The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1946-11-28

HAZEL
EYES
by HGxel Bronnon

would come forward personally and
publicly accuse the night marshals
of Durant of robbing them offering
ample proof of such accusations.
So far no one has made any claim
to the reward.
Yet a few weeks back just before
court the county was full of rumors
about the way the Durant officials
were "robbing people" under arrest.
Again Wen remind our readers
that a man with a proven criminal
record John Rowland) was being
tried for shooting the two Durant
night marshals involved.
1t is the opinion of this writer
that the lies about the Durant off
icers taking money off people they
had arrested were deliberately and
maliciously spread by a person in
terested in seeing John Rowland go
free. Incidentally he did 60 free in
spite Of the fact that the state had
an alright case against him. The
jury found him mot guilty" in a few
minutes.
A poll of official opinion indicates
that men serving on the juries at
the last term of court, especially men
serving on the Grand Jury, had been
pretty thoroughly exposed to the
rumors against the Durant officers.
Just to show the people of Holmes
county how far the lawless element
in this county will go wen tell you
about another incident at the last
term of court.
The District Attorney was handed
a slip of paper which stated that a
great many complaints had been re-
ceived about the conduct of the
Durant night marshals; that they
had been robbing people of money,
taking pistols and other valuables.
That was the substantial If not the
exact charge.
The piece of paper, typewriter,
was handed to Mr.. Dyer.
The Durant man who handed Mr..
Dyer that slip of paper containing
the charges against Durant's law en-
forcement officers wos interested in
seeing John Rowland 60 free.
Evidently this Durant man thou
ght he might influence even the
district attorney against the Durant
officers and make MIR. Dyer 60 light
on the prosecution of Rowland.
But that's not all of the story.
Apparently not content with just
influencing the District Attorney, if
possible, the man evidently thought
the charges might influence a Hol-
mes county grand jury against the
Durant officers.
At least the slip OF paper contain
ing the vicious, malicious and sland-
erous lies laid the groundwork for
n of Holmes county's most widely
known bootleggers, a man who OPP
crates a ~bootlegging and gambling
joint near Tchula, to appear before it
and accuse the Durant officers of
embezzling money from him while
he was under arrest for drunken
driving.
The bootlegger mentioned did APP
pear before the Holmes county
Grand Jury and make accusations
against illG Dul VI OlliNSiS, Jul la
formation says.
Evidently our Grand Jury was
not fooled by the appearance of
this man for no indictments were
made.
But what do we have when a
bootlegger and gambler in a county
dares to go before a Holmes county
grand jury and make such charges
against law enforcement officers?
This writer has personally talked
to the Mayor and members of the
Board of Aldermen of Durant, to
the Durant Marshal and to at least
twenty-five of the business men and
women in Durant in an effort to in
vestigate conditions there to see
if there was any room for criticism
of the Durant night marshals in the
way they were handling and are
handling their jobs
We went further last week and
made an offer for a cash reward for
any reputable citizen to make public
charges of misconduct against them
with proof -. but to no avail.
The only possible conclusion to
draw from the whole sordid affair
is that the rumors put out over this
county were deliberately and mali
ciously circulated by interested par
ties interested in Rowland being ac-
quilted; parties interested in seeing
the Durant Night Marshals discred-
tied and possibly securing a damage
suit against the city of Durant.
The whole thing was rotten. :. and
it almost worked -. did work part
tally in that a man was freed of a
crime he had committed . the
vicious plot would have succeeded
entirely had the Grand Jury men,
bers indicted the Durant Marshals.
But they weren't that gullible.