to DeSoto, I think in 1867 or 1868, and Judge Leachman gave judgment on
demurrer, _not a jury_, for, I think, $10,000. Exceptions were taken,
and the case sent to the High Court, where the error was cause to send
it back for a new trial. Before the new trial was had he proposed to
compromise, and I did so for $500, he paying costs, but I do not know
that he did pay, as he said he had given security for costs, and the
Clerk might make them.
“I have not seen ‘Calico’ in the last two years, but presume he lives,
and has his ‘Tiger’ yet. The last time I saw him was at State Line,
where he told me he was ‘flat broke,’ and his ‘Tiger’ in ‘soak,’ and he
wanted with his whole soul a ticket to Mobile on credit. He got it, and
I have not seen him since.
“June 25, 1874.”
There must be something remarkable about this man, otherwise he
could not so long have escaped the last penalties of the law and the
vengeance of an outraged population. The last heard of him, of import,
was his visit to Escatawpa, Ala., a short time before the foul murder
of W. C. Stanley, of this place, particulars of which the reader will
now examine, as related to Dr. Pitts by one of the main witnesses
involved in the case; but it should be first remembered that “Calico
Dick” made a visit to Escatawpa, then left for Mobile, Ala., and in a
few days after his nephew, Frost, came to Escatawpa. The current belief
is that he was induced to do so under the influence of his uncle.
REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING, AND ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF INABILITY TO
REPRESS SUCH FLAGRANT AND WELL KNOWN CRIMES.
The masterly description of the terrible clans as they have heretofore
existed, and as given by the natural as well as artistical pen of the
Jackson county correspondent, cannot be overestimated. It will well
pay for perusal and re-perusal again and again. Let the following
quotations never be forgotten:
“The worst of human crimes had been reduced to a system, and it was
rare that anybody was brought to justice. If any party was arrested
some of the clan was always on hand to prove an alibi. Suspicions
often pointed to an individual, but people were afraid to hint
their suspicions lest they might draw down upon them some secret
vengeance—the burning of their dwellings or assassination. Thus crime
was committed with impunity. A peddler, known to have considerable
money, was found murdered in Hancock, and though there was but one
opinion as to who committed the deed, no one was arrested. McArthur,
though personally known to be an abject coward, became, through
desperate men which he commanded, an object of terror to the timid;
and even respectable men were weak enough to court his favor. The late
Colonel Glenn would often say, after his attendance on the Hancock
Circuit Courts, that he was shocked to see decent men jesting and
drinking with such a wretch! The secret was that these men dreaded him
and his gang.”
The above is a whole volume for contemplation. Decent, respectable, and
distinguished persons jesting and drinking with renowned and scientific
criminals through fear of conflagration and assassination. No efforts
made to bring to justice—crime passing with respectable impunity.
Honor crime, and numbers will soon increase prodigiously. Make escape
easy and almost certain, and the law will carry no terrors with it.
Grievances, real or imaginary, and opportunities will be sought to
bring in play the bowie-knife and revolver. Let life’s warm stream
flow freely, the sight common, and human life will soon be worth no
more than the dog’s. Let a callous indifference pervade the community
when the tidings of outrage, robbery and murder are brought, and soon
will the great arteries of a State’s wealth and prosperity begin to
languish and decay. Under such a system, can civilization progress?
Will capital invest to set the springs of industry at work? Can wealth
and intelligence thrive under such blighting influences of desolation?
Is not government strong enough to protect its subjects? If not it
should be, and the sooner it can be accomplished, the better it will
be for all classes of society. Even affluent railroad companies have
to bend to such men as Jim McArthur. To produce wide-spread fear and
social insecurity, it is not necessary for crime and murder to be of an
every-day occurrence; it is the hopelessness of getting redress from
the courts as they are at present constituted that is so pernicious in
consequences.
THE HORRID MURDER OF W. C. STANLEY AT ESCATAWPA.
W. C. Stanley came to Escatawpa with a small capital, and invested
to the amount of two or three hundred dollars worth of goods. On or
about the night of the 6th of June, 1872, he was brutally murdered,
and was not found until one or two days afterward, when the woods
hogs were discovered eating up his lifeless body. An inquest was
immediately held, and one on the jury by the name of Oye, tried to
implicate a colored man, William Powe, on a plea of his having made
some threats previously, but this insignificant plea was quickly ruled
out of consideration as unworthy of any credit whatever, and properly
so, for the colored man satisfactory proved himself clear immediately
afterward. A verdict of murder by some unknown hands was returned.
However, one by the name of Frost began to get very uneasy, and left
the place the second or third day succeeding. The passions of the
citizens around became greatly inflamed by having such a horrid murder
committed within their midst. And this was not the only one; no less
than ten other brutal murders had occurred in and about the place
within a very limited period of time. Blood and terror reigned to an
extent never before experienced. To such a pitch of atrocity had this
neighborhood got that no man could reasonably feel safe twenty-four
hours.
Almost under any plea life was taken with but little hesitation by
lawless violence. However, these good citizens held meetings to
protect themselves against such diabolical outrages which then, of
late, had been perpetrated in large numbers. They, well knowing Mr. B.
F. Woulard to be a close observer, and active and energetic in every
other respect, appointed him as the most suitable and reliable person
in the capacity of detective to ferret out and apprehend the guilty
parties. He obeyed the call, and, after Frost, took the first train to
Mobile, Alabama, where, after much trouble, he learned that Frost had
departed for Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Still forward, and without
delay, he very soon reached that place, where he found him stopping
with one of his aunts, and arrested him almost without disturbing
the family. There taken before the City Marshal, who was acquainted
with Frost, and knew him to be of very bad character—knew that he had
sometime before endeavored to induce young men of that city to engage
in the counterfeiting business. Mr. Woulard well knew that Frost, prior
to the murder of Stanley, was without money, and did not really have
respectable clothing to wear, though, when arrested, he had two valises
well packed with good, substantial clothing, which he had purchased
when passing through Mobile, as learned by detective Woulard on his
return to this city, with Frost still under arrest. Then and there,
the firm of Jacobins & Brisk gave information to the effect that Frost
had purchased from seventy to eighty dollars worth from this firm. It
was now plain to detective Woulard that Frost had received money some
where, and was required to give an account of the same. He answered
by declaring to have obtained it by registered letter. On further
investigation, it was satisfactorily shown that he had received no
registered letter; and now finding it was vain to attempt to conceal
any further, he was about to make a confession of the whole affair; but
a person by the name of Cotton, in Mobile, stepped up and learned the
cause of arrest, when, to detective Woulard, he proposed for Frost to
be turned over to him for a while, during which time he would be apt
to get from him a full confession of all the facts connected with the
case. Accordingly, Frost was placed in Cotton’s custody for something
like an hour, when he returned with this report: “You have certainly
got the right man; go now and arrest Oye and his wife, at Escatawpa.”
In compliance with such advice, detective Woulard lost no time, but
hurried back with Frost, and there did arrest Oye.
But here Frost’s confession should be given, which in substance, was as
follows:
“At the time Stanley was absent from home on business, Oye availed
himself of the opportunity by going to Mrs. Stanley, and by an attempt
at strong reasoning, he persuaded her to leave him—all the while
believing that Stanley, in such an event, would become so dissatisfied
to an extent sufficient to cause him to sell his goods, which could be
so managed as to give Oye the preference of purchase, when the money
paid for same could be got back by a devised scheme of robbery. But in
the interval between the commencement of the plan and Stanley’s return,
two Irish shoe-peddlers came into the neighborhood. Oye purchased
the remnant of goods they had on hand. Forthwith one left—the other
remained and boarded with Oye. Now, Stanley returned home, and found
that his wife had left him, and his store, with all other of his
effects, in the hands of Oye. This unexpected conduct of his wife had,
according to Oye’s calculations, the desired effect. Frustrated and
discontented to an extent better imagined than described, he at once
desired to dispose of his whole interest in the place. This was what
Oye wanted, and quickly proposed to buy him out, which proposition,
under the circumstances, was readily accepted. Oye paid the full value
of the goods without any scruples whatever, and put Frost in charge
of the same. Stanley, during the time he intended to remain in the
neighborhood, and Frost now became room mates, and boarded at the
house of Oye. Up to this time, the progress had been attended with very
little trouble, and everything seemed to promise continued success.
The next movement was a secret consultation among the three—Oye, Frost
and the Irish shoe-peddler, the latter of which, from inference,
seemed to have before affiliated with such company, and likely his
appearance as an Irish shoe-peddler at the time had all been previously
arranged to produce the desired effect. This consultation was for the
purpose of decoying Stanley out on a fishing excursion, so that he
could be ambushed, robbed and murdered. Frost was the person agreed
on to perform the part of betraying Stanley out, but, on more mature
consideration, Oye could not repose sufficient confidence in the
Irishman—entirely ruling him out, and broke up the first agreement.
The next one adopted was for Frost to inform Stanley that Mrs. Oye
had been receiving letters from his wife, Mrs. Stanley. Frost further
intimated that he could so manage as to get hold of one or more of
these letters, and would, the first opportunity, do so for Stanley’s
satisfaction. Stanley, very much wanting to know the whereabouts of his
wife and children, urged Frost to get possession, if possible, of the
letters the first convenient opportunity. So far, there was a mutual
understanding between the two. But little time elapsed before Frost
made known that sure enough he had succeeded in getting the letters
from Mrs. Oye, and was then in possession of the same. Night being
present, it was agreed for Stanley to retire with him, for the purpose
of reading the letters, to a place some two hundred yards in the rear
of Oye’s drinking saloon, which place is a pine thicket or grove.
Matches were procured, and forward they went to this designated place.
Here Frost handed Stanley some sort of a paper package; and while
Stanley was in the act of making a light from a match to a candle, Oye
suddenly rushed up with a loaded revolver, and shot Stanley through
the head—followed by five more discharges at him. After he had fallen,
Oye was about to put his hand in Stanley’s pocket for money, when a
hollow groan was heard, indicating that the last sign of life had not
departed, to fully effect which, Oye, with his pocket knife stabbed the
victim several times in the breast, and then cut the throat from ear
to ear. Oye now leaves Frost to get the money and drag off the corpse
to some old well near by, while Oye would return and see that all was
right outside. In this operation of dragging to the well, Frost became
alarmed and left the spot.
The following day, Oye made a proposition to Frost to take an axe and
cut the lifeless body to pieces, so that the same could be sacked and
thrown into Dog River. Frost declined to do this from suspicion of a
great probability of detection in so doing. As yet, no disposition
having been made of the remains, a young man by the name of William
Cooper, the next evening, found the decomposing body with active and
consuming hogs around it. On the bloody grounds of the murder a pistol
rammer was found, which was inspected by detective Woulard. Oye hearing
of this circumstance, ordered Frost to immediately take the pistol to
which it belonged, and throw the same into Dog River without delay,
which was done accordingly. In the confession of Frost, he further told
where the pocket-book of Stanley could be found that had been taken
away from him after death. Agreeable and true to his statement, the
pocket-book was found, and contained a tooth, which on seeing by Mr.
A. O’Donnell, was declared to belong to Mrs. Stanley—she having before
shown the same to him. With it a piece of poetry, in the hand-writing
of Stanley, was also found.”
The fact of Frost and Stanley boarding together at Oye’s house; the
fact of the murdered body having been found; the fact of the sudden
departure of Frost—before well-known to have been in want of both
money and respectable clothing, and all at once, found with plenty,
and then his falsehoods and failure to account for the same; and then
the fact of his confession about the pocket-book having been proven to
be perfectly correct; these circumstances, with others connected, all
taken together, fasten guilt on Frost, and go far to establish the
truth of the other part of his confessions in which Oye is represented
as the principal actor of the whole.
Aware of all this when detective Woulard arrested Oye. He placed
both under a vigilant guard for a short time to be controlled by Mr.
A. F. Hooks. Immediately after the arrest was made, Mrs. Oye got an
opportunity to speak to her husband, and was overheard to say something
about a fuss, which in a few minutes followed by her using such
language of obscenity and profanity against the guard which, perhaps,
was never equalled from the lips of woman. During the disturbance,
the intention was for Oye to get away, but the guard kept too sharp a
lookout for the attempt to succeed.
The prisoners were conveyed as soon as practicable by detective
Woulard, to St. Stevens, Alabama, where they had a preliminary trial,
and evidence sufficiently adduced for committal. But all the while Mrs.
Oye had been active. A writ of Habeas Corpus had been obtained from the
Circuit Judge of the district, Mr. Elliott, requiring the prisoners
forthwith to be brought before him for a further hearing. In conformity
with the writ, the Sheriff of Washington county, E. L. Collins conveyed
them to Mobile, and the evidence there produced was sufficiently strong
for Judge Elliott to order them back to Washington county to there
await the action of the circuit court.
When the case came up for trial, by motion of counsel, a change of
venue was made: Oye’s case being removed to Baldwin county, and
Frost’s to the county of Mobile. Owing to the great distance, with
proportionate expenses, this change made it very inconvenient for
witnesses to attend, by reason of which they were unable to be
present in court, and the consequence was a discharge of Oye for
want of evidence; but last reports say Frost still remains in Mobile
jail—perhaps to be liberated also when convenience of time will
justify: thus defeating the ends of justice and demonstrating the
almost impossibility of convicting any belonging to the worst class of
criminals.
Since the forgoing was prepared for the press, the following additional
information has been received through a highly responsible source from
New Orleans, La.:
MORE ABOUT FROST, “CALICO DICK’S” NEPHEW.
“Frost shortly after the murder of W. C. Stanley, in Alabama, made
his appearance at Bay St. Louis, with two carpet bags filled with
fine clothing and his pockets full of money. He displayed this
ostentatiously, and spent it lavishly in the coffee houses. While
splurging in this style, he was arrested and taken to Alabama, on
the charge of murder. When he was discharged (to the amazement of
everybody) he returned to the Bay, and by some means was made an
assistant light-house keeper on Chandlier Island: How he got in this
position would be well worth finding out. Recently the keeper sent him
to New Orleans to draw his (the keeper’s) money. Frost drew it, and
wrote to the keeper that he had deposited it with a certain firm in the
city. On inquiry, such deposit had not been by him made, and he with
the money disappeared some six weeks ago. He and his uncle are capable
of any crime, but are cowards.”
AUGUST 13, 1874.
NECESSARY COMMENTS ON UNPUNISHED CRIME.
Talk of reform and State improvements, impossible while this system
of things continue; “as well expect grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles.” Not occasional robberies, not occasional murders alone that
poison the vitals of society. These will sometimes occur under the best
government—under good laws and well administered; it is the ninety-nine
chances for escape to one for conviction which produces so much evil.
When punishment is sure to immediately follow the commission of
crime, then society can repose in security; but otherwise, the honest
and peaceable live in fear—the dishonest and disorderly in defiant
lawlessness. Overt crime, regardless of law, with a determination to
remain and risk all consequences from the farcical courts; in such
cases, arrest sometimes follow, but the bail is ready, and with a few
dollars acquittal will be almost certain. If the case is too dark and
unpopular, time after time the trial will be put off, until, according
to common parlance, the case is worn out, or some material witness got
out of the way, and then the answer is “ready for trial”—well knowing
the result which must follow. But oftener, if the criminal leave the
county or State, no more notice is taken—no effort made to reach and
bring him back.
It is seldom that redress is ever endeavored to be obtained by process
of law. This reluctance cannot be wondered at in the face of so many
unblushing recommendations and encouragements from unprincipled
attorneys in open court to willful violations of law; not to be
wondered at when the injured prosecutor experiences nothing but abuse
and malicious, or rather mercenary, invective, while the vile criminal
is allowed to walk out of court unhurt and plumed with the laurels of
victory, even in the worst cases which can possibly be conceived. If
one person becomes irritated against another, no matter for what cause,
either real or imaginary, he thinks not of investigation in the courts,
but either sets in to break up his antagonist by private and malicious
mischief, or he waylays, ambushes or seeks an opportunity to create
a quarrel, so that life can be taken under the plea of justifiable
homicide! But sordid, corrupt and sinister motives do not always stop
at acquitting the guilty; they occasionally labor as hard to harrass
and punish the innocent! The author’s case, in his trial at Mobile,
is one instance out of many where everything was strained to convict
innocence. Sometimes one object in view, and sometimes another. Grand
juries are not unfrequently acted on in a very disgraceful manner. One
person, through spite, or for getting the property of another in some
covert way, will seek an opportunity to get a bill from the grand jury.
Another, to avoid paying a just debt, or to screen himself in some
other case, for the purpose of producing intimidation, or, as it is
more commonly called, “running him off,” will seek to get a bill from
the grand jury. Others, if the truth is too plainly spoken, will seek
to command the grand jury for _libel_. Under such a system, the worst
of men are generally the most expert in law, and always the readiest to
fly to it to subserve their purposes. Alarming abuses in one direction
seldom fail to be carried on in the contrary direction pretty much with
equal proportion.
Lynch law is an unavoidable consequence of a mockery of civil law. No
nation can long prosper under a reign of court corruptions. If the
guilty, as a rule, escape, and justice not strictly administered, the
sources of wealth will soon languish and decay. If the fashions of the
courts are to favor the worst at the expense of the best members of
society, the necessary results cannot fail to come shortly afterward.
Under such a deplorable state of things, confidence and security cannot
dwell. Suspicion and distrust everywhere; industry, the desire to
accumulate, and also productive capital, will all be defective.
There are but few crimes which a determined and prudent government
cannot suppress. Those aggravated offenses under the name of “Ku Klux”
depredations, how soon they were put down under a vigorous execution of
law. If the government of this State continues as it has begun, there
will be no more of dueling, or at least so rare as not to be productive
of much injury. The certainty of punishment, even in rare cases, will
relieve society from serious harm on this account.
States, Empires and Republics search for the first causes of their
decline and fall, and they will be found to consist in the vitiated
customs of the rulers in the various departments of governments, in a
reckless trampling on the principles of justice without shame, without
remorse, and, above all, in overgrown corruptions practiced with the
honors of emoluments and distinctions.
And now it is only necessary to add, in reference to the Wages and
Copeland Clan, as an organization, it is broken up, though isolated
individuals who belonged to it still continue to perpetrate crime
whenever anything like a favorable opportunity offers. For a lengthy
duration of time this clan spread terror and desolation both far and
wide. Happily for present society, as an organized body, it is numbered
on the dark and bloody pages of the past.
The publication of the confessions by the author was productive of much
good. The high and mighty outside aiders severely felt the blows. But
for the support given by such auxiliary aiders the organization would
have come to dissolution much earlier. It is such influential aiders
and abettors, in warding off the chains of law, which give vitality to
movements of this character. The decline began from the death of the
President and leader, Wages, and also at the same time the death of the
preaching hypocrite, McGrath. This change was further accelerated by
the execution of Copeland, and the narrow escape of another brother,
together with the publication of the confessions, laying open to public
gaze the implicated parties and the principal movement of the whole.