Testimony and court records clarify what happened outside Toltec on March 12, 1919, when Mother Whiteside’s husband was gunned down
BLUEWATER, N.M. – On the night of March 12, 1919, a shotgun blast blew through the east window of Tom Davey’s adobe ranch house, about a mile east of Toltec, Zuni Mountains. Inside, local prospector David B. Whiteside staggered from his chair; a shard of glass nicked Davey’s forehead. Within minutes, there would be three more shots, a frantic ride for a doctor from Grants, and the husband of Mother Lucy Jane Whiteside would die by the roadside.
What happened that night—long blurred by local rumor—comes into focus through sworn testimony from the inquest and preliminary hearing which were held the same week in Valencia County (Cibola County did not yet exist).
The following was compiled over several months of research into historical court documents and newspaper accounts from the time. There are no neutral witnesses in the accounts reviewed by the Cibola Citizen. All quotes are found either in newspaper articles about the incident, or in court records.
“Only his blood would pay.”
David B. Whiteside was a prospector in Copperton, Zuni Mountains. He and his Lucy Jane Whiteside, who would later be known as Mother Whiteside for the feat of delivering over 600 babies in the area, had moved to Zuni Mountains hoping to strike silver and copper in Mount Sedgwick, the highest peak of the Zunis. They had two young daughters.
Before the night turned violent, tempers had already flared at the little house of Mrs. Shelton, the mother of George L. Kile’s wife.
George L. Kile was a railroad agent at Toltec, and his shift at work would soon be completed.
Whiteside came by in the afternoon; Whiteside’s specific intentions and words are not recorded in court documents, but the discussion they had sharpened into a quarrel at the home of Mrs. Shelton.
In sworn testimony to the district court and the New Mexico Supreme Court’s review, witnesses recounted Whiteside’s account of what happened next. Mrs. Kile lifted an axe handle threateningly at Whiteside, and when he took it from her, she reached for a shovel.
Whiteside, for his part, said he did not strike Mrs. Kile. A defense witness would later describe seeing a swollen ear, finger- grip marks on an arm, and a bruise on a leg on Mrs. Kile—signs of a struggle, but not themselves proof of who or what caused them.
Shaken by the confrontation and aware of how it might be taken by husband George Kile, Whiteside sought a peace offering. He asked mutual friend H. J. Haverkampf to carry an apology to Mrs. Kile. The reply that came back—again preserved in sworn testimony to the court—was stark: “Only his blood would pay.”
Whiteside then asked Haverkampf for a gun; Haverkampf said he had only one and it was not in working order, and suggested Whiteside go on to Tom Davey’s ranch instead.
Whiteside and Haverkampf would travel together to Davey’s home; George Kile would soon be home from work.
“Tom, I know what I am doing.”
According to testimony in court, Whiteside and his friend H. J. Haverkampf had gone to Davey’s home after supper, hoping that Davey could help settle down the anger of Kile’s family.
As they sat near the stove, Kile appeared outside, only a man’s hat visible. Kile fired a first shot through the east window, shattering glass across the room.
Davey ran to the door to barricade it, denying Kile access to the house, and pleaded, “Don’t shoot through the door—I’m behind it.”
Kile circled to the south door and pushed in. Davey grappled with him for control of the doublebarreled shotgun. During the struggle, Kile told Davey, “Tom, I know what I am doing. I intend to commit the deed and pay the penalty.”
Thinking that Whiteside had fled from the house, Davey released his hold, Kile then chased after Whiteside.
A short while after, Davey and Haverkampf heard three gunshots.
Davey and Haverkampf stepped into the yard and moved toward the sound of the shots. In the road just west of the house, they encountered Kile reloading the shotgun.
According to newspaper accounts at the time and court testimony, Kile told the men, “I’ve killed the — — —.”
Davey and Haverkampf asked where Whiteside was, and if he was still alive. Kile reportedly threatened to show the men where he had left Whiteside and shoot him again. They dissuaded Kile, who then left.
The men searched roughly 50 to 100 yards from the house and found Whiteside collapsed on the ground—unconscious but alive.
Davey sped toward Grants to fetch a doctor; Whiteside died as the doctor’s headlights approached.
An examination of the body documented three wounds: one in the back, one at the back of the left shoulder, and one at the back of the head.
The Prosecution of George Kile
In the hours after the killing of David B. Whiteside near Toltec, George L. Kile did what he had promised to do: he surrendered himself to law enforcement.
A preliminary hearing was held in Los Lunas, the Valencia County seat, where a justice of the peace heard testimony from Tom Davey and H. J. Haverkampf and ordered Kile held without bail pending action by a grand jury The trial was held in Valencia County before Judge Raymond R. Ryan. The state’s theory was straightforward: after a bitter daytime quarrel involving Kile’s wife, Kile tracked Whiteside to the Davey ranch house, fired through a window, struggled at the south door with Davey for a shotgun, and then fired three shots outside—killing Whiteside with wounds to the back, back of the left shoulder, and back of the head.
But the evidentiary battles turned the proceedings into a confusing legal muck: What the jury could hear about the earlier quarrel.
The prosecution put on testimony about the daytime altercation between Mrs. Kile and Whiteside—details that Kile did not personally witness. Over defense objection, the trial judge let the jury hear those details. On appeal, the Supreme Court would call that a mistake:
“Evidence of the details of a difficulty between the deceased and the wife of the defendant, occurring in the absence of the defendant, was irrelevant and incompetent… The only competent evidence on the subject was as to what was communicated to the defendant by his wife concerning the difficulty prior to the homicide.” (State v. Kile, 29 N.M. at 58–59.)
How far the defense could go to counter inadmissible evidence.
Because the State’s details came in over objection, the defense was allowed to rebut on the same ground without waiving its original objection (29 N.M. at 59).
Bias and impeachment.
The high court later clarified that a witness’s bias is not a collateral issue—meaning the defense could probe for bias beyond the narrow facts (29 N.M. at 59–60).
Most consequential of all was what the jury could decide about the intention of the crime.
The defense argued that, based on what Kile had been told about the insult to his wife, there was evidence of heat of passion. They asked the judge to instruct on second- degree murder as a lesser offense. The court refused, submitting only first-degree murder to the jury for consideration.
That choice would define the appeal.
Guilty of First-Degree Murder… An Error?
The jury returned a verdict of guilty — murder in the first degree.
Kile’s counsel immediately noticed an error and filed a motion for new trial, preserving the record for appeal (contemporaneous reporting summarized the verdict and motion; see Albuquerque Morning Journal, Mar. 21, 1919). Sentencing was set to follow, as first-degree murder was a capital offense under New Mexico law at the time.
On August 27, 1923, in State v. Kile, the New Mexico Supreme Court reversed the conviction and remanded for a new trial (29 N.M. 55, 218 P. 347).
The justices identified two core errors: 1. Improper evidence of the earlier quarrel.
The trial court should not have admitted the blow-by-blow details of the altercation at Mrs. Shelton’s house—because Kile wasn’t there to witness it. Only what Mrs. Kile actually told Kile before the shooting was properly admissible to show his state of mind (29 N.M. at 58–59).
2. Failure to instruct on second-degree murder.
Because there was evidence of adequate cause for heat of passion, it was error to restrict the jury to first-degree murder alone. The judge had to instruct on second-degree when the defense requested it: “Where there is evidence of adequate cause for heat of passion… it is error to restrict the issue to murder in the first degree, but the issue of murder in the second degree must also, upon request, be submitted to the jury.” (29 N.M. at 60.)
The Supreme Court also upheld the validity of the indictment and clarified several evidentiary rules (29 N.M. at 59–61), but those two holdings— what the jury heard and what the jury could decide— were the reasons the conviction could not stand.
A new trial would be ordered, but Kile would not be tried again. First Degree Murder carried a sentence of death, and New Mexico never executed anyone with the name Kile.
During research to uncover what happened to Kile, the Citizen uncovered “The Early Days: A Sourcebook of Southwestern Region History Book 1” which was compiled by Edwin A. Tucker with the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service which was published in 1989.
On Page 246 the histories read, “Dave Whiteside had a mining claim in the Mineral Township, about two or two and a half miles above the old Si McDaniel sawmill. Dave worked for us some during the summers as a Fire Guard. Later I heard that Dave had been shot by George [Kile] down in the valley close to San Rafael. George [Kile] went to the penn and I suppose spent his remaining years in the penitentiary. He shot Dave through a window after dark. Incidentally, [Kile] drove the first automobile I ever saw on the road — wasn't much of a road — between Grants and Gallup. He came up as far as Guam. I had quite a visit with George. He was a good railroad man and a good telegrapher, and whatever happened to him to cause him to shoot Dave Whiteside, I was never able to learn. Mrs. Whiteside moved into Grants and I understand ran a little eating house there for a good many years.”
The idea that Kile went “to the penn” is an anecdotal one which is unlikely, as his trial was reordered and never occurred. Despite extensive research, the Citizen did not find an obituary or death notice for Kile. Local oral histories say Kile died by suicide, but no official documentation was found by the Cibola Citizen to confirm that.
One thing is certain: The second trial never happened. George Kile was never re-tried, and no conviction was entered against him.
Editor’s Notes: This story relies on contemporaneous inquest and preliminary-hearing testimony (as reported at the time), and on the New Mexico Supreme Court’s 1923 opinion in State v. Kile (which reviews the trial record). The high court did not take new testimony; it reviewed what was already in the district-court record.
Historical sources use variant spellings: Kile/Kyle; Whiteside/Whitesides; Haverkampf/Haverkamp; Davey/Davy. We standardize to Kile, Whiteside, Haverkampf, Davey, following the Supreme Court caption and majority usage.
On Mrs. Kile: A defense witness would later describe seeing a swollen ear, finger-grip marks on an arm, and a bruise on a leg on Mrs. Kile—signs of a struggle, though not by themselves proof of who caused them. Whatever else happened inside Mrs. Shelton’s home that day, George L. Kile did not witness it. As the New Mexico Supreme Court later put it while reviewing the case, the “details of a difficulty… occurring in the absence of the defendant” should not have been used at trial; the only competent proof was what Mrs. Kile told her husband before the killing (State v. Kile, 29 N.M. 55, 218 P. 347 (Aug. 27, 1923)).
The Cibola Citizen thanks Mr. David Chapman for correcting the record reported in the July 2, 2025, edition of the Cibola Citizen, in the story “The Life and Legacy of Mother Lucy Jane Whiteside” which claimed David Whiteside was killed as a result of a card game. This was believed to be the case until official records and court documents were discovered, it had come from oral histories not documented paperwork. Thanks to the diligence of those community members committed to the accuracy of Cibola’s history, the truth has been uncovered.