“Here was a man who killed his wife and her lawyer in cold blood and then killed himself. Before that he devised an ingenious plan to destroy his home by fire. He chiseled the words “Hell’s Half Acre” on the steps leading to his property and he called his power boat “Hell’s-a-poppin.” He kept a grotesque figure of a woman before him at his table and he may have been motivated by his horoscope.’ – The West Virginian, 1948
“The most bizarre set of tragic events ever to occur…” – The Fairmont Times, 1948
“It was seated at the table, a mad effigy of a woman—of Nellie Marie Yost, who died yesterday at the hands of her crazed husband. It was the bust and head of a woman, a thing fabricated out of excelsior covered by muslin, with a plastered neck, and a painted face, and dirty straw for hair, what one might see in a nightmare. Years ago, Yost was an upholsterer, and there was a certain craftsmanship to his creation, but there was something about it that stood the hair on end. Across from the effigy, as the police believe, sat Yost for who knows how many weeks. There he ate, presumably, and thought about what life had done to him. And his thoughts became darker and darker as he looked into the future.” – The West Virginian, 1948
“Alone and bitter, [Yost] fabricated a horrible revenge—on the world and himself.” – The West Virginian
