Norwich — Local attorney Samuel Browning has spent the past eight years delving into the mystery of how local artist Ellis Ruley and his son-in-law Douglas Harris died at or near their secluded home off Hammond Avenue, and how the vacated rustic home caught fire and was destroyed a short time later.

Like others before who have tried to find answers in the suspicious events, Browning said he became frustrated that criminal investigation techniques, expertise and practices taken for granted today were not in place at the time.

“There wasn’t a forensic pathologist between here and Boston,” Browning said Thursday of the time of the two men’s deaths.

Browning on Thursday presented his findings from research that included live interviews and recounts of past interviews by others with Ruley family members, neighbors and others, examination of original public records, newspaper stories and even the weather on the relevant dates. Browning reviewed possible suspects — family members, possible Ku Klux Klan involvement and neighbors.

He also cited a highly publicized 2014 exhumation and autopsies done on the two bodies by nationally renowned retired New York medical examiner Dr. Michael M. Baden.

Harris was found dead head-first in the shallow, narrow well on the property on Nov. 20, 1948, his death ruled an accidental drowning without an autopsy. His body was turned over to a funeral home director following the examination by the local medical examiner and deputy coroner.

Baden concluded that Harris’ death “clearly was a homicide,” noting a neck bone fractured by forced compression. Baden said it was likely that Harris engaged in a struggle, was strangled and placed unconscious in the well. He inhaled water and drowned.

Browning said Harris had been drinking at a downtown bar prior to his death and said it’s unlikely that he was killed off site and carried up the steep hill to the barely marked well on a rainy pitch-black night. Browning visited the property on Nov. 20, 2018, at night. “You can’t see the hand in front of your face,” he said. He speculated that the perpetrators would have to have been familiar with the property.

“It is more likely than not, that Douglas Harris was murdered in 1948,” Browning wrote in his narrative. “I would not be able to prove that he was murdered beyond a reasonable doubt in a court proceeding. I cannot identify his attacker or attackers, with the probable cause that a police agency would need to make an arrest.”

Ruley was found dead at the base of the steep driveway on the morning of Jan. 17, 1959, his head gashed and a trail of blood 100 feet long. At the time, his death, too, had been ruled accidental, his body half frozen on the gravel road.

Baden concluded Ruley did die of hypothermia and exposure but the manner of death was “undetermined," since it couldn't be known whether he was assaulted before his fall and death, Baden said.

“There are troubling unanswered questions concerning the facts that surround his demise,” Browning wrote of Ruley’s death, “but I do not have enough evidence to prove that he was murdered.”

Some 30 months later, the rustic cabin on the thickly wooded, steep property burned to the ground. With no electricity, speculation over the years has been that the fire was set. Browning said he found no clear evidence that the KKK was publicly active in Norwich at the time, staging public events or terrorist activities, and said the fire could have been reckless burning or accidentally set by vagrants taking refuge there.

“Today, this fire would have been investigated by the Norwich Fire Marshal’s Office, the Norwich Police Department, and possibly the State Fire Marshal’s Office as a possible arson,” Browning wrote.

Browning, now a Norwich alderman, said he started researching the cases in 2011 after hearing Ruley’s nephew, Harry Ruley Jr., repeatedly speak at Norwich City Council meetings pleading with city officials to reopen criminal investigations. By then, the Ruley family had lost the property in tax foreclosure to the city. Harry Ruley also cried foul that the land was improperly taken from the family.

Harry Ruley Jr. died in March 2014, months before the publicity surrounding the exhumations and re-examination of the bodies. That effort sparked renewed interest in Ruley as an artist and notable Norwich native. Art festivals, an exhibit of his work, and a city-led effort to convert the abandoned property into a park followed.

Author and Ruley artwork enthusiast Glenn Palmedo-Smith wrote a biography of Ruley, “Discovering Ellis Ruley,” published in 1993, which helped revive interest in Ruley’s artwork and the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death. Browning’s research included accounts from interviews in Palmedo-Smith's book with people associated with Ruley who have since died.

Browning said he started the project to help Harry Ruley Jr., and the research became “more and more complex.” After Harry Ruley died, Browning said he remained curious. He released the findings Thursday believing “that this is the maximum information we could find.”

Browning said he has posted videos and backup documents of his research online at bit.ly/RuleyProject.

c.bessette@theday.com