Unlike the trials of Jim Whitt, I was unable to acquire any of the court transcripts from the mob trials. However, I did find a very detailed article published in the September 15, 1905 edition of the Commercial Appeal. The information from that particular article allowed me to summarize the first mob trial below:
The first of the three mob trials began in Holly Springs, Mississippi on August 25, 1905. J.H. Thomason, Sam Howell, R.T. McConnell, and Tom Vincent were the defendants. The state was represented by District Attorney W.A. Roane, Special Prosecutor (appointed by Governor Vardaman) – J.F. Dean, and Attorneys Smith & Totten from Holly Springs. The defense attorneys were J.W. Lauderdale, J.L. Farley, R.E.L. Morgan, and W.S. Belk.
This case was followed with great interest across the area. Several witnesses from Tate County were summoned to appear at this trial. Among them was Bessie Poag, the widow of Sheriff Poag.
Mrs. Bessie Poag’s testimony was spent reliving the moments leading up to her husband’s murder. She described waking up to a noise outside the jail and someone calling out, “oh, Johnny!” The noise prompted her husband to get out of bed to investigate, but not before securing his pistol. Although Mrs. Poag remained in the bedroom, she could hear the exchange between a man claiming to be Bob Pickle and her husband before hearing gun shots. Mrs. Poag concluded her emotional testimony by describing the wounds in the sheriff’s side and arm and hearing him calling out to her brother, “I am murdered. I am shot twice.”
The next witness was Dr. Potter, the physician that attended to Sheriff Poag. The doctor explained that he arrived about one hour after the shooting. Dr. Potter described the sheriff’s wounds and felt that either could have been fatal. Despite the prognosis, Sheriff Poag was entirely conscious and made voluntary statements to Dr. Potter about the shooting. As a result, the sheriff was able to order bloodhounds and describe his own murder. Sheriff Poag told the doctor that he was awakened by a rattling on the window and secured his pistol before checking outside. The sheriff said he questioned the man outside the jail before opening the door. However, when Sheriff Poag opened the door he saw a crowd of masked men which prompted him to throw up his pistol and shoot – aiming above them. Unfortunately, the men shot back.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Potter was called back to the courthouse a few days after the sheriff’s murder to attend to Sam Howell in which the doctor removed “what looked like a pistol ball that was over 48 hours old”.
Other testimony included Acting Sheriff J.T. Gabbert. He divulged the details of the confession made by J.H. Thomason after his arrest. Upon arriving at the jail, Thomason allegedly said, “I suppose the boys have given the whole thing away.” Gabbert explained that he asked Thomason for a statement, but did not make any promises or threats. Thomason told him, “It made no difference to him that he would soon have that bullet in his heart as to have gotten these boys into trouble.” According to his confession, Thomason admitted that the ruse was to bring a prisoner to jail and claim to be Bob Pickle. If it worked, Sam Howell was to grab Poag and the others were to go upstairs to get Jim Whitt. Thomason also told Gabbert that he was certain Norman Clayton, one of the Spencer brothers, and Howell did the shooting.
After hearing all of this testimony, the defense attorneys began the cross-examination by accusing Gabbert of making false promises to Thomason in order to obtain a confession. Obviously, Gabbert unequivocally denied making any such statement. Nevertheless, the attorneys took it one step further by calling the defendant Thomson to explain that he had been coerced. Several witnesses were then called that had been present during the time Gabbert had questioned Thomason and all denied that any promises or threats were made. After all the discussion without the jury present about Thomason and Gabbert’s conversation, Gabbert was allowed to continue with stating his recollection of R.T. McConnell’s confession. Gabbert explained that he told McConnell the same thing – that he could make no promises, but wanted a statement. According to Gabbert, McConnell asked him if anyone else had confessed. Upon learning that the others had talked, McConnell divulged what happened that night to Gabbert and others.
At this point, the defense was not pleased and immediately introduced McConnell in rebuttal. McConnell said, “that Gabbert told him he wanted to hear what he knew and that others had made a confession or taken advantage of a confession. And, Gabbert promised he would use his influence with the governor for him.” Of course, Gabbert was reintroduced and empathically denied making any inducements or saying anything about the governor to McConnell. After all the groveling over Gabbert’s testimony, the court ruled that it should go before the jury. However, there was considerable time wrangling over the points of law on both sides. As a result, only four witnesses were allowed to testify on the first day of the trial.
The second day of the trial included an interesting revelation from T.P. Hill, a close friend of J.H. Thomason. Mr. Hill claimed that the defendant Thomson was depressed and felt the entire situation was a sad affair. Apparently, Thomason told Mr. Hill that the group had expected to get in the jail without hurting anyone. It was also mentioned in his testimony that Sheriff Poag had believed in Mr. Thomason. At some point, the sheriff had personally asked Mr. Thomason about the rumors of a lynching, but was assured that no mob would attempt such a feat. The witness alleged that this misplaced confidence in Thomason led to Sheriff Poag’s death.
Other witnesses were called to discuss the aftermath of the murder of Sheriff Poag. Deputy Sheriff W.G. Lowery explained how he began the investigation, organized the posse, and secured evidence. He described the bullet marks at the jail and items found at Sam Howell’s mill. Other deputies told about finding masks at Broom’s gin which led the posse to the Strayhorn area.
Before the state rested their case, two final witnesses were called. J.A. Wooten, the Tate County Chancery Clerk, and R.C. Smith, the Tate County Circuit clerk. Both men testified that J.H. Thomason had requested them to speak to Sheriff Poag. They were asked to encourage Poag to keep Jim Whitt in the Senatobia jail because according to Thomason, “if Whitt was removed, it would look like fear of a mob and make a bad impression of Poag.” The two officials admitted to relaying this message to Sheriff Poag.
Tom Vincent, one of the defendants, was released at the start of the third day. After this development, the defense began to call a number of character witnesses. Each one was provided to attest to the good character of the defendants.
After hearing multiple witnesses, the state, possibly to keep things moving, offered to admit that the characters of all the defendants were good, but the defense declined. Besides the character of the defendants, the defense attempted “to show that Sheriff Poag was of a nervous and excitable temperament especially in the discharge of his duty”. Thankfully, this attack was immediately objected to by the prosecution.
R.T. McConnell took to the stand in his own defense. McConnell asserted he had told Thomason that he would only be involved if Poag was not hurt. He considered Poag a good friend and was related to Mrs. Poag. His story was that Jack Spencer had knocked on the door of the jail. When the knock seemed to fail, J.H. Thomason had called out for the group to leave. He assumed everyone had heard the order to leave, but heard two shots come from the jail door. McConnell said he heard other shots as he was going away. He claimed that Poag fired from the door, but did not know who fired the other shots. Although he considered Poag one of the best friends he had in the county, McConnell agreed to participate in the attack.
Sam Howell who was wounded in the assault repeated the assertion that Sheriff Poag was not to be hurt in the attack on the jail. He stated that the sheriff fired first. Another former defendant, Tom Vincent basically reiterated Howell’s statement that the sheriff was not to be hurt and Poag fired the first shots.
The last witness for the defense was J.H. Thomason. He was allegedly the leader of the mob. Thomason claimed that he saw Poag get a pistol and as a result, gave word for the crowd to disperse. He was not armed and did not know who fired at Poag. Furthermore, Thomason completely denied asking the Chancery Clerk and Circuit Clerk to speak to Poag about keeping Whitt in the Senatobia jail. He also dismissed the idea that he was the leader of the mob. Thomason accused Jack Spencer of being the leader of the mob. Interestingly enough, Jack Spencer had been found dead in May 1905 from a gun shot wound presumably from Sheriff Poag. After a few rebuttal witnesses, both sides rested. The newspaper article concluded with this statement: “The defendants were placed on the stand today, first, because they were already on by confessions, and second, to show abandonment at the jail of the conspiracy to lynch Jim Whitt, in order that they might avail themselves with the right of self defense.”
On Tuesday, September 12, the Jackson Daily News; Jackson, Mississippi reported the following:
“The jury in the Poag case, after deliberating thirty-six hours, today returned a verdict of NOT GUILTY…
The theory advanced by the defense was that the mob thinking its efforts to deceive the sheriff had failed, had turned and started to leave when the officer opened the door and fired. Some member of the mob thereupon returned the fire and mortally wounded Poag. All of the defendants swore that they did not know who fired the fatal shot.
No trial in recent years has excited such interest…as the one just ended in acquittal. The verdict is somewhat of a surprise, as predictions made while the jury was deliberating were that it would be either a conviction or a hung jury.”
The second mob trial began in Oxford, Mississippi on Monday, March 12, 1906. Alex Nelson, Oscar Manning, Henry Hunter, and Will Sinquefield were the defendants in the case. The state was represented by W.A. Roane and J.F. Dean. The defense attorneys were J.H. Farley, Shands & Stone, and J.W. Lauderdale.
Unfortunately, there were no detailed reports printed in any newspaper that I could find. I even traveled to the Oxford courthouse hoping to find something, but only found the minutes of the trial. I do not know the particulars that were presented by the state or defense, but I have one article from the March 30, 1906 edition of the Senatobia Democrat which stated – “Alex Nelson, Henry Hunter, Oscar Manning, and Will Sinquefield were tried in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County last week upon a change of venue of killing the late Sheriff J.M. Poag in an attempt to lynch Jim Whitt. The trial consumed almost the entire week and was submitted to the jury at 12:00 p.m. on Friday. At a late hour on Saturday night, the jury reported that it was unable to agree and was discharged by the court and a mistrial entered.” In the article, there were various reports given by the attorneys in the case as to where the jury stood, but it made no difference to me. The sad reality was that the trial ended in a mistrial and the state decided not to retry the case.
The third and final mob trial began in Batesville, Mississippi on Tuesday, April 17, 1906. William Still, Norman Clayton, and Will Smith were the defendants. Like the second mob trial, I do not have much information. I went to Batesville and was told that all the early records were destroyed in a fire. Therefore, I tried my best to find any newspaper article I could. The Senatobia Democrat published two very short articles in April 1906. One simply stated the case had begun and a large number of Tate County people had attended.
The second article from the April 27, 1906 issue led with this headline –
Boothe Scorned the Poag Jury
“The jury in the case of the State vs Norman Clayton, Williams Still and Dave Smith charged with killing Sheriff J.M. Poag at Senatobia about one year ago, which has been on trial here since Tuesday, returned a verdict of not guilty at 4:30 this afternoon after a deliberation of about five hours.
Judge J.B. Boothe remarked to the jury when the verdict was read about as follows: Gentlemen: You were sworn to try this case according to the law and evidence, and to vindicate the law of the land; for some reason unknown to the court, you have disregarded your oaths and trampled the law under your feet. You are discharged.”
Next – Chapter 9 – Without Penalty