15 Minutes of Infamy

  Arthur Covell When Ebba Covell was found dead in her bed with her neck bent at an unnatural angle, as if twisted by powerful hands, her chiropractor husband was the logical suspect.  But murder often defies logic, as Ebba's real killer was the last one anyone would have ever suspected. In a small farmhouse near Bandon, Oregon, there once lived a family named Covell. The head of the household was Dr. Fred Covell, a chiropractor with an office in town. He shared this farmhouse with Ebba, his fourth wife, their three infant children, and two older children from Dr. Covell's third wife, 16-year-old Alton and 14-year-old Lucille. Also living under the same roof was Arthur Covell, Fred's crippled brother who had been bed-ridden ever since a car accident that left him with a broken back. It was Monday, September 3, 1923, when Dr. Covell received a phone call at his office. It was his brother. "You'd better get home fast, Fred," he said. "Something happened to...