Who Killed the Footless Goose?

While some may consider it a wild goose chase, Owen Long still wants to solve the mystery of who killed Andy, a footless goose who became a celebrity after his owner, Gene Fleming, gave him baby shoes to enable him to walk. (The photographs of the goose in boots are remarkable.) There are no clear answers, but Long’s list of suspects is a fascinating one. As is the fact that Fleming’s granddaughter Jessica Korgie puts on a “one-woman show about the goose’s life and death — Andy Interrupted.” It’s worth taking the time to also read the comments on this piece; my favorite one simply states: “Rest in Power Andy, you magnificent stumpy bastard.”

Putting a pin in the Gormon-brothers theory momentarily, I decided to pursue my own cover-up hypothesis. Could the police chief, Jim Ruberson, have made up the story about the disabled killer in order to protect Fleming, whom he’d discovered as the true killer? Ruberson died in 2011, but while I was in Hastings, I’d spoken to his daughter, Terry. She told me her father mentioned once that he had found the culprit — though he was a discreet person who refused to reveal the killer’s identity, even to his own family. But what if Ruberson had an accomplice in the cover-up? I tracked down police officers who had worked alongside him and retired city officials. All seemed shocked to hear that Ruberson may have caught the killer and kept it a secret. If he did that, they said, he must have acted alone.

Thwarted, I called Kennedy back. Again, he answered. This time, instead of hanging up, he breathed heavily into the receiver for several minutes while I tried to entice him to say something. I told him about Fleming’s letter, my investigation, and Korgie’s desire to solve the mystery that has plagued her family for three generations. He hung up.