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It's a cool October Saturday night and the downtown clubs in Derby City are bustling with twenty-somethings eager for a drink and good company. The Kentucky Derby-winning jockey, who was in town to ride the Kentucky Jockey Club race in which he finished second earlier that day, heads out for a drink with his buddy, an exercise rider.

The pair hook up with a couple of local girls, hit a few bars, and party deep into the night; an innocent affair that would end in murder and draw scrutiny upon a Triple Crown-winning rider.

Triple Crown? Murder? Doesn't ring a bell? Maybe that's because this story takes place in 1935, the year Willie "Smoky" Saunders won the Triple Crown aboard Omaha.

Saunders and Omaha were only the third pair to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, a feat so novel at the time that "Triple Crown" was rarely mentioned in news articles of the day.

So Saunders found himself on the front page of newspapers a lot that year; most notably during the fall and winter of 1935 when he was charged as an accessory in the murder of Evelyn Sliwinski.

On Oct. 20, Saunders, 20, and Walter Schaeffer, 25, an exercise rider, went to Howard's, a bar and dance hall often in the news when patrons got into trouble. The pair was not allowed in the bar without female companions, but the bouncer at the door asked one of the club's regulars, Agnes Mackison, 28, if she wanted to dance with the gentlemen. She agreed, but both menneeded a dance partner. Mackison, who was married but estranged from her husband, related her story to the police, most of which was published in The Courier-Journal.

"They wanted me to meet another girl, and I saw Mrs. Sliwinski at a table with a couple," Mackison said. "They asked me to get her, but I told them I did not know her. 'She just seems to be sitting there with a couple, ask her over,' one of them said, and I did."

After a few drinks, the newly introduced foursome — Sliwinski was also married but her husband spent the evening at the movies and playing cards — moved the party to another club, Venexia Gardens, and then another, the Cotton Club. Saunders and Schaeffer, who had introduced themselves as "Jimmie" and "Tommy," were free with their money and excellent dancers.

Sliwinski requested the orchestra leader to play the Carioca. Others on the dance floor stopped to watch the couples as they danced the Carioca, a dance perfected by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 1933's Flying Down to Rio.

The drinks flowed as smoothly as the dancing, but when Sliwinski approached the orchestra leader for a second time, Saunders grew jealous, retrieving his date from the band and telling her, "You're with me. Come on back." She complied and the pair returned to the table. After another drink the group decided to move the party outside.

"As we reached the sidewalk I heard them arguing again, and then 'Jimmie' hit her on the jaw," Mackison stated to The C-J. "She went down, with her body on the sidewalk and her head in the gutter.

"He or his friend said something about all of us having been drinking and needing some air, and suggested we take a ride. 'Jimmie' picked up Evelyn, and she agreed to the ride."

Schaeffer drove the double-date through downtown Louisville before they found themselves on River Road, a winding road that parallels the Ohio River. The drive wasn't calming the agitation between Sliwinski and Saunders, who continued to argue.

When Sliwinski, nauseous from too many gin bucks (a cocktail of gin, ginger ale and lemon juice), got sick in the back seat, Saunders had Schaeffer pull over. Sliwinski was forced out and left on the side of the road as the car and its remaining three passengers sped away.

"She got sick in the car while we were driving along," Schaeffer stated to the grand jury during his indictment hearing. "I didn't want to take her home drunk, so I drew up at the side of the road. Saunders opened a door in the back and told her to get out. She stood on the side of the road and staggered like a drunk does."

Today, River Road is not a particularly spacious or well-lit road, so one could imagine the darkness and bewilderment a drunken Sliwinski may have found herself in on that night in 1935.

After a few miles Schaeffer turned the car around to return to the spot where he'd let out Sliwinski. Speeding down the road at 50–60 mph, the car hit something near to the spot the group had let out Sliwinski.

"As I felt the wheels pass over her body I screamed," Mackison stated to police.

" 'What's the matter with you?' Mackinson said 'Tommy' told her. "We didn't hit anything; maybe a cat."

"After we drove a little while longer they stopped and got out to inspect the car," Mackinson said. "I think they wiped the wheels. Then we started again. 'Jimmie' said, 'Step on it. I think the law's after us.'

"They took me to my home. 'Just remember this,' they told me. 'You ain't seen nothing; you ain't heard nothing; you don't know nothing, and you're lucky you're alive.' "

Saunders later told detectives that he "felt a bump" and "had an idea they might have hit the girl."

A local high school athlete and his young date discovered Sliwinski's dead, mangled body in the roadway. The teen likely owned the headlights Schaeffer described seeing heading toward them after he'd hit "a rock or a cat."

The 24-year-old Sliwinski was married to Paul Sliwinski, a tailor, who'd asked her to join him that evening at the movies, but Evelyn Sliwinski, who'd been arrested on drunkenness charges three times in the previous two years, wanted to party. He did not become concerned about his wife's disappearance until late Sunday afternoon.

"She was crazy about nice clothes and having a good time," Paul Sliwinski told The C-J. "That's what an older man gets when he marries a young girl."

After "Jimmie" and "Tommy" were identified as Saunders and Schaeffer, the police issued warrants for the men's return to Louisville. Saunders arrived (from Baltimore) first and was charged with accessory to murder. Bond was set at $5,000 (nearly $85,672 in today's money) and later reduced to $2,500.

While in police custody, Saunders joked and laughed with the officers, even making plans to grab a drink with them after he was released.

Detectives went to Baltimore to arrest Schaeffer and returned with him a few days later. Schaeffer was driven back to Louisville in Saunders' car, the alleged murder weapon, and spent most of the 21-hour journey unshackled because he told the officers he wouldn't try anything.

Once in Louisville, Schaeffer was arraigned and charged with Sliwinski's murder. Bond was set at $25,000, but was later reduced to $10,000.

The story made national news and was likely the scandal of the decade, much like the O.J. Simpson trial in the mid-'90s. Details of the Sliwinski story vary, with professions of innocence from the accused and accusations of lies spread throughout each party-goer's version of the truth. The tragedy slowly played out over two months, tarnishing the name of a jockey who'd been glorified in the press only months earlier.

At Schaeffer's trial in January 1936, the drama concluded with a plot so juicy it's hard to believe.

Mackison, the prosecution's only witness, described for jurors how the foursome's road trip began with Saunders' knocking Sliwinski to the sidewalk outside the Cotton Club. She went on to allege Saunders had repeatedly raped Sliwinski in the back seat of the vehicle.

"I sat in front with 'Tommy'— Schaeffer. Evelyn was still unconscious. Saunders took advantage of her.

I turned around," Mackison continued. "And Saunders told me to look ahead. I turned again and I looked around (to the front) again."

The defense had a surprise of their own when Raymond Marrilla, a grocery store clerk, suggested that Philip "Tickey" Scholtz, the teen who'd found Sliwinski's body, was the real culprit.

"I was driving out River Road when I was stopped by a man who had his lights on the body," Marrilla stated in court. "I knew "Tickey" Scholtz and he was there. He told me that he had struck the woman. I told him to keep quiet, that someone there might hear him, and that it would go bad for him if they did."

Scholtz denied it was his car that struck Sliwinski.

The jury deliberated two hours before returning about 11:30 p.m. to a still packed courtroom with the verdict.

According to a report of the verdict in The C-J: "There was no murder, no involuntary manslaughter, no involuntary manslaughter," he [the jury foreman] declared. "Here were two women seeking to pick up two men. These ladies of the evening were experienced. These boys," he motioned toward Schaeffer and Saunders, "were not."

"No one would believe that Saunders took advantage of Mrs. Sliwinski in that automobile," he declared, "not even the Commonwealth's attorney."

Upon Schaeffer's acquittal, a motion was made by the Commonwealth's Attorney to drop the charges of accessory to murder against Saunders. Gripping a lucky rabbit's foot, Saunders addressed the court.

"I regret all of this had to happen," Saunders said. "I've been very much worried because it was the first time I was ever in trouble, but I promise you it will be the last."

Saunders and Schaeffer were charged in a $100,000 civil suit filed by the estate of Evelyn Sliwinski. Soon after Schaeffer's acquittal in the murder trial, a settlement of $10,000 (nearly $171,344 in today's money) was reached in the civil suit.

After the trial, Saunders returned to racing. In June of that year he married. He never rode in another Kentucky Derby. Weight issues and military service disrupted his riding career. He died of cancer in Florida in 1986 at the age of 71.

Jessie Oswald is a freelance turf writer residing in Louisville

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