Ratcliff received a letter on August 22, 1894, from his neighbor Susan M. Crockett,[REF] which claimed that the 32-year-old school board president, Lincoln Fremont McCurdy, was spreading[REF] false stories that one of the Ratcliff daughters was pregnant and that Ratcliff was himself the father of the unborn child [REF].
Ratcliff was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death by hanging.