McDONOUGH – Murder and mystery abound in McDonough as twin sisters Bonnie Sherman and Betty Murray share the tale of their paternal grandfather and the controversy he sparked in 1903 in their novel, “Murder in McDonough.”

According to Bonnie Sherman, their father had always avoided the topic of their paternal grandparent and they therefore had no knowledge of the incident growing up in Cortland.

“We figured there was a reason, but we didn’t find out until we started researching our family trees in 2003,” she said.

Sherman explained the shock she and her sister felt while perusing a McDonough newspaper from the era and seeing that Frank Gale, their grandfather, faced a murder charge. The Sherman sisters proceeded to ask their mother about the incident which led to the full story being shared and their decision to turn it into a book.

However, said Sherman, even their mother did not have all of the facts which prompted the sisters to change their story from non-fiction to historical fiction with much of the minute details being unknown.