all directions. But, oddly enough, after I crossed the main driveway, I walked directly to it. The stone that protruded through the thick, green grass bearing his amusingly misspelled name (Virginous) was, like his nickname, dinky. Even at that, in my opinion, it was too good for him. •
After I’d paid my respects to the Agrues and little Mary, I strolled down the hill, not at all certain where and how I would find Virginius “Dink” Carter’s grave among the scores of tombstones in all directions. But, oddly enough, after I crossed the main driveway, I walked directly to it. The stone that protruded through the thick, green grass bearing his amusingly misspelled name (Virginous) was, like his nickname, dinky. Even at that, in my opinion, it was too good for him. •
 Mary Elizabeth Breeden, Carter’s 11-year-old victim  The Agrue farmhouse |  Dink’s wife, Leona, and one of their two daughters, Priscilla |
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