The Ouachita Telegraph - Escaped Prisoner Bob Brantley Shot by Sheriff Date: Aug. 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers * ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** * The Ouachita Telegraph Friday, January 25, 1878 Page 3, Column 1 AN ESCAPED PRISONER KILLED. Bob Brantly, a freedman imprisoned for stealing an auger, escaped from the custody of the Sheriff on Sunday. The auger was used to bore an opening in Mr. J.G. Sanders’s store, but because Bob had not entered the store he could be punished only for the theft of the auger. In re-arresting Bob the Sheriff, Dr. Richardson, shot him with a rifle, and from the wound the prisoner died. We give the proces (sic) verbal of the Coroner and the statement of Dr. Richardson. THE SHERIFF’S STATEMENT. Bob Brantly left me at the jail door to go into the yard for water to go in the jail. He jumped over into the Catholic yard and got away from me. I went to hunt him with John Vinson and A. Tatum, but they had both left me, and I went into the thicket in back of Downs’ field, passing up the cross fence between Parker and Downs places. Saw Bob standing in west edge of same thicket, some 50 or 60 yards from me, and thinking he would run from me if I hailed him at that distance and knowing I was in the briers and could not catch him, I thought I would stoop and get nearer him, having to cross the fence at a low place. He must have heard me, for when I got over and straightened up he had squatted down o that I could not see him; but still going carefully towards him, he notified me not to come any nearer, and as I could not see him I thought he might have a gun, I told him if he did not come and go back to jail I would be bound to hurt him, but did not wish to do so. He commenced to slip as I could see by the briers and weeds back towards the green woods. Thinking I could turn his course by making him believe Mr. Vinson was in that direction, I halloed to Mr. Vinson to come up on that side of the thicket, that Bob was between me and him. He slipped then in an easterly direction and got out of the thicket and broke to run across the field. I told him several times as he ran that I would shoot if he did not stop.. When he had got fully 100 yards from me I fired at his legs to stop him, and at the fire of the gun he jumped into the water-furrow of the corn row, bringing his body at least 6 or 8 inches lower than the tops of the beds, causing me to hit him too high, which caused the fatal shot. He told me if he had known it was me and that I had my gun he would not have run from me. He told me after he was shot that he knew I did not wish to kill him, and that it was his fault. I done all I could for him after shooting him. Told him I regretted it very much, but that he had forced m to shoot him. This took place about three quarters of a mile east of the river, in the Downs plantation, on same day he ran of from jail. T.P. RICHARDSON. January 21, 1878 CORONER’S INQUEST. DOWNS PLANTATION, Three miles below Monroe, January 21, 1878 At an inquest held this day upon the body of Bob Brantly, there lying dead, and a legal number of jurors being duly sworn, the following testimony was elicited. J.E. Vinson, being duly sworn, deposes as follows: “I went with Dr. Richardson in pursuit of the deceased. I never came up with the deceased. I left Dr. Richardson at the thicket about 25 or 30 minutes before the shooting took place. JOHN E. VINSON.” E.O. Parker, being sworn, deposes as follows: “I was at home about the time the shooting took place. Mr. Tatum came to my house and called me out, and told me Dr. Richardson had shot Bob Brantly back of the field and wanted to get my spring wagon to bring him out. We then went down there and found Brantly lying there on his back. Dr. Richardson was also there standing by. We then put him in the wagon and brought him to this house (Jack Johnson’s). I asked him if he was in much pain; he said awful. We asked him if he could get up; he said we would have to help him up. When we got him up he could not stand, and complained of one of his legs. E.O. PARKER.” A.J. Tatum, being duly sworn, deposes as follows: “I was standing northeast from the direction of shooting in the lane, about 400 yards from the place of shooting. I was put at that place to watch for the deceased. Dr. Richardson yelled for me two or three times. I then got on my horse and went to him. When I came to Dr. Richardson we then rode together up the lane to where the deceased was lying. Before I started to Mr. Parker’s for the wagon the deceased told me if he had have stopped when Dr. Richardson told him, he would not have been shot. Then I came on up after the wagon. I took one of my horses and hitched to the wagon, and went and brought him to Jack Johnson’s house. A.J. TATUM.” Jack Johnson, being duly sworn, deposes as follows: “I was at home yesterday evening when the deceased was brought to my house. The deceased asked me would I attend to him; I told him yes. I was close by him up to the time he died. He did not say anything as to why he was shot, or that the party shooting or himself was to blame. His JACK X JOHNSON.” Mark John Coleman, being duly sworn, deposes as follows: “I am the man that found the ball. When he was turned over on his side a little blood run out, and the ball came out and I picked it up. That was before he died. He asked me to let him see the ball; to lay it down on the floor so he could see it. His JOHN X COLEMAN.” Mark MONROE, OUACHITA PARISH, LA., January 21st, 1878. This is to certify that I was this day summoned by the coroner, L.W. Surghnor to conduct a post mortem examination on the body of a negro man, on the old Downs plantation, about three miles below Monroe on the river. I found the deceased to be one Bob Brantly, aged about 45, color black, and would weigh about 150 pounds. Having seen him the evening before, in company with Dr. T.Y. Aby, and examined his wound, and now finding him dead, examined fully into the cause o his death, would state that it was caused by a gunshot wound, the ball entering the sacrum and coming out at the left groin, wounding perhaps the bowels, blood vessels and nerves in its passage through the body. This given on the day and date above written. S.C. MURPHY, M.D. We, the undersigned jurors of inquest, summoned and sworn, do hereby render this our verdict, in the case of the death of Bob Brantly: That he came to his death by a gunshot wound fired by Dr. T.P. Richardson, and think that he was justified in shooting and we do not believe that he intended to kill him. J.H. MITCHELL, W.C. HOLLINGSWORTH, H.T. WIMBERLY, LAWRENCE DUNMORE, W.J. GRAY. I hereby certify that the above is a correct transcript of all the proceedings had in the above case, L.W. SURGHNOR, Coroner. # # #