Mississippi, W-Y, 1873-1988, Undated

Online content

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HATTIESBURG, MISS... W

Elaine. Forman
Tt Reaser, :

ape ety 8 fe oi te ee
td Ci Pee BS eS
4s “ pol eer 4

» Ad
id
¥ .
a4 5 te
i! . gue

with the f°)

”

oe
A oe
oe

{flcers who ‘artested her,

HEA OBPIDT 14 5:95.

4. N. Johnson: ‘(left) and
(Staff photo by Jay Milner.)

{
.

hey Bees So dog LUTMER CARLYLE WHEELER | Ay._- an:
ety COS Meaty end. (Photo by Bob Waller.

Services Held:
For Patrolman’
James Everett |

> “Hattlosburg weeps with you to-
day,” Dr, A. F. Gallman, told mem-
bers of City Patrolman Jesse James
Everett's family this morning,
*/ Dr, Gallman and Rey, Van \Wrind-
ham officiated at services for the
27-year-old policeman who-, was
killed Bunday night in a un battle
with a burglar. . %
“I have known. James. since he
Was a little boy, He was a good
boy....and he wag a good Man,"
Reyerend Windham asald..“His two
small children and wife were the
apples of his eye.” ‘ :
The crowd at the services. over-
Nowed Hulett's chapel, Many stood
In the foyers outside the chapel and
on the lawn tn front of the bulld-
ing, mat ‘

. ‘ ¢ 4
. Keesler ienor Gerard. |
An honof guard Srom Keesler Atr
Force base attended and rode: in
(he procession Ina special bus,
Patrolman Evetett was a member of
the Alr Force Reserve, having wrved
In the oorpe during World War II.
After paying tribute to “a fine
young man, one of the finest in the
community, who gave hls fe in the
Wne of duty." Dr, Gallman sald:
“....A goclety that can prodieoe
mich a person who would pull the
trigger In the face of a law officer
needa to rededicate {tself to the
principles Of our Maker,” _
“There has always been aw strugete
between right and wrong, These two
men Jald down thelr lives defend-
ing the right.”
Wenderson B!ims, Patrolman

aon

AM So iyre, “fe. rie °

aa Oe

een as!

EDNES:

. Luther - Carlyle Wheeler,
Elaine Forman, hig fat 31-

24, ana
year-old
charged «jointly
urglary today,

sweetheart, were
with murder and b
The charges stemmed jfrom the
Bunday night slaying of “two Hat-
Uesburg patrolmen, M, . Vinson
Jr., 32, and Jesse James Everett, 77.
The affidavit against’ the Balt
Take City, Utah, woman and the
slender, _ dark-haired Jacksonville,
Pia. man was signed by County At-
tormey Overton Currle, |

“" Currle sald the woman apparent-
ly had full.knowledge of Wheeler's
activities the night arf attempted
burglary. of Ace Weathers Motors
co, backflred“and launched a wild
chase which ended in death for the
pursulng patrolmen, rs
ar , .Bhe Wag Driver
‘The county attorney pointed out
that the Forman woman told him In
the presence of newsmen that she
drove the Ketaway. car Bunday
night; and that ahe knew the $1,600
bankroll entrusted.to ner by Wheel-
er Was the result of a string of bur-
giaries which began in Jacksonville
and continued throughout thelf trip
to New Orleans and finally to Hat-
Uesburg, ° i

When arrested ahe had the money
tucked inalde. her girdle. Bhe was
halted Tuesday morning In a tax
cab on Highway 11 near Parkway
Motors, The drivet, Charles Ault-
man, sald she'd offered him $150 to
take her-to New .Orleans.. Auliman
anid he and hia diapatcher Arranged
for pollee to atop the cab after de-
Ciding the passenger was sought by
the law, ‘ ,

Wheeler was
nigh os ;

“* Wheeler Moved Again

Becatuse of the faot crowds have
been ‘gathering around county’ jal)
here, Jamming the driveway to the
sherifl’a office and aaking, questions,
Wheeler wag ‘taken: gut; of to¥n
Tyeeday night, Priog to that he had
spent some time tn jail here.and at
Purvis. The woman, yj probably
has been moved: - mesg

Wheeler -appetred very stetpy
when awakened and told he -was to
be moved Ryaln, “ie

Hila almoat-black hatr, cut Jong,
stood up {n spikes, He showed Iittle
Interest In offoera, He wore khaki
Panta, ® nondescript shire and
brown shoes, Ie told an Interviewer
he'd been "“dolng aw Jot of aleeping’
since hla arrest; also that he haan't
recetyed communication of any kind
from his gir] friend, ° ‘

aP-%

arrested ) Bunday

anit
which Lg sc)
21. °

-_—_——

can't tell h
Wheeler-s
actlo

Railr
Toles
To E

CLEVELs
Toad worke
Elkhart, In
strike toda
Central m
Cleveland 1

‘At all ot
strike appe

In Toled
Out agalnat
to their Jo

the strike
® federal «
* The stri
New York
Buffalo an
linea, .
“The ae
except for
tually ful)
all polnta
which star
la termin:
tlona,
"Volunts
be used tc
necks, th
atepe are
In the tn
As the
(Conti

Teugh

the)

Everett's step-father, made a brief
Atatement after the officiating min-
fatere Yad corte

Interrogatora aa being “one of
| Mougheat criminals to hit
‘County.* yet of “above: dverage-

ter ar erret'er:

the:

verre pra mith wr,

Wheeler has been described by hit

in- 4

“Aa

“Ss. /{ LUTHER CARLYLE WHEELER Ayo A
ae mF (Photo ae Bob Watlr)

Charlie Aultman, the cab driver’ 0s ee tip-led to
the arrest of. Elaine Forman,

(Staff photo by Jay Milner.)

.-ee¢4 The abandoned car use by Wheeler and the’ For-

(man woman as ft was found Tuesday. ‘Officers checkin
Bic Deputy Lee: Daniels * (writing), and: Bheriff
‘A.-Payne ta the left of.the car, and Assistant Police...
{form at the right,%as: are
Sire (ci, ee by. ne Milner.) !
,) 4 D on ‘

boy....9nd he wea a good man,”
Reyerend Windham aaid..”“His two
small children and ¥ife were the
apples of his eye.” -

The crowd at the seevidew: Guat
Nowed Hulett’s chapel, Many stood
In the foyers outside the chapel and
on the lawn in front of the bulld-

nr a

ing.
a ', Keesler tenor Grard

An honot’ guard from Keesler Air
Force’ base attended and rode-in
the procession In*am special bus.
Patrolman Everett was a member of
the Alr Force Reserve, having served

‘}in'the corpse during World War I.

- After paying tribute to “a fine
young man, one of the finest in the
community, who gave his life {n the
Une of duty.” Dr. Gallman aaid:

--A goclety that can produce
such ‘a person who would pull the
trigger in the face of a:law officer
needs to rededicate itself to the
principles of our Maker.”

“There has always been a siriivcls
between right and wrong. These two
men laid down thelr lives defend-
ing the right.”

Henderson B8ims, Patrolman
Everett's step-father, made a brief
statement after the officiating min-
isters had concluded.

Bervice musio was by the Broad
Street Methodist Church Bextette,
which sang “Beyond the Bunset,”
and “Shall We Cather. at baci
River.”

Interment was in Union ‘Cémetery
In Jones county. The procession was
led_by_a State Highway Patrol car
and included police cars Trom Jack-
son and Laurel. +

Members of the Laure! and Jackson
police force took over Joca] traffic

: Everett and M. W-
Vinson Jr. the ‘other policeman
killed Jn the’xun-battle. a 3
Funeral for Vinson
Patrolman Vinson’s funeral was
(Continued on ws PAR micven)

- (00 Deathless Days_

' The Junior Chamter of Come

“merce {s sponsoring a traffio-
safety’ campaign with a goal of
“100 Deathless Days” on Forrest
county’s streets and roads: This
fe the 63rd day since a ‘traffic
fatality oocurred:in the county,

Be careful; you could be the one
to efid the string *%

.¢
‘ ba J

Be tree ge eres es ee wees

the Jaw,

ets Workers ot
‘Wheeler was arrested \ Sunday} Meet again t
might. . of whether: t
Three Brot}
- Wheeler Moved. Ariin Gensucters os
Becaure of the fact crowds have the strike yes
been gathering around county” jafl a federal cou
here, jamming the driveway to the]. The ‘strike
sheriff's office and ask! Questions, | New York ¢
Wheeler was‘ taken: : of town Buffalo and {
Tuesday night. Priog to that he had lines, ‘
spent sone time tn gall here.and at “The Mewey
Purvis. The woman, aes i ohare except for El
has been moved, ‘wv..-"* += tually full cr
Wheeler “appeared ‘very rleepy all points in
when awakened and told he ‘was tol which started
be moved: again, : . {g termina]
His almost- black hafr, cut Jong,| tions, °
stood up In spikes. Hé showed little] “Vohmteers
interest In. officers, He wore khaki! be used to ell
pants, a nondescript shirt and!necks, the °
brown shoes. He told an tnterviewer| steps are -not
he'd been “doing a Jot of sleeping’|in the {mme
since his arrest; also that he hasn't] As the ai
received communication of any kind (Continue
from his girl friend,
Tough
Wheeler has been described by hisf | b
interrogators ag being “one of the
toughest criminals ever to hit the] .
county,” yet of “abo¥e-trerage—in- +
telligence and with an excellent vo-
cabularyr _.. The
Wheelez graduated | “from “high tlesburg
school in Jacksonville, Fla., he told The
& Newspaperman Tuesday night. He 7
did not go to college. the poll:
He's spent considerable time dur- Dr,
ing his 24 years.in Texas and Oxkla-| ~° the’ othe
hom penitentlaries, and” according A
to his girl {riend’s statement to po- ter only
ice he fe told ‘going. back to The
son: @ told me they'd never ;
ae A herd oa dgneis ene arcount
Se
Wa that Bunday’ night when “ ‘memork
one of. the. patrolmen (Everett) . ;
walked up to the aide of ‘the Wheel. |. {amilles
er-Forman car on North and West J oats
Fourth sta., Wheeler sald; “What's power ¢
wrong officer?” | - . men wil
Bhe sald there © was a flash then the fell:
and the policeman wag Do longer ‘
standing there, a giving |
In another part of her. statement Th
she said: “When Carl (Wheele) of $250
aris. APPEAL -. . Th
DEATHSSENTENCE «°° when
' NEW YORK (P)—Atom iples Ju- #ppoint
Ifus and Ethel. Rosenberg, sentenced dren's |
to die for plotting to tranamit se- Co:
crets to Russia, have petitioned the ledzed
U.8. Circuit Court of Appeals fora ecge
new hearing, «. trusts.

Peg wa ‘ .
clariit ot’ Beties are

‘By JAMES DEVLIN

* enw YORK (P»-You dont have
to go to a dictator nation to find
publio ‘officials shrouding their ads.
tlvithes behind. an. nm curtain of
censorship. |

You can find the same thing

ero—perhaps in your home town.

It is a censorship by closed
meetings, buried records and “no
comroenta"+rather than. the djrect
“don’t\ print that’) of, the totallta-
Than countries,

But the'effect ls the same in pro-
viding am pocrecy cloak for. areas
of government on the federal, state
and jocal sevela, © :

Pigeon nitans acroes the country

{igh —oflen_, succes4 Uily—
te nga ese “diatkoufa-s0° the
people can, know what. pod offt-
clals are doing, o ee .

—— of one town: foew’ for
ape that: the federal Public

th Bervice: had mned its
drink!ng “ws ter,~7954 NS pane Pa,

The new pera’) dn

een en

Jewspapers Wagi

A county employe handl! ‘pus:
Me money stole marrtage license
feea, County officials went Into se-
fret session, decided he wouldn't
Ido it. egain’and kept him on the
job, The matter was kept quiet.
Taxpayers learned of it six years
later when’ the thefta mounted to
$18,000 and Chey. were, called vpoa
to make up the joes, +

A burglar robbed a filling tation
and escaped—but residents of the
community took no precautions to
protect thetr homey Police simply
did not report the robbery because
it would “lotertere with que Inves-
Ugation,® © s.qre,

. These Pat ae thow that offictal
secrecy $# pot @ remote matter in
volying egly, high Kovernmental clr
cles; bub sotmething that can alfect

your health, your money and your
thor,

Piigh diplomats ‘ray meet in pris
Mt but: 0a. dows many. a. state

except on nm
Uon's eeci
known as a
whe prega,”
It ie a fi
formation
American.
James 8,
of the Lo
and Louis!
of the Am:
paper Edli
dom, put |
“When 1
the newspe
the people
trol of the:
The righ’
oftert than
The Aseo
nallon-wids

weet age
coast and

“——

we in sng 3 totes
Wheeler Fas arreeted @ Bunday
ight ae

- Wheeler Moved Arain

Becatire of the fact crowds have
ten gathering around county” jail

“re, jamming the driveway to the]-

erifl’s office and askin “questions,
heeler was taken: > of town
uesday night. Priov to that he had
rent some time In jaf] here and at
urvis, The woman, - hj hier
as been moved, yet anes

Wheeler appeared very sleepy
‘hen awakened and told he -was to
é@€ moved agin, - a

His almost-black’ hafr, cut eae
tood up {n spikes. Hé showed little
atereat In. officers, He wore khaki

anta, .a nondescript shirt and
rown shoes. He told an Interviewer
ied been “doing a Jot of sleeping’

Ince his arrest; also that he hasn't
ecelved communication of any kind
rom his gir] friend.

Tough

Wheeler has been described by his
nterrogators ag being “one’ of the
oughest criminals ever to hit the
ounty,” yet of “above-average-in-
elligence and with an excellent vo-
abulary ° _ oe

Wheeler graduated from high
chool In Jacksonville, Fla., he told
* Newspaperman Tuesday night. He
‘id not go to college.

He's spent considerable time dur-
ng his 24 years in Texas and Okla-
loma& penitentiaries, and according ]-
© his girl friend's statement to po-
ce he dreaded going beck to
orison: “He told me they'd never
ake him alive if toa was caught
‘or anything."

ER ees

walked up to the side of the Wheel-
er-Forman car on North and Weat
Fourth sts. Wheeler sald: “What's
wrong officer?”
Bhe sald‘ there was a fash then
id the policeman was no Jonger
tnding there,
In another part of her. statement
she sald: “When Carl (Wheeler)

SPIES APPEAL:
DEATH SENTENCE /

NEW YORK (#}—Atom spies Ju-
Mus and Ethel. Rosenberg, sentenced
to dle for plotting to transmit se-
creta to Rusesa, have petitioned the
U. 8. Circuit Court of Appeals for a
new hearing, _— CS .

Everett) |.-~

Workers at both potnta were to!
meet again today on the queation
of whether to'end the strike.

Three Brotherhoods — Engineers,
Conductors and Firemen—called off
the atrike yesfercay on order from
a {federal court Judge, +s a 2
The ‘strike was directed against
New York Central !lipee- “weat ‘of
Bulfalo and the &t ‘Loula Terminal
linea, ot ey

+ The New York Gintre maid that,
except for Elkhart and Toledo, vir-
tually ful] crews “were reporting at
all polnts Involved in the dispute
which started Sunday, The 8t. Lou-
fe terminal also resumed iar
longa, 7.

“Volunteers” or re-routing ndeht
be used to ellminate the two bottle-
necks, the NYC aaid, but ‘these
steps are not expected to be taken
in the Immediate future.

As the situation stood, service

(Continued on Page Eleven)

Sha Gh doe Ve Volae Kee Cash
in “his two reces, with the Repub-
licana polling £2,225, and the Demo-
crats 36,64], This exceeded pre-cloor
tion ecatfinates and act a record for
presidential primaries In this state.
; Write-ina accounted for a portion
of the final unofficial figures, gath-4
ered fronf 297 precincts, Gen. Doug-
lag, MacAstbur, who, eald-he isn't
a Fandidate, Jed in ‘this category
with “3.974 Republican and U0 on
the Democratic ballot, .

> The final unofficial count: « :

Democratic: Kefauver, 20,147;
Truman, 16,298; write-ins: Elsen-
hower, 115; Farley, 69; MacArthur,
110; Dulles, 1; Taft, 36; Stevenson,
31; P. Douglas, 3; Btassen, 15; Ware
ren, 8; Cox, 1; Russell, 14; W. Dougs

las, 2{ Schneider, 2; Bridges, 1;
Barkley, 1.. :
. Republican: . Elsenhower, 46,497;

Bchneider, 216; Blassen, 6.549; Taft,
(Continued on Page Eleven)

’ The Greatest Sufferers.

(An Editorial)

The areal sufferers in the tragedy*that befell two Hat-

: tlesburg tamiljes Sunday night
Thelr fathera, M4. W. Ninso
the policemen killed in “algun

‘Mr, Vinson leaves hls widow and two sons, one five and

the other three years old,
Mr. Evére({( leaves his widow 4nd Tron ures ree and a daugh-_

ter only three months old. ~~ -

. The widows will recelvé from the city a permanent canton
*. amounting to half the busband’s s salary. In addition to this the

on Junior-Chamber of. Conti

emorial fund that Ir Ma}

familles. _
‘It must alw: ays be vamniek

power to educate his children. The children of the two police-
men will be denied this birthright. However, it is possible for
the fellow-citizens of the Vinsons and the Everetts to assist in
giving these children the opportunily they deserye. -

The American suggests that an educational insurance trust
of $2500 to $3000 be established for each of the four.”

The trusts would be divid
when each child becomes ellgi
appointed would determine dis
dren's beneficiaries and other

Contributions, of any size a

Jedged in The Americag which will clve $25 to each | of the’

trusts.

are the four small children.
n Jr. and James Everett, were
battle with a burglar.

andling subg

that a father will do all ‘te hls

ed into four annual payments
ble for college. Trustees to be
position of the funds, the chil-
details, 2 oO
re invited and will be acknow-

Hartley measures”

_Eariler a Benate

White's request for a Blate Depart.
ment of Labor, .. «=

"There ts no indicatlon that wate |

the state, The ‘Misslastppt Federa-
tlon’of Labor sald it was voluntarily
withdrawing {t# request” for-: the
legislation, “2°
| However, White's ‘reperted ‘c

sition’ to @ series “of “little. Talt-
. outlawing. the
closed shop and banning secondary
boycotts. and-: mass picketing - is |¢t
known to have deterred their In-
troduction at this session, .°...:, -.

Bimilar bills were shunted to a
Judiciary _ Committee .. pigeonhole
late In.thé' 1950 session, -

The House passed a Benate- cap-
proved: measure requiring drivers
to prove they could pay for wreck
damages. The House wrote in three
major ‘changes that must ‘receive
Senate approval.

The ‘bill originally required that
drivers involved: In any sriitpctn
costing more than $50 to report the
wreck and prove thelr ability -to
pay Camagea, regardless of blame,
or risk suspension of their. drivers

(Continued-on Page Eleven)

Sie Vea ITE

Cm S
ay
Pe FRA pels oe

perature” for 24. hours
p.m, Tuesday; High 64 ow.

the

cle. this aeasion, apportion , enure He
committee plgeonholed: Gov. Hugh| Representatives: on a’

Beais which would have tak:
away. from cae pal dah t
and, added

Mc Dorin! eae a
took part many agreement, to deter 5%
action on the. Labor’ ent cece tion. Ghat Hwopld
proposal,’ vigorgualy - rupported . py {Gucing there atiog
labor adhdrenta, from al}. parts: of | Pent 4.2 ‘wad ‘ta

Pam padding ar deka

oe BAGS, 9.43, Re No rain, ».

“Sethafaatppl ~ Partly ie
Warmer this. afternoon: sho
thunderstorms .. tonight, .. T
partly cloudy and cooler...
to fresh southerly winds
coast shifting to fresh north
tonight -.-

Loulstana 2 Partty” clot

warmer this afternoon with
ed, -thundershowers fn m
portion; cloudy and turnin
tonight with showers and t
showert.{n east and south }
Thursday fair: and- coolei
southerly winds on the cos

ing to {fresh to os port
night.

day evening during
Operation Red Croas Roundup totals
$1,756 50, f accordin to Margaret
McGregor; residenul a of
the drive,’

. This excedds the total pmourtt
collected in residential areas during
the entire drive last -year, Mra
Loulse Reedy, Red Cross secretary,
sald. today, The one night biitz was
tried ‘here. _ this his year for the fink
time.

‘The Sievaal portion ot the: reat
dential sectiong were covered last
night,” Miss McGregor sald. today.
“But it was Inevitable that we would
misg some houses,”
~ Bhe urged those people, wha want
fo contribute -but_were missed

1 cont?ibution to

es ~

+Op eration: Red. Cross:Roune

tt diay “tee

Nets More T

fewer

Ca Ae Oe |

951, or to the Red Orosa P)
ters : ere renee |

Ape gee

whan $1700

concentrated. ten-day drive
for the os fund yale
palkn h or Wa Ne, ‘ :

General ‘Chalrman Jin
said ‘today additiona) \
workers- wert’ needed durf
Jatt few days “Anyone who
te asked to se@ Mra. Core J
at the Merchants Cafe,’ . ..
“Operation | Red: Cross.

lasted one ‘hour Tuesday {
to 1: p.m. Monday, works
envelopes om doors throug
residential area, s These «1
lected Tuesday -night...B8t
industrial whistles signaled

the Tuceday night roundup, to tal

for collectlonay stot lee

pers Waging Fight

gain

‘

A comty employe hand!
Me money stole marriage
feea. County officials went Into se-
‘cre’ seeaion, decided he wouldn't
‘do St. again and kept him on the
job. The matter was kept quiet.
Taxpayers: learned of it six years
later when the thefts mounted to
$18,000 and (they. were. called upon
to make up the joss,

' A burglar robbed a filing station
;and escaped—but residents of the
community took no precautions to
‘protect thetr homes. Police simply
(did not report the robbery because
‘St would eal ole he with al inves-
| Ugation,” .

I Theee sank thow that offical
secrecy $s not @ remote matter in
‘volving only high ‘governmental cire
belee,-teb-someshing- traf carr affect

-our Jpeg) your ones and your

rotectiort,

High C\ploma ta ‘kad coast tn pri-
vale, Woeal reer eel A a state
gency, Weel echais doled and town

sane
Scense

oppor

o Coy
PU ae
; itn
ve FS td

ie
PIRES,

lexcept on matters, ond the nae

tlon’s security — te commonly
known a4 a battle for “freedom of
Whe prepa.” It be far more, .

It te w fight for freedom of In-
formation for every in lee
American.

James 8, Pope, . ‘executive editor
of the Loulsville Courier Journal
and Louisville Times and chaJrman
of the American Gociety of Newe-
paper Editora’ Committee on Free
dom, put it this way! .

“When news Ie savpreesed, all
the newspapers lowe ta aw story, But
the people loee touch with and con-
trol of thelr government.”

The right to know ta denied more
oftert than you might realize,

The Atecciated Press conducted a
fnalion- wide wurrry ~of official: eup-
pression of news and what \s being
done about Jt, ‘|

Jt found instances of concedl-
ment, and determined newspaper
NNahte against jt, from coast to
coast and from the Canadian: bor
der to the Gull: of Mexico,

ope J = ory,
a
ibe 5
Neal of

Ike “thay Bt Leute” 7 Poat- oer
revelation of “public officiala_tak-

ing fees from priyate firms, attract
wide attention | =‘ SG

Many of the news blackouts—and
fights _acalinst them—are Jocal, But
[added together they
picture.

The eurvey showed:

1, There: lg some degree of news
buppression” at-avery . governmental
level, from Washington to the
towna,

2, The suppression almost always
can be beaten when there ts a der
termined challenge by spirited

Newspapers, especially when they
are backed by the people.

The pattern te reflected In Wis-
consin, where the Milwauxee Jour-

official efforta to smother newa,
Edwin R, Kayley, the’ Journal's
state political reporter, -
every city of more than 15,000 popu-
lation and found that in’ moet there
are''some = governmental’. bodlea
which met behind “closed» doors,”

} Mande ye ne , id ted

veo oF “pe +.

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ays ee

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see

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‘lreports

fotm a: broad].

times are able to’ prove, that news].

nal *ponducted w detailed *etudy¥or]

Loured

x
’

ae mal

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“e mn es, peat
re ee ee er bee Ee
pa ‘found: too, thats *i 6 «hk.

“In some citicoa, reporters are de-
nied access to police and sheriffs’
and’ news of this kind Is
carefully filtered une the chief
Officer, ty ware’
“Newspapers nispect, and “somes

of crime and accidents Is censored
ta: conceal circumstances @¢mbare
rassing to the department (o¢ to
protect’ promingnt persons, OF. poe
litical friends from unfavorable
publicity,”.. - tN te?
- The water incident shows how 4
Vicilant- prpea oan’ broek fhrovan

the seerecy veil, :
e' reporter for. the’ "Vderoese,

atts

Blales Pubite He

fitet; fypoct.on
of the water had been

CaS ae if a of

ren

Tribune learmmed that raltroad
1d not take on water at Las
trodeds.. Me Joundgthay he United
th Bervice had

dent, paldr, © cs aytes ane :
“othe reporter to found beer
pod ny spooe’ cotidition

a3
ne

: a

aaa

—s

"ATH, - HEADACHES.
ESS, HEARTBURN.
ND STOMACH: GAS

ike A Now Person -

Bee

recent letlee from Katon Rapida
h.: Wl you please send mea bottle
four Hope Mineral Tableta. I have
@ all over [ansing for them. The
cclst here in Raton Rapids got me
boltle and I must say they are won-
ful. { wae eo tired all the time and
waemy husband and at home when
sat awhile, we could hardly walk,
look one bottle together and feel
1 & Rew person, the lameness and
nese is all gone. We would like te
p taking them for a while

8° please.
@ them right away: .

Guaranteed

Seta boltle at your drug store to
y. Use {¢ and if you are not
RACULOUSBLY, SATISFIED, we
Wl gladly refund your money. No
‘(ter how Jong you have suffered
fon't do St another day. HOPE
INERAL may be what you are
arching for,

PRICE $154
3 ORUG STORES

Z. St. Louls, (Uinots

4
‘

i] e .

. Police Chief HO. Harris sald to-
Gay that when Patrolman J. J.
'” Everett was gunned down at potnt-
blank range Bunday night, Everett's

Own weapon had not been fired.
“Harris. and \his assistant chief,
Frugh Herring, bald that a “thorough
check in the matter,” revealed that
“a previous analysis of the guns in
the case was incorrect.”

Hatris said there l@ no room for
Goubdt’ now that the 27-year-old
Everett met death without “even a
chance of defending himself.” The
gun of M. W. Vinson Jr, 32, the
second policeman slain in the street
battle, had been fired six times.

It was believed originally that
Everett had triggered his o~n 38
five times and that the weapen
jammed on the sixth. ‘

. “Investigators were confused by
two facta,” Harris explained. “One
was that Everett never carried but
five cartridges in the chambers of
his revolver, Another was that-a
bystander who came along after. the
shooting at West Fourth and North

6” sta, emptied all cartridges from the

A toid of “trying top

Gead patrolman’s gun.”
Case Not Closed

- Chief Harris also emphastred to-
Cay that he does not consider the
case Closed. “Our Investigation {s
continulng,” he said. “Iam not satis-
fied that we have the complete glory.
While we are working on th
I would like to ask citizens of the
city to bear with us !f we are forced
to negiect some of our norma! traf-
fic dutles and parking meter checka

We especially would appreciate co-|:

operation in not abusing parking
requiations.” .
In an undisclosed fall, both
charged with murder and burglary,
are Luther Cartyle Wheeler, 24, of
Jacksanyille, Fla., and Elaine For-
man, hia fat 3l-year-old sweetheart,
whoee home town 1s Balt Lake City.

Wheeler seld in a statement to
‘police that he did all the shooting.
The Forman woman sald her Job
was simply that of driving the get-
away car after the attempted
burglary of Ace Weathers Motors
Company, joe

Whee Vinson and Everett arrived
at the scone and gave chase they
launched the series of events which
led to thelr-deatha, : - Q

Find Sulloase — {-;

Wednesday afterttioon .Bherilt
Yatos Lott of Lamar Counyy, in a
. Gar with Talmadge Geucier, Lamar

County’s circuit clerk, located: a

suitcase packed with Wheeler's

cJothing. ‘
he spot of the find wea some

10 milea northwest of Hattiesburg,

In the Rawle Bprings area above Big

Creek. This tg a good four mile

from the place near Patonrille

where officers found a parcel of
clothing belonging to Klaine For-
man,

Bheriff Lott sald that tn addition
to the clothing, Wheeler's social se-
curity card was found, confirming
his identity. Alsq located was “an
eld buated up pistol.” Lott added.

Walne Forman had. sald that
Wheeler usually bad from two to
four plrtols In the car, This ta the
third one that has been found.
Wheeler had one when he was ar-
rested and offloers yecoyered an-
other which the Forman woman
told them she threw In p waste bes-
ket in the Sears store hee.

feared =

Bheriff Abb | Payne of Forreet
County sald Wednesday she had

is Case, |

ges.

Bheriff Payne and local Attorney
Claude Pittman who rolunteerpd to
ald the prosecution. 7 a
Everett's widow is a cousin of
Pittman’s _ .
Coroner John Box and police this
moming bundled up badges, whis-
Ues, caps and uniforms of the two
dead patrolmen, chaning out the
lockers, : “
These things wil] be taken to the
widows of. Vinson and Kveret{ some
time today, rr .

15 Airmen:Die
When Bombers
CoJlide In Sky

8AN ANTONIO,.Tex. UP) — Tro
four-engine B-29 Superfortresses
collided in the alr about 38 miles
north of here ‘yesterday. Both
crashed, killing afl 15 airmen aboard.

Both bombers were on {Instrument
training Nights out of Randolph
Field here, their home bese, The
ceiling and visibility were practical-
ly unlimited, :

. One plane carried seven men and
the other eight, the Alf Force bese
sald. .

The shattered plane crashed on a
hilltop on the Gus Krause ranch.
The other glided down near a ema!)
landing strfp on the ranch of ‘J.
W. Heard, Ban Antonio oll nan,

Q. C. McDonald, superintendent
of. ranch, sald he saw tbe plance
fying in formation,

He gave this account:

“Buddenly one creased over and
apparently clipped the tall section
from the other plane, One plane
went down and the other kept on
flying oo @ Jevel keel with good
altitude -as If undamaged. No ane
jumped. The plane came tn low over
a windmill on the Heard : ranch,
just barely missing {t, Suddenly the
left wing dipped and went tnto the
ground, The right wing cut off a
huge tree, The plane plowed serv-
era) hundred feet and the four
mototg were found on &@ Alilitop
aqreral hundred feet away,” .
*,'dack Nolen .who Uves nearby, re-
ported finding a paper-beck book
with post of {te pages bummed away
but with’the tide intact. :

Ty) reed? “J Want a Big Funeral”

Money Comes In
For Pafrolmen’s
Memorlal Fund

Moran Pope of the Hattleeburg
Junior Chamber of Commerce said
today he had recelred $438 by mail
for the Vinson-Everet4 Memortal
fund,

The money Ls for the families of
J. J. Everett and M. W. Vinson Jr.,
local patrolmen slain Bunday night
In wa gunfight with w fugitive.

Pope sald he wanted to make it
plain thas the Jaycees are “simply
holding the hat,” and that callection
of funds ‘e “not on a preesure-
basis.” He sald the program to ralse
money was @ spontaneous thing,
caused by a general reaction of citi.
tens who wished to help the widows
and ¢ehildren ‘of the dead men,

Seart-Roevuck'’s store started jt
rolling with a $200 contribution

‘”

ead Need For
ull -Foreigr
Aid’ F Unt

a - * a
Truman's’ Global’, lanners
Urge Congress to Vote .
_» All of $7.9 Billion

———

* By EDWIN B. HAAKINSON: ~

WASHINGTON U)-The admin-
istration'’s top . fore!gn stPalog ists
called on Congress today to Yote
every dollar of President Truman's
$7,900,000,000 foreign ald program,

Your first line global planners
went before a joint Benate-House
croup to open thelr uphill fight
for foreign. ald funds {n the face of
Congressional economy drives in
this election year. .

“Before an overflow crowd who
Jammed {nto the Benate's biggest
committee room, these points were
stressed:

1, Becretary of Btat@ Acheson sald
a cut in foreign funds now would
have “the immediate and destruct-
Ive effect of undermining the whole
economy” of NATO—the North At-
lantic Treaty Organi!zation,

2. -W. ‘Averell Harriman, director
of Mutual Security, declared that
a reduction tn funds would repre-
sent “a decisson to reduce the
strength which {ts being bullt in the
{ree world for our common defénse

3. Gecretary of Defense Lovett,
emphasizing the Communist - led
peril to the French in. Indochina,
called for “ wm substantial Increase
Jn military assistance” to that.em-
battled Far Fastern land,

All the | witnesses stressed the

necesaity of the mult!-billion dollar
Program (o bolster thls nation's de-
fenses against Communism.
- Acheson defended the Western
Europe countricg against congres-
sional suggestiong that they are
not doing thetr full part im the
defense bulldup, -

Fe gure aachia “considered fudg-
ment” that the ‘present efforts by
European... NATO members, plus
certaln . new commitmenta, “ap-
proech the limit of thelr capaditias.”
“*To go beyond theee Hmits." he
sald, “would produce a strain on
their politioal, economle, and. social
structures tha} would © endanger
both thelr. security and ours~and
might well wreck everything that
we are trytig ta accomplish.”

Bome # contresmen sat tn on
the start of the hearings which
are being held before the Senate
Yorelgn Relations and Armed Gerr-
{cea Committees and the Hous
Forelen. Affairs Committee,

Weather
7 am. peading, 64 deqrees. Tem-

perature fore the 24 hours ending 6
pm, Wednesday: High 16; low 3

Hiver stage 9.65. Rainfell=#l3,
Misalaatppi: Partly cloudy thls
aflernoon,~ tonight and = Friday;

somewhat cooler tonight Moderate
weet and northwest winds on (he
coast, « *
Loulslana; Partly cloudy thia aft-
etnooa, tonight and Friday; allghuy
cooler tonight. Moderate weet and
northwest winds on the ¢oaat be-
coming variable Fridey,
Alabama; Partly cloudy thi aft
ernoon, tonight and Priday;

” J} yteld

against the threat of the Kremiin.1f

: . S C

* JACKBON, )
to ralse Minas
tax to three ¢
increased rere
beneNta, schoo
will be made
Ben. Claude
ville sald he
measure that
about
two years, for
funds

“A sales ta
tn the world,”
cited the need
for more reren
increasing the
creased salari
additiona) sc
Tequire additi
The same bi
fn the House ¢
©. A. Graham
The Benate
act that woul
and municipal
cia) security at
tirement benef
measure becom
take’ more caa)
Citlea, the la
Cornwe}] saic
all existing aa
cluding the sj
allowed cities
population thal

Killed.
Save |
Teach

LAUREL, Mi!
schoo] teacher
her husband
he choked her
aon, undergo
in Circult Cou

The teacher,
told a jury yt
re r pull
21 caliber rif)
band but tha'
as they strugs

Bhe sald
Camptell, cat
night of last
while drunk
and her adopt
field, over a

Thia night,
her daughter
and the dau
that they tr
get Campdell

laur, she
tchen she bh
{n the bedroo

“Oodle waa
him,” ahe sal:
tried to pull
off—to the &
rot It and k
atop chok!r
He eald, ‘11
whirled and
gun went of:

When De.
Deavore aske
do it?" she)

“Bocause hi
to death. I
to kill Han
away from

t. Obbie
he hadn't
LEOIALATU
OF RUABEL.

rid of as

4@r nu

Monday Thts amoynt.

tonigt orale weet and
and aids Le ee well OF

COO OK BL
ae ee

olmen W..
e officers.

get it out of

vin’ like you
dod.”
nate lips to-

hat I couldn't
night, if you
none of ’em
You bought
your money
e and wanted

and a couple
“And 1 ain't

me. You said
of difference,
indred dollars
f those other

were twernty-
if any woman
were made to

you want me,”
ine way or the
it with Winnie

going to have a baby she'd be glad that you’d keep me and Phil
apart. You did, too, You told me you'd kill me if I went off
with him or any other guy. That was the day we all hit Savannah.

(That was the day I knew I had you cinched, too, for a while,
anyhow. I'd be nuts to give up Santa Claus, wouldn't I?)

He lighted a cigarette as a police car passed, cupping his hands
around the match to conceal his face.

“Drive back to that motor company again,” he ordered her,
“and circle the block. I want to check-somethin’”

“I still say this town’s strictly no good,” she insisted. “Phil
Woods—” ‘

“This job’s my baby!” .

At 7:30 p.M., the Main Street Baptist Church was packed with
Hattiesburg citizens, eager to hear the evangelist preach on
“Crimson Crime.”

At 7:37 P.M., Patrolman Bob Reasor, acting desk sergeant
at Police Headquarters, snapped out a call on the shortwave
radio for Patrolmen M., W. Vinson, Jr., and Jesse Everett who
were cruising in one of the department's two scout curs,
-“Prowlers inside the Ace Weathers Motor Company,” Reasor
announced tersely. “Contact Mr. Weathers in front of the build-
ing.”

Everett's voice acknowledged the call. Reasor glanced over

Defendants stand before Judge Wm. Haralson (adjusting spectacles) as Dist. Attorney Arrington (extreme
left, with his back to the camera), reads the first-degree murder charge filed against the pair.

Bthgehed, Chrarken Aultman, cabman who recognized Mra.
Forman and helped set trap resulding in her arrest.

EN Tay,

“Harriet Griffin's doctor told me you
were in to sce him.”

“Oh ... that! Yeah, a dog bit me—
that little pooch of Harriet’s—and I got it
cauterized.”

“Good idea,” Steece said. “You can die
from those bites if you don’t take care of
them. Let me.see your hand.”

Slowly Bowman withdrew his hand, re-
luctantly holding it out for the captain's
inspection. There was no doubt about it;
the mark was from a perfect set of human
teeth. Steece pressed a buzzer and a police-
man entered. “Lock this man up,” Steece
ordered. And to Bowman, he added: “You

might die from a_ bite like that, too,
Bowman.”

HOWEVER, Bowman did not die in the
electric chair as Steece had hinted that
he might. At first the hard-shelled suspect
contended that Verna was in love with him
and that they had met down bythe water’s
edge that Friday night. She implored him
to marry her, he said, and when he turned

her down he said she threatened to commit -

suicide. When he tried to prevent her,
she fought like a tiger and bit him in the
scuffle, and then fell into the water, hitting
her head. He dragged her out, but she

became hysterical and he went away. “She
must have committed suicide after 1 left,”
he said.

But the jury didn’t see it that way when
he was tried on March 29th, 1929, along
with Harriet Griffin.

Harriet was given a term of not less
than ten years in the State prison for her
complicity in the affair, while Harry Bow
man was given prison for life.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The names Harriet
Griffin, Charles Wollman and Eddie
Medica used in the foregoing story are
fictitious.

DEATH IS NO STRANGER

(Continued from page 38)

chief realized that he now had only one
car and two patrolmen to cover the city
of 30,000.

Within an hour, every off-duty member
of the city’s meager police force would
have heard the news. They'd be storming
headquarters, angrily demanding a chance
to avenge their comrades. But they would
be far too little and too late.

ATTIESBURG, known all over the
State as “The Hub,”. stands astride
the crossroads of southern Mississippi. The
thugs could easily evade one patrol car
and escape over their choice of ten routes.
Assistant Chief Herring saw it, too. He
wasn’t a big man, but he was a fireball
any time the chips went down.

“Road blocks!” he barked. “We’ve got
to keep those gunmen and their car
hemmed in!”

“Right!” Harris said decisively. “And
fast! That’s your job. Get the men out as
soon as they come in, Meantime, call the
Forrest County sheriff's office and ask for
every possible man. Radio the State High-
way Patrol at Jackson and local officers at
Laurel and Gulfport for help!”

Swinging on his heel, he headed for the
doorway. “Jones! You come in the car
with me.”

Speeding through the darkened streets,
the two reached the scene of the gun bat-
tle, just as ambulance attendants eased
the officer in the street onto a stretcher.

Leaping from their car, Harris and
Jones bent over the unconscious man,
recognizing him as Vinson by his shock
of coal-black hair.

One heavy bullet had smashed into his
upper right cheek, making a nightmarish
horror of his handsome features. Two
others had struck him in the right chest.
He was still breathing, but he didn’t have
the slightest chance to live.

Harris and Jones shook their heads
sadly. But death is no stranger to cops.
In their profession they see it many times
and in many horrible forms. And every
so often they find death themselves in
carrying out their dangerous duties.

“The other officer’s over in front of the
grocery store,” one of the spectators
volunteered tensely. “He’s already dead.”
Hastening to the spot, Harris found
Everett’s body sprawled in the parking

area. He had been shot once through the
heart.

Evidently he had walked up on the
right-hand. side of the sedan to question
its occupants, and one of them had started
shooting. Vinson, covering the left-hand
side from the police car, had leaped out,
his gun blazing, only to be shot down also.

Examination showed that Vinson had
emptied his revolver. Everett’s held five
spent shells and had apparently jammed on
the sixth: The driver’s panicky flight.
leaving Vinson’s assailant behind, afforded
Harris the grim hope that Everett had at
least wounded one gunman before he died.

“But it docsn’t make sense!” Jones pro-
tested bitterly. “If this was the same out-
fit they jumped out at the Weathers Motor
Company—”

“It had to be the same!” Harris cut in
sharply. ‘

Weathers and the white-faced officers in
the second patrol car confirmed that when
they arrived on the scene a few minutes
later.

The automobile dealer related that he
had heard a noise in the rear of his
establishment when he stopped there to
switch off some lights. Suspecting sneak
thieves, at the worst, he had slipped out
to another telephone and notified the po-
lice.

“When Vinson and Everett went in the
front way,” he continued, “I heard ‘some-
body run out the back and around the
corner.”

“Where a confederate waited in the
car,” Harris said.

Weather nodded. “Apparently. The
next I knew, that sedan shot down the
street. Vinson and Everett jumped into
their car and took out after it.”

REPORTS received at police headquar-
ters and broadcast as the second patrol
car raced across the city indicated that
Vinson and Everett had fired repeatedly
at the fugitives, then had lost the trail.
The police chief was getting the picture.
Nobody needed to tell him how criminals
with yard-long records’ and a yen for the
fast buck were flocking back to the Gulf
Coast resorts as the smoke of the Ke-
fauver investigation subsided. Hatties-
burg, only 70 miles inland, lay tragically
in their paths.

Unacquainted with the city, these had
wound up in the dead-end street after
eluding the pursuit. Rather than _ risk
further flight, they had swung into the
parking area to escape notice if possible,
if not, then to shoot their way clear.

“What happened,” Harris announced,
“was that Vinson and Everett found them
and forced a showdown with desperate
criminals who already had so much against
them that they didn't dare lose!”

Sheriff Abb Payne, who had joined the
group, agreed.

“And I'll promise you this!” he added
grimly. “My deputies and I will stay on
duty with you until we catch that outfit!”

They weren't the only ones. Off-duty
police officers, suddenly appearing on the
scene, organized an intensive search of
the neighborhood for the gunman who had
fled afoot. But the futility of that hunt
became quickly apparent.

“He didn’t stick around here,” Sheriff
Payne snapped. “That guy's out some-
where trying to steal a car for his getaway.
We've got to stop him!”

PEEDING back to headquarters to di-

rect the manhunt, Harris Jearned that
officers all over southern Mississippi were
responding to Herring's call for aid. Road
blocks were already being set up. Off-duty
police officers from Laurel, 35 miles north-
east, and other nearby points, were on
their way to Hattiesburg to assist. Crack
investigators of the Mississippi Highway
Patrol were also en route.

That was only a starter, however. News
of the gunfight, broadcast on the radio,
had thrown the city into a fever of excite-
ment. Word that Vinson had died, shortly
after reaching the hospital, fanned the
heat. With every police and sheriff's car
filled, .Chicf Harris and Herring dis-
patched other officers in radio-equipped
taxicabs. Still others, and hard-eyed
citizens, armed to the teeth, joined in the
patrol in their own cars. By 9 P.M. every
street and rural lane swarmed with men
watching for a faded green sedan and any
suspicious stranger on foot.

The rain had set in again, a_ steady
drizzle. In spite of it, telephoned tips
about faded green sedans all but swamped
police headquarters. Investigating cach
report, the officers began to wonder if

everybe-'; *>
had pic
Not on

Officers pa
mile from th
covered a N;
way, its door
man had att
fled as they

Half an !
Harris got th
fitter living
Two of the fe
had not hei
swirling abou
been listening
on the radio,
the telephone
had heard his
wind.

“I went out
“I heard grave
on the lights.
up in front of
me.

““Don't: co
‘Stick ‘em up.
into the hous:
. “Then what

“LT did exac:
formant retur
ting out, two
guy I think !
kept me from

Back in the
loaded a_ pist
minutes, then
the home of ;
phone to call

Although y
too frightened
gunman had |
that the fello

and _ higt

a brown
ITHIN mi
tion of t

cars. An hour
Glenn Maddo:
Sullivan spotte:
the street.
Maddox cov
Creel and Sulli
handcuffs on
they found a |
son revolver in
cartridges in his
The prisone:
Luther Carlyle
ville, Florida.
“Why did y
Maddox deman
Wheeler star
gun, then at t!
me, didn't they
“Who was wi
now?”
“Wouldn't yc
retorted.
Rushed to Po
calmly admittec
prison terms fi
béen released fri
in late January

questioners tha’ *

Federal Bureat
Harris, Sheriff
Overton Currie

of the State Hh

SPOON Ne ERE

a i elbc

G “ oy ‘ d
Me A Kt
: oY 1 \S 9
ee 4
Le Oy ey
rAd
’

at Dick Jones. Jones was Identification Officer for: the Hatties-

burg Police Department.
“Stick around a few minutes. Those two guy'll have some work

for you,” he, prophesied.

Everett, 28, was a rookie with only three months on the force,

but he'd gone through the war in the Air Corps from New Guinea
to Iwo Jima. Vinson, 32, had served with the OSS, parachuting
twice behind the German lines on cloak-and-dagger missions. And
he had two years éxperience as a policeman.

/ The situation was under control, Reasor figured. Leaning back
in his chair, he relaxed, lit a cigarette and grinned as he remem-
bered how the two partners had been ribbing each other when
they checked in at the desk at 7:15.

At 7:40 p.M., Police Chief E. C. Harris and Assistant Chief
Hugh Herring came in off the street. Reasor told them what was
up. The big, serious-faced chief frowned forebodingly. In his
16 years on the department, no Hattiesburg policeman had been
injured on duty. Nobody could remember when one had been
killed. But a man never knows what will happen on the next call.

“I’]l wait until Vinson and Everett report,” he said. He lounged
over by the desk and stood with one ear cocked for the radio.

At 7:45 p.M., blocks away, where North Street dead-ends at
West Fourth, a savage burst of gunfire shattered the dignified old
city’s Sabbath evening calm.

Terrified residents heard one shot, then several more. A wild
bullet crashed through the living room window of the Dan Mooney
home on the corner, narrowly missing Mr. and Mrs. Mooney,
and buried itself in the ceiling. A man’s voice cried for help and
another shot answered him.

The shooting stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Mr. Mooney
and his wife rushed out onto their front porch. They saw a police
car, parked on North Street, its red light still flashing. A uni-
formed officer lay sprawled on the wet pavement in the full glare

of the headlamps.
Another man was racing toward a sedan that had been parked

across Fourth Street, in front of a grocery store, but that was
beginning already to roll.

“Wait!” he screamed desperately. “Wait!”

“Mooney watched, stunned by the swift-moving drama, until
the sedan lurched heavily out of the graveled parking area and
headed west, gathering speed with every turn of the wheels. He
noticed automatically that it was an old model. It looked a faded
green in the light of the street lamp.

Wheeling, Mr. Mooney dashed back indoors, snatched up the
telephone and feverishly dialed Police Headquarters.

Still listening for some word on the radio, Police Chief Harris
started and swung around ag the telephone behind him shrilled.
Reasor answered, and Harris saw his eyes widen as if he had seen
a ghost. ;

“Just a minute!” Reasor snapped into the transmitter. “Tell
it to Chief Harris!” He glanced up as Harris dived for an ex-
tension. “Vinson and Everett shot it out with those burglars—
and lost!” he exclaimed through set teeth.

_ Mooney’s terse report left no room for doubt.

Chief Harris hung up the receiver in a red fog of horror and -

fury, but the distant scream of ambulance sirens cleared his brain
like a dash of cold water. As Reasor swung back to the radio
panel and began to broadcast, the police (Continued on page 50)

Ayan ¢ af ~ \ ; Sein ie é
=: Sheriff Abb’ Payne. (third from lefty Cand , i
Poltes ‘Chief. Hugh Herring’ Lanttorm, at “righ

would be +
prove. The
been in jail
eral times.
assault char.
Wagner saic
had a scrap
being charg:
had that on
After V:
from the ar
would conse
“Only in
ner replied.
When th
ready, he si
a jail cell.
Hall then
Jordan, and
fused to ren
Zinswers gay

“ ner’s move

February 31
identified \
left in the p
that while
drunk, his
oughly into

On April
Jury indicte
murder, 7
torneys for
were E. Stu

Closky.

URING
indictm:
thoroughly.
clothes to t!

only clue \
That even
person at th
ing when
But there »
click came,
dead line.

Tt WAS ju

later that
its mark in
woman. It
Mrs. Audre}
kitchen of h
Avenue, in

Suddenly
ing through
a basket of
that the slug
downward, :
moval of th

As in all
no clues, no

The office
velop leads.
possibility a

. “She
| left,”

when
along

ot less
‘or her
y Bow-

Harriet
Eddie

ry are

ese had
et after
an risk
into. the
possible,
ear

ed,

em
woperale
h against

vyined the

re added
stay on
t outfit!”
Off-duty
g on the
earch of
who had
that hunt

> Sheriff
ut some-
. getaway.

ers to di-
irned that
sippi were
aid. Road
. Off-duty
iles north-
were on
ist. Crack
Highway

ver. News
the radio,
- of excite-
ied, shortly
‘anned the
heriff’s car
‘ring = dis:
10-equipped
hard-eyed

ined in the
p.M., every
i with men
d any

~ steady
vhoned tips
ut swamped
rating each
wonder af

everybody in Hattiesburg with such a car
had picked that night for a pleasure drive.
Not one tip paid off.

Officers patroling North 19th Street, a
mile from the scene of the shooting, dis-
covered a Nash sedan parked in a drive-
way, its doors open. But if the lone gun-
man had attempted to steal it, he had
fled as they approached.

Half an hour later, however, Chief
Harris got the first real tip from a pipe
fitter living in that same neighborhood.
Two of the few people in Hattiesburg who
had not heard of the real-life drama
swirling about them, he and his wife had
been listening to a fictional detective play
on the radio, he reported excitedly over
the telephone. Shortly after 9 Pp. M., he
had heard his garage doors banging in the
wind,

“L went out to close them,” he went on.
“f heard gravel crunch inside and switched
on the lights. All of a sudden a guy raised
up in front of the car and threw a gun on
me.

“Don't come any farther!’ he said.
‘Stick ‘em up, turn around and get back
into the house!’ ”

“Then what?” Harris asked.

“I did exactly what | was told,” his in-
formant returned. “Church was just let-
ting out, two doors away, and if he’s the
guy I think he was now, that’s all that
kept me from getting killed, too.”

Back in the house, the man said he had
loaded a pistol and waited for several
minutes, then had crossed the street to
the home of a neighbor who had a tele-
phone to call Police Headquarters.

Although quite naturally he had been
too frightened to see definitely what the
gunman had looked like, he had noticed
that the fellow had cruel, slanting eyes
and high cheek bones apd that he wore
a brown jacket with a fur collar.

WITHIN minutes, Harris had that sec-
tion of town swarming with patrol
cars. An hour and a half later, Patrolmen
Glenn Maddox, Alfred Creel and Allen
Sullivan spotted the suspect walking along
the street.

Maddox covered him with a shotgun.
Creel and Sullivan leaped out and snapped
handcuffs on his wrists. Searching him,
they found a loaded .38 Smith and Wes-
son revolver in his shirt front and enough
cartridges in his pockets to stock an arsenal.

The prisoner told them that he was
Luther Carlyle Wheeler, 24, of Jackson-
ville, Florida.

“Why did you shoot those officers?”
Maddox demanded angrily.

Wheeler stared insolently at the shot-
gun, then at the officers. “They shot at
me, didn’t they?” he came back.

“Who was with you, and where are they
now?"

“Wouldn't you like to know!” Wheeler
retorted.

Rushed to Police Headquarters, Wheeler
calmly admitted that he had served two
prison terms for burglary and had only
béen released from Texas State Penitentiary
in late January, But facing a circle of
questioners that included agents of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chief
Harris, Sheriff Payne, County Attorney
Overton Currie and some of the best men
of the State Highway Patrol, he still re-

“come up.”

fused to give any information about his
confederates.

“I’m the guy who killed those two!” he
snarled. “You’ve got me. What else do
you want?”

“We want the rest of your gang,” Currie
snapped back. “You're covering up for
them, and that gangster stuff doesn’t go in
this county.”

Finally Wheeler sagged in his chair.
“All right,” he conceded in a weary voice.
“I was with two Jacksonville friends. The
man’s named Phil Woods. His wife's
named Winnic. She’s a blonde, and preg-
nant.” .

He said they had come to Hattiesburg,
looking for a business house to burglarize
and had picked the Ace Weathers Motor
Company. The couple, he declared, had
waited for him in the car while he entered
the building alone.

“In what kind of a car?” Sheriff Payne
shot. :

“A green, 1941 Chevrolet with yellow
fog lights,” “Wheeler replied glibly.

The sheriff exchanged a puzzled glance
with the other officers. The answer had
come too pat.

“Keep talking,” one of them ordered
shortly.

“All right. So your coppers chased us
into that dead-end street and then found
us again. I just waited till the first one
Wheeler’s eyes narrowed
venomously at the memory. “He was
really askin’ for it.

“‘What’s the trouble, Officer?’ I asked
him. :

“He jerked the door open, and I flipped
up on my gun and let him have it in the
chest. Then I jumped out and shot the
other copper as he come boilin’ out of
the police car. He went down, but he
wasn’t dead. 1 didn’t have but one bullet
left in my gun. So I ran over and shot him
in the head.” ;

The callous brutality of the recital left
the officers specchless. Chief Harris was
the first to recover.

“You mean,” he demanded, “that Phil

_ Woods—”

“He and Winnie scrammed. That’s all!”

Herring stalked into the room, whis-
pered a few words in the chief's ear, then
glared at the confessed slayer.

“That’s a good story, Wheeler,” he
lashed. “Only you're still holding out. A
service-station operator out north of town
just telephoned. He says that about 8:30
Pp. M. some fat brunette dame in a faded
maroon 1941 Buick sedan cut a corner too
close and went into the ditch. He helped
her out.”

Wheeler’s face didn’t move a muscle.
“So what?” he demanded. e

“So she acted a lot more concerned with
keeping something covered in the back of
the car, than with getting out of the ditch,
He thinks it could have been a wounded
man. Who was it, Wheeler? And who
was the dame?” :

The desperado shrugged. “How would
I know?”:

“You mean there were two cars and
five or six people in this deal?" Curric
demanded.

Wheeler first denied, then admitted that
there had been. He changed his story
n dozen times between then and daybreak,
und named a dozen different persons, but

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The Strange
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between Nietzsche
and his sister Elisabeth

SUPPRESSED
FOR FIFTY YEARS

revealed at last in the
Philosopher’s own confession

MY SISTER
AND |

The story of a Famous Brother and
a terrifyingly ambitious younger Sister,
who grew to love each other physically
as children and continued to do'so into
maturity — to the exclusion of all other
men and women.

One has to read only a few pages of
this breathless book to realize why it
has been hushed up all these years,

Quite simply, and in fearful earnest,
the 19th century’s greatest philosopher
tells how he was gradually led into this
extraordinarily dangerous love-trap
which kept him.from marrying and
caused the suicide of his sister's only
husband. :

MY SISTER AND 1 was written in
an asylum in Jena. Undoubtedly it was
his ‘studied revenge on his family for
refusing to let him publish an earlier
and much tamer confession, entitled
Ecce Homo which did not appear till
ten years after his death.

MY SISTER AND I had to wait
over fifty years because it could not
be made public until all the actors in
the great drama had passed away,

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NAME.
ADDRESS___

cITY. ‘ ZONE.
O Send C.0.D.

STATE.

‘
No one knew what the woman looked

_ like, but it was guessed, since the car

had out-of-state plates, that if She was
in the city she would be alone. Very

-much alone.

ND at the moment, Elaine Foreman

was alone. She was alone and
frightened, and she was holed up in the
Milner Hotel, anxious to get out of Hat-
tiesburg. Things had turned out miser-
ably, and as soon as she dared go out,
she got herself a supply of ‘liquor and
Stayed in the. hotel and tried to forget
everything. But after a couple of days,
she knew she had to move.

She called the Green Taxi Company
and asked them to send a driver to the
hotel. When he arrived, she asked him
how much it would. cost to get her to
New Orleans. The driver, remembering
the police appeal to be on the lookout
for a single woman who acted suspi-
ciously, told her he couldn't give her a
rate.

“I got to go back and check with the
boss,” the man said. “Big trips like that,
we handle through the dispatcher.”

Elaine told him to hurry and let her
know; the money didn’t matter. The
driver insisted he couldn’t leave Hatties-
burg without an okay from the dis-
Patcher. — '

When he returned to the garage, he
called the police and told them his story.
Soon, the police rigged a trap for the
driver to participate in. The cabbie

Phoned Elaine and told her he would.

be around for her in the morning.

She was waiting, badly hung-over, her
dress dirty and perspiration-stained, her
few belongings packed. She went down-
stairs with the driver and got into his

a i

cab, and he drove off to meet the police,
There was a squad car containing

. Patrolman Bob Reaser and W. N. John-

son waiting for them at the taxi garage,
and as soon as Reaser put his hand on
the door to her cab, Elaine knew every-
thing was over.

“DIDN'T shoot them,” she squealed,
“Fred did it. I didn’t know what he

was going to do—”

, At headquarters, Elaine told the

whole grim story from the beginning

until the tragic end. When she was con-

fronted with “Fred Starling,” she wav-.-

ered a moment, looking at him tenderly,
but decided not to change any part of
her story.

“I don’t want to tell on him,” she
said, “but I can only tell the truth. He
did it.” She signed a confession, impu-
ting all the blame to her lover.

There were no recriminations on the
killer's part. He showed no animosity
toward Elaine, and when she signed the
confession, he decided to come clean.

‘His name, he said, was not Fred Star-
ling, but Luther Carlyle Wheeler. He
had financed his “honeymoon” trip with
Elaine by a series of burglaries, and he
was responsible for a score of unsolved
burglaries in half a dozen states pre-

‘vious to this last escapade.

A few days later, both Elaine Fore-
man and Luther Carlyle Wheeler were
charged with murder and burglary, and
in May, 1952, they went on trial for
murder in the first degree,

- Wheeler was .found guilty of murder
and was sentenced to die, which sen-
tence was carried out. Elaine was given
a life sentence in the Mississipi State
Penitentiary.

THRILL KIDS ON
A MURDER BINGE

(Continued from page 25)

commonplace black sedan in good con-
dition and drove it east out of Pueblo,
on January 3, 1954,

They hadn’t done anything about
the money situation, however, and so

on the way they stopped at busy self-

service .gas stations, filled the tank, and
drove off without paying. They pan-
handled enough dough for food, and
stopped at farmhouses where it was
apparent that.no one was home. They
stocked up on food and any loose
money that was around, and in one of
them they found a shotgun and a .38
caliber revolver, which they reckoned
would come in handy in case of trouble.

It was lucky’ no one was at home,

under the circumstances, because they

would have left anyone who stood in
their way beaten to a pulp, just for the
laughs.

They veered south, and in Claremore,
Oklahoma, they stopped for gas. A
small, crippled attendant came out to
service the car, When he had filled it
up, Jimmy gave him a two-dollar bill,
and the man gave him change for a
five. The boys drove off laughing.

Larry looked back and said: “Boy,
what a place for a stick-up. Can't even
read a two-dollar bill, that guy. He'd
never be able to identify a crook.”

“Not a bad idea,” Jimmy said. “We
might stop here on the way back and
give it a whirl.”

They sped on across Arkansas and
Missouri, and soon they. were in Ben-
ton, Kentucky. Shirlie was beside her-
self at sight of Jimmy. After having.
been burned that first time, she hadn't
much faith that she would see him
again. But here he was, large as life,
and not particularly welcome as far
as Mr. Hooks was concerned.

The boys filled Shirlie in on their
plans to take her back with them and
stop in Des Moines and pick up Larry’s
gitl. Disarmingly, Shirlie told part of
this news to her folks—that the boys

were simply stopping by for a visit on .

their way to Iowa. With that, Mr.
Hooks softened up, treated the youths
courteously,

At two. days of eating high on
the hog, the boys said they had to
be moving on. Shirl wasn’t-on hand ta
say goodbye. She was down past-a bend
in the road, waiting to be picked up.
As soon as she was in the car, Jim-
my gunned it, and headed for Okla-
homa. They had decided to knock off

CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE ‘CASES

~ “a

that ga
' moving o

T was
the q
drove pas
of times tc
wasn't mt
one truck
while Jim:
They say
man was

When
swooped «
youths got
that she v
event that
out, Jimm
over the b
hi s pocket

The thr
filling stat
jeans—they
because th:
_ tight aroun
and Aldric
their belts
rememberir
pats, snap;
hand and |

Shirlie, s
in back, d
desperadoes
the car, she
On inside.

The little
Junior in C
was McCas
wanted, pec

“This!”’ s;
gun by the
but he cor
ing.

“Give mc
ing the gun
bringing it

skull. Junio:
brave, picki
bottles from
over the pro

Collette v
bing for cas
lars there,
blow!” he »
came runnin
and Junior
blood, not ,
get up again

HE trio
Jimmy
roared off, t!
they spun ov

“Not a c
“That was h

Jimmy wa
ners down-tu
a bad job.”

Collette w
the money. °
change. Tha:
good.”

Larry Alc
“And that gu
us. Remembe:

“Yeah,” 5
tightening as
ing crunches
man’s once-h

- CONFIDENTI-

- Leakesville, Greene County, in
July, 1942, for murdering a den-..
tist, one of his relatives attended.
Afterward, the sheriff asked what _
he wanted to do about funeral
arrangements.

“Nothing,” said the relative.
“Not a damned thing. The State
of Mississippi killed him. Let the
State of Mississippi bury him.” .

And that’s what happened.
Walter Mirikle was given a first-
rate funeral by Green County. His —
grave marker, in Magnoli:
Cemetery at Leakesville, makes
no mention of how he shuffled off
this mortal coil.

Executions were usually held
a few minutes after midnight on the morning of the appointed
date. Afterward the executioner would: pack up his portable

chair, drive away in the darkness and by dawn he was supposed’:

to be back at the state penitentiary. He didn’t always make it.
The executioner, whose identity remained secret, generally
traveled alone. Highway Patrol units were aware of his route
and, while they did not escort him, troopers were alert to look for
him if he did not pass certain check points at the proper time.
On more than one occasion-it took the executioner two or

three days to get back to the penitentiary. This was because —

Highway Patrol troopers sometimes had to sober him up at a

local jail after he was stopped for drunk driving in the death chair '

van.

__ Mississippi had statewide Prohibition at the time, but booze es
was available in most counties. The executioner had no'problem »
finding a potion to wash ghastly images from his«mind’s eye. -

Morbidly curious public had gathered. outside courthouse.
seeking entry to death chamber where a.man was to die...

They had nothing particular, in
mind, said Wheeler, except to
look for a boarding house.

“We didn’t know the town and
didn’t know exactly where we
were,” he was quoted.

At 7:30, a Hattiesburg man
named Ernest Whittaker,
operator of an automobile sales
agency, went to his place. of
business on North Main Street.
His purpose was to turn on the
lights in the showroom.

Whittaker found the place
burglarized and immediately

‘telephoned the police depart-_

ment. Shortly afterward,
Patrolman Jesse J. Everett and
Officer M.W. Vinson, his partner, arrived in answer to auto
dealer Whittaker’s call.
Everett went to the rear of the building. Whittaker and Vin-

‘ son went inside. They heard a noise inside a storeroom as if
- someone was bumbling around in there. Both hurried back to the :

front-and Vinson called Everett: ;

Mrs. Whittaker didn’t see anybody exit the building except
Vinson who joined Everett at the squad car. He did see a maroon
Buick, driven by a heavyset woman, come upa side street, turna
corner and go north. ©

-The squad car followed, Whittaker said, and that was the last
time he saw either officer.

Ten blocks away a woman, Mrs.-Pearl Bush, noticed a police
car with flashing dome light following an old maroon Buick.
Both cars stopped.

. Mrs. Bush said there were no other cars around. She figured

. There were several hot seat operators over the years, but ©... an arrest was about to be made. Suddenly she heard “sounds like

there was a routine sameness about their ’ ‘modus’ opi
before, during and after executions. And there was a.

monotonous uniformity, too, about the crowds that showed up ae:

- watch their grisly performance.

Gradually, sentiment against public executions built up as .

reports of unseemly behavior by spectators were circulated.

_ These included alleged instances of handclapping, cheering and a

abscene remarks directed at prisoners in the throes of death.

In February, 1954, while the Mississippi legislature was in ses-_
sion, a condemned man named Luther Carlyle Wheeler came

up for execution. A bill to abolish public executions and sub-
stitute the lethal gas chamber for the portable electric chair was
then pending.

The execution of Luther Wheeler turned out ‘to have con-”

siderable impact on the legislators. In fact, it can be said that

Luther Wheeler in death exerted more political influence thanhe -

ever did in life.

There were two claims as to Wheeler’s guilt or innocence.
. One, that he was a victim of circumstance, was advanced by the ©
’.. defendant. The other, that he cold-bloodedly killed two.

policemen, was the prosecution theory.

To get this headline-making case in perspective let us review ©

it in chronological order. The chain of events leading to Luther
Wheeler’s condemnation began on Sunday, March9, 1952, in’ the
city of Hattiesburg. ©

Wheeler, 26; an itinerant typewriter mechanic fom Jackson-

ville, Florida, arrived in town about 2:00 p.m: that day. He was —
accompanied by a pudgy 34-year-old female named Frances,

Bossman.

Although they had not gone through | a marriage ceremony. +
Whéeler later referred te her as his wife. Under common-law,
_ this was correct. Mississippi courts have epestedly held tha
_.. -«. when a man holds a woman forth and 2
“spouse, the relationship i is legal.

-__ After arriving in Hattiesburg, the al went toa restaur
_and ate. Then they went to a movie. After the movie ended they.
- ~ate again and started riding around in, thee

16.

941 maroon Bi ic

sal © firecrackers? andthe ‘old Buick “took off at terrific speed.” It

- turned a comer and disappeared.

“Mrs. Bush then circled a block and drove back-. The squad.
car, its right front door open, was still parked in the street, with
the dome light flashing. Mrs. Bush saw a policeman lying near a
small grocery on the corner, and another officer lying on the
other side of the police car.

While Mrs, Bush was driving around the block, a woman liv- ©
‘ing nearby who heard pistol shots came out on her porch. She

‘saw the two parked cars:and ran back inside to telephone police
headquarters.
“| “When I came back out the police car was still there, but the

other-—older car—was gone,” she.said. “About that time a green

car came.up and stopped.”
The green car was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Mack Martin.

They pulled around Mrs. Bush’s automobile and saw the parked -

squad car. Martin got out, saw Patrolman Everett down and
started walking toward him.
“He was alive and gasping for breath,” Martin sid later. ~

~ At about this time, a woman and her daughter came out of a:

iiiie on the street corner, yelling at the top of their lungs. Martin
gathered that there had been a gun battle. He got back in his car

meat drove several houses’ down the street, where he found a

telephone and called the police department. Then he and his
wife returned to the shooting scene. Several persons had
. gathered there by then. Martin said Patrolman Everett was still
breathing, but Vinson was apparently dead.

- Other officers who raced to the scene found Everett lying on

open door. He, too, had been shot in the body,

ere dead on arrival.

_ his back, his feet in the street and his body on the neutral strip.A.
oaded 38 caliber revolver was between his arm and body. He
had been shot onve in the chest. ©.

“Officer Vinson ‘was lying on the ‘other side of the ‘squad car,

d rushed. the two ‘officers to a local f

s from the. shooting scene an automobile

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WHEELER, Luther Carlyle, white, elec.

ISSISSIPPI used to have public executions, and in cer-

tain respects they were conducted like performances

of a traveling show. Some people considered them
better than a carnival, rodeo or circus:

There was no admission charge and nothing to buy. The star
performer was usually a local.character. If not, he had probably
done in, or done something to, some neighborhood person.

Details of his crime would be common knowledge. Friends,
relatives and loved ones of both the condemned man and his vic-
tim were frequently in the audience.

The local sheriff or one of his deputies served as ringmaster. It
was up to him to maintain order and regulate demonstrations.
This official also granted or
denied admittance to the spec-
tacle. A capacity crowd was the
rule rather than the exception.

There was nothing unique
about that, of course. In ancient
Rome, when they fed Christians
to hungry lions in the Coliseum,
history reports that centurions
had to allocate seats on the basis
of political importance.

After 1817, when Mississippi
was admitted to the union as a
state, for over 100 years the
method of executing condemned
prisoners was by hanging. And
the county sheriff had the
hangman’s chore.

At times, this could be em-
barrassing for the sheriff. The
condemned might be a friend,
neighbor, even a blood relative.
And, at the very least, he was
usually kin to several voters.

In pioneer days most hangings
| were from wooden scaffolds
erected outside log courthouses.
As time went by, permanent
courthouses and jails of masonry
construction were built. A
hangman’s trap was usually in-
cluded as an integral part of each
jail. Some can still be seen.

Such hangings, either outside
or inside, amounted to a form of
divertissement from routine
chores for however many peo-
ple cared to gather. As entertain-
ment, they rivaled log rollings,
dances and revivals. But they

28S ss

sensitive sheriffs.

by MALLEY J. BYRD
Special-Investigator for OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES

DEATH
OF AN

were rough on some of the more _ Handcuffed, his head shaven, Luther

¥ “4

Hattiesburg, MS, February 2, 1954,

ment. by electrocution, and sheriffs- were relieved of their
onerous chore. ;
Each condemned individual was still required by statute to
be executed in the county where he was convicted and sentenc-
ed. The executioner was a state employe who moonlighted at the

_ job of administering the coup de grace to such persons.

A portable electric chair built in Memphis at a cost of $4,000
was used for dispatching the condemned. It was capable of
delivering 23,000 volts. The chair was hauled from county seat to
county seat in a van as needed. Between executions it remained in
storage at the state penitentiary at Parchman.

The van was equipped with a special gasoline engine-driven
generator to furnish electricity.
This obviated chances of in-
‘terference with an execution
through ‘sabotage of the local
power supply. It also prevented
lights from dimming when the ex-

- ecutioner’s switch was thrown.
The courtroom where the
prisoner was convicted became,
by custom and tradition, the ex-
ecution chamber. Electricity con-
ductors would be run through

the van parked on the courthouse

lawn.
; Head shaved, the condemned
would be led into the courtroom.

After the traditional last words,
the executioner would strap the
prisoner into his black chair. The
portable generator, guarded by a

away outside.

The executioner would throw
a heavy switch, sending enough
high voltage through the con-
demned to make him lay his
burdens down. The humming of
the generator would soften
dramatically, until the switch was
disengaged. Then a physician
would step forward with a

beat.
If the initial jolt didn’t do the

would be administered. After the
condemned was _ pronounced
dead, his family could claim the
ahi _ body. If he had no relatives, or if
Wheeler went to his = they didn’t want to pay for a

windows or up a stairwell from .

local officer, would be whining.

‘ stethoscope to listen for a heart-

job, another dose of high voltage

In consideration of this, the
legislature in 1940 changed the
law to provide for capital punish-

death in the electric chair before a large crowd, some of
whom had been outside the courthouse drinking beer and
selling passes to the grim event shortly before it hap-
pened. Result: Mississippi passed .a state law severely
limiting the number of persons attending an execution...

funeral, the county inherited the -

remains.
When Walter Orville Mirikle,
a 22-year-old, was executed in

Luther Wheeler was a cop-killer, but
although he didn’t actually plan it that way, he is
remembered in Mississippi for a contribution worthy
of a much better man than he was...

Am
Bai
jun!

In today
than ever
they've h
sound; th
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trophy si
bination
be your s
Our Spa
one of t
discovere
aged it i
spray a
plastic w
Won't in:
taking e>
frogs, he
attract fi
like a ch
salt wate
seasons—
Test
Order a
(enough |
along to
you gene:
trout or b
locked sa
everybody

vil teat tied Bia 5 r hae ee ie: nad

ment a SA Cee

Godpersiite: they . repover sd | a pair of = prompt and candid rereats of wi witnesses vn
side-cutters which King had told them he ©

had used to shear off the long rifle bullets.

Looking at the tool closely, detectives °°
saw a small bit of metal stuck near the ~

hinged grip. It proved to bea piece of one

of those bullets. :

The cutting marks of the side-cutters
were later matched by ballistics expert
Cate, at SLED laboratories, with marks
on the sheared slugs, and the tool was

added to the growing mound of hard

evidence against king.

By close cooperation and excellent
rapport between Charleston County
Police and North Charleston. lawmen,

Charleston City Police and the forensic — .

science facilities of the South Carolina
Law Enforcement Division, an irresisti-
ble case had been developed. The in-
vestigation had been aided, too, by the

at the scenes of both crimes,-a fact which’
~ reflects favorably upon the confidence —
citizens of that area have in their law en-

forcement agencies.
On September 29, 1975, Aaron Leroy

' King, through his appointed counsel,

entered pleas of guilty to both murders,
and was subsequently sentenced to serve

‘two. consecutive life sentences. At this

writing, he is serving his time in the penal
system of South Carolina. ji
' OF
EDITOR'S NOTE: o.
Albert H. Cormier is not the real
| name of the person so named in the
foregoing story. A fictitious name

son for public interest in the identity
- of this person.

Death of Electric Chair

to see a maroon car run into a ditch at high

speed. The automobile, which was .

driven by a large female, was going so
fast it ran up out of the ditch without
slowing and sped away.

“There was nobody in the car but the. .
said the salesman. “I’m in the ©

driver,”
auto parts business. I know cars, and I’m
certain it was a 1941 Buick.”

At that stage of the case police were in
the dark as to who killed the two
policemen. None of the witnesses saw a
suspect at the auto agency or the shooting
scene, except for a heavyset female driv-
ing a maroon Buick.

It was possible, police felt, that she
had pulled a trigger on both dead cops,

but it seemed more likely she had a male

companion who fled the death scene on
foot. Possibly they had agreed on a

rendezvous point. More probably not, .
the related ©

however, because all
developments happened so fast. -
Squad carradios crackled continuous-
ly as. darkness settled firmly over Hat-
tiesburg. Every piece of rolling stock
owned by the police department took to
the streets. Some officers who were off
duty were called in. Many others came in
on their own for assignment as needed. -

Unless it involves a member of his .

own family, nothing shakes a policeman
as much as the slaying of another officer.
And Hattiesburg’s policemen were in
high dudgeon as they combed city streets
for the unknown slayer.

-But determination and vigilance does _
not always produce results. Sometimes a’
bit of luck is required. And all the lawmen °
knew to look for was a 1941 Buick that >
‘had seemingly vanished. They didn’t

-even know what kind of license plates ite?

carried.

(from page 16)

“ sought. Then fate took a hand in the case.

A man named Elmer Kelly, living on
Nineteenth Avenue about a mile from the
shooting scene, heard somebody open
and close the door of his automobile. Kel-
ly flipped on a porch light and walked
outside to find a stranger trying to hot-
wire the car.

“Hey! What do you think you're
doing?” Kelly cried.” -

The stranger responded by pulling a
revolver and forcing Kelly back into the
house at pistol point. He then took off into
the darkness. Kelly telephoned the police
department and reported the incident.

By then, so many » officers had’
reported for duty that some were riding

three to a squad car. One of these cars was

dispatched by radio to take a report from
Kelly. He described the would-be thief he
had surprised. -

. “The man is in his middle or late twen-
ties,” Kelly said. “He’s about five feet and
seven or eight inches tall. He’s wearing
one of those water repellent jackets witha
fur collar. His pants are khaki, and he had

-on a brown felt hat.”

“What about the gun?” asked a
policeman.

“It’s a revolver. Blue steel finish. I'm

fairly certain it was a .38 caliber. I don’t

~~ know which way he went. When he flash-

ed that gun I came back inside.”

” police dispatcher and radioed to.all units. ©

The description was relayed to the,

Shortly afterward, three policemen in

; another squad car observed a man walk- .
“ing ~ along Hardy. Street,.

a major
thoroughfare, toward downtown
He perfectly fitted the description of

».the man who tried to steal: Kelly's

Reports of the double-killing were rh

broadcast repeatedly by radio newsmen.

They produced several dozen tips on old Z

Buicks, but n none led to the vehicle ¢
38

c : 4 a A
Fe eae eae ae

sack, oe

* automobile. The subject was ordered to

’ halt, told he was under arrest, and search-
ed. From his belt the officers took a .38 °
* caliber. Smith & Wesson pistol. Each of
+ his pot pockets held a handful of car-

has been used because there is no rea- |

On questioning, the man gave his @
~ name as Luther Carlyle Wheeler and said ‘| #

he was from Jacksonville, Florida. At the §
* moment, there was ‘nothing to prove this —
was, the gunman who left Officers ©
Everett and Vinson dead in the street, but —

one of the officers had a hunch this was
the man. He tried Wheeler with a direct
question.

“Why did you

‘ policemen?” he asked. ;
“Because the goddmaned sons-of-
bitches shot at me!” Wheeler was quoted. ~

This reply angered the officer so
much, he admitted later, that he clouted
Wheeler on: the side of the head. His
partners: quickly restrained him and

handcuffed the suspect. Then he was
taken to police headquarters and :

questioned further.

Wheeler admitted prior convictions
on three different charges of burglary. He -

adamantly denied burglarizing the

~ automobile agency. And while he ad- .
mitted having a female traveling compa-.
nion, he denied any knowledge of her

present whereabouts. -

Luther Wheeler was: locked‘ up to
await a preliminary. hearing on two
charges of murder. The search for his
female companion continued. She was
alone, and without funds in a strange
town, so it was only a matter of time
before Frances Bossman was in custody.

Investigators who questioned her
have never said what, if anything, she told

them. Although she would be convicted }
and serve time as anaccessory tomurder,

she did not testify at her paramour’s trial.
“At any rate, officers did locate the
maroon Buick she was seen driving away

from the shooting scene. And the
testimony of several witnesses verified ©
she was the heavy-set’ driver who sped

from ‘the scene.

* The decrepit old car was found aban-
doned on a log road in the woods near
Hattiesburg. Inexplicably, someone had
removed the Florida license plates from

the vehicle, then discarded them on the
ground nearby.

From car surfaces and a radio inside,
several sets of fingerprints were lifted.

-These were sent to. FBI laboratories

where an expert identified them as those
of Luther Wheeler and his pudgy girl
friend.

A bullet was recovered from the body

‘of Patrolman Everett. It too was sent to -

the FBI laboratory, along with the Smith
& Wesson revolver taken from Wheeler.
Ballistics experts reported that the slug
was fired from that pistol, to the exclusion
of all other weapons.

Time rocked on. Luther Wheeler and

Frances Bossman were jointly indicted

’ for murder. When the case came up for

trial at the April, 1952 term of Circuit

Court at the Forrest County-courthousein |

Hattiesburg, a severance was granted,

Wheeler went on trial alone.-
J udge FB. Collins ‘was presiding. A.

shoot those ©

a LRN, et
Check apr

Ole

Note

WILLIAMS, Jessie, black, hanged Senatobia, MS on June 9, 1933.

|\here carly Friday morning, Jane 9,

Jessie Williams
Hanged Here
Frida ay Morning

PAID DEATH PENALTY FOR THE
MURDER OF DEPUTY SHERIFF
WILLIAMS.

Jessie Williams, negro, was hanged

and paid with his life for the murder
of Jeff Walker Williams.

Jessie Williams spent the night in
prayer and lumeataticns. At times his
frenzied utterancee could be heard
for blocks away. When he _ was
brought from the jail by Deputy J.
W. Whalen he appeared to be calm
but soon gave way again to a hysteri
cal state of prayer. He was pronounc:
ed dead by the County Health Officer
Dr. J. S. Eason thirteen — minutes
after the trap was sprung.

The gallows was constructed in the
jail yard. The execution was carried
out according to the law which
directs that executiong in this state
shall not be public and the court
order which directed he should de)
hanged on June 9th.,The execution
was held in the early morning to

avoid the excitement of a large crowd
which was anticipated if it had been
held at a later hour.

The negro shot and killed Jeff
Walker Williams in the south-west-
ern part of the county on ‘Sunday,
October 16th. The Deputy Sheriff
had gone there to reuest him to join
Sheriff Williams: and Constable Whal-
en over at another hourse where
they were investigating a robbery.
They thought the negrm knew some-
thing about the robbety. He escaped
at that time and after staying hid
for several weeks ynade his way to
Missouri where officers finally trac
ed him. Before tre could be arrested
however he c@#:aped again and went
to Memphis. pore he was captur-
ed and ronan back here to await
trial.

TATE COUNTY DEMOCRAT,
Senatobia, MS

6/15/1933 (1/2)

IK TT i
RS BS le prs fon (eos

pee

ye Teo esd be pen
res RF LA Aw PE GK Be Oe
i e
¥
i
ie a ,
&

( . Ewha PENALEX

And Goes ‘Down, to Beath— Made)
Confession of the Orime on the
ae eye ed cos, Paes

- Gallows. . |

cechiiaresttlemoaieaiioe

Henry Williams has paid the pevalty: |.
of the law for the murder of Elias |
‘Brown in Greenville over three years
ago. Ls \ :

Mention of the fact that Governor §
McLaurin had refused to commute the’
sentence of Williams was made in these |
columns several days ago. The govers ||
nor wired official infcrmation: to that: '
effect to the sheriff of Washington ||
county and yesterday afternoon the |,
noted prisoner ascended the gallows
and a few seconds later went down to
his death. “ane ,

A special from Greenville says that |
Williams was cool and collected on the
scaffold and before the noose was ad.
justed he admitted having killed the
Brown woman, :but said that he had
been forgiven and would go home to
glory. He was intensely religions.

Thus ends the career of the famous
prisener who excited the entire legal
fraternity of Mississippi by his test of
the new state constitution, resulting in
thet able document being hele up by
the bighert tribunsl in the lend. Wil-

i emewnr to have been execnis Ge. wou |
ne wo the mandate of the upreme
/Gourt, two months ago, bat Gov. |
| McLaurin grauted a stay of execution |
‘for sixty days in order to examine the
case, finally declining to interfere.

Crariors- LEDGER

END OF GVERN SS gee
NOTED LEGAL FICHT.

ons te dlisaigienes

reme Court to Test the ,

carried His
arp
state Censtitution.
é

———

» clemency bas been denied
ro Henry Williams, the noted negro
gurderer who carried his case to the
Supreme Court in 1897,

nited states
and whe gave the state of Mississippi
nost spirited legul Wrtes

ont of the i

Execnth®

ip its history:

mbered that Wiliams
ircuit court of Wash-
n 18% for the murder of
ad Eliza Brown i the
lle onthe wth day of
The court returned
ced him

twill be reme

|
jin thec

wks Trice
ten county i
egress name
Greenvl
that year.
of guilty and senten

ink

at
| cls
thay of
4 verdict
ro be hanged.
Defendant first rep
lawe by W hich the g

prought the
seiecicd were
and vethet of see

ne if the Uni

| (rage te the negro.

tie mete iine set up Was ©
yiion adopted

vonstil
that of the 133 members only one
s a negro, whereas there
da 190,000
all of
ing disfranehised by said
Defendant further reps
Vashingy
and that

ans

srernber Wo

were fe UU white voters an
ers in the state, nearly

nee vot
strer be

constitution,
resented Uhat the county of. V

i no registration books

tony lade

The big ieeal fight then Pipe, anew
resented thst the

rand jury that had
indictment had beeo
in violation ot the spirit
tion 14 of the consatitu-

ted States granting sul-
In other words,

was that tae state
in 1800 was illegal,

rhe negre had no re

| we
i

ur.

presentation on the

Sse n Pons]

KSEE a ES

—_
Seek eee

Tee

Gimmes

ONE RRR PREY

“Sew

DEUCE
RS oe sae

AOE LS
TEASED ERO pee

OORT SIE RT

| Mucion Was mane for a removal to
ie lederal court on these’ grounds
and the motion denied. Appeal w :
tuen taken to the state Supreme 0 a
gid the cause was affirmed, ™
sa neiius Jd, Jones, attorney for de
foun then secured an appeal to the
ven “tates Supreme Court, and the
a ofthe new state constitution was
on. Apprehending that there might be
mists danger ofa reversal before that
i Hon. C. B. Mitchell,of Ponto-
hae one of the best constitutional laws
vs ‘sin the state, was employed by the
state is special council to go to Wash-
yten City und assi.t the Attorne
General. A spirited legal battle cs
race, but on the 26th day of April
Sty. nearly two years after the ies
Wis committed, the United States Su.
preige ( ourt handed down a decision
“Piraiing the Mississippi courte.

A’ its lust session the state Supreme
(ourt sentenced Williams to be hangea
‘i the “sth duy of September, 1899
Some tine afterwards an appeal was
vote to Governor McLaurjn for excous

ve viemency, After a careful review
ef the case and the records therein, the
an erpor'Lhis morning announced that
veciid not feel that the facts warranted
‘bh nterferene
the famous ae 7 oe
Pe closes the earthly career of

tury Williams, I

fe will be hapged ag

cree neville next Friday. .
Na £.
oy Ura yt

”- vw

26 SOUTHERN -2nd) 17).

WILLIAMS, James Leo, black, 25, electrocuted Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on June 21, 1916.

"James Leo Williams, 25-year-old negro, was executed shortly after midnight in the state's
portable electric chair for the ‘mifeeslaying of a negro woman in August, 195, Williams
was subjected to 1 shock at 12:15 aem., and was pronounced dead 2 minutes later. About 30
people witnessed the execution which took place in the jail lobby in which the chair was
set up. Williams was calm and exhibited not the slightest sign of fear. Deputy Sheriff

E. L. Barnes escorted Williams to other cells in the jail and he told fellow-prisoners
good-bye, ‘'I'm going home tonight,' he said, As he walked down the steps to the lobby the
23rd Psalm was recited by attending ministers, After he was strapped in the chair Williams
was asked if he had anything to say, He said: 'I am glad the Lord WAXXHd¥# saved me, I |
am trusting in Him. I am ready to go, That's alle! Earlier in the night, Williams Bathed,
shaved and put on clean clothing and was served a special meal consisting of a thick steak,
French fried potatoes, lemon pie, and iced tea, The two physicians who attended the con-
demned negro were Drse J» A. Mead and G. A. Bynum, Attending ministers were Capt. Her-
schel Murphy of the Salvation Army, Rev. Clayton Kidd of the Vhurch of the Nazarene, and
Reve Elbert Tims, colored. Sheriff Ke J. Grantham led the group of official witnesses,"
AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, June 21, 196 (12/1.)

"James Leo Williams, 25<year-old negro wht will die here Friday in the state's portable
electric chair, says he is ready to die and hopes his death will be a lesson to others,
Williams will be executed for the knife-slaying here of a negro woman on August 18, 19))5.
Williams wrote a statement today and gave it to Capt. Herschel Murphy, commander of the
local Salvation Army unit, The note said: 'I want to ask forgiveness for what I have done,
I am saved and working for the Lord. The Lord has forgiven me and I want the people to, I
am ready and willing to go. I hope my death will be a kesson and warning to keep others
out of trouble. ?s? JAMES L, WILLIAMS." AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, MS, June 20, 196 (12/6&7)

"James Leo Williams, Hattiesburg negro, is scheduled to die in the state's portable
electric chair Friday June 21 at the Forrest county jail. the supreme court mandate
ordering that his execution be carried out on that date has been filed in circuit clerk's
office here, Williams was convicted of the knife-murder of Lillian Ingram of & 722 Whit-
WEK ney st. on the night of August XX 18, 195. He lost an appeal to the supreme court,
Williams is being held in county jail, and according to District Attorney Homer Pittman he
will be the first negro in Forrest county to die in the portable electric chair," AMERICAN,
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, June 12, 1916 Kxm2X (10:).)

".eeWilliams was found guilty of killing Lillian English on August 18, 195. He was cone
victed in November, 195, and was sentenced on November 12 by Judge Burkitt Collins to die
on December 18, Judge Collins overruled on November 26, 1915, a motion for a new trial,
filed by the defendant's attorney, Earle L, Wingo, The case then was appealed to the state

supreme court,"
AMERICAN Hattiesburg, Mayl3, 196 (h:5.)

: Meridian,
€ #'hG L° LC
Luke DE Ck, el, él: Ce a
iLaQ ja Me 3 UKE
WL Jud UN 3 ww 44a 0 F &) 9

As Girls Try To See,

Special to The Commercial Appeal ;
MERIDIAN, Miss,, May 22, —

crowd unsuccessfully attempted to

James Luke Wilson, 21-year-old
negro, wag electrocuted here Fri.
day morning at uate,

i
While young white girls in g large’

The negro Was convicted of slay.
ing, two years ago, a negro family, '

herman Harper, his Wife and
child, at Savoy, Miss,, 10 miles
west of Meridian, .

State Executioner Cc. WwW. Watson,
turned the Switch for 2300 volts,
In one minute Dr. T. Royals
and Dr. Guy Vise of Meridian pro-
nounced Wilson dead, Seventy

Whites and negroes saw the execu. /
tion.

Wilson went tg his death calmly,
‘with a Serenity that never broke
8nd denied ali trace of emotion.

n adjacent cells facing the

victed white Slayer of Senator Em-
mett Buckley of Enterprise: R. S.
Ooper, negro Slayer of Ira Ellis

in Kewanee, and

Meridian negro, who wag convicted
of killing his mother, <All

of Hamburg who could be heard
‘Praying for ‘Wilson,

(eee

M3 5/21/1948

N NUTSHELL

FOO Ot es Ope emer +

HOME AND WORLD |

MERIDIAN—James Luke Wilson, convicted xinver of (heee members
of gs colored family, dies in the electric chalr jn the Lauderdale contuty
Jail Friday morning

geer2eqs SORES Om = Vee
ee ee

CALMLY GOES TO
DEATH IN CHAIR

a | ie
| Prisoner: Dies For Stay- :

ing OF.3 In Family
me a fcdtenanenattier estamos. ie Tao “f
James Luke: Wien, segrn slay-

er of three members of tiles own

race near Bavoy two years ago, died

in the efrcult courtroom of the [x

courthouse here. at 19:17 2» m., Fri.
cay tn Mississippi's portable elec-

trie chair, approximately one min- ee a
Wte after he had bern strapped into rsd 4
the Instrument, 7. 9"
Wilson went to bie death as lat
calmly as he declared he weuld In wats)
iis cell prior to the execution and a
as tind been predicted by Jail of- om
Hielals. With a ferenity that never =
broke and dented all trace of emo- \
ten, he walked directly to the elec- a)

t!ic chair, sat down and watched
adjustment of lez and arm straps,
He turned his head several times,
however, to the right and to the
left as if looking for the face of «
friend but offered no oral com-
ment.

State Executioner C W. Watson
threw the electric chair auitch at
12:16 a om.

Use 2.200 Volts

Wilson's body plunged forward
nnd the huge electric chair tilted
Under pressure of 2.300 volta, Other
than the nolse of the motor-driven
dynamo, which had been placed on
the east side of the courthouse
rropec. there was no sound Jn the
courtroom, elther from the negro
or from some 70-odd apectators At
Ii? aoom., Execntloner Watson
shut off the current.

Dr PT. EO Royals and Dr Guy
Vise of Meridian, pronounced Wil-
son dead a few minutes later.

Wilson pald the supreme penalty
"Moin the same courtracn where he
Wax tried two years ago for the
brutal slaging of Sherman Harper,
iis wife and child of Sevoy and

Meridian, Kiss,

-NO. 188

(Continued on Page Two)

°° eo a

a ee me Rar ae ison fare he had requeated
MEE ALIS alga ey Oe pr Are, as :
On pee » ale ‘ate aetieen ths arene amet of the Asked Friday morning by Deputy

: a Mew potions of 1 Bherite Ww. i Francls if be wiahed
; for especial food, the negro said
0 objection were heqra || “no” and instead declared he was

When atrerat county efticare ob. || satisfied with food ae regularly
: SR ae a ear 7

s
F
3
z

eae AS Saas teak +i served,

3 We $.,corf Metre. tiete view. by. standing tn. At 6:30 p,m... a local barber was
A eo ye ae he Leis enn W169 wlerserwe, taken into eee mock and aberer
Mag Wh #8 Asa enets treet. [. 48 Vinal Vie bere of ine Negras] | eee teres head th preparation

ch es SS Pol oh THeiy Tren Cerri ving raembera of ine ro‘s | | for the execution.
Bikey ¥ riviage $e heres 2, antl Saraily, ble mother, a Gisket ana Executloner Watson eet up the
Poy i a 48 nerer ee a) brothera, made mn final rait to electric chatr Inte Thursday after.
Pe seal sey rage! _ Paton, write: Che death cell 43 minutes before the | noon, ‘The tnatrument. high.
Pee ODER WH Riess the ew execution, A prayer service was backed and a repllea of an ttn
sad Wwe RetT hh Le titne Conducted Bt Ula time by Rev, w COMLUTY type, waR placed lactig te

Pane ditheten ite brine C. Clark, who several Weeks ago} | the south and tele Ihe Jitclgera
“3 u ald conaty, hr des baptlred Witson f8 & member of bench. Pet

FEA }, Oa eae Rapes Pins. che oe eee
Maal i ov ee: SEIT the }enst church, assisted by "It was the rame chair in which
thas vey Bherife MH, In other adjacent celts facing | | Wis, and Joseph Leemon of May-
wep ATE, A ered eat}, | the STOUD Were Wallace Hamburg, | |lene, Ala. paid with their lives
LOPh BS Rave Yen perenne gath- | slayer of the late Senator Emmett | for the brutal murder of the late
’ MOEA B aS Wt! Eh etn nage “omnes | Buckley of Enterprize> Riag Cooper, | /Sherif{ Tom Boykin of Wayne
her slayer of the Inte Tra Ellis county,
€wante and Monroe Glbson,
Merldian Hegro who killed hiy own A Jew minutes patore Wileon
Ly made his entrance at 12:08 a. m.
mother, They watched the som. | Execut! Wateo t the she
with | jSkin-lined head and leg electrodes
me single exception of Hamburg | in-m pan of salt water that had
Ww. Mee times could be heard ! Placed on a lawyer's bench.
Standing erect but holding onte | Bilently Eyes Preparations
his jail cell bars. Wilson heard the Wilson watched the adjustment
Prayer of. Rey. Clark, “Bless al) [Of the streps without comment of
the afficers of Lauderdale county | eny kind and at this juncture,
for they are doing thelr duty, Lot [a8 all but the leather face mask
this incident tonignt ba a aymbot | Were in place, Rey, Clark made
that will cause all to turn Inte the last-fInal prayer for county au-
Paths of righteournens and may | thorttles and for the soul of the
God forgive you” negro.
8 Negro, who har been a modal Executloner Watson made one
one during hig two Yerra’ alay tn swift aurvey of the atraps as the
the county courthouse, made Nia Prayer ended walked to the instru.

longert Atatement to hte Mother ment control panel and threw the
AX Bhe shook tie hand and bl btn switch, One minute later, or
“goodby,.” slightly Jess by a matter of sec.
"Te Ketter Worl onda, he cut off the current. Phy-
Sop, ‘her he ¥aid Take care of aiclana certified hig death a. few

P if, other, YX &ppreciate what minutes later,

ft has done for me. ‘Dont The first electric chatr execu-
YOU worry about me, XY am foing ition in county history, It was per-
.to.n better world.” He then shook | = formed without incident of any
hahds with his Furviving two broth- kind, elther Inside or outside the
era and a sister, jail,
i. ried shortly arter Il o'dlock A second electrocution {a achef-
a8 to whether or nut +he thought uled to be staged here on June
he might recetve another stay of ‘25, when Monroe Gibson, Jocal ne-
execution or commutation of sen. Bro, ts to pey the supreme pen-
‘tence, Wileon replied: “No, ] thinks alty for the Blaying of his Mother}

the time has done run out for me, more than 4 year ago,

“T delieva it tg how, tonight. ‘Mere The execifion grew Out of the

1s nothing between me and the slaying lightly more than two
rd.” ; dCaTs ago Of an entire three-mem-
In another statement to a white ber colored family near Bavoy by

friend, he said he Intended to walk | ; Wilson, Reportedly while under in-

; down to the courtroom “on both fluence of an intoxicant, he shot to
a my legs and I won't make no |4death Sherman Harper, aged ne-
trouble.” Gro, his wife and child. As the
Throughout the afternoon, Wal. last’ begged for her Ute, Wilson
‘4 Jace Hamburg, who fy scheduled to shot her at close steee eth & ahot-
die tn Clarke county pn June 18, Bun snd then battered her rst
repeated prayers for the negro’s the head with itd: atock. Officers
soul, Since confinethent. Hamburg term f the moat brutal crime ever
haa been Converted to the church koown to Seunty history,
and spends most of his time read. a
ing the Bible and praying,
Wilson's last meal was regular

WILSON, Joe, black, hanged Brookhaven, Mississippi, March 27, 1875

aura. ot Poeglery. Be wus 40
olor ee tly Stats oF er bn

, ye
¥s, ‘ ee nt NTE
alanis J haa iat rae

THE AMERICAN CITIZEN

Canton, Mississippi,
April 10, 1875
page 2, column 1

uso le MRR Ht am oe inti,

Weathers Company while Elaine Forman
had been buying gasoline at Quando’s
station. Wheeler had been inside the Ace
Weathers building and the woman had
been at the wheel of the Buick when
Vinson and Everett had driven up.

Spotting the police car, Wheeler had
fled through the West Fourth Street door
and leaped into the waiting Buick. The
Forman woman had quickly swapped
places with him—Wheeler, presumably,
was the better driver—and they had fled
with the officers in hot pursuit.

“Then,” said Wheeler, “the cops’ car
cut us off and the shooting began. I don’t
remember much about it.”

But Elaine Forman remembered it
clearly. She said, “I never saw so much
damned shooting in all my life.” She went
on to say that, as Everett approached the
car, Wheeler had said, “What's wrong,
officer?” Then he had whipped out one
of his 38s and started to shoot.

The woman, terrified, had huddled down
on the seat, pulling her fur coat over her
head. A few minutes later the barrage
had stopped. Wheeler drove the car to
the edge of the city, kissed his paramour
goodbye and started walking along the
highway toward Purvis. As he did so,
he wiped Elaine’s lipstick from his mouth
with his handkerchief.

She had driven the Buick to Old Pigeon
Farm Road and slept in it that night.
Early the following morning, she had
made her way back to Hattiesburg and
registered at the Milner hotel, using the
alias of Mrs. George Comstock. Wheeler,
who had taken a small suitcase with him
when he had left the car, had changed
his clothes and dumped his bloodstained

garments and his weapons on Lee Perry’s
property.

Each of the prisoners signed statements
which were duly witnessed. Ballistics
tests proved that the bullets which had
slain Vinson and Everett had been fired
from one of Wheeler’s guns. On March
17, Wheeler and his mistress were ar-
raigned in Hattiesburg District Court
before Judge William Haralson, on
charges of first degree murder and. at-
tempted burglary.

They were brought to trial in June
before Judge Burkett Collins. The pros-
ecution was handled by County Attorney
Lawrence Arrington, who had succeeded
Overton Currie. Both Luther Wheeler and
Elaine Forman were found guilty of
murder in the first degree. The woman
was given a life term at the Mississippi
State Penitentiary at Parchman. Wheeler '
was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

The customary appeals were made, but
by November of that same year all had
been denied. Elaine Forman was taken
from the county jail to the state prison.
Luther Wheeler was escorted to the death
chamber two weeks before Christmas.

He trembled as he approached the chair.
He was pale and shaken as the guards ad-
justed the helmet and straps. And he was
dead just seven minutes after he had
entered the chamber. The murder of two
gallant policemen had been avenged.

Elaine Forman still lives in prison. She
has lost no weight. Perhaps, sometimes,
she dreams of her lover. Perhaps, she
wishes her demands upon him had been
lighter. A poor, living novelty salesman
is a far better lover than a rich, dead
murderer.

Widow's Tears Crack Case

(Continued from page 17]

down the license number of the Cadillac
on a scratch pad. But when this man
locked at the pad following the burglary,
he discovered the page with the number
on it had been torn off inadvertently.

Continuing through the reports filed by
the young trooper, Captain Yungfer
learned that Souden had shaded the
blank top sheet of the factory worker’s
scratch pad with the edge of a pencil lead
to bring out in relief the license number
that had been written on the missing
sheet.

In a final report on the case, filed only
two days before his disappearance, Sou-
den told of obtaining the name of the
owner of the Cadillac from the Motor
Vehicle Department. He intended, Sou-
den’s report concluded, to “check this man
out at the first opportunity,” which prob-
ably would be when he next had occasion
to be in Genesee County.

Aware that Fenton, the town from
which the missing trooper had last re-
ported, was in Genesee County, Captain
Yungfer lost no time in requesting a check
to determine the identity of the person to
whom the blue Cadillac was registered.

Meanwhile, back in Brighton, Sergeant
Phoehn received a call from the Fenton
Police Department informing him that at
9 o'clock Thursday morning Trooper
Souden had called there to ask for direc-
tions to the home of one Carl Wollner in
the village of Argentine, five miles west
of Fenton. Souden was informed that
Wollner lived in a sprawling, three-story
yellow frame house in Silver Lake road,
just east of town.

“Al didn’t tell us why he wanted to talk
with Wollner, but we advised him that it
was not likely he would find the man at
home yesterday, for he works in Detroit
and lives there during the week, staying
at his farm on the outskirts of Argentine
only on weekends,” Phoehn was informed.

“Ig Wollner a man of about 35; short,
stocky and with dark hair and swarthy
complexion?” inquired Phoehn in a voice
from which he was unable to conceal his
excitement.

“No, Mr. Wollner is a man in his late
60s or early 70s, Sign of build and with
gray hair,” replied the Fenton officer. “He
has lived in these parts for a good many
years and is highly respected by all who
know him.”

“Any children? Perhaps a son who
answers to the description I just gave
you?” asked Phoehn.

He was informed that if Wollner had
any children they had never been seen by
his neighbors. In any case, there could
hardly be a son of 35 years, for Wollner
had married late in life.

Shortly after receiving this information,
word came through from district head-
quarters at East Lansing that the car
license about which tht missing trooper
had inquired earlier in the week was
registered to Carl Wollner of Argentine!

So once again the missing officer’s trail
led back to Carl Wollner. And to the blue
1953 Cadillac that had been seen near the
burglarized factory in Milford. But cer-
tainly Wollner was not the man who had
been seen in that car. The answer must
lie elsewhere. Phoehn knew that if he was
to get it, he would first have to check Carl
Wollner out, just as Trooper Souden had
planned to do on the day of his dis-
appearance.

Along with Detective Kenneth Winberg,
Phoehn left immediately for the Genesee

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WHEELER, Luther Carlyle, white, elec. Hattiesburg, MS, 2-5-195),

NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMORIAL PROJECT - KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

Hattiesburg Police Department, Forrest County, Mississippi
NAME OF DEPARTMENT, COUNTY AND STATE LOCATED IN

45,000 Municipal

POPULATION SERVED TYPE OF DEPT; MUNICIPAL, COUNTY, STATE, FEDERAL, INDI.
RAILROAD, CONSERVATION, ALCOHOL, UNIVERSITY

OFFICER INFORMATION

M. W. Vinson Jr. Patrolman Ww M 32
NAME RANK RACE SEX AGE/DATE OF BIRTH

STATUS (Full time/part time/reserve/special/auxiliary/unpaid) Full time

Length of service 1 year, 8 monthsn/off duty at time of incident On duty

Date of Incident March 9, 1952~fime 20:00 Date of death 93/09/52 State MS

Circumstances (robbery, burglary, liquor, auto theft, narcotics, etc)

Burglary _If Motor Vehicle accident, type cf vehicle

officer was driving and type of other vehicle(if applicable)

N/A If aircraft accident,rotor or fixed wing

Weapon used to kill officer .38 Officer's own? no

Was officer wearing a protective vest? no

What department memorial is there? Hattiesburg Policeman Memorial, Highland Pk

Did the death occur during a traffic stop yes

—_—___—

Was a bad search or no search a contributing factor? yes(Statistical use only)

Number of children surviving the officer 2 Was the wife pregnant at time of
death and later delivered? no
Was the officer foreign born? no If so, what country

OFFENDER INFORMATION

Luther Carlyle "Carl" Wheeler W M 24
NAME RACE SEX AGE
Elaine Forman W F 31 (She drove the get-a-way vehicle) same charges.
Was this offender wanted for a crime of which the officer was not aware? yes
Wheeler was wanted in other jurisdictions in MS and in LA and FL ——n

Was the offender arrested? yes What was he/she charged with? Burglary &

Murder
What charge was he/she convicted of? Burglary & Murder

What was the sentence? Death by Electrocution

Mobile
If sentenced to death, date and means of execution 02-04-54, Electric Chair at the

Forman- Life Sentence, served 74 years then released Forrest County Court House

Did the offender have a prior criminal record? yes in Texas and OK

COMMENTS

Officer Vinson was responding to a burglary in progress. Wheeler fled in a
a car driven by Elaine Forman, 31, W/F. A vehicle stop occured about one mile

Pap Ey BS oe: RS age eee Le Loe on mm «68UUME CS oe ee... See chant ann Li lian

oo |

NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MEMORIAL PROJECT - KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY

Hattiesburg Police Department, Forrest County, Mississippi
NAME OF DEPARTMENT, COUNTY AND STATE LOCATED IN

45,000 _Municipal
POPULATION SERVED TYPE OF DEPT; MUNICIPAL, COUNTY, STATE, FEDERAL, INDI

RAILROAD, CONSERVATION, ALCOHOL, UNIVERSITY

OFFICER INFORMATION

_ Jesse James Everett Patrolman W M 20
NAME RANK RACE SEX AGE/DATE OF BIRTH

STATUS (Full time/part time/reserve/special/auxiliary/unpaid) Fulltime

Length of service _ 3 months On/off duty at time of incident on

Date of Incident 93/09/52 Time 20:00 Date of death 03-09-52 State MS

Circumstances (robbery, burglary, liquor, auto theft, narcotics, etc)

Burglary _If Motor Vehicle accident, type cf vehicle

officer was driving and type of other vehicle(if applicable)

N/A If aircraft accident,rotor or fixed wing

Weapon used to kill officer .38 Officer's own? no

Was officer wearing a protective vest? no

What department memorial is there?Hattiesburg Police Memorial, Highland Park

Did the death occur during a traffic stop yes

Was a bad search or no search a contributing factor? yes(Statistical use only)

Number of children surviving the officer 2 Was the wife pregnant at time of
death and later delivered? No
Was the officer foreign born? NO If so, what country

OFFENDER INFORMATION

Luther Carlyle "Carl" Wheeler W M 24
NAME RACE SEX AGE

Elaine Forman W/F, 31 (She drove the get-a-way car, was charged same)
Was this offender wanted for a crime of which the officer was not aware? yes
Wheeler was wanted in other jurisdictions in MS and in LA and FL — #4
Was the offender arrested? yes What was he/she charged with? Burglary &

Murder
What charge was he/she convicted of? Burglary and Murder

What was the sentence? Death by Electrocution

If sentenced to death, date and means of execution 92-04-54 Electric Chair .

Forman- Life Sentence, served 74 years then released “~at the Forrest County Cour
Did the offender have a prior criminal record? yes in Texas and OK House
; COMMENTS _. ; .
Officer Everett and Vinson weré résponding to a Burglary in the same unit.

Wheeler fled in a car driver by Elaine Forman W/F, 31. A vehicle stop occured

shnete? nnn mtlea £-am thm hurrlar«yr ecrana whara OF Firara Rrraratt £ Vinenn wara§ cach

WHEELER, Luther Carlyle, white, elec. Hattiesburg, MS on February 2, 1954

Rapist Terrors of the Park

{Continued from page 23]

one ot the most brutal of a long series
of murders, robberies and assaults in
metropolitan parks during recent months.
lt was also one of the most baffling cases
to confront the department in years.

Detectives meantime had located the
slain youth’s aunt, Mrs. Irene Bechard,
at her home at 49 West 55th Street. She
told them Jack had been discharged from
the AAF only six weeks before, after
serving for more than two years in the
uropean Theater of Operations. Mrs.
3echard added:

“About a month ago Jack got a job
with the Edmund Frisch jewelry store on
Park Avenue. He lived with his mother
at 591 Madison until last week when she
left for a visit to France. Since then he
has stayed with me.

“1 don’t think he had an enemy in the
world. But whoever took his life must
have realized he would have fought to the
last to protect any girl he was with. He
could have had only a small sum in his
wallet and a gold cigaret case.”

From Marguerite’s father, a clerk liv-
ing on East 98th Street, the police learned
she had no steady boy friend.

While Manhattan detectives were
gathering these statements, homicide in-
vestigators in a distant part of the wide-
Hung metropolis were busy questioning
the relatives and friends of another young
veteran who had died by violence within
an hour or so of the time of the attacks
upon Hylands and the Bryan girl.

At a few minutes after 4 a.m.—as
Jack Hylands lay dying in Manhattan
Hospital—a uniformed policeman making
a regular tour of duty in the Astoria Park
district of the Borough of Queens,
twenty miles from Central Park, saw a
man who appeared to be staggering as
though in a daze making his way slowly
along Shore Boulevard.

Upon approaching the man, the officer
saw that his face was covered with bloo
and his clothing dirt-encrusted-and*torn.

It soon became apparent to the office
that the man was suffering from serigfis
injuries to the head.

While being taken to St. John’ Hos-
pital in Long Island City, the vigtim re-
lated that he had been attackedfabout a
half hour before by three thugs while
sleeping with a former Navy b&ddy in
the latter's automobile in Astori& Park
near Ditmars Boulevard.

The injured man identified himseX& as
Charles Duff, 26, of 27-40 12th Stréet,
\storia. He told the following story;

“My pal, Tony Marchisella, and I got
together last night for the first time since
we served overseas together. We hit a
bar or two to celebrate the reunion and
| guess it was pretty late when we de-
cided to call it a night.

“Tony had his new sedan and we de-
cided to drive around a while and get
some fresh air before he took me home.
Must have been about three o'clock when
we stopped in Astoria Park and Tony
said he wanted to catch a few winks be-
fore going on. He turned off the car
motor and the next moment was asleep,
his head over the wheel. | must have gone
to sleep right afterward.”

The next thing Duff remembered was
waking suddenly—he could have slept

lv a few minutes, he believed—as the
lis side of the car was jerked

open. A short, stocky youth

dressed in dark clothing stood beside the

car. Two other forms loomed up out ot
the darkness behind him. Both the latter
went noiselessly around to the other side
of the car. And then...

“Suddenly this first fellow reached in
and started pulling me out. [ was still
groggy with sleep. The thought crossed
my mind that maybe the guy was a cop.
I didn’t even try to resist. I half fell to the
ground and he was right on top of me.
Then I heard Tony utter a short, stran-
gled cry and knew the other guys were
on him. I struggled to get up. I knew then
they were trying to mug us.”

A heavy fist landed in Duff’s face, blood
spurted from his broken nose and he was
temporarily blinded. Then something
hard and solid crashed down on his head.
That was the last he knew until he re-

-DESTINE
1954)—Davi
to § ec

> guilty

saree f

24 erland, (

unty § psa
iAante Wang
RHE

gained consciousness sometime later to
find himself lving cold and stiff on the
damp earth.

Staggering to his feet, Duff tried to
bring back the events that had occurred
before he lost consciousness. He seemed
to remember a reverberating crash, but
couldn’t be sure he hadn't dreamed it. He
made his way over to the car which stood
with both front doors opened. On the
ground at the far side he saw his 24-year-
old former Navy buddy, Antonio Mar-
chisella, of 25-27 21st Street.

Tony lay stretched full length, face
downward, on the ground some four
paces from the car. The back of his head
was splashed with blood and there was
a black hole in the center of his light tan
sports jacket.

Duff, dazed and only half aware of his

-for muggers and other nocturnal

movements, started off in search of help
The loss of blood from his own wounds—
he was suffering severe concussions due
to being beaten over the head with a
blackjack or similar weapon—began to
tell, and he had been wandering in a daze
wheh the uniformed officer drove up.

While Duff was being taken to the hos
pital, a police radio patrol car and ambu-
lance were dispatched to the scene of the
attack. They arrived to find Tony Mar
chisella breathing his last. The youth died
before he could be given medical atten-
tion,

During the entire episode not one word
had been uttered by any of the trio of
thugs, to Duff's knowledge.

The autopsy surgeon found a single
leaden slug in Marchisella’s abdomen
where it had lodged after entering his
back. They also found his wallet intact,
with $10 inside.

Acting Lieut. Charles E. Lehman, in
charge of the Astoria detective squad,
was on the case before daylight and after
hearing Duff’s story and examining the
scene, expressed the belief that the shoot-
ing was very likely a case of mistaken
identity. Neither youth had any known
enemy and the fact that there was no
apparent attempt at robbery led to this
supposition.

Before the day was out, however, lieu-
tenant Lehman radically altered his opin
ion. Having assigned two of his crack
homicide men, Detectives Richard P
Dimler and James A. O’Brien, to the
case; Lehman returned to detective head-
quarters to catch up with routine work
Shortly after noon he found time to
glance through the file of inter-borough
teletype reports from other sections of
the city.

The moment the lieutenant saw the
urgent bulletin put out for the capture
of three suspected muggers who had mur-
dered Jack Hylands and ravished his gir!
companion in Manhattan across the Fast
River, he realized that he would have to
alter that first opinion about the Mar-
chisella slaying.

Five minutes later he was on a private
i alking with Inspector Kenny in
Manhattat™rsd before their conversa-
tion ended it was oM y too apparent that
the points of similarit¥&in the two fatal
attacks were so striking&as to make it
almost certain both crimeshad been com-
mitted by the same trio.

There was not only t similarity in
the girl Marguerite’s ang Duff’s descrip-
tions of the killers—af¥ voung and ot
stocky or medium hght and build, al!
dressed in dark clotYfng.

There Was t act that they had not
hesitated faim and kill without even

Laie their victims a chance to turn over
the petty loot they sought. They had
struck from behind in both instances,
struck swinging their fists and weapons,
and continued to assault the unconscious
bodies of their victims.

In both crimes the killers had managed
to get away without leaving any physical
evidence as a clue to their identities
Kenny pointed out that the trousers
button picked up at the scene of the first
murder had been found to have been
ripped from Hylands’ own clothing, so
that the slim hope of tracing one of the
thugs through that small clue had evapo
rated.

The fact that Central Park in Man
hattan, long a favorite hunting ground

inals, had been selected for the first
whereas the outlying Long Island park
was chosen for the pre-dawn crime, did
mean one thing to both veteran investi-

2 4)

dtcetre Mav [9 5%.

WHEELER, Luther Carlyle, white, elec. Hattiesburg, MS on February 2, 1954

-~7~-—~—“-+

ANA

by TOM BLADES.

No could have ‘been more surprised than
Elaine Foreman when the ‘bronzed and hand-
. some stranger stopped and sat down beside her in
the sand. He smiled and said hello, and Elaine,
startled, looked near-sightedly around through her
thick glasses, thinking he must be addressing some-
one else. There were so many pretty girls on the

38 : ; 2e)

In the eyes of the law, he was a desperado—a thug, a
cop-killer, but in his love-slave’s eyes, he was a god.

Shed do

“I didn’t want to tell on him. . .” Elaine, still:

3 to

When love finally comes into the life of a woman as

Jacksonville, Florida, beach, and young ones, too.

When she was sure he was talking to her, she
said hello back to him, and shifted her fat bulk to
one edge of her blanket, patting a place for him
to sit.

“I was feeling kind of lonesome,” the youth
said, “and you being alone, I thought I’d come
over and introduce myself.’ He had an angular,
heavy-bronzed face, and a cigarette dangled from
his lips, even when he talked. “I’m Fred Starling.”

Cod dei

A
Z

Al ZL
/ FS

fiercely loya!

Passion-si

“Glad
waving <
man. I’'n

“That

“It’s 1
exciteme:

' Fred g
said. He
charming
excitemer

CONFIDENTIA

Police found abandoned car, correctly assumed it was Elaine’s. In it, they saw potentially valuable lipstick clue.

“Sure,” she said brightly. “I’d like to go out with

you. . .

HEIR relationship was destined to be full of
surprises for Elaine, but the greatest surprise
was that Fred fell for her hook, line and sinker.
At dinner, he babbled like a kid about his job a's

a traveling salesman in costume jewelry, and re-’

galed her with tales of his adventures around the
country. He was intense and enthusiastic about his

Top-notch detective work done by taxi-driver
Charles Aultman lured Elaine from hotel room
lonely hideout to the waiting: arms of the law.

job, and he told stories well. Elaine had never had
such an evening in her life. She laughed until she

- cried at some of the funny things he said, and

he found her a terrific audience. He was so appre-
ciative that he reached out and squeezed her arm
from time to time, and soon they were holding
hands.

They danced, and he held her close, a matter in
which he didn’t have much choice, since Elaine’s
figure extended frontward almost to her. arm’s
length. When the evening was over, they kissed, and
Fred made a date for the next day, and pre-empted
her time for the next several nights.

HE next night, Fred told her he loved her, and

Elaine practically flipped, because it was the
first time she’d heard words like those. When his
lovemaking became ardent, Elaine yielded, with-,
out qualm or question, And a few days later, when
he suggested that she come along with him on a
selling trip, she accepted joyfully.

Elaine had never known love before, and ‘she had
just about resigned herself to the fact that for her
romance was out of the question. Nobody loves a
fat girl, she had told herself often enough, and up
until the advent of Fred, she had been right. Now
she had love, and she was going to make the most
of it. To blazes with her job, and responsibility be
damned. She was going to live life to the hilt.

If anyone had told her that Fred was a_triple-
dyed, gold-plated villain, it wouldn’t have mat-
tered. If she’d been told that he might kill her next
week, she still would have gone with him. He was
tops, Fred was. He could do no wrong. He was
the greatest, no matter what anyone said, no mat-
ter what might happen. To her, he was a king. He
was, in short, the only man who had ever loved her,
and no matter what might happen, these moments
could never be taken from her.

CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE CASES

Not
With
voted,
manly
imagit
shrew
tried t
a sale
that |
nervot
had p
of a &
Fre.
ried t}
Louis:
and d
the je
their
“An
frighte
from
He ;
her. ©
hard-b

jobs, t
not int
look «
diplon

RE
F af
try, an
them o
it was
cash fr

“Tg
wouldr
hide it
place?

CONFIDEN?

1cw picading words, wipe out those two deaths.
- But panic was close and time was running out

"aad he closed his eyes tightly and said, “Please,
God, help me not to be afraid.”

He waited, as if expecting the closeness of
fear to recede immediately, as if the few
words Would loose a Mysterious Force that

vuld send the panic away. It still gnawed at

& edges of his brain. But the feeling of utter
loneliness had gone! Until this moment he had
felt entirely apart from every other human be-
ing on earth. They were going to kill him for
what he did. They would live, sleep and wake
in the morning, but at midnight he had to die.
The warden and the guard and the ministers
who came to exhort him to faith, who prayed
by his bunk and sang their simple little songs,
even the men in the cells around him were in-
struments of the laws and the society that so
grimly demanded his death. He was alone
against them all in bitter helplessness and that
loneliness was a part of the wall of fear. But
now it had gone away.

HE felt like he used to feel when he'd run

all the way home from school to loose the
flood of his tears on his mother’s shoulder.
All the wrongs of a little boy’s world she had
understood and nothing had been bad enough
to harshen the tenderness of her hand or to
roughen the gentleness of her voice. It was as
if a million words were ready within him to
explain how it could be that a boy. could grow
into a man and somehow forget the difference
between righteousness and sin and that if he
could let the words come then Someone would
understand. ee»

“Dear God,” he whispered. “Please don't go
away... .”

When the guard came to take his order for

er, Wheeler was lying on his bunk, his
closed as if he were asleep. '

~fey, Luther,” the guard said uneasily. “It’s

time fot dinner. What are you going to have?”

Wheeler answered without opening his eyes.

“Fried chicken,” he said. “A whole one. Rye
bread and a quart of milk and a lot of butter
and a big pecan pie.”

The guard relaxed. This guy was taking it
all right. It was tough when they went to
pieces on their last night. He’d seen them
carry one man to the room with the Chair.
Screaming and fighting all of the way. He
was sorry he’d told the reporter that Wheeler
would crack.

Luther ate all of the fried chicken and drank
the quart of milk and it was 7 o’clock when
he finished the last of the pie. He was closer
than ever te what seemed like a bottomless
pit of fear and the only way he could balance
on its brink was to do something, to moye
around. His lawyer came to see him and they
talked for a while, meaningless things and he
could see that the man was anxious to get

4away. At 9 o’clock two ministers from the
~ Church of the Seventh Day Adventists came
in and they found him agreeably responsive
to their'exhortations to pray. Sometime while
“they were with him he heard Elaine call to
him from her cell down the hall, but there

was a scurry of footsteps and then quiet. The .

men around him, in their cells, had been
soundless since mid-afternoon. It was almost
as if they weren't there. At a little after ten

inisters left him, though one of, them

‘We'll be with you later,” and he knew
what they meant. All condemned men had
someone of the Cloth with them on the last
walk.

Then the bad moments began. Death was
close ‘and sheer fright pricked him as if it
were a physical thing. He heard people arriv-
ing outside and someone said, “Where’s Wheel-
er now? Which room is he in?” and he knew
that the spectators were coming for the show.
There’d be reporters who’d write about how
he looked coming into the room, how the
Chair looked against the wall and finally how
he died. The nearness of it was numbing and
he was aware of his panic now as if he were
somebody else and sharing the sensation from

came to the door of his cell and looked in, he
glanced up at them dumbly and wondered
with objective curiosity why they unlocked
the barred door and came in. Then he saw the
man with the clippers in his hand and it was
close and real and he bit hard at his lip to let
pain help him fight his fear. He’d forgotten
about this. He’d read about them shaving the
head so the electricity would get into the
brain quicker but he forgot that they would
do it to him.

He sat, quietly while they did what they
had come to do. One of them shaved a spot
on the top of his head and another knelt and
cut one leg of his trousers and the third man
watched him with a queer, furtive unfriendly
look in his eyes. When they were through they
turned silently and started back out of the
door.

“What time is it?” Luther asked. His voice
sounded queer, just like everything seemed
queer and unreal now. It couldn’t be happen-
ing—but it was. They weren’t going to kill
him—but they were.

“ AFTER 11,” one of them said. They col-

lided each hurrying to get through the
door. He sat there alone, feeling the chill of the
new bald spot, wanting to put his hand up to it
and touch it, but afraid. The minutes went by.
He heard his watch ticking and he took it off
and tossed it over on the bunk without looking
to see how much longer he had to go. Outside
his cell the bare bulb burned brightly and
through the window he could feel the stir of
night air and hear an occasional car go by. It
seemed to him in some strange and distant
way that if he just. sat there and didn’t move,
then he could stand it, but that if he moved
just a little bit it would jar something and the
thin, thin barrier against the madness of panic
would go down and he knew that if he made
a.sound he evould begin screaming and
wouldn’t be able to stop.

When the footsteps came down the hall he
began to tremble. But he didn’t move. The
warden and the two ministers and several
strange men stood there looking in.

“Are you ready, Wheeler?” the warden said.

“I’m ready,” Luther said and from a long
distance off his mind marveled that he could
speak at all. *

He stood up and the warden came in and
took his arm and led him out into the hall.
They began to move, but he didn’t feel: his
feet on the tile and then his cell was behind

. them and he heard the men call “So long,

Wheeler,” and from down the corridor Elaine
began to weep and he heard her sob-strangled
“Good-bye, Luther, goodbye.”

There were the steps and he went down
them carefully, afraid that “he’d fall.

in front of him was the open door. He went
in on legs that had no feeling and behind him
he could hear the voices of the ministers speak-

The |
‘warden guided him across the little space and

and he knew with dazzling clarity that he was

about to die. He tried to formulate thoughts,

but they wouldn't come.

He held back against the pull of the hand =

on his arm and then he saw the faces of

the many people who had come to watch —

a man being killed by electricity and he
moved forward under some dim compulsion
of pride. if

He walked to the front of the Chair and
some distance away. When the -three—men_..turned and his knees weakened and he quickly . ;

sat down.

“It’s no use,” a thought screamed inside his -*’
head. “I can’t take it. I can’t. I’m going to -

bust all apart... .”

Only the blur of faces across the room kept ~.
him from complete collapse. Whispered phrases © *

came to him, some of which he could hear.

“He’s going to crack!”

“Lookit his hands shake!”

“God, he’s pale.” r

“Why don’t they hurry? I'll get. sick if he
hollers now.” if

“Poor devil. I’d hate to be there. . . .”

“Watch him. He’s going to crack. .. .”

He saw the slitted leather mask before his
face and its hard dryness hurt as someone
jammed it on his head. Now he was alone.
Everything was dark. The wet sponge was a

cold blob against the bald spot on the top of - “4

his head. The steel anklet chilled the flesh of
his leg.
“Easy, boy,” somebody whispered in his ear.

The throb of his pulse filled his head and 3

the whispers from across the room sounded

like a torrent of water rushing over a dam. ~

“He’s going to crack!”

“I told you so. Lookit him shake!”

“He’s going to crack... .” .

Straps were. tightened over his arms and

across his chest and in the dark loneliness he -

was a little boy again and he was afraid.
“Wheeler,” a voice said, “do you have any-
thing to say before you die?”
It rang out of emptiness, out of hollowness,

resounding and re-echoing “—do you have-

anything to say before you die?” .

There were seconds now. Watchers leaned
forward, tensed. The white lips moved under
the dark edge of the mask. The lips stopped
then and tightened before they relaxed in a
gentle smile.

“No man is ever alone,” Luther Wheeler
said clearly.

One of the ministers bowed his head with
tears unashamed in his eyes. The calm voice
went on.

ie EAR God, stay with me. Have mercy.
I’m so...”

The executioner’s hand moved down. The
lights dimmed and the whir of electric cur-
rent mingled with gasps of horror in the room.
The thin chest heaved convulsively against
the straps and a wisp of smoke curled upward
from under the leather cap, bearing the faint
scent of burned flesh to those who had come
to watch while a man died.

Back in the corridor along death row the
dirty, white bulb dimmed and the corridor of
living men was silent as the grave. At 12:12
A.M. February 5, 1954, two doctors pronounced
Luther Wheeler dead. The low prayers of the
ministers of God and a few soft sobs from the
crowd mingled with the squeak of the wheels

on the long, high cart that’ bore the cop-killer

away. we

aut ae Be

fiercely loyal to her killer-loyer,

Elaine, still

y wap a

tells Sheriff Payne; Patrolmen Johnson, Reaser and Creal, and Attorney Pittman.

”

a . ‘ \
¥ \ " \
‘
’ ° i t e

o- — passion-starved as this-one—she’ll steal, and fight, and kill to keep it

- aie “Glad to know you,” the girl said awkwardly, laughs. Dancing. Never a. dull moment. How

bok ‘5 waving a fat arm. “My name’s Elaine. Elaine Fore- about it? Like to go out with me tonight?”
or him man. I’m-on vacation here.” Elaine looked. at him’ suspiciously. She’ had no
“That's nice. You like Ponte Vedra?” illusions about herself. She was grossly fat, and
youth ‘“Tt’s not a bad beach,” she said. “Not much she was used to being the butt of jokes. But this Fred
\ caeme excitement, though.” ’ seemed genuinely interested. In a flash of intuition,
maciee + - Fred grinned at her. “I’ve got news for you,” he she figured that her age had something to do with
. fa said. He was giving her a line, trying to be ‘his his interest. He possibly went for older women, and
ailing.” charming best. “I came just especially to provide she looked older than her actual thirty-one years,
; excitement—if .it’s okay with you. I like a lot of while ke couldn’t have been more than twenty-two.

> CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE CASES ree

’

ee eed

ea
2

WILKERSON, Otis, hanged Yazoo City, Mississi ppi, July 1), 1950

6 SO (2nd) oh.

YAZOO CITY HERALD, Thursday, Aurust 25, 1949, mr. 1,

Re MeN a nw

LAW OFFIC

ATTEMPT TO REACH N'w YORK ENDS IN HINDS COUNTY JAL

®S NAB NEGROES FERKEING FATAL SHOOTI

(caption under picture)

Attempting to reach New York, Negroes
Otis Wilkinson and Levall Schaeffer were
caught near Batesville by W. L. Brent

(holding pistols) of the Mississippi
Highway Patrol on their way to Arkansas.
The pair are charged with the fatal shooting
of Hardy Simmons at the Cotton Club Friday,
They were picked up less than nine hours
after the incident and lodged in the Hinds
County Jail,

Also picture is Sheriff Sam Parker (next
to Brent), W. W. Holloway, deputy sheriff,
and patrolman J, P, Flannigan,

Nii SS Mo 4
ts aks CINE

Parker and State Highway Patrol officers, they readily admitt

Mr
city limits north of tow,

ork

+.
da

Prompt and efficient action by
Sheriff Sam Parker, Deputy Sheriff W.
Holloway and officers of the Missis-
sippi State Highway Patrol resulted in
the capture of Levall Schaeffer and
Otis Wilkinson, Yazoo County negroes
charged with the murder of Wiley Hardy
Simmons, before they could get of of
the state,

‘he pair were arrested near Bates-
ville about 11 a.m, by Highway Patrol- |
man W. L. Brent, about nine hours afte
the shooting, They had their wives in
the car and according to the story the;
told Sheriff Parker, they were enroute
to Arkansas with New York their ulti-
mate destination. The pistols said ios
have been used in the shooting of Mr, |
Simmons were taken from the froup,

The two negro women were held in
Panola County jail at Betesville anc
Wilkinson and Schaeffer were taken to
the Hinds County "escape proof" jail
at Jackson, When questioned by Sherif:
ed the shooting,

- Simmons was killed at the Cotton Club, negro night club located just outside the
It is reported that Mr. Simmons had ousted Schaeffer and

Wilkinson from the club about 10:30 pei, Friday for drunkeness and disorderly conduct.
The negroes told Sheriff Parker that Simmons! action made them "mad," and they left

the club and went home (near Bentonia) to get their pistols,

Club about 2:30 a.m,

returning to the Cotton

Witnesses say that when Wilkinson asked to be served, Mr. Simmons told him and
Schaeffer that he had ejected them once before that same night and asked them to leawe,

With that Schaeffer is alleged to have drawn his gun and said, "Us don
Our money is as good as anybody's" and raised his pistol,
Saw the pistol he ducked behind the counter and started to run,

anywhere,

't have to go
When Mr. Simmons
Witnesses say Wilkin-

son also drew his gun and both negroes started shooting,
Mr. Simmons was hit with only one bullet, which entered his back and came out,

through his tomach,
the hospital.

Apparently it severed a major artery, as he was dead on arrival at
The bullet was recovered and sent to the FBI criminal investigatinn

laboratory in “ashington, D.C. along with bullets fired from the two pistols for

identification purposes,

Neither Schaeffer mor Wilkinson has asked for preliminary hearings, and so far as

can be learned here they are without legal counsel,

October Term of Yazoo County Circuit Court,

The case will be placed :efore the

YAZOO CITY HERALD, Thursday, October 20, 199, p. 1.

GRAND JURY DELIBERATES LONG: SUFMITS 16 TRUE BILLS TO JUDGE GILL"SPIE
08 OOO ee Oe 8 8 Oe See es*6 9 0 8 eos eee feo 0 6 eee ere”. 6

There are 8 murder cases to be arraigned Thursday, all involving
negroes except that of Jack Brown, high schocl senior, who is charged
with the fatal shooting of his foster mother, Mrs, Fount Brown.

The negroes are Lavell Shaffer and Otis Wilkinson, charged with the murder of
Puboe: Sammons, white youth. . 2 so 0 8 6 bk 68 wb et bhe otek

YAZOO CITY HERALD, Thursday, October 27, 1919, p. le

CONFESSION GOES TO JURY AFTER LEGAL RANGLE: STATS CLOSES TESTIMONY

The state wound up its case against Lavelle Shaffer around 3:30 DM,
Wednesday, with the testimony of a ballistics expert, who identified the
bullets submitted as evidence by the state as being fired from the guns in
possession of the defendant and Otis Wilkinson when they were apprehended,

The Court recessed prior to hearing testimony from defense witnesses.

The case of the State vs. Lavelle Shaffer has occupied the attention of
Yazoo County Court all of this week. He is accused of the fatal shooting of
Wiley Hardy Simmons at the Cotton Club here in August.

All Monday was devoted to securing the jury from a Special venire ordered
by Judge H. B. Gillespie, The defense used practically all of its peremptory
challenges and some jurors were excused by the state,

The state began presentation of its case Tuesday morning and attemoted
to introduce th» confession signed by Shaffer in the Hinds County jail a few
days after the alleged crime, Defense attorneys objected and most of Tuesday afternoo:
and Wednesday was devoted to testimony before Judge Gillespie in the absence of
the jury on the admissability of the confession, Defense alleged force was used
upon the defendant shortly after his arrest by Highway Patrolmen at the patrol
headquarters in Patesville before the confession was given County Attorney Griffen
Norquist, Special Attorney J,F. Barbour Jre, and Sheriff Sam Parker in the Hinds
County jail.

Shaffer's wif and Otis Wilkinson, who will be tried separately on the same
charge, testified that abusive language was used against them and both ‘haffer and
Wilkinson said they were beaten about the head with a club and black jack by members
of the highway patrol at their headquarters in Batesville before being taken to
Jackson,

The state introduced numerous witnesses to prove the contention was false,
including members of the hvihway patrol and others who had contact with the
defendants prior to their incarceration in the Hinds County jail. Pictures were
also introduced to support the state's contention that no abuse was given the
defendants, Clothing with alleged blood stains, said to have been worn by
Wilkinson at the time was introduced py the defense,

Judge Gillespie ruled that no force was used in connection with the confession,
and the document as signed by the defendant in the presence of witnesses was
read to the jurors by the prosecuting attorney early Wodnesday afternoon,

YAZOO CITY HERALD, Thursday, November 3, 199, p. le

SHAFFER FOUND GUILTY
LAVBLLE SHAFFER FOUND GUILTY AS CHARGED! BY JURY IN QUICK VERDICT

Deliberating only about ten minutes the jury brought in a verdict of
"suilty as charged" just before noon Friday in the case of the State vs. Lavelle
Shaffer, Shaffer was charged with the murder of Hardy "Bubba" Simmons in the
early hours of August 20 at the Cotton Club on the outskirts of the city,
The verdict returned by the jury automatically calls for the leath penalty,
The State was represented by District Attorney M, M, Macgowan, County Attorney
Griffin Norquist, and Barbour % Barbour, special attorneys engaged by the Simmons
family to assist in the prosecution,

Shaffer was represented by John R. Poole, assisted by Dale McKibben, both
of Jackson,

YAZOO CITY HERALD, November 17, 1949, pe. le

CIRGUIT COURT WINDS UP LENGTHY T'RM TOMORROW

PUR Dit Oe Gee Wee oe Yee KG. ee Gee Bae ed ae ee ee ce er a ee Oh re ee Se ce ey ee are
A summary of the action taken, . ...
Lavell Shaffer and Otis Wilkinson, negroes tried separately on an indictment

for the murder of Hardy "Bubba" Simmons, white youth, both found guilty as charged anc

sentenced to death in the electric chair,

YAZOO CITY HERAID, May 25, 1950, p. l.

MURDERER OF HARDY "BUBBA" SIMMONS TO DIE JULY 2th

The Supreme Court Monday confirmed the deatn sentence of the circuit court agains’

Lavell Schaeffer charged with the murder of Hardy "Bubba" Simmons, Shaeffer will be
electrocuted July 2h,

It will be of interest to learn that John Poole, defense attorney, did not file
a brief for the defendant, He stated he had only been retained to represent the
defendant through the circuit court,

The Court reviewed Monday the case of Otis Wilkinson, also indicted by the
circuit court on the same murder charge. The court's findins will be revealed later,

YAZOO CITY HERALD, Thurdday, July 20, 1950.

WILKERSON DIES IN ELECTRIC CHAGR; PARTNER REPRIEVED

Otis Wilkersonyg negro convicted of the mardex of Wiley Hardy Simmons, died here
Friday shortly after midnight by electrocution in the states's portable electric
chair,

The negro was found guilty along with Lavelle Shaffer an the October term of
circuit court and sentenced by the late Judge Hugh B, Gillespie. Shaffer's attorney,
John Re Pool of Jackson, received a stay of execution for his client late Thursday
afternoon from the U. S. Supreme Court. Shaffer was to be executed at the same time
as Wilkerson, .

Sheriff Sam Parker brought Wilkerson to the courthouse here from Jackson. Only
a few more witnesses were there other than required by law.

mise

SIP EI I NE I I EE EE TE

eR ON LIED I ET

se Negro Dies In State.

Henry: Wi
{Pays Deail
iPeially fi

era

nd
g

ATE

Electric Chair For

Killing White Girl.
“the end was written:to-one ‘of
the ‘most. brutal murders vin the
‘erime annals of Pascagoula-in the
éarly morning hours Friday when
Henry Lee Wiléy, 22-year-old rie.
groj" went to his death: in ths
state’s‘ portable electric chai foi
the slaying. of Opal Rick
high school: girl. 2

~The. chair,-which was -brou

from Jackson Thursday’. was set:
up. at«the: Jackson County* jail
with. the official state’ execution-
ér.-throwing the switch: “which
sent the deadly- charge of electric-:
Vity into the negro’s Sody,:'He Was -
déclared dead. a few. minutes: !a

This is the first time the death
penalty has been exacted inthe f
portable chair in Jackson County..

Calm.and -hopeful of some stay:
of the death sentence up until th
very laSt,. the young negra en,
joyed:the chicken and bottle’‘o? :
beer, which he had specified for
his last dinner. During the iday

| he showed no nervousness; spends"
ing his time: lying on his, bunk in.
}the jail,and talking.-to members:
of his family who came for. fi iL:
visits. 1 ‘ ‘ . se
. Wiley, who had been -held ‘in
ithe, mob-proof, escape-proof jail

ahd ; again
outlined details of the erime for
the three officérs returning him
ior ‘his ‘execution. eae ,
-*T only: got one more day.;to
live,” he told them, “and I want
to leave here with a clean slate.?
' His story. told on the ride ‘from
Jackson was substantially. |. the
same as that. revealed in hig ‘con-
fession when he ‘told of waiting
for. Opal Ricks .to come out of
the picture,show: on. a- Friday
night in October.' He said he hid,
behind a’ telephone post. ‘until
she’ passed on ‘her way’ back’ to
her, home in, the ‘goverment
trailer court.:and as she ‘drew
abreast;.of him. he jumped’ ‘out,
grabbed ‘the ‘girl, dragged her
into. the. underbrush where: he
Struck her across the’ head. With
pipe, attacked her and then
Strangled her ‘with ‘her?! own
underwear,... 5,0!
Present for the execution:
witnesses required by the Jaw,
including two practicing physt-
¢ians; three ministers, one white
and two negroes; Coroner HA:
Fails; M. D.. Johnson, | jailér:
County Attorney. L. K;' ‘McIn-
tosh and Officer McNeal; who*in
the. absence. of Sheriff D ¢
Newman was .officer in-charge.
Wiley was, ‘attended by. the
Catholie priest from’ Biloxi ‘
Thursday who was sent’ for, at
the condemned man’s request.'..:

ROBERT WAYNE WILLIAMS

31 years old. Black male. Be Sm aot Pe
Divorced, father of four children. nee x rg tS aa

On April 19, 1979, Robert Wayne Williams was convicted of the
January 5, 1979, murder of Willie Kelly, a 67-year old black
security guard at a Baton Rouge grocery store. He was then
sentenced to die. ;

Robert Wayne Williams was born on February 2, 1952, in New
Orleans, Loaisiana, and grew up in Baton Rouge. His parents **

mother. The family included two brothers and one Sister, as ‘
well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
As a child, Robert Wayne was very interested in sports, and he., .
participated in basketball, football, softball and track. He |“
waS a neuer of Boy Scouts, and was the captain of Polk Elemen-'
tary Lortab at cng. Patrol. Throughout his childhood, he
attended the Faith Chapel Church of God in Baton Rouge, and his: ~
family still attends there. - Pt anes rae
When Robert Wayne was 15 years old, he started to hang out with —
a tough group of kids at McKinley Senior High School. He began
to cut classes, and his grades and school involvement slackened.’:
In the llth grade he dropped out of School entirely. He worked ~
at various odd jobs for three years, an@ in 1973 began work at *
Louisiana State University's Agricultural Center. “tT

During this time, Robert Wayne became increasin i | es
ari gly involved

with drugs. By 1974, he was regularly injecting with preludin.

He also used LSD, angel dust, dilaudida, and heroin whenever he

could get it. He began drinking heavily. vhs aaa

In 1977 Robert Wayne married Permella Ann Simms, who was also’ °7
a keavy drug user. Later that year, he lost his job at Lsu

Je at eer seneing sekicus marital difficulties. He got another
joa entral L er Company in August, 1978, but w. i
off for failing to come to work. i é : ais ee ag

= ee Pomme? ¢ be

In April, 1978, Robert Wayne had been found guilty of-a'mis-" © ;
cemeanor theft charge--his first serious encounter with the law.’ —

be was having trouble Supporting his drug habit :
constant need of money. . g +t, and was in

ae2ee

on January 5, 1979, Robert Wayne and his wife's

dolmes, robbed an A&P store in Baton Rouge. polbat town tea
a borrowed shotgun, which was in poor working order and lacked
a firing pin. While Holmes was disarming the security guard
Mr. Kelly, Robert Wayne's gun went off and killed the guard.

Robert Wayne has always maintained that the shooting was an
accident. The day of the robbery, he had shot up twice with
preludin, and had also been drinking vodka and wine and’ smoking
dope. Witnesses at the store stated that he seemed extremely
agitated and nervous. Indeed, later in the robbery when he was
kneeling down to pick up’a cash register tray, the gun discharged
again and wounded two shoppers in their feet. , :

In a taped confession given the day of his arrest, Robert Wayne
said: -"The gun just went off. I looked around and he had been
shot." At his trial, a firearms expert testified that ‘the gun
was not working properly. But the jury decided that the killing ©
was deliberate, and recommended death. F ee _——
In addition. to the question of whether the shooting was acci-
dental, there are two key legal issues in Robert Wayne's case.
First,.. the sentence seems disproportionate to the crime.’ There —
have been several Louisiana cases, including some from Baton
Rouge, where the facts of the crime were relatively similar or |
worse, and the defendants did not receive death sentences. ‘Given
the nature of the crime, Robert Wayne's mental stress, his drug ~~
and alcohol abuse, and his minor criminal record, we believe = ~*
the death sentence is excessive. a ee ee ee

~~ fess ot “- = an Pout

Second, Robert Wayne was convicted by an all-white jury, and
humerous potential jurors were excluded because they expressed
some reservations about the death penalty. The arbitrary
rejection of blacks and of individuals who had doubts about
Capital punishment made the jurors more likely to convict .
Robert Wayne and bring a death sentence, which they did.

In the months following his arrest, Robert Wayne began.- seeing
his family minister, Reverend J.D. Brown. He was subsequently
baptized in the East Baton Rouge Parish Jail. Now his ultimate
goal is to work with young. people, and help them learn from

his experience, -, : , .. to 20m Sitti

Robert Wayne feels great remorse over the death of Willie Kelly.
"I can't turn back the hands of time," he wrote recently, | : .
"but in my heart I want to. I want to make it better. I know
the Kellys ask a lot of whys and what-ifs. So do I. I'm so

sorry." os ‘=

ee ete tells bane Anton monte ett

35 SOUTHERN (2) 323.
WILLIS, Rufus, black, electrocuted Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 7-2-1918,

"RUFUS WILLIS GIVEN DEATH PENALTY MAY 9, (From Yesterday's Late Edition.) Vicksburg,
March 2), 1917 (AP). - Rufus Willis, negro, who was convicted in circuit court here for
the rape of a Clarksdale white woman was sentenced by Judge R. B. Anderson today to death
in the electric chair on May 9, Willis showed no emotion as the judge passed sentence,
and he was returned immediately to his cell in the Warren county jail. Defense attorneys
filed a motion for a new trial and said the case would be appealed to the state supreme
courte" CLARION-LEDGER, Jackson, Mississippi, March 26, 197 (}:2:5.)

"NEGRO SENTENCED TO DIE IN ELECTRIC CHAIR FOR RAPE OF COAHOMA WHITE WOMAN, = RUFUS WILLIS
IS FOUND GUILTY BY WARREN COUNTY COURT. = Vicksburg, March 17, = Rufus Willis, 19-year-old
negro, today was found cuilty by a Warren County Circuit Court jury of raping a Coahoma
County white mother and will be sentenced to death in the electric chair some time next
week, District Attorney J. T. Lawrence said the jury deliberated about fifteen mintues be-
fore returning its verdict, The negro faced the jurors and clenched his hands when the
foreman announced the decision, The death penalty is mandator}$ upon the conviction of a
rapist. Willis was accused of raping the white mother of three children on September 27
near the community of Hillhouse in Coahoma County. He was brought to Vicksburg from
Clarksdale after a change of venue was granted by Coahoma Circuit Judge EdGreen, The
transfer followed an attempt on the life of the negro by a relative of the assaulted wo-
man during the proceedings in the Clarksdale court house, In today's trial, Willis admitted
stopping the woman's automobile and attempting to rape her in the vehicle, The woman mana-
ged to free herself and ran down the road, Willis said he overtook her and dragged her to
a water ditch beside the road, Defense attorneys based their case on the theory that it
was attempted rape, Willis said the woman fought so valiantly, that he was unable to com=
plete the physical assault, Attempted rape carri@és a maximum penalty of life imprisonment,
This was denied by the state, The woman was called to testify in support of the state's
contention, Willis said he had been hunting when he spied the woman in her automobilee
He said he stood in the middle of the road and pointed his pump gun at the motorist. Court
convened at 9:30 aem. and a jury was sthected shortly before noon, At 2 p.m, the state
put on the proof and completed its case at about 3:20) p.m. The only witness for the de=
fense was the accused negro. District Attorney (?) Lawrence, Greek P, Rice, Coahoma Couny
district attorney, and Warren County Attorney Jim Thams represented the state. Defense
counsel was John Culkin and Harry Murray. Lawrence said the negro would be sentenced
by Circuit Court Judge R. B. Anderson when the present term of court is concluded next
week, The trial was held behind closed doors,"' CLARION LEDGER, Jackson, Miss, March

18, 19)7 (1:5-8,)

"TRIAL FOR RAPE CASE IN VICKSBURG TO BE SET MONDAY, - Vickshurg, March 10, = (AP) =

Judge Re Be Anderson announced in Warren County Circuit Court today that the trial of

Rufus Willis, colored, charged with the rape of a white woman and transferred from Clarks-
dale on a change of venue, would be called next Monday, when a trial date will be set, The
change of venue was granted after the hubband of the alleged victim is declared to have
pulled a gun on Willis in the corridor of the Coahoma County courthouse at the first trial.
eeelt was announced that Judge Anderson would appoint two members of the Warren County Bar
Association to represent the defendant," CLARION-LEDGER, Jackson, March 11, 197 (1:2:2.)

Vy mie ~ Nes + i. a oe
i fr ry « ve ork r ‘

T ~ Th f ws K ry n @! hy ay £ 9
wy | >\ J LN VW Ld Jy : h 4 : €

Dee

me tig
eee

‘CANDY WILSON HANGED

| Murderer of Fisherman ‘Kelley; of+

| Rodney, Bas Paid the-Extreme/)
| Penalty for His Crime.

|
Ov Monday, the 22nd inst., Cane!
l dy Wilson, the negro who wag con- |
| victed at the February tern, of the I
‘Jefferson county circuit court for!
; Murdering... the nevro fisherman, |
Robert Kelley, and for attempting |
_ to murder Kelley’s boy last Uhrist.|
‘Mas, Was hanged by the neck until |
jHead, thug fulfilling the law and
; vindicating thevcrinie, rr
} Foran hour or two prior to the
: ime set for thacerecution Wilson
Was iy communication With a
“Preacher of hig’ race who prayed |
;With hin and. held song ser-
; Slee in the jail... When the Sheriff 1
‘Went for him he.came with a steady i
I step aud confident mien to the Rud- i
‘ows aud went to. his death without!
Npparent fear; before the black vap |
fund noose were “adjusted Sherilf |
!Gillis asked the condemned mau if
ibe cared to mike wstatement, and
the used the opportunity: to repeat |
:his story of the killing for whieh he |
i Was bung; Wilsan ‘says he went to
ithe fisherman’s house to b y fish,
fasked for ten cenig Worth ahd ten-
dered a twenty-five: cent piece in
payment, and was given no chunge,
[rruercupen be .zske:t Kelley for hig

'chunge and the Jatter told hin) that |

CHbe dich e

_ - a adds ._ sane Oe ee es Shela kh _
~~ The bad none coming to him; this!

q 4 !
provoked aruw aud a seatie, in
tavhich. the isherman -aticmpted to!
get a Winchester ritie which Was ini
ia carper of the room; Wilson seized "
to axe which lay conveniently at
| hand aud struck at Kelley, but miss- !
ied hin and hit the boy, who was
[laying on the bed; a second blow |
lwhich he wielded however, struck |
ithe fisherman and.felled and killed |
thi. Wilson also knelt) oa the! )
‘trap dvor of Cha scalfoid and prayed]
fearuestiy . fur salvation, and ¢x- !
pressed the belief that bis sins bad |
‘been forgiven; he prayed also for;
Jim Queen, who. was sentenced to !!
be hanged at the same time ag hin-
self, but was respited for tweuty |
days by Gov. Noel, peeding inves+
tigation of a petition for commintas ;
tion, and for Willis Jecnings. in:
jail awaiting trial on a charge of |!
illicit retailing. a.

Sheriff Gillis sprang the trap at
1:01 o'clock and the condemned |
man's neck was broken by the full
and ilife was extinet within a few
minutes. Sheriff Gillis was assist.
_ ted by Deputy Sheriff Gi. B. Ham.

mete and by. Mr S.oL. Shaw.

ea Ped eme Grins «088g er
|

19 SOUTHERN 2nd- 696 See LARGE CARD.
WILEY, Henry Lee, black, 22, electrocuted Pascagoula, Mississippi, Dec, 22, lhe

"PASCAGOULA NEGRO BEING HELD HERE. = ALLEGEDLY CONFESSES COAST MURDER, RAPE, ~ Henry Lee
Wiley, 2l-year-old negro, is being held in the Hinds county jail here following his alleged
confession of the murder and rape of 13-yeareold Nellie Opal Ricks at Pascagoula, it was
learned here yesterday, Sheriff D. 0. Newman said that Wiley, who was convicted in city
court Tuesday on a charge of accosing a white woman, was later questioned for hours when he
became suspicious that he killed N&&& Ricks last October, The sheriff said Wiley daKx
K&XEX confessed the slaying before him and city policeman Charles Emanuel. Newman said
Wiley gave this account of the slayings 'I waited for the Ricks girl by a path she took
through a wooded A¥#H section of the city twice before, I missed her, but later I saw

her go into a picture show and I went back to the path. When she passed again, going home,
I grabbed her from behind and dragged her into the bushes, I hit her on the side of the
head with a curvied piece of iron pipe, and knotted her underwear around her throat and
raped her and left her in the bushes,' The child's body was discobered in the underbrush
an estimated 36 hours later, a dozen feet from a street in the main residential section

of Pascagoula, Police here said that Wiley had been twice onvicted of larceny in nearby
Biloxi, and that Wiley came from Detroit eight years ago, moving from Biloxi to Pascagoula
last July. Newman said Wiley was taken to a secret place of imprisonment because it was
feared he might meet with mob violence, 'Feeling has been ranning high against the slayer
of Miss RXQKMMXK Ricks,' the sheriff said." CLARION-LEDGER, Jackson, Mississippi, February

26, 194 (2/8)

(Large card also)
63 SOUTHERN (2nd) 518; 7); SUPREME COURT 67; 68 SOUTHERN (2nd) 868

WHEELER, Iuther Carlyle, white, electrocuted Hattieshurg, Mississippi, on February 5, 195k

"Hattiesburg, Mississippi (AP) - Circuit Judge Surkitt Collins set the murder trial of
Qheyear-old Luther Carlyle Wheeler in connection with the slaying of 2 Hattiesburg police-
men for next Tuesday. The slender Jacksonville, Fla., man and his 175-pound sweetheart,
Flaine Forman, 33, are charged with the March 9 gun slaying of Hattiesburg policemen
James Everett,’ 27, and M.oW. Vinsonj:Jre, 32. Judge Collins said the Salt Lake City
woman's trial will begin after Wheeler's trial is completed. The defendants are charged
gointly with the killing of Everett and individually in the death of Vinson, However,
the- judge granted a motion for a severance today so they:may be tried separately. This
came’ minutes after he overruled a defense motion for,a change of, venue, In denying the
motion, based on the defesne contention that the ‘general public mind' of Forrest County
residents is already convinced of the guilt of the pair, the judge said: "We've taken

too much time with preliminary matters.' The judge pointed out that Sheriff W. A.

Payne, Hattiesburg Mayor’ Ed Currie, Deputy. Sheriff Bob,Cubley and others had testified
in a hearing on the motion that they believed a fair trial could be: held: here. ‘If I
were to grant a change of venue,' the judge said, 'I would be saying in effect that
these persons donot know what they are talking about or they have testified falsely.!
A notion’ to’ continue the, trials until the next term of circuit court which the defense
had said Tuesday that it planned to file, did not materialize. Wheeler and the Forman
woman werecarraigned Tuesday after Collins overruled motions to quash, the murder
indictments, Both defendants entered pleas of innocent at: arraignment." DAILY NEWS, |
Jackson, Mississpppi, April 30,1952 (2shel) '. teed |

"Jackson, Miss.,/ dune 6, 1952<Luther Carlyle Wheeler, 33-year-old Jacksonville, Flaey

gunman, sentenced to die for slaying two Hattiesburg, Miss., policemen, has been trans-
ferred to Hinds county, jail here for 'safekeeping.s', Wheeler, convicted of killing M. We
Vinson, Jr., and James Everett in a running gun battle last March 11, will be held here
pending appeal to the State Supreme Court. He is scheduled to die July 3. Elaine . .
Forman, his pudgy girl friend of Salt Lake City, Utah, is still’ in jail at Hattiesburg.
She was-also tried for murder but her.case ended in a mistrial,” STAR, Meridian, Misse,

6=6=1952° (1:76) te

"Hattiesburg, Miss., May 15, 1982. - The murder trial of Elaine Forman began Thursday
with virtually the same testimony that started last week's murder trial of, her 2h-year-,
old boy friend, Luther Carlyle Wheeler. Wheeler, of Jacksonville, Fla.e, was. convicted
and sentenced to die in the electric chatr for the murder of police officer James ,
Everett, 27. The alt Lake City, Utah, woman's trial is concerned only with the slaying
of Everett, The other officer kiled the night of March 9, was Me We Vinson, Jrey 326
State's witnesses testified concerning the inouest, the death bullet, the attempted .
burglary of an automobile agency, and the pursuit by Everett and Vison of aman who left
through the rear of the agency. Wheeler's attorneys took the first step toward appealing
his case to the state supreme court by filing a motion to vacate and set aside the jury
verdict and judgment against him and ask that he be discharged or given a new trial,
Circuit Judge Burkitt Collins has not ruled on the motion, It contentis the court erred
in overruling a pretious motion to quash the indictment against “wheeler and that it
erred also in overruling a pebition for a change of venue," STAR, Meridian, Misse, May

15, 1952 (1:1.)

"Hattiesburg, Misse, May 13, 1952. - The girl friend of convicted cop-killer Luther Car-
lyle ttheeler went on trial for murder in the Forrest County Cirduit Court here Tuesday.
Elaine Forman, 33, of Salt Lake City, Utah, is under indictment for the March 9 slaying
of Patrolman M, W, Vinson, Jr., and James Everett and burglarizing the Ace Weathers
Motor Co. Wheeler, for whom whe was an admitted confederate, was convicted on similar
charges late Saturday and sentenced to die in the state's portable electric chair here
July 3. Mrs. Forman has pleaded 'not guilty! to the indictments and her attorneys will
ask for acquittal. The state will dmand the death penalty although no woman ever has
been executed in Mississippi, The woman, described by police as a ‘fat, frowsy brunette,’
admits accompanying Wheeler in a south-wide spree of love and crime after meeting him in
Jacksonville, Flae, last February. However, she denies any part in the killing of the
officers after they surprised Wheeler looting the garage. In a sworn statement sapecion
after her capture, Mrs. Forman claimed she beed her ex-convict boy-friend 'not to do it

and sped away in their car when the shooting stated
STAR, Meridian, Mississippi, May. 13, 1952 (2:7.)

"Hattiesburg, Mississippi, May 10, 1952, « A circuit court jury Saturday took just 2h
-~minutes to find Luther Carlyle Wheeler guilty of the murder of Hattiesburg Policeman James
Everett. The verdict carries an automatic death penalty, Circuit Judge Burkett Collins
sstentenced Wheeler to die in the electric chair July 3. Wheeler was calm when the ver-
dict was returned and the sentence pronounced, Defense Attorney Arlington, Jones said

it is 'most probablg that we will appeal to the State Supreme Courte' Wheeler said! 'I
have nothing to say' when questioned by Judge Collins before the death sentence was pro#
nounced, The tate sought to explode the mystery of the green car which figured promi-
nently in the trial, Mr, and Mrs, Me G. Merck of Hattiesburg were called to the stahd

as rebuttal witnesses. Final defense witness was Wheeler, who stuck to his story that
'some men in a green car' killed Patrolmen James Everett and W. Me Vinson, drey the

night of “arch 9, Mr, and Mrs, Merck stated in separate testimony that they were im their
car, a bluish gray model, at the seene of the slayings. Both said tje €ar Jppks green
under artifical lighting conditions, The Merckes added that they had stopped at the
street intersection where the gun=fight occurred before Everett died, Merck said he

got out of the car, but then climbed back in and drove off after some people from a house
across the street came out and started yelling." STAR, Meridian, Miss.e, Mayll, 1952 (12L&5)

"Hattiesburg, Misse, May 10. - Judge Burkitt Collins excused the jury at the cop-kfller
trial:of Luther Carlyle Wheeler here late Friday in order to "hear all this testimony
about alleged police brutality at one time,' The: judge promised to deliver aruling before
recalling the jury Saturday as to whether the brutality charges yere relevant to conduct
of the- trial, Defense attorneys had argued over the prosecution’ s.objections that the
Jacksonville, Florida, ex-convict had. been beaten into confessing the murders of Patrol
men James Everett and M, W. Vinson, Jr,'-After the jury waa excused, George Welch testi-
fied for the defense that he saw Officer Joe White hit Wheeler while in the Jones County
jail. Wheeler himself already has said that he was beaten and mauled until he confessed
through 'fear for my life,'. The state, meanwhile, rested its case and ififormed sources
believe the trial will end Satufd Robert Zimmers, a FHI ballistics expert tech-
nician told the court a ,38 caliber slug removed from the body of one of the, officers was
fired from a pistol allegedly taken from Wheeler, When defense attorneys scoffed at the
accuracy of ballistics tests, Zimmers snapped ‘*I can identify the bullet and I did identify
it.t Cresson B, Henderson, FBI fingerprint man, declared Wheeler's fingerprints matched
those found on the: radio of an abandoned. 190 maroon Buick which allegedly was seen |

near the murder scene on the fatal night, In other testimony, Joyce Mooney, who lives
on the street where the running gun battle oocurred, told,the court she saw part of the
shooting from her bedroom windowe ‘'I saw one of the policemen shoot and then he fell to
the gpaund,' she said. .'I saw a car pull away right after that, but it looked green’ to
me and not mMaroon,! STAR, Meridian, Misses May 10, 1952 vain ag

18
20
26
28
32
34
36
40
42
44
46
50
52

conan

In At The Finish

Drink Up—Harlow Fraden, 22, confessed
killer of his parents (Drink Up, Folks, I’m
Working, March INSIDE, 1954), was com-
mitted to Matteawan State Hospital for
the Criminal Insane, Bronx, N. Y. County
Judge James M.- Barrett at the same time
suspended the first degree murder indict-
ment against the boy. Fraden’s pal and
co-defendant, Denis Wepman, was judged
sane, however, and he pleaded not guilty to
the murder charge. Wepman, who was
seized as a passive accomplice in the crime,
faces trial alone.

Crazy Carl—Former Carnival owner
Carl J. Folk was sentenced to die in the
Arizona gas chamber for the brutal torture-
slaying of Mrs. Betty Faye Allen (Every-
one Knows Crazy Carl, March INSIDE,
1954). Folk was found guilty of first’ de-
gree murder after the Holbrook, Ariz., jury
had debated for one hour and 22 minutes.

Let's Play—James David Griffiths, 20,
of Pueblo, Colo., and Larry Ray Aldrich,
19, of Des Moines, Ia., were sentenced to
life imprisonment for the pop-bottle mur-
der of a crippled Claremore, Okla., service
station attendant (Let’s Play Kill, April
INSIDE, 1954). District Judge Josh J. Evans
warned the two boys not to return to his
court with an appeal, saying he had a “close
choice” between ordering life imprisonment
or execution. Mrs. Shirlie Hooks Abantha,
17, and Sylvester Collette, also 17, pleaded
innocent to the murder charge, but have yet
to stand trial.

Dead Women—In Denver, Colo.,
Judge Garold H. Davies directed a verdict
of innocent on the murder count of a three
count indictment against John H. Baney
(Dead Women Tell Tales, January INSIDE,
1954). The jury will consider counts of
rape and assault to rape only. Judge Davies,
in directing the verdict, granted a motion
by Attorney Robert B. Lee contending that
the defense had shown evidence that Mrs.
Dorothy Gall died, not as a result of being
raped, but as a result of the procaine anes-
thetic administered at a hospital before
surgery

Terror—A murder charge was filed
igainst. 19-year-old Tommy Walker, who
has been accused in the rape-slaying of
Mrs. H. C. Parker which aroused Dallas,
Tex., last fall (Terror Feeds On Moonlight,
January INSIDE, 1954). The youthful sus-
pect has signed a confession, but captain
Will Fritz of the Dallas Police Department
said he could not be sure of the boy’s guilt
until all evidence had been checked.

Football—In Chicago, James Dodd,
who admitted kicking his two-year-old son
icross the length of a room (Kicked Him
Like A Football, January INSIDE, 1954)
was sentenced to 25 years in prison on a
murder charge. Dodd pleaded guilty after
the state indicated that it would demand

jury trial and the death penalty if he

Lidn't
agian t

Still Not in Rome—Italian globe-trot-
ter Pietro Mele is shown (hatless in center)
leaving a police launch at a New York pier
after he was taken off the Europe-bound
liner Constitution. It was halted in lower

ET £%
I’m tired and I wanna go home—to Kome.

New York Bay at the request of police
after Mele’s $1000 bail on a simple assault
charge was revoked. Officers of the district
attorney’s force took Mele off the ship. The
assault charge resulted from a scuffle with
police outside the apartment of glamor girl
Brenda Frazier (When Not In Rome .. .,
February INSIDE, 1954).

A Final Strike—In San Francisco, Cal.,
Mrs. Rowena Johnson and her paramour
partner in murder, H. Don Waller, drew a
total of three life sentences after they had
pleaded guilty to stabbing her estranged
husband to death in his Richmond, Cal.,
apartment (Strike Now—He’s Sleeping,
February INSIDE, 1954). Mrs. Johnson will
spend the rest of her life in the women’s
prison at Corona. Waller received two life
terms when it was learned that he had
seven prior convictions on charges of auto
theft and burglary. He was described by
Superior Judge Wakefield Taylor as “a

ee eR : rT Y

\ <i

Three life sentences for Rowena and Don.

habitual criminal.” Photo shows Mrs.
Johnson (right) at a pre-trial coroner’s
hearing. She broke down several times
during questioning about the brutal stab-
bing of her husband. With her are Police-
woman Mary Lou Butler and Police Ser-
geant Fay Hawkins.

Hot-Lead—T wenty-one-year-old
Charles Struhart was found guilty of the
murder of Jack Hendricks (The Hot-Lead
Kid From Maxwell Street, August INSIDE,
1953) and sentenced to 20 years in prison
by a criminal court jury in Chicago. Joseph
Sustak, 26, Struhart’s companion on the
shooting spree which cost Hendricks his
life was earlier sentenced to life imprison-
ment. Policeman Anthony Kasten, wounded
in the gun battle with the boys, has made a
successful recovery.

Kiss of Death—Evan Charles Thomas
the “Phantom Sniper” who prowled the
dark streets of Los Angeles, Cal., in 1951
shooting at women with a rifle (Bullets Ar:
Kisses, July INSIDE, 1952) was executed in
the lethal gas chamber at San Quentin
Thomas was told only 15 minutes before
his death, that his personally handwritten
plea for a stay of execution had been denied
The 30-year-old killer, who shot at women
“because it sexually excited me,” took the
news calmly, saying, “I didn’t really expect
anything else.”

( Flickering Out—Gunman Luther Car-

lyle Wheeler died in Mississippi's electric
chair at Hattiesburg. Miss., for the murder
of two policemen (The Blonde Has Flick
ering Green Eyes, July INSIDE, 1952). He
was singing “Jesus, Hold My Hand” unti!
a jolt of electricity silenced him. As
Wheeler had been led from his cell block.
he had spurned the shouted plea of Elaine
Foreman, his convicted girlfriend accom-
plice, that he confess his crime. “Baby
don’t testify to people, testify to God,”
he shouted back to the woman who was in
another cell awaiting an appeal of her life
sentence.

Along the Highway—Bernard Prigan
who confessed to assaulting over 100 wom-
en, was sentenced in Manheim, Germany
to three terms for killing three of his vic
tims (Highway Of Murdered Women, Au
gust INSIDE, 1953). German law does not
permit the death penalty

Tin Hero—John D. Mulqueen, 25, of
Cudahy, Wis., was sentenced to one to tw:
years in state prison for manslaughter and
one to eight years for theft of his victim s
car. (Look For The Little Tin Hero, Feb-
ruary INSIDE, 1954). Mulqueen admitted
killing and robbing Korean war veteran
Captain Lloyd G. Larson. Judge Kenneth
S. White ruled the sentences will run con-
currently, which means Mulqueen can serve
both at the same time

Down Mexico Way—A federal judge in
the small town of Izucar De Matamoros
Mexico, sentenced Hombono Lavar:
Alonso to 30 years in prison, Manuel San-
chez Ramirez to 28 years and Maurilio
Moctezuma Soriano to 26 years. The three
confessed to killing Dr. Ralph Swain ot
Benton, Ill., in a highway robbery ( Bad
Will Ambassadors, January INSIDE, 1954

AIR Ma seat i .

Two-time ex-convict (shown above) shot down
a palr of police officers on night of March 9th,
1952, after they had Interrupted his attempt to
burglarize a business house in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Patrolman Jesse Everett (left, in
picture) and M. W. Vinson, Jr.
They are shown with a cache of
170 gallons of “moonshine” they
had seized shortly before they
were shot down in line of duty.

* Ave L AS 2

and drove past once more.

tersely.

HE MAIN STREET Baptist Church in Hattiesburg, Missis-
sippi, had a big revival going full blast.. The evangelist
packed them in as usual on Sunday morning, March 9th,
1952. “But be sure to remember tonight!” he called as
the worshipers filed out after the benediction. “Tonight,

my sermon subject will be, ‘Crimson Crime. :
How can a preacher call shots like that?
A few blocks away, a big maroon sedan rolled slowly past
the Ace Weathers Motor Company at 1502 North Main. The
chubby brunette at the wheel swung the car around the block

“This rain!” she grumbled. “I don’t like it.”
The man in the seat beside her shrugged. “Rain keeps a lot
of busybodies from standin’ around, watchin’ us,” he reminded

They came through

unscathed from

war actions in
New Guinea
and Iwo Jima

and Germany—

to meet quick death

~ Ry HUGH V. HADDOCK

‘si

froma criminal’s gun

o »
in their own home town F 4

ae ; q te 7

Above, Mrs. Elaine Forman, killer’s partner. From left, the men are: Sheriff Abb Payne, Patrolmen W.
N. Johnson, Bob Wheeler and Alfred Creel, and Attorney Claude Pittman, who worked with the officers.

He studied the interior of the closed motor establishment
through the rain-streaked windows, and the nostrils of his long,
predatory nose dilated with excitement. “This joint’s duck soup!”
he crowed.

“Duck soup for gettin’ caught!”

“You know what I told you about that.”

“Sure. I know.”

(How could I forget it as long as you're my man? “I'm a
two-time loser, baby,” you said. “One stretch in Oklahoma and
one in Texas. No copper takes me alive again, and any flatfoot
that tries it ll be a dead flatfoot, fast!" You meant it too!)

He wasn’t worrying, though. These towns were all alike—not
enough cops on night duty to get up a good pinochle game.

“Swing left at this next corner,” he ordered. ‘“Let’s get this
town cased.” He cuddled the pistol in his pocket. It was the gun
he'd taken off that watchman in Mobile.

(Maybe I ought've bumped off that old bird, after all. There
was dough in that safe, and he come bustin’ in, just as I knocked
the knob off. Maybe it was an hour, maybe it was only five
seconds we stood there, starin’ at each-other, coverin’ each other
with our guns. But he was worse scared than I was. “One of
us is goin’ to get shot,” I told him, and he couldn't take it. He
dropped the gun.)

The woman tensed as she swung the car back and forth through
the maze of city streets. Some of them were dead-end streets.

“I don’t like this,” she fretted. “We've got money enough.”

“How much’ve we got?” :

“Sixteen hundred bucks, just what we had this mornin’. Want

me to undress right here on the street so you can get it out of
my girdle and count it?”

“What's sixteen hundred? Want to go back to livin’ like you
was in Jacksonville? Maybe you think you had it gdod.”

She shook her head and pressed her full, passionate lips to-
gether. “No.”

(No, I didn’t have it'good. Just a barn of a room that I couldn't
make look like anything. A different lover every night, if you
could call ’em that. Some nights five or six. But none of ’em
ever stayed till you come along. You stayed a week, You bought
me this chartreuse blouse I’m wearin’, You spent your money
instead of askin’ for mine. You told me you loved me and wanted
me to marry you.

(‘I can’t marry you because I’ve got a husband and a couple
of kids back home in Salt Lake City,” 1 told you. “And 1 ain't
got any divorce.”

(That's the truth, and that's more than you told me. You said
you were a novelty salesman. Not that it makes a lot of difference,
though, It'd take a lot of sellin’ to make the six hundred dollars
you got in that Biloxi bottling-plant job. Some of those other
jobs weren't so bad, either.

(You didn't really love me. It was just that you were twenty-
four years old and had been shut up so long that any woman
looked like the Queen of Sheba. But you sure were made to
order for me. :

(“Never mind that marriage business,” I said, “if you want me.”

(I knew Phil Woods and Winnie wouldn’t care one way or the
other, even if they were really married, except that with Winnie

Defenda
left, wi

going to |
apart. Y«
with him .
(That «
anyhow.
He ligh
around th
“Drive
“and circl
“DT still
Woods—-”
“This jc

T 7:30
+” Hattie
“Crimson

At 7:3
at Police
radio for
were crui:

“Prowle
announcec
ing.”

Everett’

Right, C
Forman

igs

at 9 had arrived at a verdict of second-de-

a eee) §=—NEW TABLE TOP MACHINE BRINGS BIG
, sentence of twenty-five years to life.
re: : Instead, by pleading guilty he was sen- | MUI) 9 ie LCS)
: tenced to serve eighteen years in State’s ;
q P Thus in dheia’ dik thotaacl Turns Out Special Rubber Stamps'Worth $10.80 at %
to rie syisalire y* » palns- | Material Cost of Only $1.62, Each Hour. Operators
rge taking police work broke New York's | Gan Make as Much as $9.20 an Hour in Spare Time
hile case of the floating corpse—a case that . ws (icieh Alc detag nally ey! ! ras Posey .
: : e multi-million dollar Rubber copy” needed by offices, fac-
er, in an earlier day might never even have Stamp business—once controlled tories and individuals. Working
ded progressed as far as the identification Pac ban ay sane Mg he peg ra? gay ee
: : eing taken over bysmall,home as e an hour for e
of the body. And once again, a criminal operators — one in each com- operator! Now you can get into ©
ine learned the bitter truth of the old ad- mauity thepaghous the U. 8. the big-pay business yourself,” rot og
Pe} , ” en an omen who have this with your own home as head-
and : age: Crime doesn’t pay: inexpensive machine can turn quarters. You don’t need experi- | oop ee ahah ey i
ved 3 out huge quantities of Rubber ence. We supply everything, in- Chicago 26, If. |
: Na “Tr. 4 ow) 3 Stamps withspecial wordingthat cluding complete instructions lease rush full particulars about the
: Nore: The name Helen Basil is ficts P P 1
Ood- ‘ ‘ ‘ _ buyers once were forced toorder and eight ways to get business little machine that can get me started i
nat tious in order to protect the identity of frome ioe ties. jp rai noyap page| in fast. ne re up, memes bl. Rabb a ness
; |’ only27¢ makesastamp that sells to $9.20 an hour from the very at home in spare time. Eve!
ely “i ne was innocently involved for $1.80. The machine that does — beginning. Cash in on the prof- send me is FREE, no salesman will eal I
. the work is simple and easy to itable Rubber Stamp business —
ay eparnes ond Ft alge outas many LS bd Lop ar pet rien REE | Name
as six Rubber Stamps at a time e’ ll mail full particulars

2ree i each with different wagding such and nosalesman will call. Be first U addres

had as emo arta va i in your a Lone coupon ° 1

I stock numbers, prices and other today or send postcard to City

— 1512 Jarvis Ave., Dept.R-183 | ~

~ ANYTHING TO | RUBBER STAMP DIV.*S*22acee sername? T cones

7 —

ay GET HER MAN oF

- SAVE 75%

He (Continued from page 41) °

ked none forthcoming. Elaine accepted the elt sour itient | ON

F news blandly, as if she had been ex- stories, jdkes, poems, feature

ant. g ti thi lik thi ll th j articles, novels to magazines, news WORK CLOTHES!

sin- 4 pecting something like this all the time.

5 4 She had ne tt h: sl t . papers, publishers, Personal coaching, -§D SURPLUS STOCK FROM
She had never gotten much, she wasn criticism, retyping and marketing now Vax « MID-WEST SUPPLY FIRM!
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everything, and a minor snag like fall- E. R. Dean Literary Agency eiuriadte:

She , ing for a crook certainly wasn’t going ns eS 1 SHIRTS 79¢ 1

net to spoil this dream. She loved him.

ike, - - “Let's skip the talk,” ‘she said. “You | Mas Ne Only 4 for $2.99 }

we 4 are what you are. Let’s accept it.” 1 What a,buy' 4 for the price of one! These shirts. |

ile, ee ne ponent cre oe ee

art- night, Fred was ready to oper- Jeopardizing HAPPINESS, HEALTH, and INCOME? Relief, | Send nome, address, neck size. I

n't ate. He had spotted a likely job in | } SEANSS™RaY "SE Used SEERETLY! Ue br indian sen PANTS to match
a downtown automobile agency which | | FOR MESRSUEE BEVEANGES. tes here being tei ae €

my " : : eee a ee ery ALCOHOL, WITHORAWALt | Sold for 3.95 now only. .... I

ref, looked affuent—and unguarded. He had RING DRINKING CYCLE, Not b remedy tor under Unbelievable Bargains' Send waht 4 for $3.75

Be- cased the place well, noting a rear en- ERE TH WORK” OR Sct | oon — leg sper I

, : ir fs * ., De & Mi COVERALLS .. wear ‘emus

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in’t escape. Just after dark, around six, he Tratrvetions Wily She Fok IMITATIONS ‘SROER | Now only... eee ee

bed had made a quick run down the alley, re mith avers eanerous supply toerial suosilet to hete Seantion cuanuiten Bh Re $5.75 ]

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USE 10 DAYS AT OUR RISK—SATISFACTION GUARANTEES n* immedi tv :
ver it, and further observed that there were eee es mesed portians, aad 64.68 Fenandee can't lose 80 order TODAY for ate delivery
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‘ ane!_Sen 0 jer and we pay save postage $1. leposit on orders
thi UNITED MEDICAL RE !

her Around seven-thirty p.m., the two | | stn Dengaz, ALL GALCO SALES CO. Dept.53

she of them went back to the auto agency. 7120 Horverd Ave © Cleveland 5 Ome ij

she | While Elaine remained in the car, which —mnEw a oo oe
her was parked around the corner, Fred Pe
|. , broke into the place and went to work New Catalog of 3000 Novelties
on the safe in the back room. Fifteen Send 10c {2f,2™azing, catalog of novelties,
lox i minutes later, he was interrupted. Some- ; makers, pines’ & Goats, magic tricks,” joke
thie one came in the front door. It was i By isrverss Soaters sooas, projectors, movieas
on j Ace Weathers, proprietor of the auto jor; auto & bike acceasories, banks, smoxers” gadgets,
H h d h d oe ° i supplies, printing sets, motors, knives, billfotds,
the d agency. ena eafd a suspicious noise guns, sports, books, games, music, scientific supplies,
. . plants, fireworks, office & houschold items, etc., from

de- in the back room. Immediately, he all over world, Rush name, address & 10¢ now!
ent phoned the police, but even as he did, say % she: abdens snemenen were OP amy Mare wren ee

Fred slipped out the back way, fled vy thom sae ar

down the alley and across back yards 30 DAY TRIAL || established firm .offering ILLUSTRATED COMIC BOOKLETS

ea oe to the car around the corner. this service. gern? Sell car “ILLUSTRATED, COMIC POON ST Leas

. . . . z

mere FY Fred took the wheel and drove his big ) SY tori her iy pies HOVER EIES, Dace teen cond se toerted

his Buick away fast, not knowing just which a u alee Recommended for Socktelo Mead petpald Ubon pl ry Ry A Wholesale

7 novelt; t with erder only, No erdere sant
: to . ° take to ay out ~ town, he Fy ¢r- folks approximately 40 COD, SEND OASH OR MONEY -OBDER,
rying to get away from the. vicinity © (\ years of age or older. | REPSAC SALES CO. Dept. 63-C,
on H the auto agency as quickly as possible. THOUSANDS Becoming styles priced | 6 Knickerbocker Station New York 2, N. Y.
ich- | ; from $1.95 to $16.65
ACK at Weathers’ place, a radio oF Seyeenee

ate. 4 i : complete,

ing i patrol car, driven by M. W. Vin- , ry Be P ] LE PSY |

a” son, Jr., who was partnered by Jess We furnish 14 lens sample cards with bad

Everett, pulled up. Quickly, the officers many combinations. Send for free catalog. L swat eran t?
i got the scoop on the attenipted burglary. . antic wile! Write to Epo
® Too late to apprehend the culprit, ADVANCE SPECTACLE CO., INC. i eee Serta. y ’
—~ : ‘ or free information.
ury | the two officers set off in search of any teiadloned Newiinlekh Gi; imation A
| suspicious-looking. car. Weathers had 537 S. Dearborn St. bert. soci Chicago 5, Ill, Dept. SD-2 Cleveland 2, Ohio.”
% e {

— CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE CASES . 57

Not that she had any misgivings about Fred.
With her, he was like a' kid—sweet, loving and de-
voted, and she noted that he was cool, brusque and
manly when he dealt with other people. She could
imagine that he was a fine salesman, driving a
shrewd, hard bargain, a little tough when people
tried to get the best of him, and bitter about losing
a sale. But it was apparent, as the trip progressed,
that he was doing all right. If at times he seemed -
nervous, or edgy, he still was confident, and always
had plenty of ready cash to show her a one whale
of a good time.

Fred worked mostly at night, as the trip car-
ried them through Florida, and into Alabama and

‘ Louisiana. “Most of these buyers like to be wined
and dined,” he told Elaine, “or else they don’t buy
the jewelry. But once you get a few drinks under
their belts, they'll sign some kind of an order.”

“Any of these buyers women?” Elaine asked,

AN es Ne — [Bs RS a ay

frightened that someone might take Fred away
PNY 3 from her.

: 5 He shrugged. “A few.” He leaned over and kissed
ra) her. “Not that it matters. Those dames are too ,
e. hard-boiled—too much business. They got their

jobs, their big-shot careers to think of—and they’re
not interested in me.” He frowned as he saw a hurt
look cross her face. “Or me in them,” .he added

4 diplomatically.

1 q

d 4
n
8
n
s
s
d
d
d
¢
is
i
n
a
d
: Officers James Everett (left) and M. W. Vinson, Jr.
7 worked together and were tragically killed together.
st
e

RED slept late each day, and they spent their
afternoons at the beach or driving in the coun-
try, and Elaine was never happier. The trip took
them on into Mississippi, and after they left Biloxi—
it was March 8, 1952—Fred pulled a huge wad of
cash from his pocket and handed it to Elaine.
“I got paid off for a big order,” he said. ‘And I
wouldn’t want to have this stolen. Why don’t you

place? Then, if we get held up, a crook wouldn't

CASES 4 CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE CASES

hide it some place on you—in your girdle, or some .

: @ A / ;

* 4

‘Dan Mooney points to hole in his ceiling made by

bullet which dying Officer Vinson fired at thug
who had shot him and his buddy, Officer Everett.

get much of a haul.” He flashed another handful
of bills he kept in his trousers pocket. “I got sev-
enty bucks here. That should satisfy anybody who
tried a stick-up.” ,

As he put the money back, she caught:a glimpse
of ‘a pistol butt sticking out of his pocket. He in-
tercepted her glance and smiled sheepishly. “That's
to protect us, in case we—we run into trouble.”

ROUBLE is what they found in Hattiesburg,

Mississippi. They arrived there the next day,
which was a Sunday, and spent the afternoon driv-
ing around. As they drove, Fred talked.

“I been lying to you, kid,” he said. “I’m no trav-
eling salesman. I’m a heist guy, a stick-up man—a
crook.” He glared at her, waiting for an accusation,
a rebuff...There was (Continued on page 57)

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been too concerned about the safety of
his son, who was with him, to chase
the bandit or to look for his getaway
car. Now, the two police officers were
gambling on sheer hunch.

It was a hunch that paid off with a
tragic jackpot. On Providence Street,
they spotted a black Buick careering
along at fifty miles an hour. Everett
said, “That guy’s got to be stopped be-
fore somebody gets hurt.” At the same
time, Vinson slapped the throttle and
started after the Buick that screamed off
Providence into Seventh, and then went
into a screeching turn onto North Street.
Then suddenly, the car swerved into a
parking lot and came to stop.

Everett got out first and approached
the Buick cautiously. Then, seeing that
there were a man dnd a woman in the
car, he forgot caution and ambled over.
Nothing could be more unsuspicious-
looking than the fat and frowzy girl
he saw in the front seat.

“Look, Mac,” Everett said to Fred,
who sat hunched over the wheel, the
inevitable cigarette dangling from his
lips, “you been tearing up the pea-patch
in this car of yours. Where d’y-all
think you're going? Let’s see your
license)”

Fred just. sat there, but Elaine put
her hand on his arm, “Your license,
Fred,” she said, snapping him‘ out of it.

“Okay, buddy,” Fred said. And he
reached into his pocket ‘and’ pulled his
hand out. It wasn’t a license he held
now, but a .38. “You're so damn cu-
tious,” Fred snarled, and he fired.

-The slug ripped into Everett's heart,
and he fell'to the ground, dead.

‘ TINSON, meanwhile, had started to

get out of his car when Everett did, °

but. noting the casual way his partner
had approached the Buick, he simply
waited. But at the sound of the shot,
he “came boiling out of the patrol car,
yanking at his gun.

Vinson didn’t have a chance. Half-
way to the car, a split-second succession
of slugs slammed into him, and he fell,
shot in the shoulder, then in the chest,
and finally a slug tore open his face
below the left eye and went on into his
brain. He was dead an instant later.

Fred pulled the cigarette from his lips
and flipped it so that it bounced off
Everett's body. Then he tucked the gun
back in his pocket and swung the car
door: open. Elaine sat stunned by the
rapid sequence of events. It was only
a matter of seconds from the time Ever-
ett had aproached, until the last shot
entered Vinson’s body. Lights were go-
ing on in houses in the neighborhood.

Fred slammed the door shut. after
him, and told Elaine to drive.

“I got to lam out of here, honey,”
he said. He leaned through the window
and kissed her. “Just drive. Nobody
knows the car. You'll be okay. But it'll
be curtains if you get caught with me.”

“Where shall I go?”

“Back to where we met. I'll find you,
honey.”

“AIL right. If they stop me—” She
gave a convulsive sob and squeezed his
arm, “If they stop me, I—I won't tell

ener ea One nen See COL

them your name or anything at all—”

“It’s all right, honey., Tell ‘em any-
thing. You don’t know my right name
anyway.”

Then he turned, and there was the
sound of a few quick footsteps on gravel
as he disappeared in the darkness.
Elaine started the car, and a moment
later, she was racing down the street.

Wie police arrived at the scene
of the double murder, they were
left without a clue as to what had hap-
pened. One of the neighbors mentioned

seeing a dark sedan taking off down -

North Street, and a patrol car set out
after the will-o’-the-wisp car. But it
was a useless hunt in the night.
Neighbors told- of the sequence of
events as they imagined them by the
succession of sounds, because no one
had really seen anything, except the
headlights of the patrol car and the
mystery vehicle. The slain policemen
were brought to the Methodist Hospital,

‘and the slugs were removed from their

bodies. From ‘the bullets, it was deter-
mined that the killer had been armed
!

with a’°.38,

Baffled to the point of embarrassment,
the Hattiesburg police sent out an alarm
for ‘a dark sedan, possibly specding
away from Hattiesburg.” That was all.
There was no clue of a tire mark in
the gravel of the parking lot, nor an
engine sound nor horn heard by: wit-
nesses, which might identify the make.

ESS than a mile away, and two

hours later, a man named McKin-
ney and his wife were listening to the
radio. There was a gusty wind blowing,
and above the radio he heard a repe-
titious slamming.

“Sounds like it might be the garage
door,” he told his wife, and went out
to see.

McKinney went out into the night,
and’ found that the noise was indeed
made by his garage door. He went in-
side to hook it fast. Suddenly, he heard

the sound of footsteps, and he walked

quickly over and turned on the car
lights. He saw a man’s hat lying on the
floor and decided that there must be an
intruder.

He looked around—straight into the
business end of a pistol.

“Don’t come any nearer, mister. Just
put up your hands and go back to the
house. Then turn out your lights. Pron-
to!”

McKinney gaped at the tanned, hand-
some youth, who talked softly through

a cloud of cigarette smoke. The cigar- -

ette dangled from his thick lips. “You
heard,” the youth said. “Get going!”
McKinney backed away, turned and
walked to his house. Inside, he turned
out the lights. In the-dark, he went to
his dresser and got a loaded pistol, then
phoned the police. “This is Emmett
McKinney talking,” he said. “I live at
507 North 19th Street, and there’s a
guy armed with a pistol hiding in my
garage . . .” And he went on to de-
scribe the details of his encounter.
‘Instantly, the news was out over the
radio car. broadcast, and Patrolmen

CONFIDENTIAL DETECTIVE CASES

}

Glenn Maddo:

Creel
on M
heard
were on the
killer of their

They | searc
intruder had
later, howeve
Hardy Avenu
swiftly along
the outfit, gne
Creel to stop
stopped the «
waited, his |
his side.

As the ma:
good look at
was sure-tha
truder. The
young fellow
come along
ters. Couple
you.”
“What for

Creel mov:
arm that was
back pocket.
That settled
was in the H
ters, facing <
detectives.

TARLIN¢
swore hy
except for
E. C. Harris
were only a
There was
all. The sus
Fred Starlin;
say. He den
of the office
Th “e

answ

they wouia
or not the g
was the mu
its driver, h
bulletins an
out.

Two days
talk, nor wa
in Forest C:
Perry found
to be old c!
on his farm

that it cont:

en’s clothin
plastic bag
an assortme

By this t:

* the two pc

as coming
swore “I fc
the cache o
indicate th
was a WO!
the bundle
Another
miles out
Road, an a
The car w:
and it was
tained cos:
facial tissu
evaluated}
added to t!

CONFIDENT

&
me

4 all~”
n-any-
> name

as the
gravel
urkness.
joment
street.

> scene
y were
id hap-
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down
set out
But it

-nce of
by the
no one
spt the
nd the
licemen
lospital,
m their
; deter-
armed

ssment,
a alarm
mending
all.

t in

ir an
by wit-
e make.

nd two
McKin-
z to the
slowing,
a repe-

garage
vent out

e night,

indeed
went in-
1e heard
walked
the car
g on the
st be an

into the

ster. Just
k to the
ts. Pron-

d, hand-
through
le cigar-
2s. “You
-oing!””
sned and
e turned
went to
~stol, then
Emmett
I live at
there’s a
‘n my
o de-
t.
over the
-atrolmen

E CASES

Glenn Maddox, Allen Sullivan and A.C,
Creel all intercepted it and converged
on McKinney's house. As soon as they
heard the story, they weré sure they
were on the trail of the trigger-happy
killer of their buddies. '

They. searched the garage, but the
jntruder had disappeared. Half an hour
later, however, Creel was driving down
Hardy Avenue and saw a man walking
swiftly along the sidewalk. The face,
the outfit, the man’s haste all prompted
Creel to stop. He continued past him,
stopped the car well beyond him, and

_ waited, his hand tight on the gun at

his side.

As the man approached, Creel’ got a
good look at ‘him in the street light and
was sure-that this was McKinney's in-
truder. The patrolman stopped the
young fellow and said, “I want you to
come along with me to police headquar-
ters. Couple of questions I'd like to ask
you.”

“What for?”

Creel moved swiftly, and clamped an
arm that was straying toward the man’s
back pocket. In the pocket was a .38.
That settled it, and soon “Fred Starling”
was in the Hattiesburg Police Headquar-
ters, facing a half-dozen policemen and
detectives.

;

TARLING, as he -called himself,

swore he had found the gun, and
except for the weapon, Police Chief
E. C. Harris and Sheriff W. A. Payne
were only able to find a few dollars.
There was no written identification at
all. The suspect insisted his name was
Fred Starling, but that was all he would
say. He denied any part in the killing
of the officers.

The police were convinced, however,
that an accomplice in a car was the
answer to the riddle. In a few hours,
they would know from ballistics whether
or not the gun Starling was found with
was the murder weapon. The car, and
its driver, had to be found. Once again,
bulletins and radio appeals were sent
out.

Two days went by, and Starling didn’t
talk, nor was the car discovered, But up
in Forest County, a farmer named Lee
Perry found a bundle of what appeared
to be old clothes, lying beneath a bush
on his farm. Opening it, he discovered

‘that it contained both men’s and wom-

en’s clothing, and tucked inside was a
plastic bag Fall of .38 calibre ammo and
an assortment of costume jewelry.

By this time, the bullets which killed

‘the two policemen had been identified

as coming from the gun Starling still
swore “I found.” ‘And the discovery of
the cache on the Perry Farm seemed to
indicate that the missing accomplice

was a woman. The man’s clothes in”

the bundle exactly fitted Fred Starling.

Another day went by and then, six
miles out of Hattiesburg on Pigeon
Road, an abandoned Buick was found.
The car was processed for fingerprints,
and it was noted that the catch-all con-
tained cosmetics and some lipsticked
facial tissues. The lipstick color was
evaluated, identified, and another clue
added to the growing collection.

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|
|
| ‘
|
|

ee MOONE GPRI SLEDS SAL nt, oe RONDA 2 a
May , 150

slave William ( -

3. M, Catching was compensated $450. for axs
slave William, executed Pike County, Miss.,

in May , 1850. Warrant 1024, state Treasurer"s
Disbursement Journal, Massissippi 3tate ee
A rchives

May 17

ae ~*“gune 6, 1855 ee
| CATCHINGS, Bill |
Hanged, Pike County, Miss,, 1856

".e.eBill Catchings, a negro, was hung on the same gallows
with Frank Carr (in 1856) for the murder of his master,
Silas M, Catchings," |

IISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISS., 1798-1876 by Luke Ward
Conerly, Brandon Printing Co,, Nashville, Tenn,, 1909,
Page 121

SUN, Baltimore, MD 6/20/1855 reports hanging of
Carr on June 6

P\OORE'S.

MOORE'S.

2ems by Week, at

300k Store.

‘resh Country Butter, ©

spiabane eS

Mil Ol BEG Saree, cP We eae, OAR F
fruitices: The men bluntly refaged. tes,
duce the withering fire of the British
artillery on their front aod. the al ht
thoussad cavalrymen who wernt
ing sround to their rear, ent
the disordered forces, begging and
urgiag and. commsnding the men te
facethe music, but their threat’ and
entreaties were equally fuiile.

CAUSES DISMAY.

London, March 9—The. Times haa
Osfontein dispatches whicn, any thet
Lord Roberta’ recent victory had caused
dismay at Bloemfonteim, sud that the
aibmission of the Pree: ‘Stators idexs
pected within a week, >,

WANT TO SURRENDER.

Free State burghers are -claandrity, for
President Steyn to surrender. - mae

The forces: oppoaing’ Lord diobérts
Wednesday are now tinted | Bh 18,5

away in disorder. ‘Qeiore
French's pursuit.> ° «|

Durban, March 0-+T¥' a tn dexmbogil
that General, Warren. with the fifth }.

division of General Bulter’s forces will
be acnt to the Free State to reinfordé
Lord Roberts.
Sf This wonld seem: “to indtoate ‘batho

attempt will be made by General Rule
ler to fores a way through =p

pane paeeee. et eA % .

: ERUGER’S anDeNas.,
Lorenzo Marquez, Match:8-Piesis
dant Kage is quod aye ina on

Both of the Presidenis rode moe

Poplar Grove, March“¢—Many’ of. the’ ‘

000 men, They seem to, have melted {.

WARREN'S Seine ee om

‘ports of the oficars
a

_aenapaRmeeESS

| MICHIGAA AND a

Representatives of the Universities bet |
. Moet tn Debate.

- Phitadelphia, Pa., March: oases
ment aud enthusiaem will be the phon |
gramme at the Academy of Must to-
inight, The second intercollegiate. dos;
bate between the Universities of Mich-
igan and Penns>lvania, for which the’
ataudenta of both Univermtiés have been.
preparing for many weeks, will begin
at8 o'slock, providing the usual ore~.
liminary enth

subsides by t time sufficiently for

1 the debaters to be heard.

The question for argument is, “Re~
solved, That: the formation of trusts
should be. opposed. by legislation.”
Pennsylvania will support the affirma-
tive and Michigan will defend the neg-
ative wae of this question.

M'GOVERN AND GARDNER.

4 ceemeecten

Keen. avdveet Manifested iu. rheir
‘Pugilistic Battie,

New York, March @—Keen™ interest
ia being shown in the-twenty-round
content which is to be decided. tonight
Op petors | thé Broadway Athletic club he-
tweem’ Gevar Gardner, the-*Omaha:
Kid," and Terry McUovern,; the recoge
{nized featherwéight champion.: —

Whirlwind wil find a man. better

suited+o ievigie of fighting Sons any-
one he has |

siasm of the coliegians |

Ola Gardner,” the “little Brooklyn

re,

B pt & te

carl have ~
General Otis. t

States some time ie S
each of the Fourtesai

and ['wenty- +hird infas

There are seventeen <
plague, on the: iepar
Nanyo Maru, which’
at Port Townsend.)

The Howe 1
Rodina, s Democ#at fri
Alabama District, sad
stead William, F.. ‘pide
can.

z. |

GRAFTED EGG ILM

F BSG Se Wee a
} St. ew 5 ae PAP ee .
Ope execution of. ‘Calyin Wwiil-|
‘iama, colored, for the murder of j
i Maroug Kinsley, occurred in the!
‘Sait yard ‘qn: Puesday: ~The trap
| wee - Sprung . by Sheriit Crostiy
4 who was” unwilling to impose a!
pouty wpon another. that lie dig-}
liked: to perform himselt. The
drop. fell. at 12:45 and a few min-
utes ‘afterwards — Williams was
pronoanced dead by Drs. Paine,

See natn 5

PDilworth: ‘and Hamilton, hrs neek

| wes-Rob-a. Hoticeable. tremor or!

waa broken by ‘the fall and thera)|

moving of a muscle! ie @ walked |
to hia doom with a Ssteadyestep,
, having” become ‘reconciled - to!
tie, ave some ‘directions
a8 td. his: home: affairs, and said!
it-was—not his. intention to_kill|
when -he- struck the fatarbtow-}
The jail yard was surrounded by
| people A and they were in all the
ltrees” “Gnd on: neighboring house
tops, but pertect: order: “prevailed.
it fg. ‘fo. be hoped. the. execution off
Witt ‘Lanier on the-- 49th, - will be
43 ae well managed by ‘ting sheriif |
fénd—result in_as Viti local: dig-

fing hates It-will not.be the fault’
‘of “the county andity apiioeiiies,,

et ee ag ae

f ‘imirable. managerient 0 of ¢ erow was, |
if this i is not the case. ‘

: herdeen Mes ans
ILLIAMS, Calvin, black, hanged aberdeen, M3 3/11/1902
hed shee akon oi 9 mt & cA, e

SLAVE WILLIMM, hanged Monroe County, MS thee 1847

b a cr aa } eon |
ai thee ¢ (An 4 eel yyy lo
la Pals 63-24

| emai

W Aa) e 9 Le he 9 J e, 4

Bill Smith and Keisy Wilson, two
celorea murderers now ia jail, and both
coademned to be hung, ‘nade an eifurt |
last Friday night to meke their escape.
They are coafined is the same csil and
[were fastened to a chain which was}
secured to the window. They bad ob-|
tained by wome unkpowr means two]
{ srasl] eaws, a drmor chisal and a large |
sized (ack-hammer. Mr. C. B. Clark,
deputy sherif, by some means dis |
cevered that there was something go-|
ing on Saturday morniog and found |
that they had cut the chain to which |
they were fasteced, aod had com-
meuced to saw on the bolts of the lpck
atthe door. They evidently intended
to get out into the hall, and then by
the use of the chisel could easily have
cut their way oat through the floor.
But their operations were frustrated
and Wilson is now secure from any
further efforts in that way.

Q m
GAZETTE, Friar8s Poiht, MS, 11/12/1886 (4:2)

Pe %

20 SOUTHERN (2nd) 66lscert. den. 65 supct 10873 23 SOUTHERN (2nd) 26h.

WOOD, Donald Frederick, poseitmy electrocuted Hattiesburg, Missey 10—26=19))5,:

"St. Louis, Moe (UP). = 'It was heaven = those two weeks," Mrs. Bernice Wood
said Tuesday in recalling how she sentenced herself to a fortnight, in a death cell

‘with her husband, awaiting execution for murder in Hattiesburg, Miss. Mrs. Wood,

attractive, brown-haired war worker, was back at her job Tuesday in the Emerson
Electric Manufacturing Co, plant. ‘'I just got so lonesome, I just couldn't stay

«here any more,' she said, 'so I got on a train and went to Mississippi. It was

easier than I thought it would be, Mrs, Woodsaid she was met at the station by 'a
Hattiesburg church worker,' who took her home and gave her a dinner, ‘'Them,' she
added, 'I went to the jailer and he asked me how long I wanted to stay with my
husband, = It was as simple as that.' Her husband was cheerful, she said in speak-
‘ing of the novel reunion in what she had feared would be the last two weeks of his
life. ‘We made a lot, of plans for the future, Neither one of us ever lost hope =
and we-still haven't, When he is free we will establish a home in St. Louis.

Have children, maybe, and live like other people.' Mrs. Wood returned to St. Louis
last Fhursday fromXXWaXH 'two weeks of heaven on earth,' but successfully evaded
reporters until today when she was interviewed at her work bench in the Emerson
plant, where she is a punch press operator, Her husband wrote her she said, say=
ing he -had only 2 weeks to live, before his execution for the hitch-hike slaying
of Robert A, Lipscomb, a Jackson, Miss., laundry owner, on Feb. 12, 191), and
asked her to come and see him, Originally he had been sentenced to die last Fri-
day, but at the last minute won a stay, pending an appeal, The Woods met two years
ago, after he had returned from long service in thé Pacific and after a two-week
whirlwind courtship were married, She was working in a store near Camp Shelby
when the fatal Lipscomb shooting occurred. 'I don't mind working in a war plant,'
she said, 'It's a case o6 busy hands and busy mind, I don't have a chance to”
think horrible thoughts. And I know Don will come out of this all’right and be

* get freee!" NEWS, Jackson, Mississippi, March 20, 195 (122&3)6

"Hattiesburg = (Special.) = Donald Wood, 2l-year-old overseas veteran and convicted
murderer of Robert A. Lipscomb, Yackson laundry, has ended-two weeks of Hawaiian
ousekeeping with his pretty red-haired, green-eyed wife in the prison death cell,
His wife .of two years, Mrs. Bernice Woqd, whom he proposed to after knowing 20
minutes and married within a week, returned to her job ina war plant in St.
Louis, Wood, of Glen Falls, N. Y., remains in his death cell, but declared Satur-
day that he is planning a long and happy life with his 'green S¥#@ eyes' when he
gets out, Jailer J. I. Hartfield did not disclose the details of the strange
horieymoon until it was over. Mrs, Wood came here to be with her soldier husband
pefore his executon fer the death of Lipscomb last year, February 12, He was sche-
duled to die on Friday, but was granted a stay of execution pendimg an appeal hear-
ing. There .was no.place for her to live. Mrs. Dorothy Ware, a Hattiesburg music
teacher, appealed to the jailer to allow the young woman to stay with her husband

. 'for the last 2 weeks of his life.! She was permitted to live in his cell, share

his bunk, and remained there two weeks, returning home Thursday affer her husband's
feath sentence was appealed and his execution stayed, Wood collapsed when his
wife left the cell. The soldier, according to his story from the death cell, met
her two years ago on the Pacific Coast, just after returning from a.'hitch' with
the army gEngineers in the.Pacific, ‘Twenty minutes after we met - it was at a
hamburger stand =I proposed, WAXXMEEAGH We were married a week later,' he saide
Then he was transferred to.Camp Shelby. She went to work in a Ste Louis war plant.
Wood's father is a retired New York parole officer, The! murder occurred April 29,
19h), shortly after Wood 'thumbed' a.ride with Lipscomb from the camp where the
laundry owner was installing a dry-cleaning and laundry system. Lipscomb was shot
5 tim es and his: body later found in a wooded gulch, covered with leaves after
Wood, following his arrest with Lipscomb's car ownership papers in his possession.
The soldéer led the searching party to the scene of the murder, At the hearing,

Wood's defense attorney brought out the fact that Wood had recently been broken
from a top sergeant to a private, that he was desperately in need of money since
his wife was expecting a baby, and that the soldier was under great mental strain

at the time. Wood entered the army when he was 19, and has been in service in the
Pacific, South America and the Panama Canal Zone. - He has been dkMM studying gar-
dening. during his imprisonment, 'I've been reading up on it so I can fix a garden
for 'green-eyes' when I get out of herg,' he said Saturday," NEWS, Jackson, MS,
March 18, 1945 (1*)&5)

"Funeral services. for Donald Wood, who was executed early Friday morning, will be
held at 10 aeme Monday at theWriight Funeral Home, with the Rev. Frank Beard, pastor of
the East Pine Street Assembly of God church, and Dr. L. E. Rouse, pastor of Fifth
Avenue Baptist’ churchJ@@Ri#TAR IAL XXAKKAK, officiating. Interment will follow in
Highland Park Cemetery. The Wright Funeral home will be in charge of arrangements,
Sheriff Ke Je Grantham reported today that although he had notified Wood's father, and
his wife, of Wood's execution and had asked for, any instructions regarding the dispo-
sition of the body, he has received no answer, Mrs. Victoria Williams, member of the
East Pine Street Assemb;u pf God church, has donated the grave space for Wood in
Highland cemetery, in her lot, and has told R. W. Wright of the Wright Funeral Home
that she will assume all funeral expenses, The casket already has been selected,
~ (Mrs, Williams owns and operates the Hortence Beauty shoppe, 5284 Main Street.) To=
dayy Mrs. Williams said, 'I thought as a christian, I could.do this deed = to provide
appropriate services and -burial .for Donald, Our pastor was very mucf interested in
Dondald, and we fell that dir. Beard was one of the persons instrumental in helping
Donald to become a Christian,' Mr, wright said he had been notified by Walter An- {
-derson of the Mineral Springs church community, that Wood could be buried in the Mineral
Springs cemetery, and that residents of the community would dig the grave. Mr, Wright
told Mre Anderson -that arrangements already were underway to conduct ,the interment in t
“Highland Park cemetery." AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, Misse, Motgber 27, 1945 (8:26)

"(AP) = Donald Frederick Wood, former Camp Shelby soldier from South Glen Fakls, NeYe,
died here in the state pprtable electric chair at 3:55 asm. (CST) today for the pistol-

_ slaying of Robert A. Lipscomb, Jackson laundry man, on Feb, 10, 19h. Only one shock
‘of current was sent through Wood's body at 1:51 asm. Physicians declared him dead )
minutes later. . Wood walked to the electric chair without assistance, greeting the wite
nesses with 'Good morning, fellows.’ As the head piece was fitted on he remarked,
‘Well, fellows, “here goes my dandruff." * Executive clemency was denied in the case
yesterday at noon when Gov, Thomas Le Bailey said, 'I find no justification for up-
setting the judgment of the court." -None of Wood's relatives was at the jail this
morning when he died = not even his wife, Bernice, of St. Louis, who spent 2 weeks with

+ him on a_ second honeymoon! in the jail house here last February when it appeared that
he would go to the electric chair shortly, Sheriff Ke J. Grantham said, 'Everything
went -off might quietly. - When Donald came down .the steps he was smiling, and seemed

~ cheerful and composed, He talked and laughed up until the last. Two ministers stayed

with him most of the night - Dr. L, E, Rouse, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist

church, and R&X¥XEX the Rev. Frank Beard, pastor of the East .Pine Street Assembly of
God church,' Dr. Rouse delcared today that he .thought 'Wood was a Christian.' Dr,
Rouse has visited the condemned man over a two year period, Thursday night Mr, Beard
visited Wood and had communion services with him, after they had read and meditated on
{wo passages of scripture, 'We read the 23rd Psalm,' said Mr. Beard, ' and especially ,
meditated on the limes, 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil.' Don said that was his éxperience = that he was ready to go. We
also studied the last part of the 8th chapter of Romans * 'Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all
the day longs we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved use' According to Mr, Beard, this

* passage was ‘especially MXSSHMMXXHXHXX blessed to Donald.’ Mr,.Beardsaid that he was

* with Donald in-his cell this morning when.he awakened, shortly before the execution,

’ MWe went down together,' said-Mr, Beard, ‘after he got in the chair, I asked him if
he didn't want to speak a word for the Lord, Donald said confidently, "If they could
only realize that-it is worthwhile to know the Lord at any cost,"' Mr. Beard said tr-*
Donald's last words were: 'I!1l be looking for you over yonder,.." AMERICAN, Hatties-

* burg, Mississippi, October 26, 195 (1:l&2.) |

gewilacmioain
Negro Hanged at Indianola.
| Indlanola, Miss, July 35.—Sheriff
Garrett yesterday at 11 o'clock hanged
Charley Wright, colored, for the muf-
[der of A NEBrs wornsty Tear Dopdsvine’
about elghteen. months ago. Hjs re-
malns. were .ftaken..Dy. - his . mother. .to.

| Cruger for buriak
Og a ccc

Pe
)

er Py? . . ies tS . be
Avhot clue wats found today fn
the slaying 8Bunday night of two
Hattiesburg policemen, M. W. Vin-
son Jr. and Jesse Everett. —--
It. consists of a bundle of cloth-
ing, some canned food, &- sack~- of

The bundle was found this morn-

tind. Package:

ex ammunition and other .items.

ng by Lee Perry. ry farmer, who was
NE : ae

{
4
2

‘ a at

walking his fence IIne when he

spotted Jt lying beside his * stock
pond,

A name — WHEELER — Inked in

the band af some of- the clothing,

WAS the name of the nan arrested
Sunday night following the killing
of the policemen by burglars wno
had been fushed from the , Ace

| Vinson and Everett... :

‘Mourned by. Buddies

By ELLIOTT CTIAZE.
AboutS7:30 Bunday night Patrol-
man M. ra Vinson Jr. called into

his police radio;, “Twenty-
seven.” —. oe
In the lacon! anguace of the

police’ this means’ te
celved.? _ Mad : a j
Within the hour the 32- year-old
Vinson and his 27-year-old patrol-
man buddy, Jesse James. Everett,
were Gead, ieee
Patrolman Bov Neaser, who wis
working the night deak at the po-
lice station, and who gave them
the radio message which was to
eoat—them—their-ives—sald—today:
“when I sent: them out to. Ace
Weathers Motors Co., to invest!gate
a possible burglary,. Jt ecemod no
more than & routine. aasinnment
Vinson gave me his Kael! ahead

Ae R1C

ou tee -

| and T vememibet I {eined Seeks ‘end

Ht a Clgarect and grinned a little to
myself, thinking of, the way they'd
acted a few, minutes earlier. when
they came into the station to check
with me. TR ta teen ars v*

> ra c
we thee
gtx ‘

“tenes
¥

Fe Ser

rong eatin wy EVER RETT,,
x! ‘tay

They were tn’ a "heh oth
of them were swell guys. They teed
to joke, Jt must have ‘been oons
1.18 a then, or eee
: . Can't Define reelings Bh?

“Today I don't really | know hae
I feel sdout. it; About what hap-
pened later, Y mean. I thought about
{t moet of the night. It's a kind of
rorrow I never felt before. ++ ¢.

—T- keep- lelling- myself YOU: “gant
them out there, Bod. It was you.’
And then I tell myself that even
if I'd ‘mo¥n what was waking for
them I'd've had t do the same

Ad) DVattiosbe
Wirah 10, 118.

ieones on Page Thirteen)

belleved |

ta: 3 Fehr
See) 6 Atne +¢s ona

Malin, Street. ; shige
The prisoner: Is Lath ee
Wheeler, 24, of. 2080 .Sheridan’ ae
Jacksonvilie,-Fia,. He- is a slender) 93
black-halred. man.. who. _ptands % ee
feet, 8 Inches tall and welghs 185.8:
. Sheri? Abb Payne.,declared: th
afternoon that “beyond_s coubdt? thas
things in a, bundle belong : to the”
slayers,’-' oh ot: + eM, “cA oRAA RE
There were. some women's ' eloth=¥4
ing, costume jewelry, men’s, unders"h
wear,” several paper-wrapped ; roUsy);
of ‘nickels and dimes (about .$40)¢ pay
Jiwd cans of crabmeat and x clutteg 43
{of other, odds and encs, ° I, OSs ee
There was & small “tar dbOad wot
eler’s box Jn this tangle of personal: %
effects, Printed-‘on the’ box ‘wash if
J. B. ELLIOTT, JEWELRY, :-BIy
LOXI, Miss... tga Shea

Also found was‘an orange ; ‘Bapet ty
circular advertising the . Majeatie ,
hotel, Mam! Beach, Fla. ‘yx. nea

LA clear. plagtic.. sack. consi ing*t
approximately. 100° “rounds , Ol 4 384%
caliber cartridges-was in the bunidle, 5}
The gun taken away from Wheeler 4
{gs a 38, sald Chief of Police E ah
Harris.” tae oe Pata he . arte sinyte f

Officers bellere. now the ‘womar; ae
fugitive may be the wife of Wheel: 4
er, That name was in the band. ‘of:
a pair, of, women's-type -. slacks 48
Payne sald “1 was not impossible 4
that the ..woman:-. was: ‘seriously, Ps
wounded In-the exchange of ;shoty BF
which, “zed the policemen. aki

"It's possible thet later het’ Corr
panion, or companions, dumped hier?
out somewhere along: the .way.’ Nees
then mal efiecta” et rid. nasties
personal effects wie Tart} ashe at
4 The .farm) ‘Gn which. the: pees
were“found’{s on. old Aighwa 5 40 oF:

“Indications -are that: Tet:

car, after unloading its f par

xy Taehy

cela: kept-going nb hy Bieng %

irs

Fo pod Peptehdh ar ppontele pi Leys

2.
‘i fe Be Met) aed HER OF fab oa se a

0 Im oO

sae <enage siblavfor” they ay ie. “to ~attible: deck:
xe aap se may,

gd get aa WE PISY Be
“The ane ae ty. ‘by. Perry fy
ently!were placed carefully on “thes
‘edgeiof. the ponds Payne sald the
were’ not. scattered,, around , 06 i553

; they. “had: been ; thrown - there. fen 12

Val

hasta'e. >. an Myke x Sey eR
“mwhedler wig moved trom the ety
fat) this morming to an unde
destination, ww... 28, ghey
Pr Yorrest™ County Aiteney “Orertont
Curtte said-Wheeler- will. echoes
with: murder,« Currle: was one’ ofsst
nimherous Jaw’ enforcement ahaa
who, questioned ‘ Wheeler 4 continu}

owsly from the time he Bale aan
|< t (Continued on Pigs Thirteen)
Sp ge gee SW: reletiv

: ies ne BOW Fea ah beer dome until (jg) bertan Chan of Ban Py encima

; Jonna Halloran, prominent young : : ‘ 9

\ oar t r ramp I v ft! ' ' Be :
\ By UK. Envoy Clrector of the Chicago Choraliats,| {2 arene are revamped under] “A. na Y Official’ paid aman @& 4

ED NATIONS, N.Y. (—|loran will be the accompanut,

lop administrative fleld Jobs in the A Na epidem! trot bnit €7
Ambassador Benjamin v.|. Chora) atudenta from schools ‘Y 6 con bn

day called on ait kovern- | throughout District Five of the|DUFtau If they qualify, But Dunlap boarded the transport minutes after yi"

‘the world to make con-|Mlaslssippt High. &chool Actiyiting | DM sald mont of them will be out.!it arrived yesterday And began tak~ Ae

Proposals for disarma-| Association, have attended the| He said the bureau needa experi- Ing throat cultures among the swocEx-

‘a Invitation obviously in-| Festival, The. Gistrict includes pile and skilled tax men in-the Gewmen, The J#pen-bound . ship 1364

ne Soviet Union, which ta} schools in Meridian Newton, Ellig. | POU: t f the coll carried. no: troope, - Wigs LOR

up disarmament proposals | ville, . Union, Bandersville, Laurel,|, Seventeen o ¢ collectors now! All crew members had been ini"

ounter to those favored by | Hattlesburg and those in the sure

ed Btates

Ryn

rent commission, Ich be-
work. on. arms“ regulatton
sation today at the perma-
ted Nationa headquarters.
wiet delegate on this com-
© Deputy Forelgn Minister

Malik, who arrived re-
om Moscow after consulta-
h his government and who
ed to {Ight Western pros
the commission.

vents”

TOT “sched med here:
eligibie for nomesteaad
0 the tag assessor's of-
Must apply at the city

ean-up campaigns are
Hip of the City View
with the Hattlesburg
nsorship of the Petal-
garden clubs, . ;
ua]. garden pilgrimage
‘den Club ts underway.
ed Crose fund drive ig
$19850, . ° a
Uses of schools in-Dig-
1 Activities Assoclation |
w the climax to the
f Chicago wil} be the

ae :
exhibition of Walter ~
G8, will be displayed
the sponsorship of the
Ing Junsor High Bchool,
nthly community sing,
foodmen of the World,
WOW nan-on-mMain-#+——
16 conducting revival -.
PUst Church. A revival] ae
lst Church, with serv.

eaLiz le=the 41

let 13 American Legion |
ld at 7:20 tonight at 7]

‘st County Thira’ sun.

and. the, Western

rounding areas ‘

Nug ~by- Flgar, -Hayd

cagni and Rogers: ;
Hattlesburg High Bchool was host
at an Informa] tea given thts aller-
noon Jn the cafeteria for Festival
purticlIpants. The Peatival began
Thursday night with the adjudica-
ton of choruses, quartets and sex-
tets by the BUCH conductor, Re-
hearsals were held this norning and
afternoon.
Miss Gwendolyn Bteadman, music
kuperviscr of the Hattlesburg Pud-
Ice Bchools, fg choral chairman of
the district, a

Weather

Misslesipnf — Partly cloudy with
no Important temperature changes
this afternoon, tonight or Batur-
Gay; gentle to moderate mostly
northerly winds on the coast fee
Coming gast to southeast Saturday.

" Extended’ forecast for the pertod,
March 14-19: :
Mississippi, Eastern Loulslana, Al-
abama: :

Temperatures will average 4 to 8
Cegrees above normal. Norma] min-
imum 41 to 48 north and 46 to §2

North and 69 to 73 south. Cooler
northwest Saturday, warmer’ Bun-
day, cooler north Monday, warmer
Tuesday, Precipitation moderate to
heavy, Bhowers east and south Bat-
urday and northwest 8unday. Bhow-
ers Tuesday,

eC), cee!
POLITICAL CAMPAIGN

CURB BILL ;
[SACK BON —-H lea, UP Every po- |
Utical employe jn the state of Mis-
aise! pp!—trom “tlty~ garbege collec-
tors to the governor would be
| barred from.eupporting. any. . {l-
cal candidate in any campelen un-
der Rep. Paul Mcasell's Jatest pro-
posal in the Horse of Ropresenta-
Uvea, a d<
“It wold not tat. them from be-

6 at 2 pm, Bunday a4

. 4 | the reform plan, Callm RR. Johnson of Cleveland, 42,48
wil conduct the program of mixed " 7 ca ' P<)
chorus numbers, Mrs, Ellaroag }al- The present collectors may take}Tenn, was, in “very seTious ood.

The program tonight’ with inottiae.
s e) ‘a a3
Ina, Tkach, Bachy ona ee ‘

south. Normal maximum 68 to 48} 32

the civil service exams for the new | dition.” CT Ca DG

In office have civil service status, noculated with-anti-toxin parachute.?2)54 has
and these may be found..qualified ed to the Bayfield’ Wednesday, 4, sc Kae
to stay on, a SOE SIER OM TPN |

POW SC eo mmelRT coaga?. Sees
(00 Deathless Days LOUISVILLE, Fey. UA fu

The Junior Chamber of Come {ia charge ‘they murdered an attoce
merce {!# sponsoring a traffic |{ney-who Tepresented the son's wife +
safety campaign with a goal of {iin @ divorce actlon,. +5 ‘Sb aah jeg,
"400 Deathlesa Daya" on Forrest |{° Criminal Court-Judge fi’ Ro Curs's
County's streets and roads, This {| tls yesterday actA ;
ls the 65th day since a traffic ||of Roy Tarrence, 45, aod Leodard,’;
fatality occurred Jn the county, || 22 .. oy | Ta SaeCCLY ,
Be careful; you could be the-one A ceroner’s fury ruled. that the:
to end the string. . Tarrences murdered Attorney Frang,

cls J. McOormack, 84,. \. “CTR TE gee

oN ie
oh

« s, ‘\ tw

Slayings ee a Eg

_ Surprise a Princip
Factor in Wheeler

“By ELLIOTT CHAZE ‘squad.caP and ocen MY gS 07, ih
‘ Bheriffa officers and police bé-| the maroon,- Buck... ta quectloa 7 Silas
Neve now that the element of sur- Wheeler, might have been. throwy 2 see
prise was @ primary {ngredient in| off syard. by Wheeler mild. que
the Bunday night slaying of: two tion: “What's the matter oF
Hattiesburg patrolmen, Jesse James anything wrong?” Soe aX cst Fach
Fverett, 27, and M. W. Vinson Jr]. The Porman wooth told of ’

ane ete TELS

oF; ‘

7
Sueae

th 1 {ind newsmen tbe ~Wheeer,),
Here's why: . < | oweetheart~ had. acted “aay if
1. Evidence {ndicatea that during | situation waa/ an: ordtharyr oh
the chase. of tha getaway car fol-| until he fired the “shot tag
lowing an attempted burglary of} Kvere(t.“7": IS ya Oe
Ace. Weathe-s Mctors Co, the pa-} -B,~No dete tn “Ry ete
trolmen lost sight of the Neelng | had: been fired. og whet uryi ar
vehicle : ee 6. There, waa’ a técxsbot-toaced
3. When firalty they caught ‘wp! shotgun in’ the’ squad car, banind ate ao
wita It'¢a West Poth ans worth] the back peat. If) Vinson nad, beet Anes
Sts., the chances are they wets une] worrted or even suspicious be wold:
Lcerfain whether {t was the one ther/ hare peed this. weapon in core.
were looking for. > 747 | the peeupante d¢~the-Bu
3. Parts of statements made’ by pa Sheena tote d O
Luther Carlyle Wheeler and Klaine os ae Severticae cage :
Forman (uth of wbum-ane charged |irygh ; Sty slayer, be
with burglary and murder eelads bare “add” time ta”
lish that Vinson +idnt -eren, get back of the |
Out of the police equad ear. anti of: the “rhot'
he -heard . the eth f ;
Everette Ble. 6+: pags

id
.

Sy
a

" rd nti ae

coming polite) candidates thems
Hlvee o¢ (rom roung,

, ee

¢ -/,

ae “« @
Ct Ahem 5 me gape |
dd bd . 1

aCnuae

ava

Vie ts survived ty his widow: a
son, Dr, Jamea Ray Jr., wm faculty
member at Miasisaispl Btate Col-
-¢ge; four daughters Mra, Bidney
Scales, Btarkvule; Mrs, John Gib-
son, the former Margaret Ray, who
served here several years ag secre-
{ary at Main Street Baptist Church
and who now is on the staff at the
New Orleans Baptist Seminary; Mrs
Walter, Clark, Magnolia, Ark., and
Mrs. George Rhea Walker, 8tone-
ville, Miss, Nine grandchildren also
survive.

.
——

MRS, M. O. SANFORD

Services were held at 2 p.m.
Thursday at Rumnelstown Baptist
Church for Mra. M. O. Sanford, 79
who died Wednesday at the home
of her daughter, Mra. J. F. Bhep-
herd, {in Runnelstown.

“Rites were conducted by Rev, A
|T. Walker, Rev. J. J. Hedgpeth and
Rey, Dave Irby. Burial was in Run-
nelstown Cemetery, with Hulett Fu-
neral Home Jn charge.

Active pelibearers were H. C.
Shoemake,:L. J. Odom, B. R. Run-
nels, Nollie Travis, Alton” 8impson
and - Buddy. P

” WILLIAM HENRY LEE “ai

The body of Willam Henry Lee
was buried Thursday afternoon in
Pine Orove Cemetery following
servicea at- Pine Grove Baptiat
Church with: Rev. Duval Stewart,
Rev, Charlie Nobleg and Rev. H. H.
Bridges officiating, .

ActUve pallbearer® were V. O., F. FP.
and E. ¥, Canerdn, GO. W, Landry,
P. M. Roney and FE. R. Btokes,

Mr.. Lee, who was 80 years old,
died Wednesday at his home in the
Corinth community, RFD 1, Puryis.

Hulett Funeral Home was in
charge of arrangements,

. ¥. J. WILLIAMSON

- The body of BE. J. (Pete) William-
oot, WTS “te “Wedneaty jn Cisco,
Texas; arrived here this morming
and was carried to Quigiey’s Funeral
--ome, ®

Mr. Williamson, ¢2, was a former
resident of RFD 1, Moselle, His
body will be taken this afternoon to
the heme of Mrs. Miles B. Porter
in Moselle,

Services will be held at 3 pm.
Baturday at Boule’s Chapel Meth-

Laurel wiD Officlate, aasisted by
Rey, Paul Harris of Moselle and
Rey, W. T. Randal, pastor of
P-ule’s Chapel Church.: Burial will
be {n Soule’s Chapel Cemetery.
Mr, Williamsoo is survived by his
wife, three sisters, Mrs. Xd Poles of
Bumreall, Mrs, Martin Devis of
nary and Mra. Howard Colvin
of Loulsslana; and one brother, Noah
Will Lameon of Chleveland, Miss,

| | THIRD GRADERS

GIVE PROGRAM

ew on
The third grade of Walthall
whok=preesnted ~ the chapct* pro-]
gram this morning. If tonsisted of
a safety play, songs, poems, plano
a ee ee

Tomrhy “Arnette, Patricia: Bris.
lea, Grnte - en ‘Cosa, wieik

odie, Oburch. Rev. E W. Bott of¢

BRC RIGA OVO Whi LY sandy
Bapprratein and the Mot by Harry
Shapiro.

“The public {a cordially Invited to
share in this worship service,” Rabbi
Mantinband said,

Rabbi Charies Mantinband of
B'nal Israe] Congregation will rep-
resont the Jewish Chautauqu 60o-

;|clety ag lecturer at Boutherm Chris-

tian Institute, Edwards, Miss., March
19. He will apeak at 11:15 a.m. in
the college chapel.

The National Federation of
Temple Brotherhoods sponsors the

‘| Jewish Chautauqua Boclety, which

sends rabbis to college’ campuses as
part of an educational program to

‘| disseminate authentic information

concerning Judaism.

SLAYIKNGS—

(Continued From Page One)

day that he and his assistant chief,
Hugh Herring, and Sheriff Abd
Payne, questioned Wheeler. further,
Thursday night . 6 AghS
secording to notes taken db
“ind Claude Wop Oc
Wheeler's account of the shooting:
... the cops pulled up behind
us, I had the gun in my jap when
the cop (Everett) opened the door
and I shot him... He grabdded his
stomach. I did not we his gun.”
-* .,.. Then I got out of the car
and walked beck of our car and
heard Elaine scream, ‘Why did you
shoo?” Then she took off, Ine
other officer was getting out of his
car . He hai not shot. when
he shot Vinson the first Ume) ,..
He fell and hit the open poidce car
door, The first shot str nim in
the aide. He hollered and went down
and (el) on his right shottder, He
fell oprosite the car, I snot again
and rac up ana booked et 1!m."
-“JTR—Tt time I shot he was
doy, and | was rignt over nin.”
“ft almed at his body or head .
I saw blood gushing from hi face.
} thiny the oullet hit him jn the
face. Mf gun was empty or I would
have shot him again. Altver- left
I heard three rapid shots When
I got around the corer I saw our
car going Cuwn the street 4 sald.
‘Walt!’ out she didnt pear re.”
Chief, Harris sald that while tell-
Ing- the stors Wheeler was very
calm and unconcerned, .
“He even tried a couple of Jokes,7 ee
the chief adted
The Forman woman. whoee home
{e Balt Lake City, and who weighs
{in the neghborhood of 180 pounds,
{a being held tn city jail: Her skinny

24-ye ld boy friend, a native of
Jackson Ay Fis, has been moved
to an und: fait

Bhert:{ Payne has sald repeatedty
that: one of tre reasons for secrecy
as to Wheeler's whereabouts is that
Guring: he stme he was kept in
county jal] ft-@ courthouse man wes
jamm with curtvus eftuscng who

asked deectire-t er'ond,
xP Ine qooviewid ying nas become”
chronie conversation piece in the
ghoester Grawing-rocom of the city,
as well os in the downtown area.
You'd find tt aifixult to locate .a
singlé person without af least ons
pevgy Ee connection with the kill
ecutives, stenograephers, Janl-
{ors and preachers q]] have at jeast

“trucks served as transportaticn for

‘| wise criminal.

* feeINQIGTI9ONTAX ne

(an eee Se Re a er Sc
ten milo :
Thursday lic. reeilar fre-unit

rangers who combed the area on
the lookout for possible blazes,

“It was curfous,” Zary pointed
out. “The higher you got up In the
alr during the storm, the less you
could see.”

(7}—Dust storms fn the Southwest
clouded skies over wide areas of
the East and Bouth yesterday but
winds had ‘diminished today, Vial-
bility was reduced as jow as two or
three miles in an area from Ohio
and Pennsylvania to Loulstana and
Fiorlda as heavy layers of dust In
the alr were blown eastward from
t > Texas-Oklahoma-Kansaa arca.
The dust waa reported from almost
ground level to 15,000 feet.

Pacifists Glve Tax
Bureau Headache

couple - have matled thelr
income tax returns to the Bureau
of Internal Revenue, minus 72.6 per
cent of the tax due, which they fig-
ured fa.the amount the government
would spend on war.

Francis Behn Riggs, 70, retired
boys’ school headmaster, and his
wife, Valerie, 67, said they expect
the bureau to seize fhe missing
funds from thelr aavings accounts,
“as {¢ has been doing since 1044.”

But, Mra. Riggs added, “there ts
a difference between. handing the
rovernment our income tax for the
military and the government taking
{t from us.”

Along with the returns, Mrs.
Riggs sent & hote saythe: “My con-
science tells me that the killing of
human beings {s @ ¢riminal act, and
that paying for that killing Is like-
This conviction ts
besed on STeliglous belief.”

NEW FLAG POLE.
DEDICATED AT.
JUNIOR HIGH

The new flagpole sebiBiived to
George L. Hawkins Juntor
Bchool! by the local Eks Lodge was
formally dedicated thls morning. .

Representing the Eiks Lodge ‘was
Attorney R. L. Calhoun, who pre-
sented the flag pole to Principal J.
A. Beeson. He also made a talk
along a patriotic Mine, indluding
something of the history of the Mas
and the writing Blar Bpan-
gied Banner, a ™ Y

The enuUre program was held on
the school grounds, around the fag
pole, with the student body and face
wty members attending.

EVASION CHARGE

NEW YORK (P—A. wpecial fed-
eral grand jury Investigaung cor
ruption ‘Nn goretnment and rack-
eteering Jndic‘4o 19 persona today
on charges of evading almost $1,
700 (00 In taxes, ‘ 7

seaeimadin iaaeaasladea'c<colianan

High) 2

UUNNIL: OLENLIANI

Yorrest County Attorney Overton
A. Currie was elected secretary-
treasurer of the County Proaccut-
ing Attorneys Association of Mis-

sissippl at a meeting Thursday
night In Jackson.
Hugh B. GOillemple Jr. Jacksdn,

was named. president, and L. OG.
Welr of Philadelphia vice-preaident
of the organization for 1952. -..

JAP'S PEARL HARBOR’
ENVOY IS TAKEN
OFF PURGE LIST

TOKYO (A}—Japan’s ambassador
to Washington at the time of Pearl
Harbor, Adm. Kichisaburo Nomura,
wag removed today from’ the gor-
ernment’s purge list,

Nomura was among &43 wart{me
leaders “depurged” today. All may
now run for office or accept gor-
ernment posh: Sn

Ve e

EUREKA PTA PLANS
FOUNDERS DAY PROGRAM

A Founders Day program will be
held at 10:30 a.m. Tueeday at Fure-
ka SBchool, according to plans made
at the PTA moeting of the school
Thursday night. W. O, Rhone, PTA
president, urges all parents to at-
tend the program.

Reporta of delegates attending the
District PTA at Royal Bireet High
Bchoo] Feb, 72 were made Thursday
night and delegates to the state
meeting March 21 were named. C. F.
Roy. ts the school | principal.

THREE AREA. SOLDIERS
RETURN FROM KOREA

een

Mississippi were dia

transport Gen. R. L Hewes
The jist Included: *
Cpl. "hwintred Lott Rt,-1, Bum.

131, Prentiss,
%s Richton.

FEATTLE (7}—Twenty men from
tocey from
the Far Fast aboard the UB. Nary

. Cpl Rubin O, Haupt, Kt. 6, Hat-
| tesburg

Pte Leute Tt Odum, Rt, 2, Box
Opl. Apner w. Walley, nA 1, Bor

CITY PATROLMAN
- ° HOSPITALIZED -

“City Patrolman Lester Blackburn
‘fe tn Bouth Mississippi Infirmary
today with ‘a sore throat and in-
fluensa, He was taken to the hos-
pital early thie afternoon, =

LEGISLATURK DEADLINE
JACKBON, Miss, ()—Miasles!ppl
4awipaara, beve se Te days
fo introduce billy sesaton of
the Jegtslature. -

The Senate today passed a Howse
neasure ectting March 2) as the
final deadline Only appropriation,

redis ing .or *eapportionment
bile can be submiitied alter“that
Gate,

Uuessing on final adjournment

Utah, to the!r new ho
Antonio, Texas. Pees)
brated every birthday 3
ent stale.

Ann Lott, sister of
Dariene Deen, and Fre
well directed games on t
lawn of the Temple h
were awarded in the cc
young trio also aaaisted
{coe cream and candics *%
Gecorated birthday cake
and bubble gum were §
vors.

with the two Uttle

the party were: Don Po
Antonio, Ann Lott, M:
man, Lou Aultman, 8
Helen Thames, Do:
Thames, Richard Tr
Trigg, Kyra Robertso
Robertaon,, Lowell Lu
Leggett, Joe Lecgett, C
Joseph Blackwell, Tre’
Patricia Auliman, Micha

Dianne Aultman, Leste
key At een
Bytriey Odom, Le
Blackwell, Bue Willette
letle, and Bob Jones.
présent were their m
Lott and Mre. Powell;
mothers, Mrs. John
Mout Temple and Mrd#.
Mrs. Travis Aultman, :
Aultman, Mrs. H. FP. Dee
Miller and Mrs. Ed Tri

Opl. Charies H.. Lot
been with the Army In
seven months, has beer
to Tokyo, Japan, wh
ecrve as Office deputy
Btates Southweat Poll
He \s the younger son

weeks
Mra, Dewltt Allred in
Mra. Jim Wood, her
home from a winter's 5
co. The Thralls will:
Mra, Orady Horton
Tenn, before returning
Mra. Carl Applequiat
Texas and Mr. and Mr:
Mobile, Ala, \ialted
quist's uncle, Jim Pi
Mr, and Mrs. Homan
week.
1 Mise Oulda Blackw
from Memphia Tenn.
her sister, Mrs Bill
Jackson and thelr aa
Reynolds of Hattieqbu
eral days with Mra QO:
band who underwent
thon at Kenneay Oen
on Thureday of last &

Mr. and Ma EL
gucets for the week-e1
Gren and grandchild:
Mra. John Harkins |
Robbie Ruth and Joe,
Bob Rogers and ch'
Larry, Jerry, Dickie «
of Petal, Mr, and Mra
ray and son, Wayne, ¢

Joe A, Purnell of Mi
{ted Mr, and Mrp. Oe
ter: Tuesday,

6-Sct, and Mra Be
and children, Joan Jir
o Ocean Springs so
end with- the childre
enta, hur, and hrs‘

- One of those Indicted wes fd

“4 £ -

mo ore

ey | la te

i ails ih eng ry nr : AER

are froma Apcle 3 t@ 3
ae ao. Dee:
: em

ot. 2 ny
wo

sal bget 12. ey

pod Me, ond Mra,

)

eye on
tw

«
“e,
@

Sera s ae
Be ae ay

RSH digs as

t with some difficulty as
nto doorways of business
4

nvoys
cusation

admitted under question-
ever, that the camp was
nd group of segellatars
mn truce supervision began
1y Job of picking five ports
for troops and matertel on
1 of the battle line follow-
munist acceptance of a U,
age deal” Buncay. "e
stall officers asked seven
1 Gealgned to clarify the
arch 6& prisoner exchange

inued on Page Eleven)

=
eet are echeduwed here} - py
seligibte fox Bomse eng , 2
oh the tax ascoesor’a ofe , ”
mInust apply at the :
an-yp eampelgis are.
ship of the City View «+
1 With the Hattlesburg *
maorship of the Petal)
garden clubs -.

ua) gatden pilgrimage |
rden Club Ms rept

aq Oroes fund rive bs
O19 800, 4. ae ey

"a duct ei
DE Jered, iy,

t gk xe potas
Woman:

a Al Suicide

Hick In
:Reno Burglary

. -” deaciaheiil ody PRY

SLAORTar?. Ariz. UA —sheritt v.
Perry Francis sald today a 36-year
old brunette song writer held ag the
possible finger-woman tn the $1,-

3 | 500,000 Redneld burglary: at Reno
a tried to commit ovigide _ seal Ra

cell here,

The sheriff sald Mrs. Marte Jectihe
G’Ara Michaud had taken “a very
heavy dose of sleeping pills.” .

“Why didn't you let me go ahead, °
Mrs, G. F.. Newman, jail matron,

jquoted Mra, Michaud ag saying, “It

would ‘have been the casiest way
out, I-know I took a Jethal dose.”

Dr... Herbert F. Rice confirmed

that she had swallowed am large
quantity of pills~ He sald her con-
dition was not perious,
FBI. agents took her off an east-
bound train here yesterday after-
noon, Bhe had $530,000 In cash,. 28
Pleces of jewelry and @ package of
securities,

Mrs. Marie Jeanne d’Aro Michaud
fa held under $100,000 bond on a
charge of interstate wansporctation
of stolen property.

Bhe had been a guest in the Lh
Verne Redfield home so often that
he sald he was “shocked and greatly
upect” by her arrest, “Why, 3
trusted her Implcitly,” he added.’

A hearing on her removal to Reno
was scheduled for 2 pm, (MST),

Mra. Michaud Je the sixth’ peredn
taken into custody by FBI agents
Investigating the Feb, 29 burglary

In Nevada, other FBI agents pull.
éd from an abandoned 35-foot mine-
shaft. near Reno: the pafe stolen
from Redfield's home, . « -:

The safe had been stolen at noon-
time, Investigating officers sald the
safe stealers inquestionably had in-
side information. The safe was well
hidden, the burglary was timed
while the Redfelds were at’ lunch,
and the watch dog was —
with a ham bone,

FBI. agents redonstructed” the
crime like this;

Beveral weeks before the burglary,
Sohn Trillegi, 37-year-old Milwaukee
hoodlum, met Loula (Firpo) Oas-
aigh., 44, a 7W-pound ex-pricefight-
er, here, Late in February they
drove to Milwaukee and picked up
Andries Robert Young, 44, ex-con-
vict, sss Frank Gorreail, * a pay |:

gst Merve. wal
ane were back {n Rene hee a ra
the burktaryy::' Mpg i

ae. he quartet parted away

- a: sate tn midday,.ig
of tig neighboring homes; .-t5 i

"Tbs case began (6 crack after Mrs.
Léon& Mae Olordano, 3$, ea haag
tall waltress, was arrested trying 6
preg w $1,000 bill, She has not been
charged. with parttelpeting.. la the
burgiary,'-s ny “
AYBI sents won't’ my where. he
80% $6,000 In stolen currency found
on her when she wae arrested Bate
urday in Loa Angeles, © ~ -,
Reno bartenders oy amen ree
sembling Young toured the hot mpcrs
the day after the bur Jary, oom.
solgreeo a’ pretty brunet nig

rolled

eck dial we

~\_ Lawrence KE. Kell, 43, married and

oS Sri Rae
. sc
wD By ELLIO

- Charges of murder.and bu
were read in open court here this
afternoon to Luther Carlyle Wheel-
er, 34, and his hefty 33- in
sweetheart, Elaine Forman, . ‘

‘The chargee were read in a “fam:
packed county courtroom by District

Allin Hostess
Slays Jealous | Boss’

MS oe

ote gy, 3s
st. LOUIS UPyAn attractive, 20.
ear-old alriine stewardess told po
Jce ahe fatally shot a company offle
cial during a qu Pre ie: terday after
he accused her g other men.

father of twa children, was found
in a parked automobile, wounded
six times, He died a short time Jatet.
Police Chief: Brown Hailrgrove of
suburban Overland sald the Ozark
Alr Lines. stewardess. Betty Lou
Tracy, signed a statement admituing
she shot Kell with hls own gun,
"I fired the gun until it would
not fire any more,” the chief quoted
the petite, green-eyed: hl! aa Bay-
ing. on
The chief sald she pre the tol-
lowing verston; .
Bhe returned from
Rockford, IIL, and was met by Kell
at the alrport, After a meal they
parked across the street from her
apartment, . cmt
He repeatedly asked her {f. she
had associated with otber men, then
announced: .“J am: going ta kul
you." ; . .o,
-He asked her ¢© eet: his gun,

which she had taken from him dure |:
Ing a previous ma, from her apart

ment,
Bhe got tt, Teturned ‘to’ the Meas,
and fired as both stepped into the
vehicle through opposite doors, .
Bhe ‘ran to her apartment and
told another ‘girl who also Lived
there. The other girl called a fue
neral home operator,’ who” found
Keil and took him to the bospital.
Mileg Tracy was tlanding near the
car when polloe arrived, they sald.
‘Kail had been superintendent of
stations {ee Ovars Air Lines

March 1, es '
rg, M 36, therridow, F-
‘Yala Ker. band vd Se Trey |

as oe Tee be: ied was | 7h
Tl Yond’ wt Memp vat eth
* “We thought It was a: big test ts
when we came to Bt, Louls" she
ee ‘considered it ad advances
ment for Larry.” o2y° ¢

Ming, Tracy: waa Arook od for thd [44
Pt, Louls County coroner and held
without boad and without charges,
An hehe wee ost foe todays i. .
» “aN M

Esenhower Mum On

“Comte: Home, lea

pania’ ‘Uacrau Yo
today he told Oen, Dwight D, hs
hower “it would make if a great deal
easter -foe hia politica] supporters tf
he would come home, He told re

out:
Beane

a fight fo ~

“| ther ‘Carlyle a eal

{n, the rillted aagdien ot: i
recalled“ the bloody double:
aa took thé lires’of two H
burg policemen the night of:
9%! Seed ro PARTS Ast
‘down aa Climax of h

lavached: by an’attempted.b a

Of... Ace’: Weathers ig Motors
o were Patrolmen’M. WW) V ners) ae
32, sand Jesse S Jameay Lyers

Each ts ved: 7. 8 AES

children, { Kae,
es

(they

The ttle basement’ yoom =
county court ls hid was
Ught with .:.police y and’, abe
officers, state, highway)
and a shuffling, shifting throng
curtous citizens who: had-.been
Ped that the, seesion: woe
open. a fabe 5 tonal Kk Ph SR
“Judge Willam Maraleod

because of the nature of tha’ session,
—"It was primarily for the. purposes
of reading them the “charges*--t
could not be labelled | ,& P
hearing, —

nite oe ¥
p. wes ee
Send

Sete

brown jacket with: a aint fur, at or
lar and, khaki. trousers. He cwore ¥eze

Spectacles. with . clear. lensed’ ang &
pink ~plastig '- rima, i: The.
woman was

shoulder before the judge:
either, to left. norhright. $
ope Soy: “Exchange Ne Leeks’:
Pe Cae ithe + mar Sand &
sat not more: than nine, tert.
during the 10 of, J& minutes "p
to reading of thé charges, they
not attempt ta look at on@ another y
Wheeler has stated repeatedly’ b
statements to the ey that he ase
all the shooting the pia ptaet of: tbe z.
kilngs, The. Yotman: women
confirmed this. in -hed .gwn ‘gta
menta ot uk Sth oe
Bhe sald. that her
of March~ 9," e@- 0 other;
when Wheelet had ~jobay
was simply to, arty | the’
vig ‘Ow he tity? wae ‘
Before ‘Arrington : ean’ the
deliberate ington bean of eer
ha booked ab Wheeler sad welds

yWheeles-ndd

Paced

tive ilk drees, nodient fens
-dudee Hareleoy told: ‘3;
they had heard. the, formel't
agaings them that. they.. wood
remanded 3 "Jal leh! action’ -
the grand ury,1 Ams erty
ap Ne Kieaa: Kae
“Se pald they werd entitied
counsel before enterin any plea ¢
way or the aber, The}

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each time he came back to Phil and Win-
nic Woods. At Chief Harris's request, the
highway patrol radioed Jacksonville a
pick-up for the couple on the chance that
they might have slipped through the po-
lice cordon and dashed for home.

N the meantime, no news came from the

scores of officers manning the road
blocks and watching for both suspected
cars. But in Hattiesburg and its outskirts
the intensive search went on.

Not until mid-morning on Monday,
however, did the officers get another real
clue. When they did, it only darkened the
already tragic picture.

A farmer, walking his fence-line ten
miles north of Hattiesburg on the old
route of U. S. Highway 49, discovered a
light leatherette bag lying at the edge of
his pond. Opening it, he found a pair of
women’s slacks with the name, WHEELER,
inked in the waistband. There were other
articles of clothing; too, both men’s and
women’s.

Nestled among them was a clutter of
odds and ends that included two cans of
crab meat, costume jewelry and a box
from a Biloxi jewelers, nearly $40 in
wrapped nickels and dimes, a_ circular
advertising a Miami Beach hotel, and a
plastic bag containing a hundred .38-cali-
ber pistol cartridges.

The officers who drove out to pick up
the find also discovered a blue bag by the
roadside, much nearer town. It was filled
with burglar tools.

Sheriff Abb Payne called Chief Harris
to his office to inspect the assortment.

“That stuff must have been thrown out
of Wheeler's car!” Harris exclaimed in
surprise.

“That’s the way I figure,” Payne said.
“He hasn't mentioned having a wife, but
he sure didn't wear those slacks and that
jewelry himself.” ;

“So she was probably involved in last

night’s shooting. That's why he kept

changing stories.”

“Exactly! But that's just half. Remem-
ber about the fat dame in the maroon
Buick, how she kept trying to cover some-
thing? I’m guessing that the ‘something’
was Wheeler's wife and that she’d been
wounded, maybe killed. If I’m right, the
gang probably got together, tossed her
body into some thicket, then chucked
everything that might incriminate them.”

Harris studied in tight-lipped silence.
“Maybe you've got something,” he said
finally. “Let's see Wheeler's reaction to
this stuff.”

Braced for almost any kind of outburst,
the two officers could scarcely believe their
ears when the hard-faced gunman en-
tered the office a few minutes later, hand-
cuffed between deputy sheriffs, Glancing
at the accumulation he nodded and said
flatly:

“Yeah, that’s mine and Elaine's.”

“You know what it means,” the sheriff
suggested ominously.

Wheeler nodded. “Yeah, you got
Elaine.”

Payne’s heart skipped a beat as his eye
caught the police chief's. What a switch!
Wheeler knew very well that the woman
wasn’t hurt. The sheriff suddenly wanted
to laugh in jubilation as he realized how
the gangster had tipped his own hand. In-

stead, he accused sternly: “She's not your
wife, cither!”

“So what?" Wheeler retorted. “I loved
her enough that I wanted her to get away.
That’s why I gave you all that cock-and-
bull story last night.”

“Very noble!” Payne snapped, taking
advantage of the situation. “Because,
brother, what she’s had to say about you!”

Wheeler fell for the bluff. Fifteen min-
utes later, he decided that he might as.
well talk.

“There wasn’t any green car in that
rhubarb last night,” he told Prosecutor
Currie and the others. “Mooney just saw
wrong, and I took my tip from you coppers
after that. There was just Elaine and me
in my old maroon Buick. Phil and Winnie
Woods and all the other people I men-
tioned weren’t even close to Hattiesburg.”

The officials reserved judgment on that
point. “Go on,” Currie ordered brusquely.

Wheeler said that he and the woman,
whom he identified as Mrs. Elaine For-
man, 31, had started west from Jackson-
ville, Florida, in the car three weeks
before. She had done all of the driving,
since handling a car was not one of the
things he had learned during his years in
prison.

They had paused in Pensacola, Mobile,
Pascagoula and Biloxi and, finally, New
Orleans long cnough for him to commit
a number of burglaries, then had headed
northward toward New York with Hatties-
burg as their first stop.

“I just got a bum break here,” he
grumbled. “Elaine was waitin’ for me in
the car. But those cops had to bust in.
Then Elaine got on the wrong street.”

“And finally she got panicky and drove
off without you,” Currie said.

“I'd told her to do that if I ever got
into trouble,” Wheeler replied sharply. “I
told her to look out for herself.”

“But how did the shooting happen?”

“Just like I told you first.”

The officials doubted his story. But
early the next morning Chief Harris re-
ceived word from Jacksonville that Phil
and Winnie Woods actually were in South
Carolina, and had been for some time.

Then, five minutes later, a pulpwood
cutter telephoned from six miles north of
Hattiesburg with breath-taking news. He
and two companions had stumbled over a
faded maroon sedan, abandoned on a
swampy, brush-grown back road.

Taking Assistant Chief Herring, Harris
picked up Sheriff Payne and one of his
deputies at the courthouse and raced to
the spot. The car, filled with the effects
of a travelling couple and stocked with

three revolvers and plentiful ammunition, °

was unmistakably Wheeler's. But Elaine
Forman was not with it. She had fled once
more, leaving only some fingerprints that
fulfilled Herring’s fondest dreams and a
trail of small personal effects and money

‘ down the rutted lane.

“But she'll not get far,” the police chief
predicted. :

UST about at that moment, as it hap-

‘ pened, on the ground floor of one of the
lesser Hattiesburg hotels, Dispatcher R. B.
Duke of the Green Taxi Company mo-
tioned .Driver Charlie Aultman to him.

“Go upstairs .and see a Mrs. George
Comstock of Daytona Beach, Florida,” he

directed. ‘She to)
wanted a taxicab
Orleans, and

ter.”

Aultman b
Hattiesburg to Nx
mile drive—a_ h:
bonanzas don’t oft
rate hotels. Aultm
was even more si
tered the hotel rc
brunette who calle
Comstock.

Plainly nervous
bad hangover, the
fast of ham and ¢
trying to learn the

“Look!” she sna
serious trouble. T
know. I'll pay yo:
dollars to take me

Aultman noticed
her legs were bad!
had been walking t
gears suddenly mes

“It won't be near
quoting the standa
I'll have to get my
before we start. I
I can get ready.”

“Well, make it sn
“I'm in a hurry!"

Aultman knew
hurry, too. “Mrs
really was Elaine |
Stairs, he explained

“Okay,” the dis
moment's fast thin
get her out of the t
so the cops’ll have
ahead as if you w
trip, and leave the

An hour later, |
and Patrolman W.
satisfaction of sprit
slayer's fat m
instructions f;
man’s cab as
the city’s boulevard
Forman.

seeing it, and not a
gun club had noticed

At ten o'clock Co
the trail of chicken
active in the neighb
self in hiding not fa:
remaining at the spc
no car had been driv
ing those two hour

However, the con
clothing and the gro
indicated that she |
since before heavy
night. According to
these had begun at 1(
fore the crime must
or the dead girl tra
in the weedy field, |
and ten.

In the morgue, ¢
still other injuries
Coroner Murphy hac

s not your

“I loved
get away.
cock-and-

ed, taking
“Because,
bout you!”
fteen min-
might as

ar in that
Prosecutor
‘y just saw
ou coppers
ne and me
ind Winnie
ole I men-
attiesburg.”
nt on that
brusquely.
he woman,
‘laine For-
m Jackson-
iree weeks
he driving,
one of the
lis years in

ila, Mobile,
nally, New
ta commit
ieaded
[atties-

here,” he
’ for me in
to bust in.
street.”
y and drove

I ever got
sharply. “I
self.”
happen?”

story. But
* Harris re-

e that Phil .

sre in South
ne time.
a pulpwood
les north of
2: news. He
ibled over a
oned on a
road.
ting, Harris
one of his
nd raced to
1 the effects
tocked with
ammunition,
But Elaine
iad fled once
erprints that
eams and a
and money

police chicf

t, as it hap-
of one of the
vatcher R. B.
ny mo-
him.
w=. George
Florida,” he

directed. “She told the bellboy that she
wanted a taxicab to take her to New
Orleans, and that the price doesn’t mat-
ter.”

Aultman blinked in astonishment. From
Hattiesburg to New Orleans is a 120-
mile drive—a hacker's bonanza. But
bonanzas don’t often originate in second-
rate hotels. Aultman was suspicious. He
was even more suspicious when he en-
tered the hotel room and eyed the fat
brunette who called herself Mrs. George
Comstock.

Plainly nervous and suffering from a
bad hangover, the woman ate her break-
fast of ham and eggs, while he sparred,
trying to learn the score. .

“Look!” she snapped at last. “I’m in
serious trouble. That’s all you need to
know. I'll pay you a hundred and fifty
dollars to take me to New Orleans.”

Aultman noticed for the ‘first time that
her legs were badly scratched, as if she
had been walking through brush, and the
gears Suddenly meshed in his brain.

“It won't be near that much,” he stalled,
quoting the standard mileage rate. “But
I'll have to get my cab greased and gassed
before we start. TIl call you as soon as
I can get ready.”

“Well, make it snappy,” the woman said.
“I'm in a hurry!”

Aultman knew just how much of a
hurry, too. “Mrs. George Comstock”
really was Elaine Forman. Racing down-
stairs, he explained the situation to Duke.

“Okay,” the dispatcher said, after a
moment’s fast thinking. “The thing’s to
get her out of the hotel and into your car
so the cops’ll have a chance. Go right
ahead as if you were really making the
trip, and leave the rest to me.”

An hour later, Patrolmen Bob Reasor
and Patrolman W. N. Johnson had the
satisfaction of springing the trap on the
slayer’s fat moll. In response to telephoned
instructions from Duke, they curbed Ault-
man's cab as it rolled Icisurely out one of
the city’s boulevards, and arrested Elaine
Forman.

Informed at police headquarters that
Wheeler had already signed a_ written
confession, she soon gave a similar state-
ment that varied from his only in minor
details, but added her own story of an-
other 36 hours of horror.

LEEING from the scene of the battle,
she said, she had driven blindly north
on the old highway routing until she be-
came lost and more panicky than ever.
It was panic that had led her to discard
the two bags. Finally she had abandoned
the car, too, and trudged back to Hatties-
burg through the rain, taking six hours
for the trip, and registered at the hotel,
hoping to hide for a few days.

With plenty of money, she had _ pur-
chased three fifths of whiskey and tried
to drown her fears in a drunken stupor for
the next 24 hours. When they refused to
drown, a desperate impulse to run had
again seized her.

It was that impulse which had betrayed |
her.

With confessions from both Wheeler
and Elaine Forman, Sheriff Payne whisked |
the couple out of Forrest County to an-
other jail for safe keeping.

Fingerprints and comparison of bullets
taken from the bodies of the slain officers
with the rat-faced ex-convict’s pistol cor-
roborated the two confessions. The of-
ficials were convinced that they had the
true story of the crime that had shocked
the entire Gulf Coast. County Attorney
Currie filed first-degree murder charges
against both Luther Carlyle Wheeler and
Elaine Forman.

The mad-dog killer and his unlovely
paramour were hurriedly taken into court
at Hattiesburg on March 17th to hear the |
accusations read. Then they were hustled
back to jail. As this is written, both are |
held without bond, awaiting the action of
the Forrest County grand jury.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The names Phil and
Winnie Woods used in the foregoing story
are fictitious.

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(Continued from page 17)

seeing it, and not a single member of the
gun club had noticed it.

At ten o'clock Constable John Guy, ‘on
the trail of chicken thieves who had been
active in the neighborhood, had set him-
self in hiding not far from the rifle range,
remaining at the spot until midnight, and
no car had been driven into the range dur-
ing those two hours.

However, the condition of the victim’s
clothing and the ground beneath her body
indicated that she had lain in the field
since before heavy showers Thursday
night. According to the weather bureau
these had begun at 10:22 p. M.—and there-
fore the crime must have been committed,
or the dead girl transported to and Iecft
in the weedy field, between eight o’clock
and ten.

In the morgue, examination disclosed
still other injuries besides those which
Coroner Murphy had found at the range.

The girl’s back and abdomen had been
sliced, her neck was broken and_ there
was a deep knife wound through the right
ear drum, as if the killer had been trying
to reach her brain with the thin blade.

Missing Persons reports were checked
for a young woman in her late teens or
early twenties, a slender girl with long |
dark brown hair. |

On Friday afternoon several people
viewed the body on the morgue slab, but
all turned away with shaking heads. Then,
n little before five o'clock, Alice Bustin
phoned Helen Custer, the record clerk
at police headquarters.

Her roommate, Theora Hix, had failed
to come home overnight. At. first both
Alice, Miss Hix's classmate, and her sister
Beatrice, a medical lab technician, figured |
Theora had spent the night with a Co-
lumbus family whose daughters she had
attended as a companion at times.

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WHEELER, Luther Carlyle, wh, elec. Hattiesburg, MS

the
ink-stained |

February 5, 1954

plas AD bibs at

eA dee Be Ba.

blonde aoe

WAS PUSHING MIDNIGHT, and Pa-
trolmen Vinson and Everett were mak-
ing the rounds in Hattiesburg, Miss., just
‘as they had a hundred times before. But
this was to be a night with a difference.
Vinson, who was 32, was at the wheel,
while the 28-year-old Everett sat along-
side him and kept a weather eye open for
anything out of the way. Riding in ,a

prowl car night after night, a man devel-

ops what has been called a sixth sense
but in reality is no more than experience
and observation. He gets to know what
his district looks like when everything is
quiet and normal. Whenever he spots
something unusual, it excites his imme-
diate attention. Possibly it’s only a man

loitering near a grocery store, or a jewelry |

shop darkened when there should be a
night light on, or a car with license plates
obscured by mud. These things he in-
vestigates. _

It was damp and cool that night, with
a coolness that had lost its sting and was
beginning to give promise of an early,
spring in the southland. Vinson and’
. Everett rolled slowly along a downtown
street, then turned to the right. No use
going fast on night duty. Better to go.
slow and see what’s what. The police
radio was on, but at the moment there
were no special instructions for them.

As they passed a side street, both of ©

them saw it at the same time—a car
parked a half-block down the street in
front of the Weathers Motor Company.
One might think there was nothing un-
usual about that, but there was. The

motor company was not an all-night place’
and had been:closed for many hours.

Right: Elaine Foreman with Patrolmen Johnson (left) and Reaser.

There was not a car customarily parked
in front of it at night.

Besides, although the car’s lights were
out, the glow from an arc lamp showéd

that there was someone waiting at the
wheel, The motor was idling, as shown by

wisps of smoke. from the exhaust.

“We'd better check,” Vinson announced.

He was going slowly enough so that he
made the turn with a quick twist of the
wheel, without backing up. As they pulled
up the street, they saw a man emerge
from the shadows alongside the garage.
He came out on the run, dove into the car,
and the driver gunned it. a

“So! They’re scramming!”

People do not ordinarily depart i in such
a hurry when a police car shows up.un-
less they have something on their con-
science. Vinson stepped on the gas as the
car plunged away like a scared rabbit.
Everett turned on the blinker light and
the siren. The quiet street suddenly echoed

_ with pulsating shrieks as the siren caught

hold.

The car ahead made a quick turn into
the next street, with the police car no
more than 200 feet behind. The officers
could see what they were chasing. It was
a Buick sedan, a fairly old model, and as

‘they passed under a corner light they

could see that the driver was’ a woman.
Vinson gave his machine all it had and
they began to narrow the distance be-
tween them and their quarry. | Everett
got his .38 out to have it ready.

Thé officers were gaining perceptibly
now, and by the time they had gone a
quarter-mile they were right on the heels
of the Buick. Vinson got ready to take

WITH EVERY COP IN TOWN:,

t
BRAS.

HUNTING FOR HER, SHE TRIED
‘TO SMUGGLE HER WAY OUT

VIA THE BACK DOOR

reen Car
ning up
ped im-

1e other
vo male
the two
car door
dhim to
d he had

Wheeler
mon the
ground.
eler said
yut then

vl under
Frances

id sped

led, he

—
ETECTIVE

BRI I IAS ese. Be, e a a ree

claimed, one of the men from the green
car threw a bag at him. Then the car left
the scene.

The defendant claimed he picked up
the bag and found it contained the pistol
and cartridges taken from him later. He
said he tried to flag a car to go downtown
and report what happened, but the driver
would not stop.

Thoroughly frightened, he said, he
crossed a railroad track and sat down to
think about the matter. Finally, he decid-
ed to go to town. It was while he was on
the way that he was arrested.

Wheeler claimed the arresting officers
kneed him in the testicles, struck him in
the eye, and generally treated him rough-

ly. If he did say anything about shooting

the officers, he testified, the statement
was extorted by this mistreatment.

The woman and daughter: who ran
screaming but of their house testified to
seeing a green car at the scene.
Prosecutors countered that this was the
car driven by Mack Martin, who left to
telephone police and then returned.

Then defense attorneys tried to in-
troduce evidence that Wheeler was mis-
treated in jail by other prisoners after his
arrest. Judge Collins refused to admit
such testimony.

Only if such mistreatment resulted in
a confession would it be admissible as
evidence, he said. But the prosecution
offered no confession, so such testimony

’ would not be germane to the proceeding.

Eventually, all the testimony was in,
and opposing attorneys let tly with the
oratory.

How much effect it had is
problematical. The prosecution case was
pretty solid. Later, the Mississippi
Supreme Court ruled:

“Appellant’s version was substantial-
ly contradicted by credible witnesses,
physical facts, and facts of common
knowledge...”

After only brief deliberations, the jury
found Luther Wheeler guilty of murder
and made no recommendation for mer-
cy. This judgment made imposition of the
death sentence mandatory. That sentence
was passed by Judge Collins.

Wheeler’s attorneys dutifully
appealed the verdict. They cited 16 possi-
ble errors on the part of the trial court. On
March 16, 1953, the Supreme Court af-
firmed the conviction and set Friday,
May 8, 1953 as the date of execution.

Still, Arlington Jones, one of the
defendant’s court-appointed attorneys,
fought on. One by one, he exhausted all
other appeal routes. Governor Hugh L.
White refused to intervene. On February
4, 1954, time was running out for Luther
Wheeler. '

Counselor J ones tried for a stay of ex-
ecution from three federal courts that

day. All his efforts were in vain. His client |

was scheduled to die the next morning.
During the day, Wheeler was transferred
from the Hinds County Jail in Jackson,

considered more secure than the Forrest

pot eee te = eee ete ee ETE

Bead Jail, back to t Hattsenkog
As happens with many condemned
men, Wheeler had. turned deeply

religious. He became so devout he reneg-

ed ona pledge to give his remains to
medical science.
This decision came after two

ministers prevailed on him to let them .

give him a “Christian burial.”

Wheeler made out a will leaving his
only possession, a Bible, to his pudgy girl
friend. Then he asked to visit her. She was
escorted to jail-in the presence of her
attorney, and they talked about their love
for each other for 15 minutes.

She had already told District Attorney
Lawrence Arrington that Wheeler killed
the two cops, but when she implored him
to “tell the truth” he ignored her. He con-
tinued to insist that he was innocent. And
he maintained that position to the very
last.

When he ordered his last meal,
Wheeler asked for pecan pie, but then he
couldn't eat it. Prosecutor Arrington
visited him later and the condemned man
offered him the pie. Wheeler told the
prosecutor that his female companion,
who had been sentenced to life in prison,
was “absolutely innocent” and should be
freed. She has since been paroled.

FE... the time Wheeler was returned
to Hattiesburg by Highway Patrol
troopers, a crowd of curious onlookers
milled around the county courthouse area,
there was a steadily growing demand for
passes to the execution.

The sheriff, who had no way of an-
ticipating what might happen, restricted
the number of passes to the courtroom’s
seating capacity—about 400. These were
quickly snatched up ona “first come, first
served” basis. The jury box where the
veniremen had sat to hear evidence
against Wheeler was reserved as a press
box for reporters only. Cameramen were
required to remain outside. As darkness
fell and the night wore on, the crowd out-
side the courthouse grew.

This reporter, accompanied by a
photographer, W.C. Shoemaker, had
driven from Jackson to Hattiesburg to
cover the death of Luther Wheeler for the
Jackson Daily News. During the evening
we walked into a newsstand opposite the
courthouse square. It was jammed.

People were drinking beer, talking
about the upcoming execution, and scalp-
ing passes to the event like they were
football tickets. At 11:30 p.m., when the
courthouse doors were opened, the
darkened courthouse lawn was filled
with people. Those with passes started
filing upstairs to the death chamber, tur-
ning in their passes to a deputy at the
door.

Here is a verbatim repeat of part of
the news story that appeared next day in
the Jackson Daily News. It was preceded
by a recapitulation of events leading up to
Luther Wheeler’s rendezvous with death:

At 11:46 the exécutioner and his assis-
tant came into the courtroom. It was
filled with the hum of low voices. The
two men checked over the lethal equip-
ment.

At 11:48 two doctors came in, placed
their bags on the floor and stood looking
nervously about.

~ At 11:50 there was a slight bustle as
‘several latecomers crowded into the
room.

_At 11:52 the executioner stalked over
to the electric chair and examined it
again.

At 11:55 a deputy sheriff asked the
crowd to be quiet. “A manis to die here in
a few minutes,” he said. “Please remain
quiet; don’t smoke, and remember that
cameras are illegal.”

At midnight a cordon of officers came
into the room with Wheeler in their midst.
A minute later he had been strapped into
the chair and the electrodes adjusted on
his arms, legs and shaven scalp. The ex-
ecutioner asked Wheeler if he had
anything to say.

“Just don’t think of me as what I am,”
he said. “Please think of me as a child of
God.”

’ For five minutes he talked of God and
Jesus. The executioner reached to pull the
black hood over his face. Wheeler began
to sing. From beneath the black hood
came the words:

“Jesus, hold my hand, I need thee
every hour..

The executioner threw the switch.
The singing ceased. The fingers on the
arm of the black chair clenched and
began to turn blue. The sharp nose stick-
ing through the mask seemed to tilt up-
ward a fraction more.

At 12:10 the executioner turned the
current off. For two minutes there was
absolute quiet.

. At 12:12 the two doctors walked over
with stethoscopes and listened for heart
beats. There were none. The mask and
electrodes were removed. The crowd sur-
ged around to stare at the body posed
stiffly erect in the chair.

At 12:15 two undertakers took the
body and placed it on a stretcher and
carried it out. The crowd began to file
out: A relative of one of the slain
policemen was still sitting in the cour-
troom staring silently at the black chair
when the executioner commenced to dis-
mantle it to take it away.

And that is how Luther Carlyle
Wheeler died. He was the last condemn-
ed person to go to his death in Mississip-
pi’ portable electric chair.

The next afternoon a young legislator,
William Winter, of Grenada County, now
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, read
aloud in the state House of Represen-
tatives the Jackson Daily News account
of Wheeler’s execution. Without taking a
stand on capital punishment, he cited the
spectacle of Wheeler’s death as proof that
public executions should be abolished.

A majority of members in both houses
of the legislature agreed. So did Governor
Hugh White. Within days, the statute
regulating capital punishment had been
changed. Since then each person ex-
ecuted in Mississippi has died before a
limited audience in a lethal gas chamber
located at the state penitentiary.

All of which seems a moot topic for
moralizing in view of subsequent
developments. Decisions of the United
States Supreme Court have now cast
capital punishment laws into such a state
of limbo it remains questionable when, or
if, they ever will be enforced again.

But Luther Wheeler did accomplish
one thing: By the manner of his death, he
stopped executions in Mississippi from
being public spectacles. took

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Frances Bossman, Mr. and Mrs.
Mack Martin, Pearl Bush, Ernest Whit-
taker and Elmer Kelly are not the real
names of the persons so named in the
foregoing story. Fictitious names have
been used because there is no reason
for public interest in the identities of

these persons.

Victim, Strangler Oversexed?

dicks had both worked for Jim Turel.

‘They had each found fault with their

boss—Moll because of Turel’s dwindling
knowledge of tax laws, and Addicks
because he felt Turel was sluffing off all
the work on him.

During 1972, Moll said that Rod had
done $20,000 worth of business for the
firm; Moll himself $17,000. In 1973,
Rod—$30,000; Moll $24,000. In 1974:
Rod—$38,000; Moll $29,000. It seemed

the harder they worked, the more Turel_ -

had fooled around and taken his “trips.”
They had discussed the possibility of
Turel’s being caught in a lovers’ triangle
and killed.

Their musings had gradually turned to

vague plans. They discussed killing Turel
and making it look like the work of an

‘angry husband.

Moll said that they had had one.dis-
cussion near the end of tax season 1974
centering around a television movie
about the last man to be shot in the war—
after the war was over—and how tragicit
was. They had moved on to discuss how it
might feel to kill someone. “We ‘both
agreed that killing someone would be no
harder than killing an animal.”

_ Then they had talked of contract
killings and decided that anyone with

enough money could arrange to have

someone killed.
Rod Addicks had become angrier and

-angrier as the business grew, largely

because of his diligence, and yet he had
no more profit or influence. Moll said
that, a short while after the television

‘movie discussion, Addicks had ap-:

proached with him a serious officer to
“wipe Jim out.”

Several months went by and nothing
happened. Then Rod had told Homer

_ that he -had a friend in Kennewick,

CUSTOMIZE

AUTO/VAN INTERIORS |

Washington,who would kill Jim. He said
it was Dennis Cartwright, who felt in-
debted to him (Addicks) because he'd
taken him to Alaska and other long trips
and spent about $10,000 on him. He also
said that Dennis wanted to kill someone
just to see what it was like—that he
wanted to know how it would feel so slit
someone’s throat:

Moll left the firm after tax season and
moved to Vancouver, Washington (just
across the river from Portland. He said

that Addicks again asked him to carry out:

the contract on Jim Turel and gave him a
pistol—probably. a .38. Addicks had
wiped the gun and all the bullets off

‘carefully and warned, “whenever you.

handle this or do anything, be certain to
wear gloves.”

Addicks’ instructions were that Moll
was to “do it” after work on a Friday night
in late June. Moll admitted that he’d gone
so far as to borrow a car on the stipulated
night and driven within a mile of the

' Columbia Bookkeeping Service. “But I

chickened out and went home instead.”
Later, Addicks had told him that he’d
lured Turel to the office by telling him a
woman was coming there to meet him,
and that he (Addicks) had taken off for
the beach to give himself an alibi. Turel
had been angry when no woman showed
up, and Addicks had later had to in-

_ troduce his partner to’a pretty waitress

(who'd agreed to play along with his story

‘that she wanted to meet Turel).

A few months later, Homer Moll mov-

ed to Washington. Addicks had told him

he planned to implement another murder |

plot—that he now thought Turel’s death
should be made to look like part of a

robbery. That money should be taken’

from the till and Turel’s inka to make it
look good.

During the second or third week in
September, Addicks had called Moll and

told him that Jim Turel had been killed.
At first, Moll thought he was joking, but .

Addicks insisted that it was true that

Turel had been murdered, that he was ©

managing the business now and he

- wanted Moll back to work for him. Moll’
asked how Turel had been killed and Ad-

(from page 35)

dicks said he’d been beaten to death or
strangled and that it had happened at the
office.

Shortly thereafter, Addicks had paid
Moll’s tuition at a tax conference in Eu-
gene, Oregon, and confided that he’d
known that Turel was dead on the night
of the 28th, that he’d gone home and slept
just fine— even though he knew the police
would be there in the morning.

In subsequent-meetings, Rod Addicks
was even more specific about what had
happened to the man who had taken him
in as a partner. Rod Addicks and
Dennis Cartwright—the man who'd
sought murder as a “new experience”—
had met with Homer at a Tacoma
restaurant where they drank beer and
Pig about the murder in December,
1974.

Addicks had asked Homer if the
police had talked to him (which they had
not done at that point), and Moll said,
““No—but who did it?”

“T did it,” Addicks had said succinctly.

Only five days before this interview,
Addicks had called Homer and said, “Do
you know anything about the murder?”
and Homer had answered a cautious
“No. ”

“Good...I needed that,” Addicks
responded.

Dennis Cartwright, however, had not
trusted Homer, and said, “If anyone gets
caught, the other two will come and spr-
ing him from jail, and if anyone squeals,
the other two will wipe him out...”

Homer Moll’s story was incredible,
but he passed a lie detector test with fly-
ing colors.

N.. Englert and Woods set out to

find. more about Dennis Cartwright. .

They found his home in eastern
‘Washington vacant with furniture still in
it. Neighbors said his wife had taken off
for Oklahoma and that Dennis was pur-
ported to be living in Kelso. The missing
Mrs. Cartwright had warned them not to

say anything about Dennis; she didn’t -

want him to get into trouble—not
because she loved him, they said, but
-because she was scared to death of
reprisal from both her husband and.Rod
Addicks.

“She told us that if she ever was killed
in an ‘accident, that we should call the
police because it wouldn’t be an accident
at all...”

The neighbors described Cartwright,
35, as a man who was violent when he

drank. He had once put a ribbon around |

his wife’s neck, tightened it, and smirked,
“This | is how you kill someone with a
wire.”

Darcie and Delwood Murchison, the
Cartwrights’ neighbors, proved to be
another gushing font of information
about Rod Addicks and his desire to get
rid ‘of his partner. Addicks had ap-.

‘proached Delwood too about a contract _
murder on Turel In late June or July wh a

ie
1974, Avidic!
to kill Turel

Filta He
bot! d

d ri
off to Okl:
Cartwright’:
traveled fri
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saw him pic
never see,) |
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that night w
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. another Kel:

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afraid of Ad
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he could go
man. He'd |
wanted dc
have you—

She said
burn down
the insuran

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inside. She <
motorcycle
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owned by A
burned an

settlements.

Accordi
dicks had h

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‘checks to ar

in Arizona °
plar=~7 9
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out. Shed
she was afr

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Englert

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“a

Bom

moned for jury duty, and from this group
18 were excused on account of partial or
fixed opinions. Another 16 were told to
stand aside because they had scruples
against imposition of the death penalty.

Finally, after the customary pretrial
motions had been dispensed with, a jury
was seated and testimony began.
Prosecutors developed their case in
chronological order, beginning with the
auto agency burglary.

The prosecution thesis was that
Luther Wheeler broke into the establish-
ment, then shot Officers Everett and Vin-
son when they: pursued and tried to ap-
prehend him. A parade of state witnesses
described all the events from Whittaker’s

discovery of the burglary until Wheeler:

was arrested.
An FBI technician testified that the
pistol taken from the defendant fired the

an ss Fepaae

slug recovered from Officer-Everett’s

body. Another FBI expert said Wheeler’s
fingerprints were found in the old Buick

abandoned in the woods. Other witnesses

identified photos of the car as the vehicle
seen at the shooting site.

All the state’s evidence, both direct
and circumstantial, pointed to Luther
Wheeler as the gunman. Then he took the
stand and . testified in his own behalf. He
did-not try to dispute much prosecution
testimony, but he claimed it made him a
victim of circumstance.

He couldn't remember telling
arresting officers he shot the two officers
because they shot at him first. The he told
a story that dovetailed neatly with
testimony of state witnesses.

His version was that as he and Frances

- Bossman were driving around at about 20

miles per hour, he heard a siren. He said

he heard a shot, then saw a green car
followed by a police car coming up
behind him. Wheeler said he stopped im-
mediately.

The officers approached the other
car, he said, and talked to the two male
occupants. Then they brought the two
men over to his car, opened the car door
and the trunk, he claimed, and told him to
get out. Wheeler said he protested he had
done nothing.

As he got out of the car, Wheeler
testified, one of the officers hit him on the
head and knocked him to the ground.
Then he was told to leave. Wheeler said
he was. too dazed to move. About then
shooting started.

Wheeler said he tried to crawl under
his car for cover, but that F rances

Bossman became frightened and sped

away. When the shooting ended, he

OFFICIAL DETECTIVE |

claimed, or
car threw a
the scene.
The def.
the bag and
and cartrid;
said he tried
and report v
would not s
Thoroug
crossed a ra
think about |
ed to go to t
the way that
Wheeler «
kneed him
_the eye, and
ly. If he did
the officers,
was extorted
The won
screaming bi
seeing a g
Prosecutors «
car driven b:
telephone po
Then def
troduce evid
treated in jail
arrest. Judge
such testimon
Only if su
a confession
evidence, he
offered no co
~ would not be;
Eventuall;
and opposing
oratory.
‘How m
problematical
pretty solid.
Supreme Cow
“Appellar
ly contradicte
physical facts
knowledge...’
After only |
‘found Luther
. and made no »
cy. This judgm
th sentence
was passed by
Wheeler’

' appealed the vc

ble errors on th
March 16, 195:

. firmed the co

“May 8, 1953 as

Still, Arlins
defendant's co
fought on. One
other appeal r
White refused t

- 4, 1954, time w.

Wheeler.
Counselor J:

ecution from tl

day. All his effor

“was scheduled |
During the day,
- from the Hinds
re considered mor

Wills, Grady, elec, Philadelphia, Mississippi 5/15/1941

ie SETH CAGIN AND PHILIP DRAY

10d Films of the Seventies:

igs, Violence, Rock ’n’ Roll
The Story of Goodman,

9 Schwerner, and Chaney
‘ and the Civil Rights

Campaign for Mississippi

- Afraid

MACMILLAN PUBLISHING COMPANY / NEW YORK

tics

STATE OF MISSISSIPII
COUNTY OF AMITE

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
VS.

oe cation, desma Se Sesak eth: wes ae ee WA Rebel etal Aecab [5 am dS ce Co ky a a
SETS C. WILLiAKS
¥ pet ie fs hn he ak

TO THE CLERK OF TEE CIRCUIT COURT OF SAID COUNTY: - =:

hi Sak ad bake anal « poe Maa iia ca nsahtbeaad a dee eos abet Sy aS Ly

“We, A- J. Causey, Sheriff, D. B. Cruise, his deputy, H. A.
“Butler, and M. D. Quin, practicing physicians émployed by the
: Becunt; of Amite, do hereby certify that cn Friday, October 1,
nee 1943, at the hour of 5:00 A. M. and within the walls of the Court-
“house in the Town of Liberty, Mississippi, did witness the electro-
“eution of Joseph C. Williams, the condemned defendant, in the Stats
Electric Chair, operated by Jimmie Thorpson, State Electrocutioner,

and that a current of electricity was passed through tke body of
; a gen ad one x” : saat eg sy :
te Said Joseph C. Will tars |”

’

‘artil ne was*ee da at-stos=e: Eup Peinetesete si mae

That there were present, other public officials and persons

t i who witnessed said execution, namely; ‘

) 7 Reverend C. M. Day, Liberty, Mississippi;

Reverend E. M: Porter, (Colored) Gloster, Mississippi;

Reverend J. R. Ruckerd, (Colored) Gloster, Mississippi;

ey - Reverend W. C. Taplin, (Colcred) Liberty, Mississippi;
“Members of the State Highway Patrol, acting as guards,
names vnknown;
and ER Nunnery};

and who have affixed their signatures hereto.

“Witness our Signatures, “this "the “first day

tober, | A. Dey

1943.

SREP REST: PI Mie an NSB A A amma = eR Fg ay, ig Ge AA Eo A on is

ee ee Pag On
SELES:

j WILLIAMS, Joseph Ce, electrocuted Liberty, Mississippi, on 10-1-1913.

Se eee
J

Das faa |

on Bik PN Apatite Mie gH

prriatetxansneins
Bet s

pie, emer e

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPFI, COUNTY OF AMITE

THE STATE OF MISSISSIFFI

VS. #1188.
JOSEPH C. WILLIAS

PRN BRE I

provisions of the said Chapter £42: ofm-thenaAotatot the Lertalrtvre

DEATH WAKRANL . sai oe ene en seen

TO THE SHERIFF OF SAID COUNTY; GREETING:

WHEREAS; at the August 1943 Special Torm of the Circuit Court
of Amite County, Mississippi, the defendant, Joseph GC. Williams,
was duly and legally tried in said court on the 3lst day of
August, 1943, under an indictment chaenie him with the capital
crime of Rape, and a petty jury, duly sworn, empanelled, and
siected to try the defendent under said indictment, after
hearing all of the evidencd and under the instructions of the ccurt,
returned in open court, the verdict, "We, the jury, find the
defendant guilty as charged", anda the said Joseph C. Williams was
then and there by the court, sentenced to be electrocuted by the
passing through his body, a current of electricity until he be
dead.

THEREFORE, you are hereb; commanded as provided for by
Chapter 242 of the Acts of the Legisinture; of Mississipri, 1940,

to have the said Joseph C. Williams, defendant, electrocuted on

Friday, the first day of October, A. b., 1943, within tke walls

of the jail of Amite County, Mississippi, until he is dead; and

that you, in executing this warrant, will comply with all of the

of Mississippi, 1940, ard that you will have, then and there,
this writ with your returns, duly drdorsed thereon, as required

by law.

Giver, under ny hand ard official seal, this first day of
September, A. lee. 1$4¢.

Hb berd—-e_— )

CIRCUIT CLERK. y

ee 7 : oe ein fy z 4a FOr

tie Chee

ida aie RU IS be

SSE ERE 8 SRE LOO VRE i

Teighneila Reams epsd Pes Sat tate

WlillaMs, Joé, black, hanged Hazlehurst, M3 1-20-1899

| Jule To corre narees sid
ACKNOWLEDGED Mas “OnIME, ee

‘ fe
N Han, td tea Mis in ippty
— "Boat catigty vai igs . |

baoeing "tor: an’ uimentionnble: “erline:
committed ona white woman (Wok piice:
here to-day, and was witnessed by near! y
2,006 people. The name of tha nepto: wag’
Joe Willams. The © offense | ‘was? come:
mitted in August: last. In order’ Lo presi),
vent lynching at the time he wae « pirited:
‘from: the acene and taken to “Tackso bys
| Sheriff Thomson, where he-wan kept ys

til the Circuit: Court’ mat. in Decembs f os
‘when he declinéd ‘any defense: ands:

pleaded» eullty to* the charge, The: She
lows was erected’ one. mile south pt tht.
courthouse, ;: bys cater
WiHanys favcended the wenffald. sms
ing a clgar, being In no way excited, 8 se
spok@ several minutes to the audience
acknowledging his crime, and mind i
his friends td proft by his “awful fates:

At the request of the Bheritt: bade colored:
prenche? then-ordered: Preyer my . 2
conclusion the trap wea" Sprung. aoe bi
Sheriff and Wiliams’ was ; hurledintes
eternity, hig neck aia nese by ene
fall. | ciety tee . at

s> ovat! Et
aaa geld see

a : j te R
i ” nies, ade 3 J

= 5 A ie $;.. 8 pate +

Williams, Moses; no race or age given; shot G.M. Ragsdale, Esq.
District Court Clerk at Ponotoc, MS, on 19 March 1850.

Augusta (GA) Constitutionalist, Tues., 9 April 1850

" The Columbus (Miss.) Whig states that G.M. Ragsdale, Esq.,
Clerk of the U.S. District Court, at Ponotoc, was shot in
that place on the 19th ult., by MosesWWilliams, from which
wound he died in fifteen or twenty minutes."

From Columbus (MS) Whig, no date given

policemen Cemetery in Qenes Cou

“ The body ¥n8 perprs to a rverett

this morn-
‘ting and will remain there until —

home, 811 Rebecca Ave,

W. Vin-
m,. Wed-
“i ipttat

!ghland

for burial.

H. O, McLeod, Dr.
Mayor Ed -Curtte,

ve: Rev.
ood Bap-
Oren C.
mmanuel
evangelist

he family
8t. until
Funeral
igements.
will be:
\b Payne,
E. Lott,
Cranford,
ors of the
tment.
wife, two
nher and

: held at
ulett Fu-
e Everett.
Lbe- Rey,
F. Gail.
| Oaklawn Cemetery, 7
Mr.

Hulett: F
Rev, GrC.-

{g at the funeral home.’

dg This
a traffic
county
the one

Baptist church.

brother.

A lifelong resident of Fattlesburg,
he had been associated with the
compres& company for a number of
years. He was,a& member of First

“Foneral services for David Y
Hemel Jr., superintendent of the
Hattiesburg Compress Company, will
he held-at).3->p.m.° Wednesday In

Moore officiating. Burial wal be in

He 1s survived by his wife, two
daughters, one son, two grandsons,
his mother, four sisters and ong

Honorary pall bearers will be: Dr.
Harry Fridge,
Commissioners
Sid Oden and W. P, Hartington, and
all membera of the Hatlesburg Po-
Nee Department, the Forrest County
Sherif's Office and the Brother-
hood of Ralflroad -Trainmen.

Mr. Everett {# survived by his
wife; one son, a daughter, his moth-
er, his father, and a@ alster,
OO

Funeral, Riles. .
Wednesday: For’
David Hemelér

Hemeter died unexpectedly |
Monday at his home, 2400 Hardy
8t. He was 49 years old. The body

ita of general interest are scheduled here: °°

EMPTION—Pertons eligible for homestead.
their applications at the tax assessor's of-
City residents alzo must Spply at the city

*AIGNS—Anrmual clean-up campaigns are”

urg under sponsorship of the City View
lub In. cooperation with the Hattlesburg

in. Petaf under sponsorship ‘bf the Petal- ~

d the community's garden clubs,

IMAGE —The annual. garden pilgrimage.
inal Home and Garden Club 4 underway,
SHOW—Alpha Beta Chapter tees illy
wor a beneNt style show at 8 pm, Thurs- ~

¢ Center,

VE—The annual Red Cross fund drive {s

tt County quota of $1938. Tonight, cam-*"

. at homes to pick up donationg, which are

andtacked-on_tha fron
homes Monday by workers.

>
«4

‘c
+

hole in the ceiling of:a room

photo by John W bite). +"

By JUMMIE- LEESON

A taxi driver's alertnent\ led to
the arrest today of the woman
companion of Lather ‘Carlyle
Wheeler, admitted slayer “Of -two
Hattlesburg — Bunday
night.

- Charlile -Aultman ‘of x0 Busch
man, driver for Green Taxi Co.,,
ig credited with recognizing the
woman as probably being the miss-

The woman, who ‘was’ “Tegistered
in Room, 226 of the Milner Hotel
here ag Mrs, George Comstock, 1611
Waters, Bt., Daytona Beach, Fia.,
this morning asked the bell boy,
Jack Kindred, to get her a taxi
to take her to New Orleans, 6he
told him that “t price doesn't
matter.” . nal

Kindred notified the Green’ Taxt
Co. office {in ‘the hotel building,
and Dispatcher R. B, Duke nasigned

Wheeler’ $

Taxi Driver’ S. Tip
) To. Woman’: Ss Arrest:

ing companion‘and causing per ar-
reat by local pollce,-He ihis
patory. this morning+ :
arrest es

BULLET HOLE—Dan Mooney, standing’ ona chaly, ‘points. to the ballet

of his home at AT West Fourth St.

In the gun.batfle’ Sunday night. when City Patrolmen M. W. Vinson
Jrvand J. J. Everett were Killed, one wild shot plerced a window pane,
curtain and shade and went. through the rita {n this room, Staff

Led |

ee to the woman's ‘root
and, make plana for the trip,
«mm -her room, the woman told the
faxt driver that she wanted to go
lo New Orleans as she was.in “lots
of trouble.” Bhe didn't explain what
trouble but did say she “needed a
good lawyer” there/ Aultman said
he wré unable to, ‘recommend any
to her, $ ri

The driver: hoticed that. "the
seemed very nervous, althouen, 8 she

legs were “badly scsathed erid she
had been ‘drinking: heavily, he no-
ticed, ~

Although she cere “him $150
to-make the trip, he told her it
would be for a jeaser amount, °;
’, During the hour that the tax was
being greased and- washed for the
proposed trip, Aultman . discussed
the situation with his dispatcher

(Contiuued On Pege Fulteep) |

‘Confession

" Bherift Abb. Payne sald today that
Lather Carlyle Wheeler, 24, made
these statements In @ algned confed-}-
sion describing’ the Sunday night
gun-giaying of two Batsieeuurs a
Mcemen:

The only person “with him was a:
car-o]d Elaine Forman of Balt Lake
jty, whom he'd met about two
weeks: ago In a hotel in Jacksons

‘ .tyille, Fla,

AL—Combined choruses of schools {n.Dis- _
siasippd High School Activites Association
at 7:3 pm. -Priday as the climax to the

Wedoha.dalloren of, Chicnge wit be, tre

Tha new travelirie” exhibition” of Waller
potter of Ocean Springs, will-be Beene
th 14 and 15 under the sponsorship of the

1 Of Ocorge Li Hawtin

unlor High Bchoo},

M—The annual dance program presented —
ysical education department ‘of MitSeilppi

be held at 6:18 pan, Wednesday in the

Dole ga paar

_]|@ novelty salesman,

Bhe thought he made his ving as

mene cy)

. When the Hattlesburg patrol car

stopped them after his unsuccessful

attempt to burglarize Ace Weathers

Motors co., the woman was ‘driving

the getaway vehicle. | _ Pi

, Bhot at Cloee Range .°

+ Wheeler, sitting beside her,. as
leg

his gun down between his
shadowed by the darkneste ben

the dishboara. He wat there wu ting

unt!) Patrolman Jease James Everett
climbed out of the police car and
came around and opened the door
on Wheeler's side of

hice

the othe “ves

‘When ¢ the 28-year- -old Lrerett

‘| swung. the’ door open, Wheeler shot

him.in the, cheat,
7 Ce) <n Pe °

Wheeler, aw that. Vinson was pre-
paring to get out of the police car.
Wheeler himself ‘got: out and ran

vat pojnt-blank

rs tare
Por

att On we

‘Jout-into. the atrect, shooting Vin-

son Suide the officers feet hit the
pavemeng, .

Flaine: Forman, “stil sitting be-
Neath the: wheel -of her car, pan-
Icked therm Bhe drove away from
the pcene, leaving Wheeler there {n
the street, : ‘one policeman dead at
his feet ‘and: the other mortally
wounded, “ are

He has no ideafwhere the worn
went after leaving him. Wheeler
[sald she was driving a Ught green
1941 Chevrolet two-door coupe bear.
Ing a .Harrison county, Miss. tag.
Actually the car ls a maroon Buick.

. Yrheeley said the reason he gare
to many con{iicting accounts of .the

Baliba's store om Hardy st, Bunday
night was because “I loved her® and
wanted “to give her a chanes w

y.” Pd % io ws . st
Pare Dun fle Did Ie pera :
= hertf-Payne—who with A

Claude Pittman, took Wheeler's {1-
Dal-statement ‘Monday- night—eald
that the. discovery Monday mocn-
Ing of a bundle. of clothing and

Criterna “helped track: Wheeden

An Katonvilla farmer, Lee Perry,
while walking hig? fence-ling,’; aaw
There coe miner encnnte
There was. among >ungs a
blond leathiergitat Beg. ehiehe ta-
cording to the confess{on, Whéeler
claimed sa his Own, He also Tecogs

(Contiuued Oa ‘Page Jaane
Wd sere Sah

vee sd 4 ’
fg va
is ies 5 As

BPG RA

slaying after he was captured near]:

Viaitw DeoTk, Led Teak. Vala POL
led gorily. aiter. being; acer Ws
Methodist Hopital yg ANS oe
- Wheeler, still on ‘foot’ ‘and: ‘armed Y
with’ ® 38 caliber revolver, was cap=sy2
tured. Bunday_ night near Galibe’
Orocery store on Hardy “1s ade
itendas night he han Be “stale Ps
ment to Bheriff Payne and Attorney st
Claude Pittman which: except: fot 5
minor detallé, fibed with the wialneeus

ments of the woman at the palloe 2
station this morning. “2: +
. *Shoot-8hoot-Shoot™:

“Flaine - Forman | sald
later she should have remained ries
walted for” her man, but tha oe Ev Y
fear got her. “All of a sudden pe
shoot-shoot-shoot, I never rosie ed eS
much -°- -«--« shooting in‘ myé
ife, When that shooting began: I
didn't know what to do. I knew. we
couldn't win, I didn't ask for this}
kind of a damned dirty deal": 6) 495)
~ At this potnt of the Interview, ‘she!
began sobbing more wildly than ben 7,
fore. Bhe said she had a splitting 47 *
5 ere and when Chief of Police s% :

CO. Harris offered her an sepirin Ss ees
she veld” N09, . that wh ;

0 . te CG
scene of the shooting? =. “CSR 43
Bhe rounded a corner, gunning tha hy
Bulck skiddingly, 20 that it ran intd>
a ditch, A man came out on his,
porch and ‘said:* “Did - you: hurt! oe
yoursel{? Is anybody” hurt?*.: "yj Avge ws tiem
- Bhe téld him.ng and-then soni somes is es 5 a
how jockeyed the heavy vehicle ous
ot | the ditch., watson ots iy a
:* ” Burglar. Tootd 52 SScd
when she got outaide town “sh Ne
Jettisoned a. dark’ blue . begs: “oe a}
burglar tools. i: These , were. found: deere
Monday afterrioon. on “Highway! resis
by police. Bhe got on old highway
49 ‘and. drove . north 10 .miles jes
Fatonrile, where she, threw 5 out
some clothing and . other personal ¥
pie belonging to Brat eee:
eet RS 4 hp tx
“swhy did T doh? t dont know ag
T tell you I didn’t know what L.was
doing.” syd tity ly Meee BOON
-The things she left: “there: on
édge of a fishpond were found Sat
day..morning by & ‘{armer , walking
his fenceline,’ Among the items- wag’
a plastic bag of 38 caliber cartridgeaé
Police_say they-fit Wheelers cunt;
also that. bullets: taken’ "froox
the: bodies [o -dead. men” came,

from his poogding to i ere
teeta, 6 LBA CM hI oo a
The Forman woman bald ‘she then:

drove to « kpot about four miles front
Fatonyille,¥ parked and: spent 7 td
night tn the ¢arZ Monday; “ong pine

auto was.found a
leg morning back of the ald,
home, -Just, off , old / Pigeon ~
oud, "five, ox: six. mile’ from; b
vet ee Baw, Three Mertes tas
vate arived bere [ten fire J Bom
of, walking:: The time:

pmo und “rhe: saw-alt-three- #

a rs

Se —

When the novelty salesman (above) had
to have money for his fat girlfriend,
he returned to his old racket: burglary.
Then picked up a new one: murder.

a oe eee
eS hy ee Waray ‘Areca 7

“Wheeler's s itl “Ferien

TERY a piket
\4
Qe

sion :

ARREST" BUSPECT ™”
$1% MILLION BURGLARY. |

, ther ie ' WASHINGTON * (4}—The .FBI By ELLIOTT CHiASEN ne g é
ralionia ° of| today. arrested m former convict in a A. chunky, 31- year-old woman today sobbed -out ‘ac story of Ks.
isoliney on} connection, with the so : r rest shortly after she was taken into custody by cenacae tnd police in connection: with the “Cah
Amie t guns it one ~— Sunday night slaying of two patrolmen, area fUNeg sate A
trullete The arrest was made by, agents Elaine Forman’ of Salt Lake City dictated to “onttetals the following ‘account! =

a curtain{at Milwaukee, Wisc. . She met 24-year-old Luther Carlyle Wheeler, who is now_in undisclosed - jail

Shooting} The man in custody . wes de-|{n a Jacksonville, Fla., hotel. He told her he was a “novelty salesman.” They bought. ms
abs, roared| scribed as Andrew Robert Young, car and drove to Mobile, ents
back with}, In Milwaukee today; Young, was * Hee ] the G If t to

specifically charged with Interstate ORGAN ais es: BRA along tne Gu Coas 574
iolished ‘at| transportation of some of the loot Age uy ‘eyo474| Orleans and finally. to ate
t positions baba by ng ae Pa ve ay eh faa\ tlesburg, arriving here~Suntat SA8s
nber of in-| Millionaire Laverne V. eld, at : :
s destroyed,| Reno on Feb, 29. - ay seeing a. movie, and eat
Force sald ; NB ae Bu ore

the flam-|] FRENCH! PREMIER retary | et
Th : , mae Before going to the movie,: wheesj
Wing ora WINS CONFIDENCE VOTE .. e-Maa ducitaa ta. tarvunee Aue
Sol. Levt R. PARIS (4}—Premier Antofne Pi- Weathers Motors Co. and accords:
v., “sald ev.| Day won a vote of approval, 293 to ing plan they. later droves; to;

e outnt was

101,° from the National Assembly
today for his new right-of-center
Cabinet, Sa,
Communists opposed

¥ith

.™ block of ‘the’ place, and*

% +

‘ere on the Only the Lye
e Jets with) him. Pinay {s pledged to continue| # . until he came eating to the. car’!
‘ts, and re-| French support of the Atlantic Al-| §icy after the pojiee came along,” ‘Fisine:
d attacks, |jtance, the ‘fight “against Commu- Beer Baldy ste ene a edoe Aas des
nything left! mist-led rebels in Indochina and a| BR ~.“I don't remaeuiber any shots ots Ve
t sald. rigorous tax collection reform to| Qik we fired’ at us until I halted. they;
tw over the] finance a contribution to defense, sd (at North’ and... West, Fourth
s of, boxes ~ Ks Bia and’ the police car came aloogty
* said Capt.{ ORDER END OF r aide, I was’ scared stiff. 1 waa (80.0
dena, Calif.| RAIL 8TRIKE “§ scared “I. didn't’ know., what; waa:
the supplies CLEVELAND (A§—A federal! judge by happening:- (See Bnav word
ve Went {n.”| today ordered three rail unions to ae “I. remem @ of the po Cr
es. outnum-] end thelr strike and keep the walk. at men got out of: the. equad car and.
fown one] out from epreading to other linea | Be walked around to Carl's “(Wheefer’s) x Ve
another| - Judge Emerich B. Freed granted | Bigg side of our Buick. J gues¢ Carl fired! ae :
a government sult to end imme-| § first, -Buts I, never did. bear.) the; oe
kills in the] dJately the strike started Bunday | sound of. the shot, L'saw ‘the per “*
t. Brooks J.J morning against; the New York but It was a quiet one, Like. &
Va., and Lt.| Central Mnes west of Buffalo. and body lit a cigaret lighter.< i
ayune, Miss.| the 8t. Louls: Terminal ‘ine, dark, The’ policeman ;was-
of Hartford] He acheduled a hearing for March therevand then he-Wasn't. 2
in.-accounte | 19-on-the-government’s request-f0F |. Ti" Carl samped out” and AA
i. a permanent Injunction, © anything happens to’ me ce

al Wednesda Wa

Wo- Policemeh

¥e@

.
¢
%

lobe held
10 policemen

man Interment will follow in unio
Cemetery in Jones County. 4:
The body ¥as taken to the Everett

Sor # eas

BULLET HOLE—Dan Mooney, standing. on:n “chalr,

points to the ballet

To hell with me, You 4
He'd told yne that-lots

Avy % “ai
‘and 4Jenee - teas NY: pats
weer marriéd-and ‘the.
two children, Everett,.who he NRE
on the Hattiesburg ‘police force et et
three montha, died instantly. Vinso a
died shortly,‘after being - taken: t9
Methodist Hospital; oR dee ree WON pee:
d armed : a

H 37 ! -
low oes ISe sid wil retain thetp unt eine hole In the ceiling of;a room of his home at 647.West Fourth St. ‘al a 38 caliber revolver, mi capsts
Poe Ua. tsar Pain au verett were Billed, ean atson pane fa i
- roan vere ere . sign en Et re S
? eotiat i iOnOvaY pabearers will be: Dr. curtain and shade and went. aed the. ~_ in al room, talf viet night he ries Satire
In Highland| Mayor Ed -Currie, Commissioners photo by John W meh ' « ant to Bheriff Payne and Attorney,’
8id Oden and W. P. Harrington, and Claude Pittman. which. except ‘fod
will be: Rev.}all members of the Hattiesburg Po- minor -detalla, ibed with the states!$4 a
Idwood Bap- {lice Department, the Forrest County J a XI Dri rive t s. ip -e ments of the woman at the een :
tev. Oren C.| Sheriff's Office and the Brother- station this morming.:> Sa £13
of Immanuel] hood of Railroad Trainmen. ‘. -“Bhoot- Bhoot-Bheot)’ oie
{1 Evangelist] Mr, Everett {s survived by his ‘Flaine Forman’ sald she (Aine e
wife; one son, a daughter, his moth- ) T O. Wo m a n *s A rest later she p Asada hes remained. andaw
atthe family/er, his father and am sister. waited for® her man, but that the
rry Bt. until} ————_o—-_—— ’ fear got her, “All of a sudden it was’

ett Funeral

shoot-shoot-shoot, I never saw: 00"

* ’
t By JIMMIE. LERSON Aultman os ro to the woman's room mys
a wll be: Funeral.Rifes « A tax! driver's alertnese led to [nd make plana foe the Ulp. much «ss fae | hla td tes a “f ;
me, “ . 4 { t! mM her room, the woman told the | life. When that shooting began: Ae
im” Ab Payne, \ the arrest today oO ey pada tint “deinie ak ae wanted to go [didn’t know “what to do, I knew “eA
pan . “yee y
s*chadas| Wednesday-For |stet"thuds ster Je'ce| then Giana st hereto a ty and cy de
embers of the Hattiesburg proniceiicn a unday of trouble.” Bhe didn’t explain ba ape ain t Nhe intact i i
trouble but did say she “needed a poln
fe wife, two David Hemeler- o'Charile ~aaiteonany of e Busche | food lawyer” theres Aultman sald | bean sobbing more iad then be v4
brother and man, driver for Green Taxi Co,,|he wed unable to recommend any ae Bhe ee ne of Police eR
: ‘oo Abani meine | or David x. le credited with recognizing the |to her’ fh , hale “ wo Rar Priadi her ie nina i
. /\Hemeter Jr., superintendent of the] woman as probably being the mise- The driver. hoticed'. that she | “ie val" ‘hat he at Rs
1 be held at | sattiesburg Compress Company, Will |ing companion ‘and causing ber ar- seemed very perrous, although she m
t Hulett Fu-lhe held. atys.p.m:” Wednesday In|rest by local polica)

Jesse Kverett.

re 4 Y. Oath.

Oaklawn Sematary:

Hulett F
Rey, TO.
Moore officiating, Burial wi! be in

latory. this morning 4

arrest,

.--

“avy

in Room, 226 of the

Viner me Sore

The woman, whic ‘waa registered

Neorge Car

i) pee ‘4

Milner Hotel

ratory ‘Alt

legs were badly saachec and she
had been drinking heavily, he no-

IVIg .
ane of the shooting | sri vaayty

she rounded a corner,
Tick akiddingty ef that 't ran ints

BY JACK DARCY

Miicstesipei is one state which remained thoroughly loyal to the
memory of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. There are
no package stores in Mississippi, no cocktail lounges, no taverns. The
entire state, so the law reads, is as dry as a sand dune in the middle
of Death Valley. ‘

For that reason, and others, the city of Hattiesburg, with a popula-
tion of some 30,000 people, enjoys quiet and peaceful evenings; and,
of all the nights of the week, Sunday evenings are the quietest, the
most peaceful.

At 9 o’clock of March 9, 1952, Dan Mooney sat in his West Fourth
Street home and thumbed through the last of the Sunday papers.
Soon he would end the uneventful day by going to bed. If you had
offered Dan Mooney a million to one that within ten minutes a bullet
would whiz by, missing his head by a fraction of an inch, he doubtless

BULLETS PAID

FOR THE

HONEYMOON
OF TERROR

Sheriff Ab Payne, who spotted
Two weeks before they were slain, Patrolmen J. J. a very small, but very vital
Everett, left, and M. W. Vinson, posed with large clue on killer’s handkerchief.
haul of bootleg liquor they seized in a truck.

jan (above) had
fat girlfriend,
acket: burglary.
one: murder.

’ Fa re
¢ i 2 es Banke
— “a ae

They didn't bother with any wedding bells an

a j
4

credit card was an
> 2

tke

d their only
itchy trigger finger

and as a result she
ith in Sioux Falls
jail. It was either
; in jail, and when
100?
this footloose, root-
-she was now 28—
that she wanted to
faces again. She
arly in September
tlen Aubrey again
f two years. She
greeted her small-
hanged remarkably
in’t even recognize
it right back to the
.e bottle.

» Binghamton area
er as a hard-bitten
was almost always
over a bar with a
ie spent her nights
:e, spent her days
‘xt night to come.
rd to tell when one
ther began.

MORNING of Sep-
motorist driving
vutside of Bing-

a a car that was

nto the ditch. He

could help. In the

a man unconscious,

idly beaten around

ought in and hos-
isn’t much hope for
o far gone to make
the time he died
had been identified
_a highway worker.
sstigators.found an
e of whiskey and
f iron pipe covered
head obviously had
. this pipe.
tectives wanted to
iad been with that
ed up all his friends
ot of people. A day
time they learned
vening alive, Cook
te with Ruth Lake.
n driving off in his

‘king for Ruth. But
he had taken it on
with her expertness
hitch-hiking there
‘e she might be now.
for the police to do
irm for her all over
ait. They did take
1. They made ar-
in on the telephone

ith made her the
1 to catch. As a
uld go in any direc-
jhe would generally
id when in a town

would seldom stop at a hotel. -She
would invariably stop at cheap taverns
—the kind of place where drinks were
served to anyone who had the money,
and no questions asked. So, although
her. description was broadcast every-
where, she managed to hitch-hike all
the way to the West Coast and. more
than halfway back again -before her
luck ran out.

On January 13, 1954, a telephone call
came into Glen Aubrey from Cincin-
nati. It was Ruth on the line, and the
police were able to trace the call to a
telephone booth in the Ohio city.

She was so anxious to learn how
things were back home that she kept

talking for some 18 minutes. She was

just finishing the conversation when
two Cincinnati detectives walked into
the drug store from which she was
phoning and took her in custody as she

left the booth. She made no resistance. -

“I had an idea you’d: get me sooner
or later,” she said.
Despite the wintry weather, she was

hatless and wearing only a threadbare’

jacket over her thin dress. She had a
little small change—less than a dollar.
Taken to headquarters, she agreed to

related, “when a couple of friends of
hers, a man and a woman, stopped in.
We had a few drinks, and it turned out
‘that this fellow had a gun, a .32 caliber
job. .He suggested driving ‘out in the
country and popping away at fence
posts, so we did that for a while and.
then came back to my girl’s house. We
had another drink, and then this other
couple left about midnight.. He took his
gun, of course, and I never thought
until later that I still had. a clip of his
bullets in my pocket.”

It wasn’t a very likely story, ‘but
Pittman and Payne were willing to give
him every chance to prove it. _

“What are the names of this couple?”
the sheriff demanded. —

Wheeler’s sense of privacy became
strong again. That, he said, wa&s none
of the investigators’ ‘business.

“He’s lying, that’s sure,” Pittman
said after the prisoner had been re-
turned to his cell. “Well, we can hold
him for.a while and see if we get any-
thing more on him.” 4

When dawn broke on Hattiesburg,
the city was like an armed camp: With.
two well-liked policemen killed, every
city and county officer was working
on the case without regard to shifts.
The papers headlined the dual killing.
Radio broadcasts were alive with in-
formation about the crime. :

Around 8 o'clock, a group of wood-

return to New York State without fuss-
ing about extradition. .

Brought back to Binghamton, she

made no effort to deny the crime, but

she didn’t exactly confess it either. She

- said she had been drinking so heavily

for more than a year that her memory

was cloudy and she couldn't recall -

much of anything. There was some
truth in this. Her memory was pretty
foggy in places, but after a little re-
minding she
Cook.

TH HAD GONE OUT together

only a couple of:times, she said, be-
fore the fatal night of September 28.
That night they went out driving for no
particular purpose except to do a little
drinking, and the details weren’t very
clear in her mind. She recalled that
the car had stalled on a slight hill and

had backed down again with the right

‘rear wheel settling in the ditch.

“All I remember from that moment
on,”. she related, “is that I told Eddie
he ought to go for help. I can’t remem-
ber. what happened then—I honestly
can’t. Everything blacked out. Then,
my God, I was holding a piece of pipe

THE INK-STAINED BLONDE

(Continued from page’ 37)

choppers left for work in the woods a
few miles outside of town. They walked
with their tools along a little-used side
road that was hardly more than two,
ruts between high weeds. On this road
they found a mud-stained Buick sedan
parked, a fairly old car. ,

They looked inside. In the back seat a
plump, blonde-haired young woman
lay, her coat tucked around her. Ap-
parently she was‘sound asleep. But the
men’s talk must have disturbed her,
for suddenly she sat bolt upright, look-
ing around wildly. Then she seemed to
collect her wits.

“Tm all right,” she said. “I’ve been
traveling, and I got sleepy so I drove in
here for a little nap.”

She was wearing a green dress of
some silk-like material. Her coat was
gray with a furred collar. The men
nodded and strode on.

However, one of them had heard a
news .. broadcast that morning telling
about the double killing and the hunt
for an oldish Buick driven by a woman.
The way that woman had started when

she woke up, he wondered if this

might not be the one they were looking
for. He circled back home and called
the sheriff’s office.

A couple of deputies got out there as
soon as they could make it. The Buick
was there, all right. It bore Minnesota
plates and was listed as stolen. But

remembered Edward

oie eo

and Eddie was beside me, all bloody.”

She was hazy about how she got
home—probably hitched a ride. But
when she read the papers and heard
the fuss about Cook’s murder next day,
she decided the best thing to do was to
leave town.

Now, after all these many months, she
began to show an interest in her chil-
dren. Two of them were still at a
foundling home in Tulsa, while the
third was with her parents.

“I want my kids!” she sobbed.

It was a little late to be thinking of
that. Ruth Lake went to jail on a
charge of homicide, and in April, 1954,
she went to trial in Binghamton. She
pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of
second degree manslaughter, and the
judge sentenced her to serve from
seven and a half to 15 years in the
State Prison for Women at Bedford
Hills, N. Y.

So the hard-boiled girl who got her
fun out of a bottle will have plenty of
time to sober up, think things over, and
discover whether in time she may be-
come a fit mother for the three young-

sters who, so far, have seen very little
of her.

the plump blonde with the green dress
had disappeared. They could follow
the marks of her high-heeled shoes
along. the trail for a short way, then
they were lost.

Before long, Assistant Police Chief
Hugh Herring was checking the Buick
for fingerprints, and patrol cars were
cruising the area in search of the young
woman. Somehow, although she did not
have much of a start, she managed to
evade them. It was quite possible that
she had gone out to the highway and
hitched a ride.

Within the next hour, a pedestrian
on a street five blocks from the murder
scene picked up a set of burglar tools.
They were scattered on the boulevard
as though they had been tossed from
an automobile. Farther out, near the
edge of town another citizen found an
inexpensive suitcase with one of its
corners badly dented. Apparently it,
too, had been tossed from a moving car.

Both finds were taken to headquar-

ters. Officers opened the suitcase and .

found in it an assortment of men’s
clothing, including three shirts with
size 15 necks and some size 11 socks.

Luther Wheeler, it was soon deter-
mined, had a size 15 neck and was
wearing size 11 socks.

‘IT never saw that stuff before,” he
insisted. “It don’t belong to me.”

That. remained to be seen. So far,

nty of time to get
is their preference.
of Forest County
county men were
out for the Buick.
or, Emmett C. Mc-
.a residential séc-
heard a noise that
n the direction of :
had any business
rage at that hour.
on the. rear porch
it on the porch.
me running from
he garage, bolted
d and disappeared
idjoining yards.
ly called the police
wwler. “He seemed
” he related. “He
enough so I could
Also he wore a
and a white sport-.

10t known whether -

iy connection with
wever, McKinney’s
eat a distance from
nd the police were
half-dozen officers
e area where the
?erhaps 20 minutes,
sotted a man walk-
way only a block
ig, he wore glasses
a gray hat, blue
ct shirt. On top of
finitely furtive air

bud,” one of the

ver to a police car
2 was unarmed, but
2 caliber bullets in
he was unable to
ng explanation of
at that hour of the
ok him in to head-
angry protests that
- to treat an honest

aude Pittman, who
com bed, questioned
‘aid his name was

heeler, aged 27, of

ig at my girl friend’s |

srily. “When I was
se cops pinched me.
vay to treat an inno-
ay.”

man pointed out, “it
matter to check that.
ame and address of
.d we'll ask her.”
e,” Wheeler snarled.
‘ss bothering my girl
ht.”

Mrs. Foreman and

“In that case, young fellow, it looks
like you’ll Have to occupy a cell for
the night. Just why were you carrying
those bullets?”

““That ain’t any of your business,”

_ Wheeler growled. “I ask you, is it

against the law to carry a few bullets

‘ in your pocket?”

As it happened, it was not. S#fll,
Wheeler was not acting like the inno-
cent man he claimed to be.

“Do you own a car?” Pittman queried.

“No,” the suspect said sullenly.

“Then how did you expect to get all
the way back to Gulfport? Or are you
staying somewhere here in Hatties-
burg?” Oe each

Wheeler refused to answer. He took
the stand that all of this was none of
the investigators’ business and there-
fore he was not required to answer.
But Pittman was inclined to believe

BT gy
‘ Vee: 7. a

Wheeler (fur-necked jacket) appear befor

b 3

e Judge Hara

that he refused to answer because he

didn’t have any good answers. He was.

placed in a cell and the probe went on.

ESPITE AN INTENSIVE search by
city and county officers, the old
Buick driven by a woman had not yet
been found. Although the license num-
ber was not known and the car’s de-

scription was sketchy at best, Sheriff’

Payne relayed the alarm for the Buick
to authorities in Alabama, Tennessee
and Louisiana. b

The sheriff also called the coroner’s
office. The bullets that_killed Patrol-
men Vinson and Everett, he was told,
were of .32 caliber—the samé size as
the bullets Wheeler had been carrying
in his pocket.

Payne next called the police at Gulf-
port, which Wheeler had named as his
home town. Not much was known about

Ison. Sheriff Payne stands with hand on judge's bench.

Wheeler there, it turned out, but it was
a simple matter to check with the auto-
mobile license bureau. Wheeler was
listed as owning a car, so he had lied
about that. However, the car was a
Chevrolet, not an “old Buick” as de-
scribed by the dying Everett.

“We'd -better talk to that fellow
again,” Pittman exclaimed.

So Wheeler was brought in again. It
was pointed out to him that he had
been caught in a lie, saying he owned
no car when there was proof he did.
Also, he was told about the bullets.

Wheeler, a slim, dark-haired man of
neat appearance, was silent for a mo-
ment. Then, although he did not ex-
plain why he had lied about the car,
he apparently figured that he had bet-
ter elaborate on his story somewhat.

“I was at my girl friend’s house like
I said,” he (Continued on page 81)

pe |

the outside and force the other car into

the curb. Just then the woman driving “

the Buick tramped on the brakes and
slewed into the curb. Vinson :had to
work fast to avoid a collision, stopping
right behind.

Everett was out the door instantly.
He ran over to the other car .just as
its right front door opened.

“Come out!” he snapped.

He had his revolver, but he wasn’t
aiming it. No sooner had he spoken
than the man in the car fired at him
point-blank. The bullet staggered him,
and the second one caught him as he
was sagging to the sidewalk.

Vinson was now leaping out from
under the wheel, his own gun unlim-
bered. No sooner had he hit the pave-
ment than the hoodlum, now standing
next to the fallen Everett, fired three
times as fast as he could pull the
trigger.

His aim was deadly. Vinson lurched
and fell, vainly trying to get his. gun
into action.

HE KILLER tossed his weapon into ~

the front seat of the Buick. Then he
moved to climb in himself. But at that
moment the woman at the wheel ut-
tered a piercing scream. She let out
the clutch and sent the Buick roaring

tile %

Police and sheriff's men examine stolen-murder car abandoned in, woods.

away, leaving the man standing there
at the curb. ve" 4

He ripped! out a few sulphurous
curses, then took to his heels.

It wasn’t long before awakened

householders had come out, and a foot.

patrolman who had heard the shots
came.pounding up. Vinson was already
dead, and Everett was fast losing con-
sciousness. They did what they could
for him while the patrolman listened
to what he was trying to say.

“An old—Buick,” he whispered. “A
man—shot us. ... A woman was at the

- wheel... .” .

Everett could say no more, for he
wilted and was dead in a few moments.
For the first time in its history, the
Hattiesburg police. force had two of its
men killed on a single mission, and
when the news came in there was
grimness at headquarters. Vinson left
a wife’ and two small children, while
Everett was married but childless. Both
men had.been popular members of the
department, —

It was just after. midnight on Marc
10, 1952, when the flash on the tragedy
came into headquarters. Other prowl

cars were immediately warned to be

on the lookout for an old Buick driven
by a woman, believed to have a man
‘companion. By this time, of course, the

_ the suspect.
’ Luther Carlyle Wheeler, aged 27, of

at this. time of night.”

fugitives had had plenty of time to get
Out of town if that was their preference.
Sheriff W. A. Payne of Forest County
was alerted, and his county men were
likewise on the lookout for the Buick.

About an hour later, Emmett C. Mc-
Kinney, who lived in a residential sec-
tion of Hattiesburg, heard a noise that

seemed to come from the direction of -

his garage. No one had any business
being around his garage at that hour.
McKinney snapped on the rear porch
light and stepped out on the porch.

A young man came running from
the shadows near the garage, bolted
across the back yard and disappeared
in the darkness of-adjoining yards.

McKinney promptly called the police
and reported the prowler. “He seemed
like a young fellow,” he related. “He
came into the light enough so I could
see he wore glasses. Also he wore a
gray hat, a blue suit and a white sport
shirt.”

Of course it was not known whether .

this prowler had any connection with
the two killings. However, McKinney’s
home was not too great a distance from
the murder scene, and the police were
taking no chances. A half-dozen officers

‘ concentrated in the area where the

prowler had been. Perhaps 20 minutes,
later, two of them spotted a man walk-
ing out of a driveway only a block
away. He was young, he wore glasses
and was attired in a gray hat, blue
suit and white sport shirt. On top of
that, he had a definitely furtive air
about him.

“Just a minute, bud,” one of the

‘officers said.

They took him over to a police car
and frisked him. He was unarmed, but
he had a clip of 32 caliber bullets in
his pocket. Also, he was unable to
give any convincing explanation of
what he was up to at that hour of the
morning, so they took him in to head-
quarters despite his angry protests that
this was a fine way to treat an honest
citizen. : at

City Attorney Claude Pittman, who
had been aroused from bed, questioned
He said his name was

Gulfport, Miss. -

“I was just visiting at my girl friend’s |

house,” he said angrily. “When I was
walking away, these cops pinched me.
This is a hell of a way to treat an inno-
cent man, I must say.”

“Well then,” Pittman pointed out, “it
should be a simple matter to check that.
Just give us the name and address of
your girl friend and we'll ask her.”

“Not on your life,” Wheeler snarled.
“You got no business bothering my girl

Mrs. Foremoa

“In that c
like you'll !
the night. J
those bullet:
. “That ain
Wheeler gr
against the

~ in your poc!

As it ha;

Wheeler wa

cent man he
“Do you o
“No,” the
“Then hoy
the way bac
staying sor
burg?”
Wheeler r
the stand tl

_* the investig
=~ fore he wa:
_~ But Pittma:

the investigators could make little
sense out of the whole affair. If wheeler
had been with the blonde in the car,
why had he left her and gone afoot?
And why were those tools and clothing
thrown away?

Wheeler refused to say anything
about the Buick. He was now clamming
up except to demand that he be per-
mitted to get a lawyer who would re-
lease him from this unjust detention.

ATER THAT MORNING, a call came
in from the manager of the local
Sears, Roebuck. store.

“We just found a pistol in one of our
trash baskets,” he reported. “I can’t
figure out how it got there, and I
thought you ought to know.”

The investigators were interested in
how it got there too. Two policemen
hurried over to the store. It was a .32
caliber gun, apparently in nice work-

ing order—the same size weapon that |

had killed Vinson and Everett. It hardly
seemed that anyone would throw away

a’ perfectly good gun unless they were

a bit apprehensive about it.

“It couldn’t have been here long,” the
manager said. “That trash basket was
empty less than an hour ago.”

The basket was located inside the
store, at the end of a counter not far
from the dress department. The officers
talked with the woman clerk in the
dress department and asked who’ had
been around there recently.

“There was an elderly lady who
bought an apron,” the clerk recalled,

“and there was a blonde young woman,
quite plump. She bought a dress and
also a scarf.”

The officers were interested in the
plump blonde. The clerk said she ‘had
bought a plain dress of a neutral tan
color, and a plain white scarf. She had
asked if she could change into the new
dress at once, and had. been shown to
a dressing room.

In the dressing room the policemen
found a green rayon dress exactly like
the one described as having been worn
by the blonde who had been sleeping
in the Buick!

“So she came back to town,” Sheriff
Payne observed when this was re-
ported to him. “She must be in the
city right now,-or doing her best | to get
a ride out.”

The Buick had a radio in it. Un-
doubtedly the young woman had lis-
tened to broadcasts about the hunt, and
to the announced belief that. she had
sped out of town. Maybe she figured
to cross up the searchers by going back
to the city where they least expected to
find her, and disguising herself to boot.

The telephone was busy for a while.
Every hotel and rooming house in Hat-
tiesburg was called, and clerks were
asked if a plump blonde had registered
within the past hour. No one recalled

he a . Uo A ail ace? ok Sr

that one had. Deputies and policemen™

were busy checking at the rail and bus

‘depots, as well as the local airport,

looking for a plump blonde who now
wore a plain tan dress under her coat,

. and a white scarf. Undoubtedly she

was using the scarf to cover up her

blonde tresses. But this hunt, too, was

fruitless. Several women who came
near answering the description were
detained. and questioned, »but were
easily able to prove their innocence.
The search continued all day, and got

nowhere. Somehow the young woman

business about the jealous boy friend.
It happened that the young woman’s
head was squarely in his rear-view
mirror. She had a round plump face
with the beginning of a double chin, he
noticed.. Then he noticed something
else, '

‘A few wisps of tisk hair that stuck
out from her scarf were of a peculiar
‘bluish-black hue, So were her eye-
brows. But there was a dark streak on
the skin next to one eyebrow. Also,
there was a vagrant curl of hair peep-
ing out, and it ‘was blonde!

who could answer a lot of questions,- Altman began adding two and two.

regarding the murders of Vinson and
Everett managed to evade capture.

| Wea THAT EVENING, a. bellboy
came out of a local hotel and
strode over to where Charles Altman,
a cab driver, was waiting in his ma-
chine.

“We got a lady guest who wants’a
cab to-New Orleans,” he said. “You
want! to take her?”

“New Orleans!” Altman was sur-
prised. “That’s a long way. Sure, Ill
take her if I get paid in advance.”

“She says she’s got cash. Maybe you

- better go up and talk to her.”

Altman went up to her second-floor
room. The woman was young and quite
hefty. She had a white scarf wrapped

around her hair, and the tresses that

peeped out were dark-colored.

“It’s very urgent,” she said to Alt-
man. “I want to go to New Orleans
right away—can’t wait for a train or
bus.” She opened her purse and gave

the cabman $50. “Will that handle it?” '

“Yes, ma’am,” Altman said. “I’m
parked right out front here. I can take
your baggage down now,” hate

“I haven’t any baggage,” she replied.
“And listen. I want to sneak out of
here, sort.of. You see, I’ve got a jealous
boy friend who’s watching out in front.
He doesn’t want to let me go back to

_ my husband in New Orleans. Could you

pick me up at the back door?”
“Sure, I can drive right in the alley.”
“Fine. I’ll be waiting. down there.

‘But please make it snappy.”

Altman hurried downstairs and re-

‘ported by phone to the cab dispatcher.

Then he drove into the alley. The young
woman was waiting there. She climbed
into the back seat and they were off
for New Orleans, 100 miles away.

The woman didn’t say much as they
rolled out of Hattiesburg. She seemed

‘a bit nervous, but as they cleared the

outskirts of town on Highway 11 she
appeared - relieved. ;

“Man,” she. said, “I’m glad to get
away from that fellow.” Obviously she
‘meant the jealous boy friend, or so Alt-
man thought.

She seemed tired.- She leaned back in
the rear seat and. closed her eyes. Alt-
man was a little puzzled about all this

Clearly, this girl had dyed her hair
and eyebrows and had: pretty well
botched the job. Then he recalled _the
broadcasts he had heard about the
plump blonde the police were hunting.
’ He was willing to bet his boots this was
the one. No wonder she had been so
anxious to sneak out of the hotel un-
observed!

He wondered ‘what to do. For all he
knew, this lady might be armed. It
- wouldn’t do to arouse her suspicion, or
she might skedaddle away—might even
start shooting. When he saw a big
filling station up ahead ‘on the highway,

“Got to get some gas,” he announced.
He made his decision. He drove in and

stopped by a pump.

“While I’m at it, I’m going to call my’

dispatcher and tell,him I'll stay over-
night in New Orleans. It'll be too late
for me to drive back tonight.”
“Okay,” she agreed, “but hurry.”
Altman hurried, all right. He got the
dispatcher on the phone, keeping one
eye on his fare. She was still in the
back seat as an attendant filled the
tank, apparently unsuspecting. ——
_“Listen,’ he. told the dispatcher.
“This fare I’ve got for New Orleans—
Tm sure she’s the blonde the cops are
looking for. She answers the descrip-
tion perfectly. What should I do with
her?” :
The dispatcher had the answer for
‘that. “Better not do a thing,” he ad-
vised. “Just keep rolling, but take it
slow. I'll notify the police and they can

_ handle it their own way.”

LTMAN HUNG UP, got into the cab
and drove away. He was only a
few miles out of town, but he knew it
would ‘take the police a while to catch
up to him. Out on the highway, he held
back on the gas and was making a
steady 45. In a few minutes the con-
verted blonde leaned forward.

“We’re just poking,” she complained.
“How about stepping on it?”

“Okay, lady,” he replied. “The only
thing is, this machine has got something
-wrong with the cooling system. It’s apt
to overheat if I push it too hard.”

He raised the speed a bit to about 50,
and this seemed to satisfy her for a
while. But finally she got impatient

again. She op:
man, eyeing hi
mirror, felt 2~
drew out a

“You'd b
said.

Altman mad
up to about 60
at all now. Bi
on their toes, «

way by this ti
better, they o
soon.

A few minu
a car far to the
because it key
mirror. The b.
turned apprehe

“There’s som
she cried. “Ste

The driver, 1
tried to calm }
the cops,” he
been checking
lately. But dc
lady. I know a
here.”

“Well then,’
“maybe you'd
don’t want troi

Altman’ slow
was a police ca
up closer, the
turned off on t
and stopped.

“Leave this t:
ly to the girl, w
in her purse.

City Policem
Robert Reaser
opened the rea

“Come out
“You're goin
us.”

Not until the
fact that she
flung a glance o
Altman. The off
weapon, put he
on,their way bz

T HEADQU
herself as
and said she or
Lake City, but -
in New Orlean
where her hust
out on him an
with her boy fr:
drunk and beco)
had ditched hin
back home whe:
did not, she stat.
son for her ar
sorry she had bi
off with this m
As far as Sher
questioners wer:
was. strictly un:
a few matters <
two fine policen
sheriff nodded

-—

ngle shot,
eK rs.
aN he
rreen came
r testimony
and point-
threatening
» out of the
She testi-
‘like a wild
‘k that the
uted to see
» had a gun
hat she was
un and went
the door be-
man Thom-
om and they
ne of these
nd the other
and severed
| completely
co a hospital
ater. Before
‘e out of the
ired appellant
ve away. He
home of his
© in the closet.
of ghbor
nd wa alarm
‘nd immediate-
190 went to the
‘aughter where
und him there.
it of the back
, around to the
d appellant at
questioned the
he first denied
1s, stating that
d him for some
.e handed them
. name in it and
il, I am the man
+ her and J am
| can’t have her,
ten led the offi-
se and got the
wave it to them.
facts detailed the
in finding that
of a brutal and

BUSH v. WATKINS Miss. 19
Cite as 80 So.2d 19

cold-blooded murder and that the circuit
judge committed no error in submitting
the case to the jury. Appellant’s version
was disputed in material particulars. He
said that only one shot was fired and that
it was accidental. Mrs. Green and Thom-
as testified positively that two shots were
fired. If two shots were fired, it could not
have been by accident, since, as we have
heretofore stated, the weapon was a single
shot, bolt action, rifle. It was necessary to
break the breech, eject the expended shell
and reload the rifle before a second shot

could have been fired. Appellant denied’

the testimony of the officers as to the

mony that he did not know that Ruth had
taken up with another man. A witness,
who in the course of official business or in
any other way has acquired by experience
a knowledge of a person’s handwriting,
may state his opinion as to whether a par-

ticular writing was made by such person.
32 C.J.S., Evidence, § 516 b (4), p. 212.

The judgment of the lower court is af-
firmed and the date of appellant’s execution
is set for Monday, June 20, 1955.

All the Justices concur except ROB-
ERDS, J., who took no part.

statements which they say he made, and his _

version was disputed in those particulars.

These conflicts in the evidence, as well as.

some other inferential conflicts, take this
case out of the Weathersby rule and pre-
sent a jury issue.

[4,5] It is contended lastly that the
trial court erred in admitting in evidence
a letter which was found in the coat of
deceased after her death. It is addressed
to the police but is too lengthy to set out
in full herein. Its general tenor is that
Ruth once loved him but left him for an-
other man; that he has tried to persuade
her to come back to him but has been un-
successful in doing so; that he has just
killed the other man and that appellant’s
body will be found in the fire at his own
home, thereby cheating the law out of
a hanging for his act. In lengthy terms
he professed his undying love for Ruth and
called her name six times in the letter.
It says that he has laid his plans well and
there will be no slip-ups, and that he
wants his act to be a lesson to other cheat-
ing women. The letter is unsigned, but
Mrs. Jones, a sister of Ruth, testified that
she is familiar with appellant’s handwrit-
ing and is of the opinion that the letter
was written by him. He denied writing it
and testified that he did not know that Ruth
was living with another man. We think
the letter was sufficiently identified by Mrs,
Jones for submission to the jury for what-
ever it was worth, and that it was compe-
tent as showing a motive for the killing
and also in contradicting appellant’s testi-

° KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

aume

A. A. BUSH and D. D. Bush, d/b/a A. A.
Bush, Contractor, and H. W. Long,

V.
W. B. WATKINS et al.
No. 39602.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.
May 9, 1955.

Parents’ and sister’s action for wrong-
ful death of twenty year old boy, arising
‘out of head-on collision which occurred
when defendant truck operator pulled out
to pass another truck on a right curve
where the view ahead was blocked. A jury
in Circuit Court, Jones County, F. B. Col-
lins, J., returned a verdict against the de-
fendant truck owner for $43,117.50 actual
damages and $10,000 punitive damages and
the defendant truck owner appealed. The
Supreme Court, Roberds, P. J., held that
under the facts of the case the question
whether the defendant truck operator’s neg-
ligence was gross or reckless, with respect
to the allowance of punitive damages, was
a question for the jury.

Affirmed.

eae ean | Pe em

18 Miss.
the jury panel, which is the first error as-
signed. Section 1798, Code of 1942, pro-
vides that the provisions of law in rela-
tion to the listing, drawing, summoning,
and impaneling of juries are directory
merely and are not mandatory. We held
in Lott v. State, 204 Miss. 610, 37 So.2d
782, and in Kouvarakis v. Hawver, 208
Miss. 697, 45 So.2d 278, that a case will
not be reversed unless there is a radical
departure from the statutory scheme of
summoning and impaneling juries.

Appellant contends secondly that he was
entitled to a peremptory instruction and,
as in so many cases coming to this Court,
he contends that under the doctrine of
Weathersby v. State, 165 Miss. 207, 147
So, 481, we must accept his version of the
killing since there is no eyewitness. The
rule in Weathersby and similar cases is
that the defendant’s version, if reasonable,
must be accepted as true unless substan-
tially contradicted in material particulars
either by a credible witness or witnesses
or by physical facts or by facts of common
knowledge. In this case the appellant’s
version of the killing was that it was an
accident. This was contradicted in many
particulars, and to demonstrate this it is

necessary that we review the evidence.

[3] Appellant is 59 years of age. He
formerly lived in Long Island, New York.
Several months before the killing he
brought his stepdaughter, Mrs. Ruth Mack,
to Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was 36
years of age. They set up housekeeping
and passed off in the community as husband
and wife. A few weeks before the kill-
ing she left the appellant and moved across
town and started living with a man by the
name of Thomas. They were boarding in
the home of a private family. Appellant
was very much interested in getting Mrs.
Mack to come back and live with him and
he visited her several times at her boarding
place. On the day in question Mrs. Mack
went with appellant to his home and they
spent most of the day together. Late in
the afternoon he carried her back to her
boarding place and left her. He then
went to the home of another stepdaughter

a a es

80 SOUTHERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

22-caliber, single shot,
and came back to Mrs.
Mack’s boarding place, which was the
home of a Mrs. Green. Mrs. Green came
to the door and according to her testimony
he demanded to see Mrs. Mack and point-
ed the gun at Mrs. Green in a threatening
manner and she told him to get out of the
yard and shut the door on him. She testi-
fied that at that time he looked like a wild
man. She notified Mrs. Mack that the
appellant was outside and wanted to see
her but also warned her that he had a gun
with him. Mrs. Mack stated that she was
not afraid of appellant or his gun and went
out the front door and shut the door be-
hind her. Mrs. Green and the man Thom-
as were sitting in the living room and they
both heard two shots fired. One of these
shots apparently went wild and the other
struck Mrs. Mack in the neck and severed
her spinal cord. She fell completely
paralyzed and was carried to a hospital
and died about four hours later. Before
Mrs. Green or Thomas came out of the
house after the shots were fired appellant
got in his automobile and drove away. He
carried the rifle back to the home of his
other stepdaughter and hid it in the closet.
Mrs. Green ran to the home of a neighbor
and telephoned the police and the alarm
was put on the police radio and immediate-
ly heard by a patrolman, who went to the
home of the appellant’s stepdaughter where
he had gotten the rifle and found him there.
Appellant tried to escape out of the back
door but another officer ran around to the
back and they apprehended appellant at
that point. These officers questioned the
appellant at that time and he first denied
that his name was Wiggins, stating that
it was Sanford. They asked him for some
‘dentification and finally he handed them
his wallet and they saw his name in it and
appellant then stated, “Well, I am the man
you are looking for, I shot her and I am
glad.” He also said, “If I can’t have her,
nobody else will.” He then led the offi-
cers back inside the house and got the
rifle from the closet and gave it to them.
We think that under the facts detailed the
jury was amply justified in finding that
the appellant was guilty of a brutal and

and obtained a
bolt action rifle

ee ee eee, tee Eee
i x

. ck

« : x 4
WIGGINS, John E., white, asphyxiated Mississippi (Jackson Co.) 6=20#1955.4 |
it. x WIGGINS v. STATE Miss, 47 |

Cite as 80 So.2d 17 i

John E. WIGGINS
Vs
STATE.

No. 39738.

Supreme Court of Mississippli .
May 16, 1955.

Defendant was convicted of murder.
The Circuit Court, Jackson County, Les-
lie B. Grant, J., entered judgment of con-
viction and defendant appealed. The Su-
preme Court, Hall, J., held that evidence
was sufficient to sustain conviction.

Judgment affirmed.

1. Jury C116

In murder prosecution, action of trial
court in overruling defendant’s motion to
quash jury panel for reason that names of
jurors in compartment of jury box repre-
senting certain supervisor’s district had
been exhausted, was not error, where
names of eligible jurors from other dis-

tricts had been used in jury makeup.
Code 1942, § 1798,

2. Criminal Law >1166!/2(5, 6)

Case will not be reversed unless there
is radical departure from statutory scheme
of summoning and impaneling juries.
Code 1942, § 1798,

3. Homicide €=250

In murder prosecution, evidence was
sufficient to sustain conviction.

4. Criminal Law @=444

In homicide prosecution, letter which
was found in coat of deceased after her
death and which was allegedly written by
defendant though not signed, was properly
admitted, where sister of deceased had

‘testified that she was familiar with de-

fendant’s handwriting and was of opinion
that letter was written by him.
80 So.2d—2

Witness, who in course of. official
business or in any other way has acquir-
ed by experience a knowledge of person’s
handwriting, may state his opinion as to
whether particular writing was made by
such person,

John D. Gautier, Pascagoula, for appel-
lant.

J. P. Coleman, Atty. Gen., by Joe T.
Patterson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

HALL, Justice.

[1,2] At the May 1954 term of the
Circuit Court of Jackson County appellant
was indicted for murder. His case was
continued at the May term and came on
for trial during the second week of the
November 1954 term at which time appel-
lant filed a motion to quash the jury panel
for the reason that the names of the ju-
rors in the compartment of the jury box
representing the fifth supervisor’s district.
had been exhausted. The motion was over-
ruled and a jury was selected from the
first, second, third, and fourth supervisors’
districts. No special venire was requested
and the jury which tried this case was
selected from the regular panel.

On the motion to quash it was shown
by the circuit clerk that when the jury box
was filled by the board of supervisors un-
der the statute the names of all quali-
fied electors from District No. 5, who were
qualified for jury service, were placed in
the box, but there were only a‘limited num-
ber of persons qualified for jury service
in District No. 5 and because of the un-
usual number of special venires at the
May 1954 term the compartment for Dis-
trict No. 5 was drawn down to the point
that there were only seven names from
that district for this November term, and
all of these were drawn during the first
week of that term.

We do not think that the lower court
erred in overruling the motion to quash

& al ‘
WILEY,, Henzy x, black, electrocuted Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 12-22-19.

DOE & MEANS

PLA ~ CITY OR COUNTY
Pisoni ita: Miles,

GEN

CRIME

Punts’ | po. VALE

VICTIM Ge MGA, 5: cof
SOE SS Sipe Mati

RACE METHOD

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LAST WORDS
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Execu

“i SOURCE

KX la-ABMIVIY |

RR ESS

oe eee a ae

4
He

eet aneet ag

cenair

CONE reer er eens

third floor of the ‘build
ing, where the electric
had tbheen set in
plice in the north west
corner of the third floor
by the siate execution-
CeCe We CBihys Wal
Son,

Williams walked with
a steady stride to mwith-

inva few feet of — the
electric chair aud was
seated in a small chair

just to the right of the
big massive oak chair
that was shortly to
snap out his life, while
the executioner made
the final adjustments on
the equipment.

Williams seemed to
be very much interest-
ed in the operations, as
he watehed Mr. Watson
wring out, the — salt
water from the helmet
und leg pads. He paid
close attention as the
executioner stepped up
to the control board and
made a last-minute test

1 des

of ithe ‘controls: “and (ooo oc ae occ Lge Cee
when a small switch was used today to snap out the life of
was pulled out there O'Neal Williams,

was aosmall, white blaze off the warrant: was read. Ile sat
about two or three inches lony, quietly while the sheriff read
he looked aut thos without the} the wares! Sherit’ Jitmon ex-
slightest change in his expres-| plained to wlint that he had to

sion.

The executioner made the stoic
announcement do Sheriff Jnman
that he was ready.

Sheriff Inmon made ready to
read to Williams the death war-
rant, however, the generating

plant was making so much noise
that Sheriff [nmen had to ask
Williams to move over on_ the
opposite side of the building while

jmade by

andy Suche Bi

read it to him, and that he could
ask any questions he wished.
After the sheriff finished read-
ing the death warrant, Williams
merely said, “that’s all vicic, ie
avose from his chair and walked

baek to the small chair tg the
rerslt oof the cleetrie chain, Just
before he was asked to take his

sent in the death chair, he turn-
cd “to Barl Mansell and asked
“how long will it take for me to

die when T set in that. Mansell
assured him that it would te
like a flash,

He wae strapped in the chair
by Wwxeew!souer Watson, Morris
Akers aed Karl Mansell. His
hands sud. legs were securely

strappcd ty the chair, A heavy
strap was placed around — his
chest and sirapped to the back of
the chair

The cleetrodes were adjusted to
hits head nnd aukle, a mask was
placed over his face. Executioner
Watson stepped to the control
board and at 10:32 «he seviteh
Was thrown and 2,300 volts of
electricity passed through Wil-
lianis body. There was just a
slight stiffening of the body. The
2300 volls was applied for 15-
seeonds, then the current wag re-
duced lo 1106 volts and remained

on for one and a half minutes.

The courrent was cut off and the

body wies allowed to remain for
ced Ohe and na half minutes:

| Ate CXUNUNALION was then

Dr W. AL Toomer and
Dr. WoL. Cleveland
nouneed Waillianis dead,
Willams was the sevenceenth
person to die in the ehair nad was

Who

the third cseeuted dis Sir. Wate
Son since nts uppomlient as
Mississippis oOffienl cxeeutioner.

Asionige thaace Vildie singe the
GRC ate yee be ve vefsthe
shot comune Mic. hee: Bradiev, her

sasteran law, Mrs. Grady Pierce;
of Mr.
Witham

aw Pierce, brother-iii-law
Bradleys discon Bradley,

dhe,
O’Neal Williams °
_ (Continuca rom Page One)

Mrs. Lee Bradley told a reporter

“of the Daily News that when she
talked with Williams Thursday,

She ‘had ‘asked him why he killed
her husband, and why he did
not rob them after he had shot
Mr. Bradley and he told het that

“% he.was scared.

Mrs. Bradley was calm and said

pro- |

Saab hd cempy Sp became mare ey Bales breed,

PAGE, THREL.

TS oN ere te alog

“you have to forgive if you are
) forgiven,’ she said.

Mrs. Bradley said that she
held no ‘ill’ feeling against the
pi peopl, for she knew

ey could’ not help wi illi
hid dene, elp v hat Williams

The execution moved-off like
clock-Works without a slip of any
kind ant Sheriff Inmon scemed
relieved| that it was Over and

. Clyde

Mrs, B dley expressed apprecia-
tion for the splendid help the law
enforcement officers had given
hers \] mee ees

‘Official witnesses included: D,
B. Crockett, Tommy Rogers, Cecil
Cheek, Nash Ballard, Bill Elling-
ton, Margaret Shannon, T. J, Eny,
Dalton Enis, Buck Carr, E. C.
Clark, & Allen, C. w. Maze,
Burns, Patrolman Paul
McCardle, R. B, Epting, D. D.

Bolton, M.: R. Akers, Ray Meeks,
Clyde Bickerstaff, deputy sheriff;

that che had fareivan Wiltiame.

B. A. Hopkins, deputy sheriff,

TR AE
Threldkeld, deputy sheriff J. M.

Jenkins, R. W. Bettman W. H.
Kessny, E. D, Monaghan, Patrol-
man R. C, Yarbrough, W. E.

Monaghan, J,
Hardin, George Clement, Shelly
Monaghan, C. P. Pace, Jr. Ww. D.
Woolley, H. «, Cheek, W. B.
Clayborne, Dr. W. 41. Cleveland
and Dr. W. A, ‘Toomer,

The body was turned over to
Williams father, who said he was
financially unable to bear the ex-
pense and Sheriff Will Inmon
agreed to furnish the casket,

The body was taken from the
chair by the Porter undertakers.

Williams’ body was placed at
the west side entrance of the jail
for a short period in order to
allow the large crowd gathered
outside the builing +o view it.

po calepeeenrn

;

Commentary ._. We Ta eas TS nti de aetna 2... By Margaret Shannon =
et te oats Of Indiona ; er a GE =| a one-day trial three weeks later, and |
-e apheriptiriary ‘Witness at BFAD | Sar The cacao ok poe ete: | ee

I went looking for

someone who had wit-

nessed the last execution in Georgia.
It was a sporadic search and, techni-
cally, not successful, but there were
unexpected discoveries along the way.
The death of Bernard Dye in the
electric chair at the state prison at
‘Reidsville on October 16, 1964, was
not big news. It rated only six para-
graphs under modest headlines on

back pages in the Atlanta papers. Exe- |=

cutions were common, and the Dye
case was unremarkable, locking Road
or mystery. ne

Court records roles that Dye pin
into a drunken argument at his
‘ brother's house in Thomson, struck a

neighbor woman who was there
watching television, was wrestled out
of the house by his brother, and left.
-Dye shortly returned with a
.22-caliber rifle and got into an ex-
change of gunfire with Otis Rabun,
husband of the woman whom Dye
had struck. Rabun was shot and
killed, Dye’s wife and child were
wounded, and Dye was shot in the
ewepaten: It was purely a brawl, but

he prosecution demanded the death
‘tence. Dye was tried three times

ore his conviction for murder stood.

In search of witnesses to the exe-
eon, I talked first to Robert E.
Knox of Thomson, who had been one
of Dye’s court-appointed attorneys.
Knox said he did not see the execu-

tion. He seemed genuinely surprised
that I should ask.

But then he said, unexpectedly,
“That case always did bother me.” I
asked why, and he said that he was
never sure who fired first in the gun-
fight and that there had been a great
deal of adverse pretrial reporting by
news media in the area. I_ remarked

alty would be imposed in a apr
case today. “I expect you’ re right,” he
said...

Next in m¥ ‘search I talked to
R. P. Balkcom, who was warden at
Reidsville at the time of the execu-
tion. “I never witnessed any execu-
tion,” he said. “I refused to do it
when I took the job.” -

I didn’t understand ind said so.
“I was more or less opposed to capital
punishment at the time, and I just
didn’t want to have a part in it,” he
said. I should have remembered this
about Balkcom, but it did not matter.
His view has changed. He is a banker
now and favors the death penalty.

Balkcom told me the man desig-
nated to stand in for him at execu-
tions is dead, but he suggested that
possibly R.V. Edenfield, - who still
works at the prison, was a witness.

that I did not believe the death pen- -

When I reached Edenfield by tele-
phone, he at first said that yes, he
thought maybe. he had witnessed it.
He recited the exact date from mem-
ory, and Iwas sure my search was
over. But when I asked him to de-
scribe the event, he began to back off

and finally decided he was mistaken.

He named another man as a probable
witness. The man is dead. As I probed

‘further for information that might

help in my search, Edenfield closed
me out. “I wouldn't want to remem-
ber anyway,” he said.

I guess I went looking for wit-
nesses to Georgia's last execution be-
cause I am opposed to capital punish-
ment and hoped that a description of
what it was like to see Bernard Dye
die would somehow be an effective
argument against this form of sanc-
tioned violence, the official taking of
a life by the state.

An Execution

Georgia is the capital punishment
capital of the United States. It exe-
cuted 415 persons before quitting in
1964. The landmark U.S. Supreme
Court decision that temporarily
knocked out all death penalty laws in
this country in 1972 grew out of a
Georgia case. The case making capital
punishment constitutional again in
1976 came from Georgia, too. At least
ninety-five persons are under death
sentence in the state now. Public
‘opinion polls show a three-to-one ratio
in favor of the death penalty. I know
I am in a minority.

But my search went on and led,
finally, to myself. I did not witness
Dye’s death, but as a young reporter
in Tupelo, Mississippi, I covered the
execution of an _ eighteen-year-old
black who was arrested the day after
the killing of the proprietor of a

neighborhood store, was convicted in

pelo, because in those days Mississippi
had a portable electric chair that was

“moved around the state as needed so
a condemned man could die in the

county in which the - crime was
committed.

Wt imight be deameetic to'eey ther I"

have been haunted by the execution

4 all these years and that it made me an’

implacable foe of capital punishment.
But that wouldn't be true. My opposi-

tion came from a maturation of moral .

and religious views. Back then I was

simply the eager reporter covering
the big story. I remember only two

-twinges of conscience: that I did not

find the actual moment of execution
as repulsive as I had anticipated and
that I was able to eat a hearty lunch
two hours after wi g it. eee

Not long ago I had a chance to
stop by the public library in Tupelo
and look up my story on microfilm
files of The Tupelo Daily Journal.
When I read it, I experienced what I
can only describe as delayed shock.

It was a well-written, detailed ac-
count: The chair placed in the county
jail where the gallows had once stood.
Seventy-five \. witnesses "crowding
around it, some elbowing for a better
view. The widow and other relatives
of the murder victim in the front row.
The youth being strapped in, wired
for electricity, the leather hood placed
over his head, his eyes partly visible
through a hole intended for his nose.
The roar of the portable generator.
The jolt of 2,300 volts for fifteen sec-
onds, reduced to 1,100 over the next
minute and a half. The dead body
placed on display at a side entrance of
the jail so that the crowd outside
could take a look. = a}

- My God! How can we do this?

_I read recently that Oklahoma
was. preparing to use a “more hu-
mane” method of execution — the in-
jection of lethal drugs. There i is no hu-
mane method. . ~~ {43+

-I know, t know = chardor & not
humane, either. One of the most chill-
ing accounts of violence I have ever
read is the Georgia Supreme Court
opinion in the case of Wayne Carl
Coleman, one of the murderers of six
members of the Alday family near
Donalsonville in 1973. Even in the
dry prose of the court, it is horror to
equal Truman Sen in Cold
Blood. ake
+ But I do not want | my state killing
anybody. I hope that I am one of a
dying breed of witnesses to execution
in this country and that our line is in-
deed doomed to extinction. “

“ Next week Paul Hemphill writes.

ne Streets.

4 pi Hp meaner nga ln a st

iii bcbg neta anes

A Ne a am TN eS He Ra Sting iS arte 1 Noy meee me tars Ml

Rewer ova besgoee

‘ges

}

r bi ‘g Ainf/ A199 Huepy

o
<a
| ae

Pee
ae

oP eS

Ap rAd aye t eh

Daily
- - Our na|

O'Neal Williams, 18-year-old Nesvo, paid with his live in
the state's portable electric ehajy today for the Murder of
Lee Bradley, White. a loca} Merchant.

€

Fag

O'Neal Williams Spent st catiet Wisht i his ep)
in the Lee County jail, suid this Mornitis ja tadhine With x

iss ate Daily News reporter, said that he did not exe ty fiake a
statement. dye sid that Mrs. joe Bradley, the wife Of the
man Whom he killed had visited him Thursday snd le Jina t

ltatkea to her,

Opposite him on a bunk in his cell, Jay the bible, and
in the bars of his cell was Some religious literature, [fe Was
extremely calm andi composed for a person Sho ouly had a
few minutes to live. Asked if he resthd Well last night he
answered, “yes.” When usked if he had had breakfast, he
said that he did nt Want anything to eal, however, he ex-
pressed a desire for Pa area eg, gee

ice cream and — this THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

Was immediately
supplied by the jail
er,

Shortly before 10-30
Williniys (COCO Dred
hy Sherif Phainom cone
deputies mounted the
fatal thinicen sleps from
the second floor to the
i third floor of the build-
jing, where the Glectrie
chair had theen) set. in

Riad ae Aas | place in the north west

; corner of the third floor

by the slate execution-

‘ er, -C. W, (Bill) Wat-
es : or ’ son,

= SERS ee si Williams walked with

j f eer eynoeol a steady stride to pyith-

f GEER Mee Stes Sn in a few feet of — the

Sa eT EEA al eleetrle chair and was

; : ; Seated in a small chair
Just to the right of the
big massive oak chair
that was shortly to
snap out his life, while
the excculioner —yjaude

the final adjustinents on
\ the equipment,

since ecam maliacnn

Ft seeming yy: terry
é } 4

Srone

SEER ES Mant daaramtyit 9

Williams seemed to
ado n Lal neateban eae : be very much interest.
eee : 3 ed in the operations. ag
sitet k reas ceae Sar nd (a Fa watched Mr Watson

wring oul, the salt

Water from the helmet

and leg pads. He paid

- close attention as the

execulioner stepped up

to the control board and

; made a last-minute tes!

; eg of athe controls and > Ro ¥ ; ‘ 3 awed er
when a small switch Was used today to Sid out the life of sg Saou eds eo ah
Was pulled out ihere YNeal Williams. , diet Heke :

AN Raa Se Aattanrhemenctins

. ‘ SALA mre SEIS a teeth

x ier FS pice arena mi indeed vistas SARA ONE
seatarhaeiaie ese AUS Bi Hb Ri , was ao small, white hiaze oof | the Warrant syeros read. dle sat

SM RL ROE NGI RID nee ae, 2

Pile Sale as oe tats Yui Me Piste : about two or three inches long, auicthy white the cherie read bog AEE tas cs eae
: ; ee Ea “te SRR ae ere 4 SEU ANTAC IRIAN Ne Joobed at thy Without the | _— were eat Hic ex. reid aren ag OM aT ct
ve oe ta sieeve if SCRE gt e: PTAC LI WARES Ly ieee SHivhteast vhouge in his FA bres Po phaieat fo fii haat he bad to 2AM ire? eee apes ;
Fl so jeer ty Poe WS yay A I im SE MAES R eee sion, read jt ta him, and that he could ae ae
‘ ate iep nna ena tae aieee : The executioney made the stoic} ask, any qmestions he wished. .
; : : Boe Geice Fk TT announcement ito Sheriff Jomanf After the she riff finished read.
Ree mi eras CAR RDS aS REA? Rey tarcist sail te SN pedantic that he was ready, Inge the death Warrant, Williams
‘ ; ; Eide Sheriff Inmon made ready tof merely snid, thar’: MD Vigne, dpe
} read to Williams the death Wines Dae Prachi clad. and walked
rant, however, the Kenerabing ! baek ota the; Wel ehair ty the Sitog tr Ts a aS
plant) was makingg so inueh Rose [rich OY the clevtrin ¢ es Dast ae :
Serban Nubow mgibi OSE that Sheriff Inmon had to ask before yy, Ms! Ushio to’ take his

Ped Wea, sick! by a" Sanaa elena : eee . | | ‘ *
igh fey te lt eS 8 : o " é Williams to move over on the | statin the Mauth: ahah seh ae
ores ’

ONAL othe Le ot ’ SG ME se Nie emer en mee

157 SOUTHERN 2)0 (Mee )
WILLIAMS, Phil, black, hanged at Natchez, Mississippi, on December 6, 193.

"OQutwardly calm, and making no statement, Phil Williams, negro, was yesterday morning
hanged in the county jail for the mrder of his wife, Mary, and her father, Sam Curtis,
In the presence of a few witnesses, the trap was sprung at three minutes after ten, and
fifteen minutes later the negro was pronounced dead by the attending physician, Shortly
béfore ten o'clock, officials took Williams fpom his cell and prepared him to be hanged,
He declined to see any minister, but early in the morning had requested cigars and
chicken and dumplings, His last few minutes before being taken to thescaffold, which had
been spent with Obediah McKnight, negro, who is under sentence to be hanged on the
twelfth of this month, The negro at ten o'clock walked calmly to the scaffold and stood
on the trap while the hood and rope were being adjusted, When asked if the rope was
tight, his only remark was 'It is pretty tight.' No other statement was made, Promptly
at three minutes after ten the lever was thrown and the trap sprung which sent Phil
Williams to death in atonement for the murder of his wife and father-in-law." NATCHEZ
DEMOCRAT, Natchez, Mississippi, pecember 7, 193 (1sh.)

"Some time today between the hours of ten asm. and four p.m. in the presence of official
witnesses designatad by law, Phil Williams, negro, will be hanged for the murders of

his wife Mary and her father Sam Curtis. On the eve of his execution, Williams is en-
tirely indifferent to the fact that he is shortly to be hanged, In addition to the
double murder for which he will die, it is believed he is also responsible for another
murder, but Sheriff Roberts and his deputies were not certain yesterday whether there
would be a confession regarding the lattér crime, Since the Supreme Court gave a ruling
upholding the death penalty given Williams by the Adams County Circuir Court, ministers
of Williams' race have visited him in jail several times, but he is unresponsive to
their efforts, Several months ago the Adams County Board of Supervisors decided to
change the policy of erecting a gallows in the jail yard for each hanging and had a
modern hangman's trap installed within the jail, thereby removing some of the revolting
circumstances that surrounded executions and insuring speedy death, Williams will be
¢he first man to take the death plunge through the thea trap." NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT, Natchez,

MS, Dec. 6, 193 (3/1.)

"(AP) Jackson, MS Octe 29, 193. = eeeThe (Mississippi) high court passed over the
Williams case with the terse observation that 'the evidence fully supports the verdéct,'
Although he was charged with killing both Sam Curtis and the latter's daughter, Mary,
he was convicted only of the death of Curtis, whose body was found in a cotton patch
RSRXGHX following what the state described as a family quarrel, Williams and the vice
tims lived in the same Adams County farm house, His appeal for a new trial was based
upon the contention that testimony relating to the daughter's death was not admissable
under the indictment charging murder..."

NATCHEZ DEMOCRAT, KM Natchez, MIS$, Oct. 30, 193) (three-five.)

Cabby Charles Aultman became suspicious ‘of fat woman
who offered him $160 if he would drive her to New Orleans,
a distance of about 100 miles. He notified law officials.

Dan Mooney, who witnessed the double shooting from his
window, points to stray bullet which missed his head by
a matter of inches and then lodged in the ceiling of room.

would have snapped up
the proposition and con-
sidered you a fellow who
was rather loose with his
money.

At three minutes past
nine, Mooney heard the
high-pitched sound of
skidding automobile tires.
He stood up and glanced
out his living room win-
dow to see a maroon Buick
swing around the corner
of North Street at high
speed. No sooner had the
careening sedan straight-
ened out than a police car
roared along in pursuit.

The cruiser pulled up
alongside the Buick, forc-
ing it to the curb. Two
patrolmen sprang from the
police car and approached
the maroon sedan. One of
them, Jesse Everett, Moo-
ney knew personally. The
other, M. W. Vinson, Jr.,
he recognized because he
had seen the officer’s pic-
ture in the papers some
two weeks before, smiling gayly, unaware death was near.

On February 17, while answering a routine call, Everett
and Vinson had halted a huge cross-country truck for a
traffic violation, only to discover that the vehicle was loaded
with $25,000 worth of contraband whisky. The driver had
been arrested for violating Mississippi’s dry laws and the
liquor had been confiscated. It was the largest whisky haul
in the state since the days of national prohibition.

Everett and Vinson had received a great deal of local
publicity at the time. They had been photographed, grinning
happily, over an ocean of alcohol. The Hattiesburg news-
papers had given the story a great deal of space.

Everett reached the Buick first. He exchanged a few words
with its driver, whom Mooney saw but dimly in the darkness.
Then, without warning, the shooting started. The first shot
was fired from the sedan. Everett staggered back, tugging
his gun from its holster. Vinson whipped out his own re-
volver.

A staccato fusilade ripped through the Sunday silence

‘of West Fourth Street. Suddenly, the glass of Mooney’s

living room window shattered into a hundred pieces. A bullet
fanned past his ear, and Mooney flung himself to the floor
and remained there for a moment until the shooting stopped.

He stood up again to see the Buick back up on the side-
walk, make a U-turn, swing around the parked police car
and roar off into the night. By the uncertain, yellow light
of the street lamp, Mooney saw the two patrolmen lying by
the curb.

Mooney raced out of the house. Everett lay on his back,
his .45 still clutched in his hand, There was an ugly, red
hole in his head. Vinson lay crumpled by the squad car, with
his revolver some two feet away. He, too, had been shot
through the temple. Running back to his house, Mooney
snatched up the telephone and called police headquarters.

News of the shooting was relayed to Assistant Police Chief
Hugh Herring on night duty. Before leaving for the scene,
he called for an ambulance and alerted Chief E. C. Harris,
Forest County Sheriff Ab Payne, and County Attorney
Overton Currie. All these officials and the ambulance arrived
within 15 minutes of each’ other.

The ambulance took Everett and Vinson to a local funeral
parlor, not to the hospital.’ They had died almost instantane-
ously with bullets, presumably fired from a .38 caliber re-
volver, in their respective brains.

Dan Mooney told what he had seen [Continued on page 80]

The accused

and the secon
Cin black shi
up in the ca
kindly restau
after return f

Trio trapp

backwash
blood lust
brought or

police crac

2 Rte a ES MO

f state license

puzzled the
The descrip-
as far more
ver. All local
trol through-
rehing for it

ilph Quando,
tion on the
rg, drove up

g last night,”
r you're look-
pump around

that the car
nan of ample
r of tortoise-

best hotel in
told me that
for her hus-
1 day or two.
ys asking me
ind here and,
remembered
funny thing

Payne.

‘e was a this

. the rear of

the front was

esota license.”

this was odd,
describe the

“he was big,
r hair was
‘ace and a
at and was

slry,”

1e car? There

Quando was
ervice station
irove ov@r to
ed, once more,
jually positive
n the Buick at

> you saw on
iriver?” asked
have been a
avoid flying

heory for some
ist, “it seemed
man. But, if
d under some
ible.”
rly breakfast
farmer, whose
Pigeon Farm
»f Hattiesburg,
portant news.
» Buick sedan
iddy lane run-
rm Road to a
farm.
2 deputy, Lee
*. Daniel took

ce chief, Hugh »

The maroon
d model with
len Minnesota
len Mississippi
as no blood in
thing else that
all important.

to Hatties-
-d over to the
rprint experts.
-d to find any
Ace Weathers
had barely
iey was dug

d embedded

u.w.ounced that

the slug was a .45 which had been fired
from Everett’s revolver. :

The experts, however, had no luck
with the maroon Buick. There were no
prints at all in the sedan, indicating that
they had been carefully wiped off before
the car was abandoned.

Later Tuesday morning, Payne’s dep-
uties and municipal officers began a check
of Hattiesburg’s hotels and tourist homes
in search of a woman who resembled the
one described by Ralph Quando. The
sheriff climbed into his car and headed
for Purvis to talk to the hitchhiker who
had been picked up the previous day.

The prisoner said his name was Luther .

Carlyle Wheeler. He was 24 years old and
a resident of Jacksonville, Fla. He
answered the sheriff’s questions with an
air ef candor and in the manner of an
educated man. Later, the sheriff char-
acterized Wheeler as “a guy who uses
a lot of two dollar words.”

Three days ago, Wheeler explained, he
had left his Florida home for New
Orleans in search of employment. On

Sunday afternoon, he had found himself -

in Mobile, Ala. There, he had obtained
a ride and had fallen asleep in the car
before he realized that he was being taken
out of his way. That was how he happened
to land in Hattiesburg.

“You've never been in this part of the
country before?” asked Payne.

Wheeler shook his head.

“You know no one here? You don’t
know any women?”

“J don’t know anyone. I’ve never been
in Mississippi before in all my life.”

“Do you have a police record?”

Wheeler hesitated uncertainly. “Well,”
he said at last, “there’s no sense in lying.
You could find out easily enough. Yeah.
I’ve served two terms for robbery; one
in Texas, one in Oklahoma. That's why
I’m looking for a job. It’s kind of tough
to get work when you're an ex-con.”

Payne turned to the Purvis officer who
had arrested Wheeler. “Find anything on
him when you picked him up? A .38
caliber revolver, maybe?”

“No,” said the constable. “Only a couple
of bucks, some cigarets, matches and a
handkerchief.”

“You’re not going to hold me, are
you?” asked Wheeler. “I’ve done nothing.
I don’t know who killed those policemen.”

At this moment, Payne was inclined to
believe him. There appeared to be no
evidence against the prisoner. But purely
as a matter of routine, he said, “Let’s just
take a look at the junk you have in your
pockets.”

Wheeler, whose property had been re-
turned to him after he had been searched
at the time of his arrest, emptied his
pockets on the constable’s desk. The cash,
the matches and the cigarets indicated
nothing beyond the fact that Wheeler
srnoked and wasn’t carrying much money
with him.

The handkerchief, Payne noted, was
fairly clean. He also noticed a small red
stain near the hem. He glanced sharply
at Wheeler. :

‘J think,” he said, “that you’d better
come back to Hattiesburg with me. There
are a few questions I’d like to ask you.”

Wheeler seemed slightly nervous. He
was quite aware of the fact that Payne
had observed the scarlet smear on the
handkerchief.

“Sheriff,” he said, “you are making a
mistake. I haven’t done anything. That
stain isn’t blood.”

“No,” said Payne, “it isn’t. I have a
pretty good idea what it is. Suppose
you tell me about it on the way to
Hattiesburg.”

Payne escorted Wheeler to his car and
headed back to Hattiesburg. As he
drove, Payne remarked conversationally,
“Wheeler, I quite agree that the stain on
sired handkerchief isn’t blood. It’s lip-
stick.” ri

Wheeler laughed nervously. “There’s
no law against that, is there?”

you know some girl well enough to have
kissed her recently.”
Wheeler shook his head. “You're wrong,

sheriff. It’s lipstick, all right. But it didn’t -

come from the lips of any Mississippi girl.
You see, before I left Jacksonville, I kissed
my girlfriend goodbye.”

“Tt looks to me like a fresh stain,” said
Payne. “Suppose I hold you in the county
jail until we call this girl in Jacksonville.”

“Chivalry commands my _ silence,
Sheriff,” he said. This statement didn’t
appear to impress Payne. Wheeler went
on. “I don’t like to kiss and tell,” he said.
“It would embarrass the girl if I gave
you her name.”

“Look,” said Payne, “I’m investigating
a murder case. If your girl can clear
you, she wouldn’t mind a little
embarrassment.” :

When Wheeler, sullen and uncom-
municative, was locked in the Forest
County jail, Payne held a conference with
Chief Harris and the County Attorney
Currie. The sheriff conceded that he had
no direct evidence against the prisoner.
But it seemed plain that the murderer
of Vinson and Evefett had been travelling
with a plump, well-dressed woman.
Wheeler, who had denied knowing anyone
in a Mississippi, had recently kissed a
girl.

Currie suggested that Dan Mooney be
brought to the jail in the hope that he
could identify Wheeler as the man at the
wheel of the Buick: at the time of the
shooting. A patrolman was sent out to
find Mooney. A half hour later, Mooney
confronted Wheeler but was unable to
make a positive identification.

“I only got a glimpse of the man’s
face,” said Mooney. “It was thin, like this
guy’s, but I can’t be sure, not sure enough
to accuse a man of murder.” }

The sheriff and Currie questioned
Wheeler exhaustively. He stuck to his
original story. Like an Edwardian gentle-
man, he refused on the ground of honor
to name the girl whom he claimed he had
kissed goodbye in Jacksonville.

Later that day, Patrolmen Robert
Reaser and W. N. Johnson, who had been
checking hotels and tourist courts search-
ing for the ample woman driver seen in
the Buick by Quando, came upon some
significant information. A woman, whose
description coincided with that given the
sheriff by the service station operator,
had registered at the Milner Hotel at 9: 15
Monday morning, almost 12 hours after
the shooting.

She had registered alone, using the
name of Mrs. George Comstock of Day-
tona Beach, Fla. She had walked out of
the hotel, announcing that she intended
to do some shopping, a scant half hour
before the patrolmen had questioned the
desk clerk.

A stakeout was put on the hotel and
every officer in the city was ordered to
keep a sharp watch for the missing Mrs.
Comstock. Hours passed and she was not
found. An investigation by the hotel man-
ager revealed that the suitcases in her
room were empty. She had, apparently,
walked out, carrying her belongings be-
neath her fur coat. Obviously, she had
no intention of paying her bill.

Chief Harris ordered the railroad sta-
tion and the bus depot watched. He re-

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Honeymoon of Terror

[Continued from page 30]

of the double murder. Unfortunately, he
had not been able to see the man at the
wheel of the Buick clearly.

“T saw only the upper half of him,” said
Mooney. “He wore no hat and I think
he had on a brown or black leather jacket.
His face was thin, but I’m not at all sure
that I would recognize him if I saw him
again.”

Mooney went on to say that the car was
a late model, maroon Buick sedan. He
had seen a large, lumpy bundle on the
seat next to the driver. “It looked like a
big bag of laundry,” he said. “And I also
noticed that the car had an out of state
license plate. I couldn’t see just which
state it came from, but it wasn’t a Missis-
sippi license.”

The record at police headqparters
showed that at 8:51 the radio dispatcher
had called the car operated by Everett
and Vinson, ordering them to progeed to
the Ace Weathers Motor Company on
North Street. The coded instructions were
relayed by the number 219, which signi-
fied that a prowler had been seen in the
area.

Sheriff Payne ordered road blocks set
up on every highway leading out of the
city. A description of the maroon Buick
was broadcast and the highway patrol was
alerted. In the meantime, Chief Harris
inspected the premises of the Ace
Weathers Company.

The front door of the establishment,
which faced North Street, was securely
locked. However, a smaller, side entrance

on West Fourth Street was ajar. Examina-
tion proved that the lock had been forced.
It seemed clear to Harris that the prowl
car had pulled up at the front of the
building while the prowler had been
within. The thief had fled through the side
door by which he. had, presumably, en-
tered. He had managed to get away in the
Buick before Everett and Vinson could
stop him. Then the patrolmen had given
pursuit.

In the offices, neither the safe nor any-
thing appeared to have been tampered
with. It seemed likely that the arrival of
the cruiser had frightened off the burglar
before he had been able to open the safe.
Nevertheless, the chief ordered. the iden-
tification bureau men to dust the premises
for fingerprints. :

Before noon Monday, the Hattiesburg
police and Forest County officers had

picked up half a dozen known criminals:

for questioning. Some had solid alibis;
those who didn’t could not be connected
in any way with the killings. However,
the latter group was held for some
24 hours while detectives investigated
thoroughly.

At 1 o’clock a call came into the office
of Sheriff Payne. A hitchhiker had been
picked up an hour before in Purvis, a
village 16 miles south of Hattiesburg on
Route 11. The man had told the local con-
stable.his name was Luther. Wheeler. He
was rather thin and was wearing a worn,
leather jacket. In a general way, he re-
sembled the rather indefinite description
given the police by Dan Mooney.

“Hold him,” said the sheriff. “Hold him
on a vagrancy charge. I’ll get down there
later today or tomorrow morning to ques-
tion him.”

By mid-afternoon, no trace of the

The shocking story of a girl who bound her-

self to a heartless’ murderer. Don’t miss it!

maroon Buick with the out of state license
plate had been found. This puzzled the
police chief and the sheriff. The descrip-
tion of the fugitive car was far more
specific than that of its driver. All local
officers and the highway patrol through-
out the state had been searching for it
for almost 18 hours.

Late in the afternoon, Ralph Quando,
who operated a service station on the
northern edge of Hattiesburg, drove up
to the sheriff’s office.

“Tt heard about that killing last night,”
he said. “I think I saw the car you’re look-

ing for. It stopped at my gas pump around

5 o’clock Sunday afternoon.”

Quando went on to say that the car
had been driven by a woman of ample
build who was wearing a pair of tortoise-
shell glasses.

“She asked me what the best hotel in
town was,” he said. “She told me that
she was going to wait there for her hus-
band who was arriving in a day or two.
Of course, people are always asking me
about accommodations around here and,
most likely, I wouldn’t have remembered
this woman except for one funny thing
I noticed about that Buick.”

“What was that?” asked Payne.

“The license plates. There was a this
year’s Mississippi plate on the rear of
the sedan but the plate in the front was
a year old and it was a Minnesota license.”

The sheriff agreed that this was odd,
indeed. He asked Quando to describe the
woman in detail.

ce
Well,” said the witness, “she was big,
quite fat and well dressed. Her hair was
dark and she had a round face and a
double chin. She had a fur coat and was
wearing a lot of flashy jewelry.”

“And she was alone in the car? There
wasn’t a man with her?”

She had been alone. Quando was
positive of that. When the service station
operator had left, Payne drove over to
West Fourth Street and talked, once more,
to Dan Mooney, who was equally positive
that only a man had been in the Buick at
the time of the killings.

“What about this bundle you saw on
the seat at the side of the driver?” asked
Payne. “Could it possibly have been a
woman, huddled down, to avoid flying
bullets?”

Mooney considered this theory for some
time. “Well,” he said at last, “it seemed
too big and bulky for a woman. But, if
she was very fat and huddled under some
kind of coat, it’s just possible.”

Payne was having an early breakfast
Tuesday morning when a farmer, whose
acres stretched along Old Pigeon Farm
Road some five miles south of Hattiesburg,
telephoned some most important news.
He had found the missing Buick sedan
abandoned on an unused muddy lane run-
ning from Old Pigeon Farm Road to a
dead end just west of his farm.

The sheriff dispatched a deputy, Lee
Daniel, to examine the car. Daniel took

Hattiesburg’s assistant police chief, Hugh .

Herring, along with him. The maroon
sedan was a ten-year-old model with
what proved to be a stolen Minnesota
plate on its front and a stolen Mississippi
plate on its rear. There was no blood in
the car’s interior, nor anything else that
the officers considered at all important.

The car was towed back to Hatties-
burg where it was handed over to the
identification bureau fingerprint experts.
The bureau men had failed to find any
prints in the offices of the Ace Weathers
Company. The bullet which had barely
missed the head of Dan Mooney was dug
out of the ceiling where it had embedded
itself. The ballistics men announced that

the slug was |
from Everett’:

The experts, now
with the maroon Bu
prints at all in the s«
they had been carefu
the car was abandone

Later Tuesday m¢
uties and municipal «
of Hattiesburg’s hote
in search of a woma!
one described by f
sheriff climbed into
for Purvis to talk t«
had been picked up

The prisoner said |
Carlyle Wheeler. He
a resident of Ja
answered the sheriff
air ef candor and
educated man. Lat
acterized Wheeler
a lot of two dollar

Three days ago, W
had left his Flor
Orleans in search
Sunday afternoon, !
in Mobile, Ala. T
a ride and had fal!
before he realized t}
out of his way. That
to land in Hattiesbu

“You've never ber
country before?” a

Wheeler shook h

“You know n¢
know any women
“T don’t know ar
in Mississippi befor

“Do you have a }

Wheelenghesitate
he said at last, “the
You could find out
I’ve served two te:
in Texas, one in (
I’m looking f
to get work

Payne turn
had arrested
him when you pi
caliber revolver, n

“No,” said the cor
of bucks, some cig
handkerchief.”

“You're not gol
you?” asked Wheel
I don’t know who k

At this moment, !
believe him. Ther:
evidence against th
as a matter of rout!
take a look at the j
pockets.”

Wheeler, whose |
turned to him afte:
at the time of }
pockets on the cons
the matches and
nothing beyond
srnoked and wasn't
with him.

The handkerchi
fairly clean. He a
stain near the he:
at Wheeler.

“T think,” he s
come back to Hatt
are a few questior

Wheeler seemed
was quite aware
had observed the
handkerchief.

“Sheriff,” he sa
mistake. I haven't
stain isn’t blood.’

“No,” said Pay:
pretty good ide
you tell me abo
Hattiesburg.”

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8 @}

quested the highway patrol to be on the
alert for an amply padded woman in a
fur coat. However, in spite of all these
alerts, there had been no sign of the
wanted woman when dusk came.

Shortly after 6 o’clock, Charles Ault-
man, a chauffeur for the Green Taxi Com-
pany of Hattiesburg, dropped a fare on
the outskirts of the city and headed back
to town, As he 2 gabe vane an inter-
section, he observed a woman frantically
waving at him. He slowed down, pulled
up at the curb and opened the door.

The woman, who was wearing tortoise-
shell glasses ‘and an expensive fur coat,
climbed, with some difficulty because of
her weight, into the cab. Aultman turned
his head around and said, “Where to,
ma’am?”

“New Orleans.”

Aultman blinked in surprise. “That’s
over 100 miles away.” gs

The woman, relaxing in the back seat,
opened a capacious handbag. She with-
drew an impressive roll of bills and said,
“Tll give you $160 for the trip.”

. Aultman performed some fast mental
arithmetic and decided that this was a
profitable deal. “Okay,” he said, “but I’ll
have to call my office first and let them
know where I’m going.”

“Let’s get out of town first,” urged the
passenger. “I’m fed up with this lousy
town. Get going. You can stop somewhere
along the line and call your office. I’m
paying you enough to do it my way.”

Aultman had figured that the fare she

had offered ran to something like 80 cents °

a mile for the round trip. That was'a
great deal more than he got for local calls
in Hattiesburg. At those prices, he. was
quite willing to do as the customer asked.

“All right,” he said, “I'll do it your
way. But after a while, I'll have to stop
and call the office. They’ll wonder where
I am. They may even think I stole the
cab and call the police.”

This remark seemed to disturb the
woman. “Well,” she said, “we don’t want
any trouble,. Drive out about ten miles
or so, then you call your boss and tell him
where you're going. I’m willing to pay
for your food and your hotel room in New
Orleans, if you want to stay overnight.”

Aultman, like all taxi drivers across the
country, had run into eccentric fares be-
fore. Cab drivers and psychiatrists, in the
pursuit of their respective professions,
run into more odd-balls than anyone else.
And cab drivers, again like psychiatrists,
don’t argue with the customer if the price
is right. Aultman considered the price,
on this occasion, more than adequate.

As he drove, he thought. The passenger
seemed to be in a great hurry to leave
Hattiesburg. Trains. and busses were
available to New Orleans and both were
far cheaper than a taxicab. And why
should his fare object to his calling his
office immediately? Why should she insist
that he call when they were some distance
out of town? Aultman suddenly recalled
a conversation he had had earlier in the

ay. ,

He had been talking to a Hattiesburg
attorney, Claude Pittman. Pittman was
the uncle of Mrs. Jesse Everett, wife of
one. of the slain patrolmen. Pittman had
told Aultman that the police had one
suspect, a man named Wheeler, in the
county’ jail. They were searching for a
big woman who was believed to be
Wheeler’s accomplice.

Well, Aultman reflected, his fare was
certainly a big woman.’ Moreover, she
seemed in an inordinate hurry to get out
of town. Was it possible that she was
the woman for whom the police were
looking? At $160 or no $160, Aultman
decided that he should put through a call

to Chief Harris. Dead ahead of him on
Route 11, he saw the Parkway Motors
Company.

“Lady,” he said over his shoulder, “I
have to stop here for a few minutes. I
think I’ve got a leaking fuel line.”

His fare frowned. “All right. But make
it as quick as possible. I’m in a hurry.”

Aultman pulled up at the garage. He
climbed out of the cab and on the pre-
text of visiting the washroom disappeared
into the rear of the building where there
was a pay telephone. He got Assistant
Chief Herring on the wire.

“T've got a woman in my cab,” he re-
ported. “She’s about 30 years old, black
hair, shell glasses and she weighs all of
200 pounds, Is this the dame you're look-
ing for?”

“It sounds very much like her,” said
Herring. “Stay where you are. We'll be
out there within 20 minutes.”

Herring and Patrolman Johnson drove
out to the garage and picked up the pro-
testing fat woman. She was taken back
to town to the office of the county attorney,
where Currie, Sheriff Payne and Chief
Harris awaited her.

On the county attorney’s desk lay a
pile of bloodstained clothing and two .38
caliber revolvers. These articles had been
found a short while before by Lee Perry,
an Eatonville farmer, in a clump of bushes
on his property. He had brought them
to Currie immediately, arriving while
Herring had been arresting cabdriver
Aultman’s suspicious fare.

The woman stood mute as Harris
opened her handbag. In it he found some
$1,600 and papers which identified the
prisoner as 3l-year-old Elaine Forman.
Sheriff Payne asked the key question.
“Do you know a man named Luther
Wheeler?”

The Forman woman hesitated for a
moment, then slowly nodded her head. “I
guess I do,” she said.

P. ayne picked up.the telephone and
ordered Wheeler brought from his cell to
the office. Wheeler registered apprehen-
sive surprise as he observed the guns, the
bloody clothing and Elaine Forman. How-
ever, he set his thin lips tightly and did
not speak.

“Do these guns and these clothes be-
long to you?” the sheriff asked.

Wheeler made no reply. The woman
spoke, weary resignation in her tone. “It’s
too late now,” she said, “to tell anything
but the truth.”

“It’s all right for you to tell the truth,”
snapped Wheeler, angry and bitter. “You
didn’t shoot anybody.”

. Payne turned to Wheeler. “Are you
admitting that you did?”

“If I did, it was self-defense. Those cops
shot at me first.”

“That statement,” said Currie, “con-

~ stitutes an admission of guilt. Do you care

to elaborate on it?”

Wheeler decided that, under the cir-
cumstances, he had nothing to lose. In a
low monotone, he dictated a formal con-
fession. He had met Elaine Forman in
Jacksonville several weeks before. He had
formed a passionate attachment for her
which the woman quickly exploited.

“I was working as a novelty salesman,”
said Wheeler, “but I wasn’t making
enough to buy her all the stuff she wanted.
So I went back to my old racket, robbery.
We bought that old Buick and travelled
throughout the south, committing a series
of robberies. We stole the license plates
off other cars to make it harder for the
cops to catch up with us.”

In Hattiesburg, Wheeler had wandered
around town looking for some likely place
to rob. He had been casing the Ace

Weathers Comp:

had been buyir

station. Wheeler
Weathers building
been at the whee
Vinson and Everett
Spotting the po
fled through the W
and leaped into t!
Forman woman
places with him-
was the better driv
with the officers in
“Then,” said W
cut us off and the
remember much a
But Elaine Fo
clearly. She said,
damned shooting 1
on to say that, as
car, Wheeler ha
officer?” Then he
of his 38s and start
The woman, ter:
on the seat, pullin
head. A few min
had stopped. Wh:
the edge of the ci
goodbye and sta!
highway toward
he wiped Elaine's
with his handke:
She had driver
Farm Road and
Early the folloy
made her way |
registered at the
alias of Mrs. Geo
who had taken a
when he had le!
his clothes and «

Widow's Te

{Contin

down the license
on a scratch pa
locked at the pac
he discovered the
on it had been to:

Continuing thr¢
the young tro
learned that S«
blank top sheet
scratch pad with
to bring out in
that had been
sheet.

In a final repo:
two days before
den told of obt:
owner of the C
Vehicle Departm
den’s report conc
out at the first oy
ably would be w!
to be in Genese

Aware that
which the missi
ported, was in C
Yungfer lost no t:
to determine the
whom the blue C

Meanwhile, ba
Phoehn received
Police Departme:
9 o'clock Thur
Souden had calle
tions to the hom
the village of A
of Fenton. Sou
Wollner lived in
yellow frame ho
just east of towr

/ TT ER OTT 1 ART RR NR, EE EE 8! Se
(SS TESST NF RS a a aT eT
:

Everything he touched gave him a new sensation.
Soon he wouldn’t feel anything ... anything at all

What was his soul? Could he put a shirt on it? Send it out with a girl?

» 58

ee EDITOR'S NOTE. oo.

"nlc the toy re frm, Swe ide, eok(povbana thee the’
cwrliter could know what went on In the mind of the condemned -
; “men. But the writer has seen men die In the Chair. He has talked ..
e With men who were granted reprieves a few hours short-of exece-
~ ton. ‘He has talked with some of the persons Involved In this _
“story. ‘ Our writer Is not omalsclent, bet the facts he had, plus the
psmertes he heard later, have enabled him to write bases account.

“e
4 a

wie pee : OS te “, : ; aT TE

by WILLIAM WHITNEY

HATTIESBURG, MISS., FEBRUARY 5, 1954

-™ Noon had never meant much before;

lunch, a smoke, an hour to loaf on the
job. Now it gave him only 12 hours to
live.

The cell was warm but he noticed the
draft that swirled down the corridor and
blew gently against his ankles. He was
aware of other familiar little sensations;
his toes in the ends of the new, black
oxfords, the belt around his waist, the
feel of the rough cloth of the prison
denim trousers against the skin of his
thighs. He moved his finger slowly along
the dull crease, marveling at the amaz-
ing connection of nerves that could so
quickly telepath the sense of touching
from his fingertips to his brain.

“Soon they won’t feel anything,” he
thought. “Anything at all... .”

He didn’t think of it fearfully, but as
an objectively interesting fact. A sud-
den bolt of electricity running through
him would turn his wonderfully sensi-
tive body into an inert, feelingless mass.
Life—whatever it was—would be gone
in an instant and his toes and fingers
would be like moulded clusters of clay
and there would be no awareness, no
motion, no smells nor heat nor cold nor
hearing or sight. He would become 160
pounds of bone and “meat, cold in an
hour, and the complicated something
that was a human being named Luther -

‘Wheeler would quite fantastically. be

nothing in just 12 hours more.
He contem- (Continued on page 63)

First he saw the Chair. Then it was real.

-12 Hours to Live

continued from page 41

plated this idea of his own corpse imperson-
ally. It would be buried, of course—after it
was embalméd and someone’s casual, expert
fingers had kneaded the pain and terror from
the face; after it had changed from a man
into something pitiful and revolting, to be
quickly gotten out of the way. But it was the
process of exploding the life out of his body
that tightened his stomach and started the
little waves of. fear.. He didn’t mind the idea
of being dead, but the electricity—would it
hurt? Would it be a searing agony—or a
merciful force that numbed pain? Would he
feel it? Sense life leaving his body before.a
darkening wave? Know a last, frantic moment
of consciousness that would be all he’d ever
have?

Would there be anything—after? Was there
something for those who were dead? He felt
the sweat on his forehead and thought it’s
queer to feel cold on my ankles and sweat up
there. Is this fear? Will I be able to act all
right tonight when they come for me, to walk
out of here and down the corridor, past the
men in the other cells, into that room with
the Chair? She a

He heard the steps coming down the hall
and knew it was the guard with his lunch. He
still had trouble eating, after the hunger
strike he’d gone on. Eight days without food,
while they begged him to eat and examined
him to see if he was nuts. He was feeling
stronger now, but his appetite was gone. A
few bites and he’d feel: full. It was a strange
thing, his doing that. The warden and the
priest had told him it was a senseless thing, an
attempt to gain pity hoping it would save him
from the Chair. He had analyzed it himself.
They .were wrong. He’d honestly wanted to
starve himself to death. He’d wanted to kill
himself before they did. He couldn’t stand the
thought that people wanted him to die. Folks
right now out there in Hattiesburg’s restau-
rants and movies and offices and homes,
walking the streets, driving their cars—they
wanted him’ to die!

The guard brought in his lunch.

“How're things going?” he asked.

A hell of a question, Wheeler thought.
Things are going pretty goddamned fast. He
knew what the guard meant. Are you afraid?
he wanted to know. How are you bearing up?
What do you think about being electrocuted,
Mr. Wheeler, about 11 hours from now?

“Just fine,” Wheeler’ said.

“you can have anything you want for din-
ner,” the guard said. He wouldn’t look
at him, not at his eyes. “Steak, chicken. . . -”

“I'll think about it,” Wheeler said.

“You just name it. Most of them—I mean—
if you want anything special. . . .”

“Tl Jet you know.”

The guard left. He’s glad to get away,
Wheeler thought. It must be hard to talk to
a guy so close to death. Gives everybody guilt
complexes. They put on a big show in front of
each other about an eye for an eye and the
lawyers and jury throw out their chests a little
when they’ve decided to kill you as if they
personally have vindicated all of society and
then when it comes right down to the time
they have to electrocute you they begin to feel
little and ashamed of themselves. Even the fel-

Jows im the otmer Ceus icil tial staiic, vue ae
was mixed up with sympathy and a little
vicarious fear. because they were underdogs,
too. At first, when he’d come in, they’d talked
back and forth, kidding him a little about
killing two cops and having a fat sweetheart
named Elaine. Later they just talked about
things most people do; it was hot, it was cold,
they feel good or bad and the war in Korea
and politics and where they’d rather be than
in here. He got to know them almost intimate-
ly, although he only had glimpses of them as
they were brought in or out of their cells. Most
of the time they, were just voices and sounds.
He knew that one of them had a toothache
every night but was afraid to tell the guard
because he’d make him let the dentist pull it.
Another was worried about his wife. She was
stepping out on him, he knew, every single
night. The one in the cell to his left didn’t talk
much but he’d heard him moan in his sleep,
little unintelligible things, and several times
lying there awake he’d heard him cry. Now
he could hear the others moving in their cells,
but it was strangely quiet. They didn’t talk to
him or to each other. He knew what they were
thinking, though. God, they thought, that
poor, poor guy over there is going to die. To-
morrow there won’t be anybody in his cell.
They’re going to lead him off and send a bolt
of lightning through his brain.

‘THEY were more afraid of it than he was,
he decided, though he knew the trick of
fighting it was not to think of it at all. They
couldn’t do that because the black wall of
fear in him was only the thickness of a thought
away and they could dwell on it without the
feeling that screaming panic might move in.
Sometimes it’s worse watching somebody else
suffer than to feel pain yourself. He wished

they’d keep on talking, though. The silence —

made him feel too much alone. He found him-
self trying not to make any noise either. He
handled his fork carefully, not letting it scrape
the tin plate, and he set the coffee cup down
gently so they wouldn’t know what he was
doing. He didn’t want them thinking “The
poor guy. Only one more meal . . .” But it
was so damned quiet. Like they were waiting,
too.
He looked at his watch. One-thirty. Ten
and 2 half heurs to go.

The tickle of fear returned, starting in his
stomach and running back to a spot along his
spine in the middle of his backe He got up and
went to the bars and gripped them hard and
the quiver went away. He could see the blank
wall across from his cell and the first few bars
of the cells on each side. He could see so far
each way and that was his little world, lighted
by a dusty bare bulb in the white ceiling that
never went out. That was the one the boys
watched when somebody took their last walk.
It dimmed and flickered when the current in

the room at the end of the hall was turned on.

He’d seen it happen twice since he’d been
there. Two men he’d only known as Voices.
Nobody mentioned them or talked about it
afterwards. The dimming of a dirty bulb was
the prison’s sole requiem. _

Would it be that way tomorrow? Would
the others sit in their little worlds of fear
tonight and watch for the current to fade?

He went back and lay down on his bunk
and tore his mind away from death. He heard
the sounds of cars going by on the street out-
side and he tried to remember what it was like
to be able to come and go, to make up his own

AMAA, GUPUUL CALAN LU UV, 440040 Csseesgo sare
to wear and what to order in a restaurant and
what he was going to do that night... .

That night! ,

At midnight he was going ¢o die. The little
wall of thought crashed and the dark wave of
fear rolled in and he sat up in his bunk, stifling
the scream that filled his throat, his muscles
achingly tight. After a moment he got control
of himself again. He had to.

“I'd go nuts,” he thought, “if I let myself
go.” It. wasn’t bravery nor inner courage. It
was just easier to fight the fear than to suc-
cumb to it now. Easier to keep your mind
closed, to block it away. He remembered what
Reverend Jim Edwards had said.

we asene

; “W HEN it starts to get real bad, son pray.”
%

“Prayers won't help me now,” he'd
said bitterly.

“They won’t save your life,” the minister
said, “but they'll save your soul.”

What was his soul? Could he put a white
shirt -and a snappy tie on it and cream slacks
and slick down its hair and send it out with a
girl? What good did some imaginary shadow
do him when his body was locked up behind
bars and the clock kept ticking his life away?

_ He looked at his watch again. It was nearly

three. Panic was all around the fringes of his

\mind and it seemed impossible to push it

away. He remembered the stories he read in
newspapers about how other murderers had
died in the Chair. How they walked, how they
looked, what they said before the black leather
mask came down over their faces. He remem-
bered especially that the reporters always
wrote that the dying man’s chest surged
against the straps when the current hit and
how little wisps of smoke curled out and those
watching could get a whiff of the burning
flesh. ... f

His own scream stopped him. The sound

- was high and thin in his ears and he heard the

guard running down the corridor and he sat
up quickly on the bunk and put his head in
his hands.

“You all right, Luther?” the guard said.
His tone was scared and it made Wheeler feel
better again.

“Yeah,” he said.
Mica s

The guard went away.

I’ve got to watch that, Wheeler thought. I
can’t let my thinking get loose again. There’s
only one way it will go. But it’s hard to con-
trol the mind when for most of your years
it’s been controlling you. You can force it to
think what you want to think for a while, but
it always tries to come back to the one thought
that fills your head. He twisted, trying to
physically duck the torment of encroaching
panic, but he was afraid he was going to
scream again. What was it the preacher said?
When it starts to get real bad? ,

He thought he should get down on his
knees. But he couldn't. So he shut his eyes
tight and lowered his head.

“Dear God,” he said. Dear God what ? What
mercy would He who said Thou Shalt Not
Kill have for someone who bore the guilt of
two men’s deaths? How could he live for the
last ten years without even thinking of God
and then expect help when he turned to Him >
at the end? He was 25 and he hadn’t been
inside a church since he’d been a boy. God
would see that he was driven to prayer by
fear. He couldn’t fool Him. He couldn’t ask
forgiveness for murder. He couldn’t, with a

“T must have dozed

ala at
Pa POR
erates ns nes

burg, Miss., 2-
: Are you frightened? What do you think

about being electrocuted, Mr. Wheeler?

ec ne

Hatt

RS TO

June

CTIVE

Luther Carlyle, whit

Q
i ‘

ER,

HER

=
S
aa :
oN
ps

1e jealous boy friend.
; the young woman’s
aly in his rear-view
a round plump face
g of a double chin, he
ie noticed something

f her hair that stuck
rf were of a peculiar
». So were her eye-
was a dark streak on
» one eyebrow. Also,
ant curl of hair peep-
vas blonde!
adding two and two.
| had dyed her hair
ind had: pretty well
Then he recalled the
iad heard about the
> police were hunting.
| bet his boots this was
ider she had been so
out of the hotel un-

vhat to do. For all he
might be armed. It
‘ee her suspicion, or
away—might even
m he saw a big
anead on the highway,
1e gas,” he announced.
‘sion. He drove in and
mp.
t, I’m going to call my’
ell -him I'll stay over-
leans. It'll be too late
back tonight.”
zreed, “but hurry.”
1, all right. He got the
e phone, keeping one
She was still in the
1 attendant filled the
unsuspecting.
told the dispatcher.
‘ot for New Orleans—
ie blonde the cops are
» answers the descrip-
Vhat should I do with

t had the answer for
it do a thing,” he ad-
‘p rolling, but take it
he police and they can
own way.”

1G UP, got into the cab
away. He was only a
town, but he knew it
police a while to catch
n the highway, he held
is and was making a
few minutes the con-
eaned forward.
‘king,” she complained.
ping on it?”
4~ replied. “The only
e has got something
ing system. It’s apt
push it too hard.”
speed a bit to about 50,
1 to satisfy her for a
wlly she got impatient

a ee Bre s% 20 atiiainiertaiea
.

, the cops,” he called back.

again. She opened her purse, and Alt-
man, eyeing her through the rear-view
mirror, felt decidedly uneasy when she
drew out a small blue-steel automatic.

“You'd better make it faster,” she
said.

Altman made it faster. He pushed it
up to about 60, not liking the situation
at all now. But the cops, if they were

- on their toes, ought:to be well on their

way by this time. If they went 70 or
better, they ought to show up pretty
soon.

A few minutes later, Altman spied.
a car far to the rear. It was coming fast,
because it kept getting bigger in the
mirror. The blonde looked back, then
turned apprehensively to Altman.

“There’s someone catching up to us!”
she cried. “Step on it!”

The driver, who was now doing 65,
tried to calm her. “I got a hunch it’s
“They’ve
been checking speeders on this road
lately. But don’t worry about that,
lady. I know all the policemen around
here.”

“Well then,” she said nervously,
“maybe you’d better slow down. We
don’t want trouble.” zs

Altman’ slowed. The vehicle behind
was a police car, all right. As it pulled
up closer, the siren went on. Altman
turned off on the shoulder of the road
and stopped.

“Leave this to me,” he said soothing-
ly to the girl, who had replaced the gun
in her purse.

City Policemen W. N. Johnson and
Robert Reaser walked over. Reaser
opened the rear door.

“Come out, young lady,” he snapped.

“You’re going back to Hattiesburg with
us.”
Not until then did she tumble to the
fact that she had been tricked. She
flung a glance of pure venom at Charley
Altman. The officers relieved her of her
weapon, put her in their car and were
on,their.way back to town.

T HEADQUARTERS, she identified
herself as Mrs. Elaine Foreman
and said she originally came from Salt-
Lake City, but that her home was now
in New Orleans. At least, that .was

where her husband was. She had run °

out on him and come to Hattiesburg
with her boy friend, but he had gotten
drunk and become objectionable so she
had ditched him and was on her way
back home when she was arrested. She
did not, she stated, understand the rea-
son for her arrest, although she was
sorry she had'been so foolish as to run
off with this man.

As far as Sheriff Payne and the other
questioners were concerned, that story
was strictly unsatisfactory. It ignored
a few matters such as the murder of
two fine policemen, for instance. The
sheriff nodded to an aide: In a few

vor hha ncontamn

room.

“Why—Carl!” Mrs. Foreman gasped
clearly taken by surprise.

Wheeler also looked vastly discom-
fitted. He did not say anything to her,
apparently feeling it best to give the
impression that he did not know her.
He was taken back to his cell immedi-
ately while the sheriff turned to the
woman.

“Maybe you’d better tell us the
whole story,” he suggested.

All ‘her defiance was gone as she
fought to keep from crying. Miserably
she narrated a story that contained a
number of things she had not men-
tioned before. .

She had met Luther Garlyle Wheeler,
whom she called Carl, in Jacksonville,
Fla., she said, where she had taken a
temporary job as a waitress. The pair
had been attracted to each other, and
when he suggested that she- go with
him on a little tour, she was willing.
They drove to Mobile and then to. New
Orleans, where Wheeler ran out of
funds. He decided to stage a robbery,
but didn’t want to do it in New Orleans,

moments Wheeler was brought into the

_so they drove to Hattiesburg with the

idea of finding a suitable establishment
to rob. | a

They arrived in Hattiesburg some-
time Before midnight, and Wheeler
drove around a bit to see what he could
find. When he spotted. the Weathers
Motor Company, he decided to work
on that. Taking his burglar tools, he
jimmied the door open. Inside, he
managed to smash open a small safe. He
came out carrying his burglar. tools
and the money he’d stolen, and put
them in the car. He went back to close
~the front door, and it was at that mo-
ment. that Patrolmen Vinson and
Everett wheeled around the corner in
their prowl car. : '

“Carl jumped in the car and I drov
off,” she related. “But I couldn’t seem
to go fast enough—the cops were gain-
ing. I got scared and told Carl:I was
going to stop. He hollered at me to
keep going, but I stopped. When that
policeman came over, Carl shot him. I
heard some other shots too, and I was
so frightened I ‘decided to get away. I
drove off, leaving Carl standing right
there.”

She drove wildly out of town, ‘she
went orf, She didn’t want to have any-
thing to do with the shooting of a po-
liceman, and that was. why she threw
away’ Wheeler’s burglar tools and his
suitcase. She drove into that secluded
side road to get some sleep, and she was
frightened all over again when she
awoke in the morning to find those men
staring at her. :

“I hurried back into town. I went
into the Sears, Roebuck store and
bought a dress and scarf. I knew those
men had seen me and I wanted to

apni

change~my appearance as much as pos-
sible.” :

She ditched Wheeler’s gun in the
trash basket. Then, after donning the
new dress and scarf, she went into a
nearby movie house and stayed there
the rest of the afternoon. Nobody would
look for her there, she reasoned.

Then she registered at the hotel, went
to her room and tried to figure out
some way to get safely out of town. A
bellboy brought her a newspaper and
she read that both policemen had died.
Now more than ever she wanted: to get
away. Knowing that the police were
looking for a blonde, she made use of
some hotel ink to dye her eyebrows
and part of her hair—the part that

’ stuck out of the scarf. When she man-
~ aged to get out of town in Altman’s

taxi, she thought she was in the clear.

HE WAS ESCORTED to a cell, and

Wheeler was brought in again.
Elaine Foreman’s story was read to
him, and his face was a study of glum-
ness as he heard it.

“Well, all right, that’s about the way
it was,” he growled. “I didn’t want any
gunplay, but that cop was shooting
at me. I had: to shoot back or get
plugged.”

That claim didn’t get very far, since
both Vinson and Everett had been shot
down before they had a chance to fire.
Their guns, when found, still held their
full quota of bullets.

Both Wheeler and Mrs. Foreman
signed confessions to their respective
roles in the double murdef, and later
that day Wheeler went with officers to
the Weathers Motor Company where he
re-enacted the robbery and shooting.
The two prisoners were booked on
charges of first degree murder, the

.judge refusing them bond.

Both of the defendants were con-
victed when they went on trial two
months later. Wheeler was condemned
to die in the electric chair, while Mrs.
Foreman was given a life sentence.

After vainly taking an appeal, Wheel-
er was electrocuted later that year.
Through her attorneys, however, Mrs.
Foreman fought her conviction on the
first degree charge, claiming that she
had taken no part in the slaying and
could not rightly be charged with mur-
der at all.

All these legal maneuvers took close

- to two years, and early in 1954 the

disputed case was reviewed by the
Mississippi State Supreme Court. The
high court decided that Elaine Foreman
had been correctly convicted and sen-
tenced. Even though she fired no shots,
the court held, she conspired with
Wheeler “to kill any person who inter-
fered with or attempted to apprehend”
the pair in the course of the robbery.

And that seems to be just about the
last word.

W HITE, John, (real name TOWNES, Frank Pate), black, hanged at
Meridian, Mississippi, on Dec. 17, 1892.

A BAD NEGRO HUNG.

Heo Confessen to Having Killed Th ¢
Mon, and to Numerons Robberics,

Mikipran, Miss., Dec. 7,—John Wh ,
colored, murderer of James Logan, «
ored, was to-day publicly hanged he
Fully 5,000 people witnessed the dr.

negro women fainted, shouted a
moaned as the march to the scatfold »
_ begun. White showed no fear nntil
‘the scaffold, when a fit of trembli
| seized him. After prayer and exhor
tion by a local ‘minister, White w :
asked if he had anything to say, >
replied: “Notbing, only I am willip )
dic.” With a loud burst of laught +
in his mouth, the black cap was dray ..
and the trap sprurg at 11:30°a.: .
Although White’s neck was broken |
ithe six foot drop, he wag not pr -
nounced dead till 11:33.

Death was hard, convulsive shudde
being long continued. The body w
cut down at 11:42. White confess:
that bis real name was Frank Pa -
‘Townes. His mother, Elizabeth Towne
lives in Grenada, Miss., to whom } .
wrote a pathetic letter, bidding h.
meet him in Heaven. White raid}
had operated in this section since Ja)
uary last, his principal robbery beir
that of Deshazo’s iewelry sto: |
‘in’ Ellisville, Miss, on “Januar
6, where he secured $000 worth of jev
elry. Another was the blowing up |
Powe’s safe at Enterprise, Miss., whe
he secured nothing, He confesses
having killed three men, one at Ne-
Orleans, one at Lake Charles,and one +
Lake Providence, La. He also conferse
to having belonged to an organized gan
| of robbers in New Orleans, whose pla:
| Was usually to work single handaA

aN = DL mee GS

CLARA -LED od 7s
Tks, Musoor pp
Roa §, (FFL
(1 o)

WHITE, Grady, electrocuted Philadelphia, Miss., May 15, 191.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
COUNTY OF NESHOBA

)
))
)
)

CERTIFICATE OF THE ELECROCU-.

22. OF: OF GRADY WH iI Tz,

This to certify that we the undersigned including
the sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi, and the duly
elected County Health Officer and other witnesses, was
present at the Electrocution of Grady White same being done
at 2/5" 0'chork, A. Me, on the I5th day of may, 1941, at
the County Jail in the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi
in Neshoba County, We further state that the seid Criminial
Grady White was then and there executed in conformity to
the sentence of the Court,and the said execution mmmpixytugx
be carried out as provided under section or chapter 243,

H. Be 22% No. 494 this being the general laws of Mississippi,
as enacted by the leglisature in the year of Our Lord 1940,

the said bill being approved april 5, 1949, (7-4). 4 4

fbn, yp wiittys, J te
sqid’ county

oe Tf Ei a as 6 (ke We:

Pu, edecee WS eae ’ hea

COUNTY OF NESHOBA.
Personally appeared before me the undersigned

authority in and for said county and State, W. D. Brantley
who after being duly sworn according to law states on oath
that all the parties signature to the above certificate were
present and witnessed the execution of the said Grady White

W. D. Bran
County.

Sworn to and subscribed before me is the { day of May,

1941. ? We, 4

AULINE HEITT. CY.EQXK.

CHE

WIGGINS, Johny,” white, asphyxiated Mississippi (Jackson. C0) 6-20-1955,

“Private ‘gervice: Held.

af of ‘ollowing: Execution.
In State Gas Chamber

See yea ‘Wiggins, ‘Pascagoulan i
ie ‘who died. in: the ‘State's - gas i
as chamber Monday, was buried.
| | ~ fowith, private services.a Failed: gc ee ee,
Eee ee ce Tuesdays»: a ih Gaeta aie
ERT Sa ee NR a iaies ce The: 60-year-old. formeraundryP = as
; Bho 8 eivd ospital éworker, ‘paid: with} |

his life for. the\murder of a: ‘step:
daughter, | Ruth: Mack; 36.%.3¢) 9"
>” Sheriff. Leo. Byrd, who. ‘con. ;
“ducted execution of. the: death”
‘sentence, ‘said’ Wiggits, Was. re-"
: ‘signed to meeting death.” ; ees Dek
“He gaid: he’s had: his’ ups. end be
downs ‘and trottbles, iti life,” Byrd he
said, “and” he- ‘was ready ; to'go.
‘ ‘He said it didn’t. make: much ‘dif-
“ference. to ‘him: but. that he’ hated

it: for his family.”*. =" 3-"- ':
“The. Associated ‘Presd ‘Feported
‘that’ Parchman. ‘chaplain, S. B.
: ‘Herrington was the last: man .to
speak with’ Wiggiiis.and that the
‘condemned man, ‘made, a satis: }°
factory . confession’. of, faith” i
Hesrington. 1
_-. |+ Wiggins walked calmly: inte the 4
tiny cubicle and gave no trouble
as he was strapped into. the chair.
Death was swifti. ame oe
ae " Gov. Hugh White has visited .
RY “Wiggins last- week | to determ-.
ane’ whether or ‘not there were |
“any” rounds. for. commuting
* She death sentence.’

n; After several hours with ‘Wie!
| Bins,.' ‘the governor, “said he: felt,
\sure “that. Wiggins ; ought, to. die

oe andes
Swern as

= "The funeral, was: ‘eoriducted by 5
‘ the’ “Rev. James :F. Williams, pas-
|.tor: of Unity, Baptist Church: Bur-.
Reg sa iiin’nbteclleaesiosecuiescs ial was,, in» “Machpelah, (>:
IE ania tere ES ae ee “Wiggins. “was: “born in’ Hickory,
= has Hs ; 3 splat Sek wey - fs ; Bere alsin Satan ate) lk. ‘He is - ‘suryived by: another
ae -stepdaughter: “of Pascagoula: and
a ‘Stepson oh Kings t Seley No Yew

‘ ol? ts

16 / WE ARE NOT AFRAID

neighborhood streets were rutted and unpaved, and residents were not
served with home delivery by the U.S. Post Office. Here, as in most
Mississippi towns, “the other side of the tracks” bespoke another universe.

Philadelphia residents were so accustomed to racial inequities that
many were surprised when, after the disappearance of Goodman, Schwerner,
and Chaney, a New York Times reporter described the Negro section of
Philadelphia as beginning “where the sidewalks and pavement end.” But
when they looked, they found that what he had written was true. Simi-
larly, Philadelphia whites, like whites elsewhere, were blind to black re-
sentment and discontent. Even the most progressive whites expressed a
casually paternalistic attitude toward blacks. Clayton Rand, editor of the
Neshoba Democrat and a man who fought a revival of the Ku Klux Klan
in the 1920s, wrote in his memoir, Ink on My Hands, “The Negro,
innately happy, has written off the future as a total loss, and he accepts the
assets of the day as something to be untinctured with worry. Relaxation is
congenital with him—as soon as a Negro begins to worry he falls asleep.”

Four decades later, another white Philadelphian, worried about the
advances of the civil rights movement, wrote to Turner Catledge, a former
neighbor who held the position of executive editor of The New York
Times. “The Negroes are happy on account of they are Negroes,” the
writer assured Catledge, ‘and they don’t give a damn about trying to be
white. Like one Negro said, ‘If you wuz ever a nigger on Sadday night,
you'd always wanna be a nigger.’ ”

“I just can’t imagine Negroes being unhappy in Philadelphia—or
anywhere else for that matter,” Catledge wrote back. “But times do
change and new pressures develop. And I’m afraid the Negro whom I
knew in Mississippi is not the Negro who is there now.”

The center of Philadelphia was its courthouse square, a rectangular
town commons containing the two-story red-brick Neshoba County Court-
house. A statue of a Confederate soldier stood near the front entrance to
the building, his hand cocked in salute, the gunstock of his musket resting
down at his boots. The town’s principal shops and variety stores, banks,
and barbershops faced the square, their doorways protected by a common
wooden overhang. The sidewalk—here and elsewhere in town—was ele-
vated a couple of feet above street level, a vestige of the town’s not-too-
distant frontier past when mud splashed up from under the hooves of
passing horses and cattle. The square had been an important regional focal
point ever since Philadelphia’s designation as the county seat in 1832, the
regular site of speeches, parades, Army enlistment campaigns, fundamentalist
tent revivals, fistfights and an occasional shooting or hanging. As recently
as the early 1940s, the square was used for a public execution. Remembers

Bec intee, ha try L vig on The last pPublar ANT RA YW Qrnou en J

JUNE 21, 1964 / 17

Neshoba historian Florence Mars: “The electric chair was brought in from
Jackson and a crowd gathered late at night on the courthouse square, with
chairs, crackers, and children, waiting for the current to be turned on and
the streetlights to dim.”

~~ Mars begins her account of the local civil rights era, Witness in Phila-
delphia, by noting, “In Neshoba County, Mississippi, the basement of the
past is not very deep.” Indeed, Neshoba in 1964 was inhabited primarily
by people whose forebears had lived in the area since before the Civil War.
The lives of Philadelphians—as citizens, friends, and relations—were com-
pletely overlapping and intertwined. It was impossible to walk the streets
without running into a cousin, uncle, or old friend of the family. Such
surnames as Spears, Peebles, Massey, McBeath, Jolly, Fulton, Deweese,
Cumberland, Killen, Copeland, Burnside, Alford, Breazeale, and Mars
were ubiquitous, gracing street signs, store windows, garages, and feed
companies. White schoolchildren could easily trace back their ancestry in
the municipal cemetery.

Rand noted in his memoir that intermarriage between blacks and
whites in the county was virtually unheard of and that “the native whites
were pure Anglo-Saxon, the angular, raw-boned, calcimine type.” Once,
when he pointed out to a friend that all the townspeople resembled one
another, he was told, “They have married and intermarried until they look
as much alike as ’coons.” Rand also relates the story of a Neshoba mulatto
family named Burns. The sons and daughters of the racially mixed parents,
ashamed of their lineage, formed a covenant to live lives of celibacy to
prevent their blood strain from being passed on to another generation. “‘In
this unusual family,” Rand wrote, “Neshoba had a living monument of its
racial integrity.”

In 1964, an elderly white couple named Herring operated the Neshoba
County jail. Mrs. Herring’s maiden name was Minnie Lee Posey, and her
nephew, Billy Wayne Posey, the manager of a Phillips 66 station on
Highway 21, was a member of the Neshoba klavern of the Mississippi
White Knights. In the weeks following the disappearance of Goodman,
Schwerner, and Chaney, another Posey, Buford, was run out of town for
telling a network news correspondent that as a longtime resident of the
community he felt sure the sheriff had something to do with it. Mrs.
Herring’s son-in-law, a colorful, good-ole-boy country lawyer named Lau-
tel Weir, headed up the defense team in the trial of the conspirators
eventually indicted for the murders of the three civil rights workers, in
Federal District Court in Meridian in October 1967.

Mrs. Herring was sitting in the front yard of the jail—a one-story red-
brick building at 422 Myrtle Street—on the afternoon of June 21, 1964,

aunts

WILLIAMS, O'Neil, black, electrocuted Tupelo, Mississippi, June 25, 1913.

“argaret Shannon

Aug. -3,° 1984

Dear Watt:

The execution which I wrote about in Atlanta Weekly,

a
the one which I witnessed, or maybe "regfported" would ne mene

work \
accurate,since I was not an official witness, took place in
the Lee County jail in Tupelo, Miss., on June 25, 1943. The
person executed was O'Neal Williams, an 18-year-old black
male.

Williams was charged with the murder of Lee Bradley,

a white storekeeper, on May 4, 1943, in an attempted robbery.

He was captured on May 5, 1943, in an encounter in which
law enforcement officers shot and killed his companion in the
attempted robbery, Ova Lee Hadley, another black male.

Williams was tried -_£meem in Tupelo on May 24, 1943,
and convicted the same day. He escaped from the Lee -@=mmien

County jail on June 14, 1943, but was recaptured within 14

nours.

I wrote a number of ei decrees about the killing,
the trial, the escape and Williams himself, as well as about
the Sxqeetees that period, but reviewed only the one
about the execution when I visited the Lee County library
several months ago. The library has the Tupelo Daily Journal
On microfilm in case you are interested in further information.

Thank you for the copy of your article and the

invitation to visit your project. I might just do that someday.

Sincerely, HN i
Langa Chena

WILLIAMS, O'Neal, black, blectrocuted at Tupelo, .Mississippi, .on June 25, 193-6

"O'Neal: Williams, -18-year-old negro, paid with his life in the,state's portable electric
chair today for the mrder of LeeBradley, white, a local merchant. fi
"O'Neal Williams spent a quiet night in his cell in the Lee.County jail, and this, morning in
talking: with a Daity-NEWS reporter. said that he did not care to make a statement, He said
that Mrs, Lee Bradley, the wife of the man whom he killed had, visited him Thursday and he
had talked to here * ° ¢ ° ° ‘ é es e t

"Opposite him on a bunk in his cell, lay the bible, and in the bars of his cell was, some
religious literature, He was extremely calm and composed for a person who only had a few
minutes to live, Asked if he rested well last night he ansered, 'yes.' ‘hen asked if he
had had breakfast, he said that he did not want anything to eat, however, he expressed a
desire for ice cream and this was immediatd y supplied by the jailer. |
"Shortly beforel0:30 Williams, accompanied by Sheriff Inmon and deputies mounted the fatal
thirteen steps from the second floor to the third floor of the building, wherethe electric
chair had been set in place in the north west corner of the third floor by the state execu-
tioner, C. W. (Bill) Watson, ;

"Williams walked with a steady stride to within a few feet of the electric chair and was
seated in a small chair just to the right of the big massive oak chair thatwas shortly to
snap out his life, wile theexecutioner made the final adjustments on the eouipment.
"4lliams seemed to be very much interested in the operations, as he watched Mr, Watson
wring out the salt water from the helmet and leg pads, He paid close attention as the
executioner stepped up to the control board and made a last-minute test of the controls

and when a small switch was used today to snap out the life of O'Neal Williams, there was

a small white blaze of about 2 or 3 inches long, he looked at this without the slightest
change in his expression,

"The executioner made the stoic announcement to Sheriff Inmon that he was readye

"Sheriff Inmon made ready to read to Williams thedeath warrant, however, the generating
plant was making so much noise that Sheriff Inmon had to ask Williams to move over on the
opposite side of the building while the warrant was read, He sat quietly while the sheriff
read the warrant. Sheriff Inmon explained to him that he had toread it to him, and that he
could ask any questions he wished, After the sheriff finished reading the death warrant,
Williams merely said, 'that's all right.' He arose from his chair and walked back to the
small chair, Just before he was asked to take his seat in the death chair, he turned to
Earl Mansell and asked 'How long will it take for me to die when I set in that?" Mansell
assured him that it would be like a flash,

"He was strapped in the chair by Executioner Watson, Morris Akers and Earl Mansell, His
hands and legs were securely strapped to the chair, A heavy strap was placed around his
chest and strapped to the back of the chair,

The electrodes were adjusted to his head and ankle, a mask was placed over his face. FExe=
cutioner Watson stepped to the control board and at 10:33 the switch was thrown and 2, 300
volots of electricity passed through Williams body, There was just a slight stiffening of
the body. The 2,300 volts were applied for 15-seconds, then the current was reduced to
1,100 volts and remained on for one and a half minutes, The current was cut off and the
body was allowed to remain for one and a half minutes,

tan examination was then made by Dr. W. A. Toomer and Dr. W H, Cleveland who pronounced
Williams dead,

(williams was the 17th person to die in the chair and was the third executed by Mr, Watson
since his appointment as Mississippi's official executioner,

"Among those witnesskng the execution were the wife of the slain man, Mrs, Lee Bradley, her
sister-in-law, Mrs, Grady Pierce: Daw Pierce, brother-in-law of Mr. Bradley; Tison Bradley,
William and Jack Bradley. .
"Mrs, Lee Bradley told a reporter of the. dailyNEWS that when she talked with Williams ‘hurs-
day, she had asked him why he killed her husband, and why he did not rob them after he had
shot Mr, Bradley and he told her that he was scareds

"Mrs, Bradley was calm and said that she had forgiven “Williams, ‘you'll have to forgive if
you are forgiven,' she said,

"Mrs, Bradley said that she held no ill feeling against the colored people, for she knew

they could not help what “Williams had done,

"The execution moved off Like cleck-works without a slip of any kind and Sheriff Inmon
seemed relieved that it was over and Mrs. Bradley expressed appreciation Poe the sp Lended

help the law enforcement officers had given her, }
"Official witnesses included: D,.3 Crokkett,.Tommy Rogers, Cecil Cheek, Nash Ballard,
Bill Ellington, Margaret Shannon , T. J. Eny, Dalton Fnis, Buck Carr, E, C. Clark, EF.
Allen, G& ™% Maze, Clyde Burns, Patrolman Paul McCardle, R, B. Epting, D, D,. Kitchens,
Fred Cates, Hubert Whittenton, B, Q Chisum, Jim Bolton, My R, Akers, Ray Meeks, Clyde
Gickerstaff, deputy sheriff; R, % Hopkins, Deputy sheriff; Earl Mansell, bailiff; H, M,
Theeldkeld, deputy sheriff J. M, Jenkins, R, W. Bettman, We H. Kessny, E. De Monaghan,
Patrolman R, C. Yarbrough, W, E., Monaghan, J, Fred Price, Joe E, Hardin, George Clement,
Shelly Monaghan, C.. Pe Pacey Urey % T Woolley, H, G. Cheek, W. B. Clayborne, Dr. We H,
Cleveland, and Dre We fe Toomer,

"The body was turned over to Williams! father, who said he was financially unable to

bear the expense and Sheriff Will Inmon agreed to furnish the casket,

"The body was taken from the chair by the Porter undertakers.

'itilliams' “body was placed at the west side entrance of the jail for a short period in
order to allow the large crowd gathered outside the building to.view it." :

DAILY JOURNAL, Tupelo, Mississippi, June 25, 1943, page one, (White photo of Mississippi's
electric chair,in article, )

Margaret Shannon

Rug. 3» 71984

Dear Watt:

The execution which I wrote about in Atlanta Weekly,

a
the one which I witnessed, or maybe "re@ported" would ne eee

work hes
accurate, since I was not an official witness, took place in
the Lee County jail in Tupelo, Miss., on June 25, 1943. The
person executed was O'Neal Williams, an 18-year-old black
male.

Williams was charged with the murder of Lee Bradley,

a white storekeeper, on May 4, 1943, in an attempted robbery.
He was captured on May 5, 1943, in an encounter in which

law enforcement officers shot and killed his companion in the
attempted robbery, Ova Lee Hadley, another black male.

Williams was tried -@imemm in Tupelo on May 24, 1943,
and convicted the same day. He escaped from the Lee mia
County jail on June 14, 1943, but was recaptured within 14
hours.

I wrote a number of ‘uemmmmma stories about the killing,
the trial, the escape and Williams himself, as well as about
the Senet Aer eer + ng that period, but reviewed only the one
about the execution when I visited the Lee County library
several months ago. The library has the Tupelo Daily Journal
on microfilm in case you are interested in further information.

Thank you for the copy of your article’ and the

invitation to.visit your project. I might just do that someday.

Sincerely,

l, SOUTHERN -2nd- 1,96

YOUNT, Je Asy White, electrocuted at Greenville, Miss., ede a 192. :

"Jackson, Miss., Noy, 10, 191 - The state supreme court today sustained the conviction of"
Je A. Yount of Hollandale, Washington County, for the murder of Town Marshal F. C. Pope
April 20, and set Dec. 18 as the date for his executioh, Yount claimed that he fired in
self-defense, State testimony at his trial was that his wife twice called the marshal to
their store. because Yount was intoxicated and quarrelling with her, and that Pope each time
advised. Yount to go to bed, The next day, the testimony continued, Yount told Sydney Keith,
Jr.,.that he wanted to apologize to the marshal and went with Keith to Pope's office in the
Hollandale city hall. Keith testified that Yount drew a gun from his shirt and began firing
at Pope although the officer rose from his desk with his hands up, Yount, however, said
Pope drew his gun first and that the officer previously had threatened to run him out of
town," DELTA DEMOCRAL TIMES, Greenville, Miss., 11-10-19)1 (1/8. )

"J, A. Yount, convicted slayer of Chief of Police F. C. Pope of Hollandale, refused to be-
lieve late yesterday the state supreme court had sustained his conviction and set Dec. 18

as the date of his execution, 'I don't know anything about it,' he said from his cell in
the. county jail, 'because my lawyer is handling this. I haven't seen my attorney. I

don't believe they have tried me, I guess they will give me another trial,' ‘Mr. Yount, who
has been held «in county jail since the slaying which occurred in the city hall at Hollandale
on April 20." DEBTA DEMOCRAL f7liS, 11-11-19)1 (1,3.)

"The attorney for J. A. Yount, 61, of Hollandale...is seeking a sanity examination for him,
Application was made yesterday to Gov, Paul Johnson for his transfer from county jail here

to Jackson so that examination might be made, The request, made by J, Wesley Miller of
Rolling Fork, attorney for the convicted grocer, was referred to the attorney general for de-!
termination of,whether the governor has authority to take this action, Dr. Meriwether,
psychiatrist of the staff of the Mississippi State Hospital, was in Greenville Monday,’ Nov,
2h, and examined Mr, Yount at the request of Mr, Miller, The psychiatrist made no statement
here as to his decision....The original execution date of Sept. 5 was automatically stayed
when Yount'scase was.appealed to supreme court. Under the usual procedure in sanity hearings,
when the sheriff is satisfied a prisoner held on a capital offense is insane, he shall with
the concurrence of the court summon six physicians to inquire into the person's sanity and
transmit their report to the governor, ‘4n event he is found insane he would be delivered

to the asylum with a request that the superintendent inquire into the sanity and report to
the governor when he is considered sane and the governor's duty to order ireturn of the per-
son to the county where the crime is committed and set an execution date. Mr, Miller's pe-
tition said he was unable to secure an impartial hearing in Washington County for the aged
merchant who shot and killed Chief Pope in Hollandale s city hall last June, Reports from
Jackson said Gov. Johnson could commute the sentence to life imprisonment, and then order
Yount's removal to thehospital at Whitfield, Legal experts are checking the statutes in
order to determine whether there is precedent for such action, It is known that petititons

have been circulated at Hollandale and sent to Gov, Johnson opposing commuting of Yount's
sentence," DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMMS, pee 3; 191 ( 1-3.)

"Jackson, Dec, 16 = Gov. Payl Johnson today stayed until January 9 the execution of m sy a
Yount...lhe governor explain d he acted because of delay in holding a hearing in the Wash-
ington County Circuit Court on Yount's sanity, Scheduled to begin yesterday, ‘the hearing

was continued because of the illness of the judge....Yount,e. late yesterday said: 'I am
getting right with my God, I don't want any enemies, and if you hear about any enemies that
I have, I wish you wuld tell them,' Appearing to be in good spirits as he talked through
the bars of the cell that he occupies with A, M, Blankenship, who faces trial next month as
the accused slayer of George Joest, Mr, Yount said 'I have been getting right with my God

for some time now.'sse'l am sorry about the killing’of Mr. Pope, I was sorry right after it
happened, It would never have happened had I been myself and now drinking whiskey,' the con-
victed slayer declared. Mr, Yount talked with his wife, stepdaughter, Mrs. J. “ Horton, and
Mr, Horton earlier in the day. They had spent some time with him during the‘morning.. ."
DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMES, Mec. 16, 191 (1/6.) :

"A jury of doctors brought’ in a verdict at l:h8 this afternoon that J, A, Yount, sentenced

th j i i tion by the 6 mem-
Lee. i ne, the verdict was returned after a PG minute deli erarat )
pe pa as ai need a near all day sanity hearing...The jury of physicians is composed of

fourtid Har’ CuTiog Keep itle, ha: f

Drs, E, IT. White, J. B, Hirsch, L. C. Tavis, T. B. Lewis, Walden a,Klaus and EK, L, Fuller..
.A. M, Blankenship;69, BX& Yount's cell-mate was the first wifness called by the defense,
.Mr. Blankenship testified Mr, Yount at times imagines people are calling him, 'His mind
seems to come and go,' he added on questioning by the defesnes attorney..e". DELTA DEMOCRAT
TIMES, Greenville, 1/5/19)2 (1/h) ¢ |
"will be the first man in Washin ton County's history to die in the electric chaires.
Mr. Yount today requested that two ministers be sent to his cell in county jail. It was
‘said from the jail today that the elderly grocer is apparently resigned to his fate, He
has made no other requests for deputies, The ministers will visit him when he desires...
Late yesterday afternoon Mr, Yount declined to talk with reporters who. visited him in the
jail other than to say he had been reading the Bible...ehe will be the first white man to
be executed here in 39 years, Old timers récall that Ahsley Cocke and Tom Lauderdate were

the last white men to be executed here, they werehanged for the slaying of a railroad. man
aboard a Y & M, V. train back in 1903." DELIA DEMOCRAT TIMS, Greenville, 1/8/192 (1/u.)

"Calmly walkineg unaided down a winding steel stairway leading from his second floor cell in
county jail, J. Ae Yount was: guided through a narrow doorway to the electric chair and a few
minutes later, at 12:5 aeme today was electrocuted for the mrder of Chief. of Police F,
C. Pope of Hollandale on April 20, 1941. 'I have made peace with Almight Lord,' the elderly
grocery store operator told newspapermen a few minutes before his descent. ‘If thru giving
my life it will help old and young in the futuré and save them from the same fate then I am
ready to be an example,' he added, He was attended by the Rev, W. L. Sharp of the Church
of God and by the Rev. H, OQ, Langston ofthe Church of the Open Door and prayers offerede
For weeks Mr, Yoint had been reading the Bible, After Chief Deputy John W, Sterling acting
as sheriff read the lengthy death warrant the merchant braced himself and started the walk
downstairs to his doom, Alone the way he expressed sorrow for other inmates of the county
jail, As the leather straps were being applied, he told those near him 'I don't’ wanteto %
give you any trouble,' Noticing Dr. W. P, Shackleford of Hollandale in the execution room,
he said 'Is that Dr. Shackleford - tell the folks down at Hollandale what you-sawe' He held
his composure until the helmet was applied and then braced himself -tightly in the chair.
Asked several times if he had any statement ‘to make, he did not answer. The power was
applied by Jimmy Thompson, state s executioner, and one minute later, at 12:h6 aem.e, he
was pronounced dead by Dr. C, P, Thompson, county physician. It was the tenth execution in
the state s portable electric chair in Mississippi supplanted the hangman s noose in
inflicting capital punishment in the state, The executionws the first electrocution in xt
Washington County's history, Jt was also the first execution of a witeman in this county
since Ashley Cocke and Tom Lauderdale were put to death by hanging as a N&XXAWAXXGMAKAXWAET
National Guard unit stood watch on the court house lawn here 39 years ago, Chief of Police
William Taggart, Assistant Chief C, A. Hollingsworth, and a squadron of police were on duty
inside the jail, :acting upon request of the sheriff's force, maintained guard outside,
Several cars drove up but the jail door was locked and only a few witnessed the execution,
Mrs, Yount visited her husband in county jail late yesterday for the last time, While he
awaited on her arrival upstairs, Yount walked the floor and occasionally sang a song.
When she arrived and talked with newsmen~just inside-the door, her husband.called.' that
can wait,' and asked her to hurry upstairs, He told newsmen that he did not want to cut
them*short, but 'time is short and I want to talk with my wife,' Yount-was a native of
Taney County, Missouri, and said he had 'lived everywhere but mostly in Arkansas, Louisiana
and Mississippi.' He said he was 60 years old lastSeptember 2h. Mrs, Yount is his third
wife. He has 7 children by two-former marriages. Mrs, Yount has 3 children by a former
marriage, The Rev. Mr. Sparkman visited Mr, Yount yesterday afternoon at his request. The
merchant was not a member of any church, The writer has interviewed Mr, Yount on several
occasions. On one occasion hé talked freely saying he did not wish to go to his death with
any person having anything against him, On several-occasions he had bluntly referred the
cuestioner to his attorney: When he lost an appeal to the state supreme-court,..The body of
Mr, Yount was claimed by relatives and taken to the Stovall Funeral Home, Chief.Pope was
shot to déath, according to the testimony in the trial, as he stood-in the city hall with
his’ hands raised pleading with Mr, Yount not to shoot him, According to the trial testi-
mony Chief Pope had been oa. to the Yount store Saturday night and.again early Sunday
to quiet a, disturbance, n his testimony in his own defense Mr, Yo j
fired in self defense and that he had hang dealing. The body of yet oun oe toe Pes.

warded over . & M, Ve railroad irain No, 15 tonight to Rayville, L :
services will be held," DELTA DEMOCRAT TIMMS, , Greenville, 1/9 ola tayke) srareic

WOOD, D. F., white, electrocuted Hattiesburg, MS, 10-26=19)5 = CONTINUED.

"Wood's last hope for a commutation of sentence vanished today when Gov. Thomas Le
Bailey declined to interfere with the judgment of the courts, The governor, who is

in Meridian attending the Mississippi Methodist annual conference, issued the following
statement through his Jackson office: "With regard to the Donald Wood case I have read
the record and considered the appeal of the good people for clemency and regret that I
find no justification for upsetting the judgment of the court.' Wood slept soundly
until about noon today according to Forrest County Jailer John Watts, 'Don's not wor-
ried at all,' said Mr, Watts. 'He's leaving the whole matter up to the Lord. He

says if its the Lord's will to let him live, and to use him here on earth, he thinks
Governor Bailey will commute the death sentence, But if it's the Lord's will for him
to go the sentence will be executed.'! Mrs. Dorothy Ware, who visits the jail weekly to
carry on the custom of having religious services with the prisoners, initiated by

her father, the late Reve E. Se Pe Pool, declared that Donald is a 'true Christian,"
'T don't know what queer twist of his mind made him act as he did," said Mrs, Ware.
'But I KNOW that he is a Christian.' Sheriff Ke Je Grantham said that the portable
electric chair will arrive from Jackson 'some time this afternoon,' 'Donald can have
as many as three preachers present,' said Sheriff Grantham, ‘I've left it up to him
as to which ministers will attend the execution.! Sheriff Grantham has requested Dre
John A. Mead and Dr. Fe. Le Summers to be present. He said that he will witness the
execution as will his deputies, J. W. Smith and E. Le Barnes. No reporters will b
allowed to be present, Sheriff Grantham said, and cited theseel92 Mississippie Code
as the reason for his decisione, Sheriff Grantham said, 'The law doesn't provide for
reporters to be present.’ According to Sheriff Grantham members of Wood's family will
not attend the execution, nor are they in Hattiesburg at this time, Wood's home was
in Glen Falls, Ne Y. Last February when it was believed the sentence soon was to be
carried out, his wife, Bernice, of St. Louis, was permitted to spend several days

with him in jail. Wood recently said, however, he wanted no repitition of the 'jail-
house honeymoone' On February 10, 19h, Private Wood, who had been ‘busted! from a
sergeant, obtained a 5 army automatic pistol by falsifying a record, and according
to a confession he signed, left Camp Shelby at 1 pem. on short leave, He walked —
toward Hattiesburg and then thumbed a ride near a Camp Shelby entrance with Mre
Lipscomb, Wood, according to the confession, commanded the laundry operator to turn
into a side road, park his car and get out. At pistol point he forded Lipscomb to
walk ahead some distance in the woods, When Lipscomb started to run, Wood shot him h
times, Then Wood drove the car to Hattiesburg where he tried to sell it for $250,

the confession related, After he was unable to produce the ownership papers on

the grounds that his wife had them, he was arrested for car theft and later led offi-
‘cers to where Lipscomb's body lay." AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, MS, L0=25-195 (1:5<8; a

photograph of Wood on this page.)

In written answer to question number 11 posed to him by the AMERICAN, Wood states that
he was an electrical engineer by trade, AMERICAN, Hattiesburg, 10=3-19)5 (8/1/3) This
also carries several poems written by Wood,

YOUNG,

PALE SCAFFOLD.,

——

A? sisi ppl se eeaiiget ,

Alaatin, " Mlssisepply, hada ju icial
execution last} Friday. : “ho: & culpa
was Albert YOURE ndemn
death for, the murder of, ‘Mother White. |
The Austin Cotton, Plant giye3 a
ledgthy account of, the last, moments

of. the , “gondemped felon. . If 19,0"

gamma jortlon, reads as folloy
he § ae minutes to.1 o’cl Mah the

pane: addresses the atdience aS fol-.
owa;, (My friends, the time Js drawing,
| near for me to bo placed. in the, graves
| Let this be a warning to you. on’
think [am golag away unpre pared /
1 am going to meet, Jesus, Ue (vas
;j executed on the., seaffold,, and why
‘bshould, I. fea xh “Brethresi, t

| teach the sinners rs th turn fren: the’ oat th!
of at or. they.may; come to. tho. ‘samo,
; but L have. I am a long way |
\ from Hh, DOME 5 sLhave some. relation in

\ a assembly, but have ‘not made mny- 7
‘\self knqwn to, them but I hope to yn
them jn heave, “By ethrer, take ca ef
of the childreo ia, kee ‘them from’
aing and ages and. ree. thee Up AB:
Chri ory Mf they persist, in’ thelr.
‘gins, 00, Sa “Jury pon ldwyer can’
keep thém ou Se aine bat tan'put them
deepet in, and finally be ve thentin my,

have to ROY} «- ut, A Hopo,we. Wi all
; ne ‘

SWhile., fhe, ner’s atti Nees
belog stray at poe great roan!
courage, 8 \owIns no signs of ear whi
waa, | i: 3 to 1'o’clock
WAS i, spe he gn eae?
rete, ) wt “ ar A

18.6 ant ‘got ice aunt
ny Cap ni “ake aL, ‘Dep

herlff Perkins, ae na ists
and ah ad pal,

‘ Vv
‘yopa. was Ne eri a

Leary: eae e.drop

| waa, sacked na i q ati gled’, for

| six fof nen 'all'Appearahces he

| waa dead Wit “after. tho

{drop De, "gi", Owen exarhiney, tho

body,and, eqs io pulses. Hes
eu. axa ned ‘

jt BF A
i) 'ralnutes ‘after. th ee ae exo! my

nm
Doone aR nad ee spto-:
ounce simitiatss

es he is oe
5H aa enHie

condition; .This, my friends, de alt. 1 |

neak: was se

‘Aber hee ,ove

|ihiner’ Kote i
ae a , 4h th : A sep ; Pen

Metadata

Containers:: Box 21 (2-Documentation of Executions), Folder 6
Resource Type:: Document
Description:: Luther Wheeler executed on 1954-02-05 in Mississippi (MS)
Rights:: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Date Uploaded:: June 30, 2019

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