The Ouachita Telegraph - Capt. S. M. Thomas Kills Hugh Dickson

Date: Oct. 2000 
Submitted by: Lora Peppers 


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The Ouachita Telegraph
Friday, April 22, 1881
Page 2, Column 3

THE RED RIVER TRAGEDY.
 Capt. S.M. Thomas, of Shreveport, killed M. Hugh Dickson, at the latter’s
home, 18 miles above that city on the 11th.
 Thomas was the uncle, by marriage of young Dickson, (the man killed,)
having married the sister of Dickson’s mother.  The killing was done at
Dickson’s house at night and while he was in bed, he being aroused from
sleep by Thomas to receive the fatal shot, which as delivered from a shot
gun.  The provocation to this horrible deed, and by which Thomas was
impelled, it is charged in an affidavit made by his daughter, was that
Dickson, her cousin, had administered chloroform to her some time ago and
that while under its influence, he had robbed her of her virtue.  The young
lady, some, months subsequent, married a respectable young man of
Shreveport, and some four months following gave birth to a child, the fruit,
as she makes affidavit, of the act of young Dickson.
 Capt. Thomas, after killing Dickson, returned to Shreveport and surrendered
to an officer, stating what he had done, and is now in jail in that city,
where, we were not unprepared to learn, there is deep feeling prevailing,
all the parties to the tragedy being highly esteemed,  Capt. Thomas will be
remembered by some of our older readers as the Senator from Bossier during a
portion of Gov. Warmoth’s administration.
 Mr. Palmer Dickson, brother of Hugh, addresses the subjoined note to the
Times, giving the Dickson version of this deplorable domestic tragedy:
 EDITOR TIMES – In your issue of the 12th inst., I notice a a statement of
Capt. Thomas in reference to the killing of my brother, M. Hugh Dickson, in
his bed at home.  As it is in some respects erroneous, I will state the
facts.  On Sunday morning the 10th inst.  About 5 o’clock I was partially
aroused from my sleep by a report of fire arms, and, not perceiving from
what direction it came, nor dreaming of violence to any one in the house, I
was not startled until one or two minutes afterwards, when I heard groans
proceeding from my brother’s room.  I immediately arose and ran into his
room, calling to my sister-in-law as I went, who came at once with a lamp.
I raised my brother up and perceiving he was wounded, I asked him:  “Who
shot you?”  He replied, “nobody,” then after a pause resuming, he said:
“Brother Milton would not shoot me.”  After getting water and towels I
hurried out to send for medical aid.  He was then conscious and remained so
until a few minutes before his death, which occurred a little after 9
o’clock a.m., in the meantime indulging in prayer and nodding or shaking his
head in affirmation or negation of whatever was asked him.  The neighbors
arriving an hour or two after he received his wound perceived this.
 Hugh had, the night before, talked to me confidentially of the charge made
against him and, after assuring me of his entire innocence, expressed a
sense of deep mortification that he should be thus accused.  Capt. Thomas
had led me to believe when I left Shreveport, on Saturday, that Hugh should
have the opportunity to establish his innocence and that his intentions and
purposes were quite different from what events have since proven them to
have been.  We therefore thought of suicide and knew no better until some of
the neighbors, after his death, informed us Capt. Thomas was neither seen
nor heard by any of the inmates of our house, either as he entered or
approached or as he left it.

NOTE:  Thomas was found guilty of the murder:  Ouachita Telegraph, Friday,
May 6, 1881, page 2, Column 3

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