He was one of the South’s most famous murder suspects. Now you can buy his stuff

The strangulation murder of Mary E. Burge in the spring of 1960 bore its share of fascinating elements: high-society wealth, ties to south Florida lavishness, a quarter of a million dollars in jewels untouched by a supposed intruder, a suspect husband and a dead parrot.

Mary’s husband, Chester A. Burge, then 56, was recovering from hernia surgery in a Macon hospital at the time of her death at the couple’s home on Nottingham Drive in east Macon. Within weeks, though, he was charged with murder.

The case made headlines across the region. Among them: “Squawking Silenced ... Was Burge Parrot Poisoned To Death?”

The Burges’ pet parrot, said to have had a sizeable vocabulary, was found dead in the couple’s home the same day Mary was killed. For a time, there was speculation — later dispelled — that the parrot may have been killed to, yes, keep it from talking.

As a Florida newspaper noted in recent years, Mary may have “become fed up with both her husband’s affairs with other men and with his lavish spending.”

At trial that fall, prosecutors argued that Chester Burge had slipped out of his hospital room in downtown, strangled his wife and returned to the hospital.

Burge, though, was acquitted.

After he was freed, he didn’t live long. He hobnobbed in south Florida and died in 1963 in a Palm Beach explosion that some speculate may have been a hit-killing orchestrated by those he owed money.

Burge’s son, John, who has since died himself, left behind some of his family’s belongings. John Burge’s widow, through an Atlanta auction company is helping sell some of the Burge family’s things.

According to the auction house, AtlBid.com, items include “antiques, jewelry, furs, furniture, art, silver (and) crystal,” and also a teapot engraved “Chester to Mary.”

Chester Burge’s personal effects — court documents, transcripts, photos and notes — are also up for bid through March 10.

This story was originally published February 28, 2018 at 10:56 AM with the headline "He was one of the South’s most famous murder suspects. Now you can buy his stuff."