Letter from Mississippi High Court Judges Thomas Shackelford and E. Jeffords to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames; August 21, 1868

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Letter from Mississippi High Court Judges Thomas Shackelford and E. Jeffords to Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames; August 21, 1868

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People

Ames, Adelbert, 1835-1933 Bailey, Mrs. Unknown Bailey, Unknown Bonting, Billy Bryant, Bob Coates, Unknown Hinkle, C.Jeffords, E.Nelson, Paul Palmer, Henry Shackleford, Thomas Shaw, Thomas Wharton, C. J.Wharton, Frank

Events

Crime Crime--Robbery Criminal Procedure Criminal Procedure--Clemency Criminal Procedure--Convicted Criminal Procedure--Imprisonment Criminal Procedure--Pardon Criminal Procedure--Trial

Organizations

Courts and Judicial Systems Mississippi--State Penitentiary (Jackson)

Occupations

Law Enforcement Law Enforcement--Detectives Law Enforcement--Police Lawyers Lawyers. Public Prosecutors Medical Profession Medical Profession--Physicians

Places

Louisiana--Orleans Parish. New Orleans Mississippi--Hinds County. Jackson

Social Identifiers

African Americans African Americans--Historically Free and Newly Freed Enslavers

Vital Statistics

Wounds and injuries

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[seal]

Jackson Aug^t 21, 1868

Brv^t. Majr Genl Ames
Pro. Gov^r. of Miss-.

Sir.

I regret that it is out of my pow-er to furnish you an abstract of the record in the High Court in the case of Frank Wharton, Freed-man—on whose behalf, I have presented a Petition for pardon. The record is in the hands of the Reporter of the decisions of that Court, and he resides at a distant point in the State. [?] has been very much more satisfactory than any Statement I can make from mere memory. I proceed, however, as Simply as possible, to lay the case before you.

As I stated on yesterday, I shall not impose upon your confidence by saying that he was deprived of a fair and impartial trial. He had my services from the moment the prosecution was instituted. I labored as earnestly & zealously as I ever did in the defense of a man of my own race, in both courts before which he was tried. It was a purely gratuitous service rendered by me, for the reasons set forth in my communication of yesterday. I am equally frank, when I decline to say that there is not a fact or circumstance which would cast a suspicion on him of having any privity with the authors of the crime of which he was convicted.

About Feby. 1867, a party (four in no.) of my law-less and desperate negroes came here from N O,—as they stated on their examination before the Court,—on a foraging or hunting excursion—

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Their names were Paul Nelson, Billy Bonting, Bob Bryant & Henry Palmer. Numerous Rob-beries were committed by them by entering private residences at night. Amongst ^others^ a robbery was com-mitted on C. Hinkle, and a trunk, containing some [?] was taken. Frank was at the time in the em-ployment of Hinkle. On being arraigned before Court for the robbery of Hinkle, the four men named pl-ead guilty. When Frank was put on his trial, they tes-tified that he was a party with them—yet neither of them pretended he rcv^d a dollar of the stolen money. When one of them, Bonting, was asked when he first accused Frank & why; he said he supposed he was like the Devil, when hurled from Heaven, he tried to take as many to Hell with him as possible—that he had been told that Frank had accused them of the robbery— It seems that shortly after the above named rob-bery, Bonting was pursued by a party, & made his es-cape—went to a farm home in this neighborhood at night, &, whilst attempting to steal a mule was se-verly shot (supposed mortally wounded) by the owner of the place. That D^r. Bailey was sent Iin to see him, and Mrs Bailey, having about the same time, lost a valuable set of jewelry—by her home being entered at night—which was, doubtless, committed by the same party. Bonting was told that Frank had been lying around the home when the above party [?], & drinking with them, & pretending to be a confederate with them in the projected robbery, was all the time acting in the in-terest and employment of the City Police, and communicating information against them, whereby they might be convicted. In a word,

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That h he sought to obtain Their confidence with a view to induce them to make disclo-sures to him which could be used as evidence upon which to convict them. I am perfectly convinced, from their desparate characters, that these four negroes were activated by a spirit of revenge against Frank, on account of its being believed he was thus acting towards them. It was not until after this was told Bonting in the night he was wounded, and he was told he had as well make a "clean heart," as enough was already known to convict them, & then asked where Mrs Bailey^s jew-elry was, that he charged Frank with being a par-ticipant, and informed them that the jewelry was at a man Tom Shaw^s (another Freedman, who was convicted at that [?] Court of receiving the property stolen by the others [?], & who has just been pardoned by your Excellency). I have, therefore, not a shadow of confidence in the evidence of those negroes. Two of them (Paul Nelson & Billy Bonting), I learn, have escaped from the Penitentiary. Mrs B jewelry was found at the place indicated

Mr. Hinkle (the person whose trunk & money were stolen) was also a whitness. He stated that Frank had been in his employment [?] before the robbery—that he had come into the front room, where liquors were sold, two or three times before the night of the robbery, in company with the negros, (whom he seemed to know) and drank with them. That he kept his money in a trunk in the middle room—that Frank knew he kept his money in it—that on the evening it was taken, they were in the front room drinking—that he had seen his trunk but a few minutes before. That soon after they left the front room Frank put his head out of the window—& called out

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"all right"— that very soon after this, on going into the middle room, he missed the trunk. The negroes had testified that they had agreed with Frank that they would go on the opposite side of the street, & wait for the signal from Thim.

Frequently before the trial, Mr Coates had told me that as Chief of Police of the city, he had employ-ed Frank as an assistant detective, & had direc-ted ^him^ how to proceed in ferretting out the authors of the numerous robberies which occurred about that time. The plan was for him to pretend to join them, and, in this way, obtain their con-fidence so that they might make disclosures to him—that he had suspected Paul Nelson of being one of the party—that he went to N O in pursuit of him, taking Frank with him—that Frank there met with a colored man who formerly lived in Jackson, from whom he learned where Paul lived—that they went [near?] his residence, & concealed them selves as well as they could, after waiting some time—they saw him go in his house—they followed—that the Chief of Police said to Paul "They had come for him"—or words to this effect—That he seized a gun & fired at the Chief of Police who narrowly escaped being shot—that Frank regularly reported to him from time to time, as he made discoveries—and that every thing he had told him was verified by the results—their statements he had volunteered to make to me, & said he would make them when he should be put on the stand, & seemed to be confident nothing could be done with Frank. On the trial of the latter, when he ^[?]^ was introduced as a witness, & I interrogated him about these matters, he declined to answer my questions saying he might criminate him-self, & that he was advised by ^his^ council not to answer them. To the [?], he refused to say that

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~~That~~ he had employed him as an assistant detective.

I make the foregoing statement from memory alone. At this distance of time, I can not pretend to say that it is a full statement of the evidence, or that there may not be errors in it, as far as it goes. I have tried to avoid them, however.

In conclusion, I have only to add that, in my opinion, the boy was seduced into any participation he may ^have^ had in the crime of which he is convicted, by the evil coun-cil and influences of the artful, designing negroes spoken of, who were the princi-pals & that he profited nothing, pecuni-arily by the robbery.

He was sentenced to ~~five~~ ^four^ years impris-onment. He has already been confined in jail, and the penitentiary, for almost 17 months. I would fain hope that the object of the law in inflicting punish-ment has been subserved, and that your Excellency may conclude, even if your mind is not persuaded of his entire innocence that no detriment will re-sult to the community by extending to him a free pardon.

I repeat, that I have no interest in the application except that which I natur-ally feel, & which streams out of the relation I bore to him as his former owner, and his fidelity to my family under very painful & trying circumstances.

Very truly yours

C J Wharton

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We have read the within, and think that Mr. Wharton has fairly stated the facts as shown by the record in the Case—

The testimony of Coates was that he had not employed Frank to assist him until after the theft:—

We think that, (under the Circum-Stances) he is a subject for Executive Clemency.

Very respectfully yours

Mr Shackleford
E. Jeffords

To
Bvt Maj Gen A Ames
Prv^l Gov &c