Mississippi conjures many different images in people’s minds. Some people think about the wonderful authors and artists from here, some think of the Civil Rights movement, some people think of The Blues, some people think of beauty queens and lately we have all been thinking about heat and humidity. This year though we have had three books published about MURDER! These are murders you might not know about even though when they occurred they were national news but they are part of local folklore to this day in their respective counties of Attala, Holmes and Jones.
One Night of Madness by Stokes McMillan
Stokes McMillan is fourth generation born and raised in Attala County, Mississippi. His mother had collected together his father’s photos and articles about this crime but never had a lot of interest in it until 2001 when one of his own children wanted a copy of the award winning photographs his grandfather had taken of the capture of the two killers. Mr. McMillan decided to also give some of the more interesting information along with the photograph. He read over the scrapbook and realized that this was a story that deserved to be told so he wrote One Night of Madness.
It’s 1950 and Mary Ellis Harris is struggling to care for her five children by sharecropping alongside her husband who loves to drink and gamble. One night, Leon Turner, a white man her husband drinks with, corners her in her house and refuses to take no as an answer. He is arrested for attempted rape and when he gets out of jail comes back for revenge on the Harris family. The scene at the Harris house is horrific and bloody and a manhunt led by the Sheriff of Attala County, Roy Braswell, with the help of Hogjaw Mullen and his tracking dogs ends in a shootout and the arrest of Leon Turner and two accomplices. The trial began but not only where these men on trial but the State of Mississippi itself. The eyes of the nation where watching and when the controversial jury decision is made the public’s outcry for punishment is heard through out the United States.
The Time of Eddie Noel by Allie Povall
Allie Povall was 12 years old in 1954 in Holmes County where the events of The Time of Eddie Noel took place. This is the story of how a black man, Eddie Noel, shot and killed a white honky-tonk owner, Ramon Dickard. One of the largest posses in Mississippi history was formed and they hunted Eddie Noel. Eddie Noel killed two more white men and wounded three others before disappearing into the the woods of southwest Holmes County. This is the story of how a black man, a three time murderer, in Mississippi could beat the lynch mob, beat the posse, beat the system and avoid almost certain death? Eddie Noel, though he confessed to the murders was never tried or convicted and he spent the last 22 years of his life living peacefully with family in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Allie Povall interviewed many people, read newspaper accounts and court records and relied on his own memory of this event. This story has almost reached mythic status in Holmes County but there are still those who will not talk about it for example Eddie Noel’s family in Indiana promised his mother that they would never discuss it outside of the family. Allie Povall has done a great job in gathering this information to tell us a story of a time in Mississippi that was full of bootlegging and moonshine, gambling and juke joints and the time of Eddie Noel.
The Legs Murder Scandal by Hunter Cole
In 1935, Ouida Keeton is arrested in Laurel, Mississippi for the murder of her mother, Daisy Keeton. Ouida shot her, chopped her up and disposed of the body parts by flushing them down the toilet and burning them in the fireplace. That is all but her mother’s legs. She tried to dispose of them on a isolated country road but they were soon found by a hunter and his dogs. After her arrest while police were interrogating her she incriminated her wealthy business man lover, W.M. Carter. While this murder is almost completely forgotten today, it was touted as Mississippi’s most sensational murder of the time. Hunter Cole through researching countless trial transcripts, courthouse records, medical files and endless newspaper coverage gives detailed accounts of the separate trials of Ouida Keeton and W.M. Carter and also reveals new facts that have been distorted by hearsay and misinformation about “Mississippi’s Lizzie Borden” throughout the years.
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