Norwich — For decades, descendants of artist Ellis Ruley and his son-in-law Douglas Harris have tried to no avail to shed light on a mystery that has cast a shadow over the city for more than 60 years: Were the two African-American men murdered, 11 years apart, outside their Hammond Avenue home?

Hope arrived Friday when a team of experts came together to exhume the two bodies at Maplewood Cemetery to prepare for autopsies today at The William W. Backus Hospital.

Norwich police have been working with the Ruley family for the past 18 months, conducting a cold case review of both deaths.

“This is just a miracle,” said Dianne Laiscell, Ruley’s great-granddaughter and Harris’ granddaughter, as she watched a crew from Elm-Cap Wilbert of West Hartford maneuver a hoist to lift Harris’ vault from his grave. “Me and my sister prayed for this. We just prayed and prayed and prayed. … God put the right people here in order to let this happen. Maybe he just got sick of me asking.”

Harris, Ruley’s son-in-law, was found dead on Nov. 20, 1948, in a narrow, shallow well on the family’s secluded property on Hammond Avenue off East Main Street. His body was upside down and submerged to his thighs. Without an autopsy, authorities at the time ruled his death an accidental drowning.

Eleven years later, Ruley left his house on Jan. 16, 1959, to visit a local bar. Accounts over the years have said he later called a taxi to bring him home. The taxi driver, as the story goes, said he drove up the long, narrow driveway and left after Ruley reached his door. But Ruley’s body was found at the bottom of the driveway, in the road, at the end of a 100-foot trail of blood. Authorities at the time said he had become disoriented and had fallen down the slope, ending up freezing to death in the road. His death, too, was ruled accidental.

The family has sought to reopen investigations repeatedly over the years, but time and again, authorities said they had no evidence of foul play. None of the previous efforts involved exhumations and autopsies.

Credit to filmmaker

Family members said credit for the current effort belongs to Emmy award-winning filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith, author of the 1993 biography “Discovering Ellis Ruley.”

Smith, also a folk art collector, said he has been haunted by the Ruley story ever since he first stumbled upon what is now one of Ruley’s most famous paintings, “Adam and Eve,” at a Brimfield, Mass., flea market. The African American artist had depicted Adam as somewhat of a self-portrait, but as a white man, with his own neatly parted, bushy dark hair, mustache and beard. The painting adorns the cover of Smith’s book.

Smith, who has received three Emmy Awards for “Hold at All Costs,” a recent Public Broadcasting Service documentary on a Korean War battle, is working on a documentary on Ellis Ruley through Dini Films International of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Tentatively titled “unRuley,” Smith will recount the mysteries and racial tensions that swirled around the Ruley deaths. Ruley’s second wife, Wilhelmina, was white. Family members have told Smith of repeated taunts by whites who would stalk their home.

The documentary is slated for release during Black History Month in 2016. A teaser can be seen at www.ellisruley.com.

Smith brought national attention to Ruley’s obscure artwork through his exhaustive search to find as many extant works as possible for his book and for the national touring exhibit that followed.

Smith said his new documentary needed “closure.” Raising questions about the mysteries weren’t good enough, he said, without a new effort to solve them.

On Friday, Ruley’s great-granddaughter Dianne Laiscell, and her husband, John, of East Providence, R.I., escorted her mother, Ruley’s granddaughter Gladys Traynum, and Harris’ stepdaughter to Maplewood Cemetery to watch the four-hour exhumations.

“I love you, Glenn,” Traynum shouted to Smith from her wheelchair as she watched the effort.

In a press release handed out at the cemetery Friday morning, Norwich police acknowledged and thanked Smith and the Ruley family for arranging the exhumation and autopsies.

“We look forward to learning the results of the forensic exams performed by Dr. Michael Baden,” Sgt. Corey Poore said in the press release.

Baden, retired chief medical examiner for New York City and retired chief forensic pathologist for New York State, will conduct the autopsies today at Backus.

Baden led the forensic investigation of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and helped re-investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. He supervised the exhumation Friday.

Spirit of cooperation

Family members and onlookers were dismayed when the concrete vault was removed from Harris’ grave to reveal a partially collapsed wooden casket. Ruley’s casket looked much worse, as water had dissolved much of the wood. After running straps beneath the rotted casket, R. Thomas Abbate, president of Elm-Cap, ordered the hoist operator to tilt the casket to drain the water, then the casket was lifted onto a board and loaded into a van.

Dianne Laiscell and Traynum insisted on up-close looks at the graves. Laiscell at one point put her hand on the wood.

When Harris’ casket was raised on the straps, Laiscell let out a shout: “That’s his skull!”

The skull had become dislodged and had dropped into the vault. Baden reassured the family, then picked up the skull and noted that some flesh and hair remained intact, a good sign for the pending autopsy.

“His teeth looked pretty good, so I don’t think we lost any teeth,” he said.

“It’s fine,” he said to family members. “It’s in good condition. We’ll be able to tell if there’s a fracture.”

He reached down and found two crucial top vertebrae bones and placed them with the skull in the casket.

“One thing about these exhumations, you never know what you’re going to find,” Baden said. “Every one is different.”

In his 1993 book, Smith described the tension and resistance he encountered in Norwich, ranging from disinterest in bringing up the old wounds, to racial epithets and veiled threats. His hotel room was ransacked the night before left town with more questions than answers.

“It’s like night and day,” Smith said of his trip to Norwich this week, citing the air of cooperation and support offered by Norwich officials and everyone involved.

Elm-Cap donated its services as well as new burial vaults. Bloomfield-based Henry L. Fuqua Funeral Service donated its services. Tri-County Memorials is donating a new headstone for Ruley’s grave — he had none — that will depict his Adam and Eve painting, and will repair the scratched-off face of Harris on his headstone. Batesville Casket Co. in Windsor will donate new caskets.

Local attorney Frank Manfredi provided legal work pro bono, and attorney Samuel Browning is volunteering his time to assist Norwich police in the cold case review.

Backus Hospital provided space, X-ray machines and other equipment for the autopsies and Dr. Mirela Stancu, chief of pathology at Backus, will assist in the autopsies, hospital spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said.

Smith is covering what costs are being incurred in the exhumation, autopsies and re-interment. The upcoming documentary is receiving fiscal support from the New York Foundation for the Arts and through donations. Smith will donate the film to PBS.

“The community is so amazing,” Smith said of Norwich. “They are really getting behind this. Unlike when I was here in 1990.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday

More information

A re-interment ceremony for African-American folk artist Ellis Ruley and his son-in-law, Douglas Harris, is tentatively scheduled for noon on Tuesday and will be open to the public.

Norwich Police Department is conducting a cold case review of the two deaths. Anyone with information is asked to call Norwich police at (860) 886-5561 or the department's anonymous tip line at (860) 886-5561, ext. 500.