The Tupelo journal., 1906-04-06
Mississippi State News

villainy. This man had charge of the
coavicts on the day Of the killing of
Crockett, and it was by his order that
the man was murdered. He seems to
your committee to have been utterly de-
void of every human sentiment and
wholly incompetent to fill the position
he held. The periods of his drunkenness
and the extent thereof was only meas
ured by his ability to get, and his ca.
pacity to hold whisky. The killing of
Crockett, which was wholly unjustiiable,
q cold, heartless and fiendish assassira-
ton, done by a convict under the order
of a brute, the recital of whose cruelty
by the witnesses is sufficient to stir a
heart of stone. After the killing the
dead body of the unfortunate man was
left in the rain where he fell from 6
O'Clock am. to 4 o'clock pm, with not
even a convict hand allowed to decently
arrange his stiffening limbs, wipe the
death foam from his swollen lips or close
his staring eyes. 1t is to be hoped that
the last expiring cry of the doomed mis-
c%reant, Lord have mercy on my soui!'
found an affirmative answer in that
court to which even a convict may ap-
peal without fear of being followed by
his mercllesS murdererS.
No Record of Investigation.
eff the board of control made an in
~vestigation of this brutal murder, no
record thereof was placed IN file or put
in the records of its proceedings. We
sought some record thereof in vain. A.
Q. May testified that he, Warden Henry
and j. G. K~incannon made an investiga-
ton, the result of which investigation
was presented to your committee in the
form of a newspaper publication, which
is submitted with the evidence taken in
this matter and will be published as a
defense of those whose duty it vas to
have protected the helpless prisoners I'M
der their control. On this investigation
we make no comment. Your committee
further finds that when the convict
Crockett was killed, that it happened at
6 o'clock am. The evidence shows that
the warden of the penitentiary was inn
mediately notified of the butchery. That
the said warden was in the city of Jack
son attending a fete occasion, and
wholly and altogether neglected his duty
in regard to the said murder. Section
1921 of the code of 1892 provides that
the warden shall hold an inquest in the
case of every violent death of a convict.
Said Warden Henry did not hold an in
quest, but did not even see to it that an
an inquest was held. He says in his own
defense that when he was notified of
the killing he was here at Jackson, nine
miles from the scene of the assassina-
ton, and that he directed Dave Pickett
to hold an inquest and that he did not
know why it was not held, but that
Pickett told him that he (Puckett) could
not find a magistrate. No sort OF evil
dence was submitted which even tended
to show a magistrate was sought for.
The farm was in touch with Brandon by
telephone.
No Inquest Held.
"The law of the State makes it the
duty of the warden to hold an inquest
in such cases, but in this case it was not
lone and no legal or moral reason was
given why it should not have been done.
He not only did not attend to this duty
himself as the law requires him to do,
but from his own evidence made but a
weak attempt to have it done, but even
if he had succeeded in doing what he
said he tried to do, it would not have
excused him, for the law is plain as to
his duty and he could neither delegate
that authority to another, nor avoid it
in the manner which as evidence shows
was done. Your committee believes that
this murder was covered up by those in
authority as quick as they could, adding
undue haste to criminal negligence. The
action of Warden Henry in the prem
Uses is unreasonable, unjustifiable and a
cruel malfeasance in office, for which we
can find no conformation and whose action
was either sanctioned by the board of
control or else ignored.
SIN conclusion we must say that the
tale of Rankin county farm must be
read before any one can appreciate the
charity of this report; wherefore, we re-
quest hat 10000 copies of the testi-
mony taken in this investigation be
printed and distributed over the State of
Mississippi so that the people may learn
what has happened in the past so as to
be able to avoid such misfortunes in the
future. Respectfully submitted,
ga. MILLER, Chairman"