MCCOOK, Neb. (AP) - Documents that have recently been unsealed concerning a pair of grisly murders committed here in the 1970s, have shed new light on the crime for a writer who is working on a screenplay about it.
The Harold Nokes murders of Edwin and Wilma Hoyt in 1973 is the kind of thing “you don’t think could happen in a small Midwestern town like McCook,” said Emmett Jones, who grew up in McCook, graduated in 1979 and is writing a screenplay about the murders. Now a producer and director of television specials and documentary features with New Wave Entertainment in Burbank, Calif., Jones had the opportunity to research the unsealed 40-year old documents.
The McCook Daily Gazette reports (https://bit.ly/1dd1fmB ) the Hoyts were the parents of Kay Hein, a divorcee who had an affair with Harold Nokes and his wife, Ena. Hein ended the affair after having a concussion and alleged that the Nokes were blackmailing her. According to the confession given by Nokes, he and his wife met with the Hoyts to discuss it and an argument ensued. Harold Nokes shot Edwin and Wilma Hoyt, then tried to hide the crime by dismembering the bodies and dumping them into nearby Harry Strunk Lake at Cambridge, Nebraska.
Nokes, now 86, was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. His wife, Ena, was convicted of helping dispose of dead bodies and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the Women’s Reformatory in York, Nebraska, and was paroled in 1976.
Residents in the McCook area were shocked by the murders, not only when the body parts were found washing on shore, but also by the sordid details that came out surrounding the homicides.
The unsealed files include statements made by Nokes and reports by law enforcement investigators.
“A lot of those pieces of information were never revealed in the news accounts and have been sealed for a long time. When you take everything in, it paints a different picture of the people involved,” Jones said. “I feel it’s a cautionary tale on how lust and obsession mistaken for ’love’ can end so tragically.”
Jones said he believes, based on the documents he’s read, that the files were sealed as many prominent men were involved with Kay Hein but had no connection to the crime, so then-District Court Judge Jack Hendrix ordered it sealed to protect them, their families and their reputations.
District Court Judge David Urbom said he did not know why the files were sealed. Although not public record, the files can be assessed by request for research or historical purposes.
Jones also believes that Nokes couldn’t let go of Hein and was obsessed with getting her back. His screenplay will focus on the mindset of Nokes that ultimately led him to murder.
“Obsession can make people do crazy things, we see it all the time. Nokes was your average, kind of mild-mannered guy, who worked for the State Department of Roads for years. He got involved with Kay and couldn’t let it go. But how does that happen, when obsession crosses the line into murder?”
No stranger to the entertainment business, Jones now goes by the name of John Murphy and began his radio career at the age of 16 in McCook at KICX radio, with fellow classmates Marita Morris and Fran Grabowski. He worked for 25 years as a radio morning talk show host in major markets such as Washington D.C., San Diego and Los Angeles and more recently, as a producer and director.
This will be his fourth revamp of his screenplay, which will be a fictionalized account of the murders.
“The major beats of the screenplay will adhere closely to the facts, but the timeline will be compressed, dialogue will have to be created, and all the investigative work will be boiled down to one character, to make it less confusing for the audience,” Jones said.
Jones now lives in Pasadena, California, with his wife, Dana, who owns a marketing company and their two daughters, Cameron, 15 and Taylor, 18, a college student. And although it’s been 40 years since the murders, the story still haunts him, he said.
“I was walking down the alley one day when I was about 12 and they were transferring Harold Nokes to the courthouse for some reason,” he remembered. “He turned and looked at me and just kept looking. It felt like it was 20 minutes, but it was probably only about a minute or so.
“It’s been in the back of my mind ever since, I’ve been riveted by the story, it doesn’t relent,” he said. “Something inside of me is telling me to tell the story, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
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Information from: McCook Daily Gazette, https://www.mccookgazette.com
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