HENRY COUNTY, GA - NEWSPAPERS   Jarrell Murder - Trial
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Jarrell Murder

One of the most fiendish crimes ever committed in
the county was the cold blooded murder of his
wife by a man named Jarrell.  This occurrence
took place in the early settlement of this
section.  It appears as if Jarrell had left home
with his little son, some ten years of age, to go
after corn, probably across the Ocmulgee River
into Jasper County.  On his return and when he
had arrived in less than a mile of his house he
stopped and set about preparation to encamp for
the night, which the boy strenuously objected to
and insisted on proceeding to the house.  The
next morning the wife of Jarrel was found dead at
home with a gaping wound splitting her skull
open, and her body lying in the embers of the
fireplace, partially destroyed by fire.  The
evidence of the ten-year-old son, and Jarrell's
axe, which had some blood and hair upon the
blade, convicted him.  The boy testified that his
father got up during the night or left the camp,
and that when he came back just before daylight,
he said to his son "what would you think if
someone had killed your mother?"  The tale was
too true indeed, and when the boy went home in
the morning and entered the house to greet her,
the ghostly spectacle of her half consumed corpse
met his gaze.  In removing her from the bed of
coals her head fell out of her burnt body into
the ashes.  Jarrell at once accused a Negro woman
he owned of the murder, and said if proof could
be established on her, he would give her twenty
five lashes.  Jarrell was a low, thickset man,
about forty years of age.  He was put upon trial,
convicted, and the sentence of hanging was passed
upon him.  He was the first and only white man
ever hung in Henry County.  The gallows was
erected on Birch Creek, near the present
residence of Mr. Sam Carmichael, where he
suffered the penalty of his crime.  His body lies
near the spot where he was swung into eternity.
He petitioned to the Governor for a reprive, and
on the day of his execution the lenient sheriff
waited for the doomed man until the last minute. 
Jarrell stood upon his scaffold for two hours
before his death, hallooing at the pitch of his
voice with the hope that he might hear a response
from the returning messenger whom he had sent to
plead for his pardon to the Governor

Middle Ga. Argus - Week of July 7, 1881