Scout's Honor: The Secret of Granville Troop #113
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| Edward and Harris |
Harris Blanchard and Edward LeClair were Boy Scouts in Granville Troop #113. Harris was a Scoutmaster, and Edward was a senior patrol leader. Edward's two younger brothers were members of the same troop.
Edward excelled in the Boy Scouts. He earned more than 30 merit badges in a relatively short time. Harris took a strong liking to him; some folks called it unnatural.
Harris and Edward attended a Court of Honor ceremony on February 16, 1938, at which time they were each presented with the prestigious Eagle Scout Award. As newly minted Eagle Scouts, the Boy Scouts' highest rank, they wasted no time as they continued their scouting journey and were awarded Eagle Palms on September 13.
For reasons unknown, Edward's brothers quit the troop. Harris found out that Edward planned on quitting, too.
On March 19, 1939, Harris had Edward sign a blank sheet of paper. Edward figured it had to do with a scouting activity, so he did not give it much thought.
Troop #113 met at the LeClair family camp off North Lane in West Granville on March 25. The camp was near the LeClair's house. It had a two-room shack the troop used for its headquarters. Ten boys attended the meeting.
After the meeting concluded, everyone left except Harris and Edward.
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| Harris Blanchard |
A terrific struggle ensued that destroyed the furniture and other items in the cabin as Edward fought for his life.
Harris picked up a heavy automobile wrench and beat Edward with it until he collapsed onto a bed, stunned by the repeated blows. Harris grabbed the revolver and fired it into the back of Edward's head as he lay in shock. A .22-caliber bullet entered near the base of his skull before splitting in two. His blood soaked the mattress.
The blast caused Edward to regain consciousness. He managed to get the gun and stagger home.
Edward pounded on the door. His parents later found him lying on their doorstep, drenched in blood.
Edward's mother found an unopened envelope in his pocket. Inside was a typed letter signed by Edward. She quickly realized that Harris had written it.
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| Edward LeClair |
Edward's father instructed other family members to get help. He rushed to the camp while they called Dr. Samuel Finsen of Southwick. In the shack, he found Harris sprawled across the workbench, bleeding profusely from the six-inch knife lodged in his neck; a sharpened pencil and a piece of paper were next to him.
Dr. Finsen had Harris and Edward rushed to Noble Hospital. Massachusetts State Police guarded Harris around the clock. Doctors said that the knife almost sliced completely through his windpipe.
Edward's mother gave the letter she had found to a police detective. With evidence in hand, police brought a stenographer to the hospital. While being interrogated by police, Harris admitted that he thought about killing Edward for about a week because he was planning on leaving the troop. He even admitted that his sole purpose in bringing the gun to the camp was to kill Edward. But when he saw how badly his friend was wounded, he felt remorse and attempted to kill himself.
Back at the camp, authorities determined that Harris bled out of control as he made his way to a table that doubled as a workbench. He sat down and started to write a suicide note but became too weak from the loss of blood.
Authorities charged Harris with assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to commit murder. They also charged him with carrying a gun without a permit.
Investigators updated the public on the results of their investigation. They indicated that the personal nature of Harris and Edward's relationship was at the heart of the shooting, but they refused to provide any further information.
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| Harris circa 1953 |
Harris sat in the rear of the courtroom, flanked by a Massachusetts State Police trooper and his mother. His sister was also present.
When the court called his case, the trooper escorted him to the front row.
Harris did not say a word during his arraignment. After the judge read the two complaints against him, his counsel entered a not-guilty plea. He also said that his client waived the required mental health examination and observation period.
The judge ordered Harris bound over to the May 1 sitting of the grand jury. He set bail at $15,000 for the murderous assault charge and $1,000 for the gun charge.
With Harris unable to raise bail, officers removed him to the county jail to await trial.
Weeks later, Harris's attorney urged him to waive his indictment and plead guilty.
In Massachusetts Superior Court on April 25, the district attorney read the letter Edward's mother had found. The letter asked permission for Edward and Harris to be buried next to each other in the Blanchard family plot. It also listed the scouts Edward supposedly wanted to have as his pallbearers.
The judge sentenced Harris to 18 years in the Massachusetts Reformatory at Concord.
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| Harris and his older brother |
Meanwhile, Dr. Samuel Finsen consulted with a neurological specialist about Edward's condition. After reviewing his X-rays, they decided that removing the bullet would be too dangerous.
Following Harris's release from prison (circa 1949), he started growing award-winning vegetables. He joined the Highland Agricultural Society, later becoming a director. He also became a trustee of the First Congregational Church of Chester. (One of Harris's many awards included the Massachusetts State Ribbon for his collection of garden vegetables in 1954.)
On September 27, 1962, two girls riding a bus noticed a car in the underbrush at the bottom of an embankment. When they got home, they told their father what they saw.
When he went to investigate, he found the body of a man with a fractured skull and crushed chest behind the wheel. The body turned out to be Harris Blanchard.
Harris was supposed to appear in Westfield District Court on September 28 to answer morals charges involving two boys aged 15 and 16. He was out on a $5,000 bond while awaiting trial after pleading innocent on September 11.
On the day they discovered his body, a judge ordered the charges against Harris dismissed.
Investigators determined that Harris's car struck a tree and rolled over down the embankment. They estimated that he had been dead for at least 24 hours.
In 1963, the Highland Agricultural Society began awarding the Harris Blanchard Memorial Trophy to winners of the best vegetable display at various agricultural fairs and other events. (Michael Dolan of Southwick won the trophy in 1965 for the best vegetable table in the youth group. He won it again in 1966.)
Edited Out/Author's Additional Research Notes
Working Titles: Betraying the Brotherhood: Troop 113's Story, One Way Love, Scouts Honor, Fatal Attraction, The Secret of Troop #113.
Walter Edwin Blanchard (adopted): 1909 - 1983
George E. Blanchard: 1910 - 1910
Herbert P. Blanchard: 03/17/1912 - 09/22/1912
Harris Porter Blanchard: 02/11/1913 - 09/26/1962
Edward Joseph LeClair: 02/19/1923 - 09/06/2015
Harris Blanchard was born in Southwick. His family moved to Springfield and then to Agawam.
Harris had an older brother. He also had a sister. Two other brothers (born before Harris) died shortly after birth.
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| Edward circa 1960 |
Harris's father, George Earl(e), son-in-law of Charles Johnson, died in 1919. It was the third death in the Johnson family within a few weeks (Charles Johnson was the grandfather of Pioneer Dairy founder Charles Nutter. Harris's mother was Charlie Nutter's mother's sister.)
Harris and Walter Blanchard were milk peddlers. Walter sold Pioneer Dairy milk.
Police reported finding Harris on the floor with a six-inch blade in his neck. It is unclear if Edward's father had moved him from the workbench.
On April 6, Edward left his hospital bed for the first time.
Harris was released from prison by 1949. In 1947, he wrote a letter from his prison cell to the editor of a newspaper. In his letter, he reminisced about a grueling hike his Boy Scout troop took in August 1933. The 22-mile Abraham Lincoln Trail runs from New Salem, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois. He wrote the letter after reading an article in the paper about two men making the same hike in April 1947.
Following his release from prison, Harris moved to Chester. He and his mother took several trips together, including one where they traveled cross-country. They also went to Canada, Washington D.C., and Niagara Falls. They took motor trips through Upstate New York and New England. They attended flower shows in Boston and New York. In 1957, Harris took his nephew on a seven-week trip to California. (In 1952, Harris and his mother went on a 46-day, 13,620-mile trip. They went to Mexico, Canada, and 38 states.)
Russell Johnson (married to Arthur Johnson) was probably the aunt who killed herself. She died suddenly on April 19, 1939.
During his time with the church, Harris hosted movie nights and took boys on trips, including one to New York City. He even took Boy Scouts on trips. (He mainly showed movies of the trips he took with his mother.)
Harris was a member of the Middlefield Men's Club. Police in West Springfield issued Harris a speeding ticket in 1952.
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| Harris circa 1956 |
A minor cerebral hemorrhage sent Harris to the hospital in 1959. Vandals smashed Harris's windshield while his car was parked in Springfield in 1960.
Edward moved to New York. He lived in Buffalo and Cheektowaga. He got married on June 15, 1946. He owned Lee Garage Builders, which he opened in 1954. Creditors started suing him in April 1960 for unpaid business debt. He filed for bankruptcy on September 12, 1960. At the time of his filing, he reported $15,429 in debt and $5,463 in assets.
Edward was president of the North Cheektowaga Business and Professional Association. The association held a drive in 1960 to raise $12,200 needed to purchase a new ambulance.
It is unclear if doctors ever removed the bullet from Edward.
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