The Ouachita Telegraph - 
Robert Butler Executed for Murder of George Burris

Date: Oct 2000
Submitted by: Lora Peppers <lpeppers@ouachita.lib.la.us>

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The Ouachita Telegraph
Saturday, May 12, 1883
Page 2, Column 3

EXECUTION OF ROBERT BUTLER FOR MURDER.
The Crime, Conviction, Escapes and
Recaptures of the Prisoner.
[Special to the Picayune.]
 MONROE, LA., May 5. – Robert Butler, colored, 27 years old, was executed
yesterday at Columbia, Caldwell parish, for the murder of George Burris,
colored, on August 7, 1876.
 It appeared from the evidence that butler, whose reputation was that of a
desperate man, and had been living at Indian Village, in this parish, with a
colored woman as his wife, became insanely jealous of Burris, who had
supplanted him in the woman’s affections.  Burris and the woman, knowing
Butler’s disposition, left Ouachita parish one evening for Caldwell parish.
Night overtaking them on the way, they stopped at the house of Major
Johnson, a colored man living in Caldwell parish.  Butler, who had followed
them, caught up with them at this point, and going up to the gate,
discovered Burris in the yard feeding a yoke of oxen and fired upon him,
killing him instantly.
 Immediately after the murder Butler fled, avoiding arrest for a number of
years.  He was finally caught in Dangerfield, Morris, county, Texas, by
Sheriff Ragland, of that place, in April, 1882, on an indictment for murder
found September 15, 1876.
 A motion for a new trial being overruled, the case was carried to the
Supreme Court.  Pending the decision of the appeal in the Supreme Court,
Butler broke jail and returned to Dangerfield.  A reward of $400 having been
offered for his capture, he was arrested by one of Sheriff Ragland’s
deputies, and while on his way to Columbia by some means effected his escape
and returned again to the neighborhood of Dangerfield, where he was
rearrested by a man named Harris, who succeeded in bringing him to Columbia,
and secured the amount of the reward.
 The judgement of the lower court having been affirmed by the Supreme Court
on the 5th of March last, the Governor issued his warrant fixing yesterday
as the day for the execution.
 The condemned man retired early last night and slept soundly until
midnight, when he arose and engaged in prayer.  His breakfast, which was
carried to him at 7 o’clock, he declined to touch, but drank a cup of
coffee.
 Your correspondent, in company with Sheriff Girod, visited him in jail at
noon and found him engaged in reading the Bible.
 In reply to inquiry he said he was prepared to die, and that it was right
the law should take its course.
 At 2:10 p.m. he was taken from jail to the place of execution, about a
hundred feet distant, immediately adjoining the court-house steps.  He was
assisted up the steps leading to the scaffold by Rev. Dr. Harper and sheriff
Girod, and at once took his position on the fatal trap door.  The death
warrant was then read to him, after which he addressed the persons present,
exhorting them in an earnest appeal to be warned by his example.  Prayer was
then offered by Rev. Mr. Harper, in which the condemned man joined.  Bidding
the Sheriff and his attendants good-by, his arms and legs were then
pinioned.  The rope being placed around his neck he requested the Sheriff to
draw it tight.  In compliance with his wish a handkerchief was tied around
his eyes, the black cap was then drawn, and at 2:37 p.m. the trap was
sprung.  He fell seven and a half feet, and after a few spasmodic movements
of the muscles of the arms and legs he gave no signs of life.  Life was
pronounced extinct in ten minutes, and after hanging twenty-three minutes
the body was cut down, when it was ascertained that death was caused by
strangulation.
 His body, which was dressed in a black suit of clothes provided by the
white citizens of the town, was turned over to his brothers for burial.
 At no time during the trying ordeal did he manifest any signs of fear, but
faced death bravely.
 The execution, which was public, was witnessed by several hundred people, a
large majority of whom were colored, many coming from a distance.  Owing to
the excellent arrangements made by Sheriff Girod and his large force of
special deputies the execution was conducted in a quiet, orderly and
expeditious manner.
 The execution of Robert Butler was the second one that has taken place in
the parish in many years.

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