The Hossack Case

Neil Morrison

Neil Morrison, who was a son-in-law of Frank and Eleanor Keller, was also a close neighbor of the Hossacks'. He had talked to Mrs. Hossack many times over a fifteen-year period about the turmoil in her family, and he remembered that she told him that her life was a “misery,” that her husband “abused her,” and that she was afraid of him. Morrison tried to reassure her by saying that he didn't think Hossack would hurt his family.

Morrison was one of the first neighbors to reach the Hossack farm on the night of the attack. At the coroner's inquest, Morrison was reluctant to talk about the Hossack family conflicts, saying “I do not tax my memory with family quarrels.” At the subsequent trials, he testified about his conversations with Margaret Hossack over the years and about his observations of the crime scene in the first hours after the attack.