First White Man Convicted of Murder in Winn Parish , Louisiana (from the Winnfield News-American, February 27, 1931) Contributed by Greggory E. Davies 120 Ted Price Lane Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** First White Man Convicted of Murder in Winn Parish , Louisiana (from the Winnfield News-American, February 27, 1931) With the conviction of William Harper {see related story elsewhere in Winn Archives} for murder which carries with it the death penalty the first white man in the history of Winn Parish will pay with his life for taking the life of another. There have been hangings of white men in the parish but not legal ones. Three negroes have paid with their lives for crimes committed according to the best authority of some of the older citizens. The first one as remembered by A. W. Radescich, better known as "Uncle Antone" was a negro who killed a white man by the name of Mathis near Montgomery two or three years before the Civil War. This happened during the time {William} Walker was sheriff, and was an event never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it for it was a public hanging to which both white and black from far and near came. The second negro was tried and convicted in Winn Parish but was hanged in Baton Rouge. This negro, and it is believed that his name was Jim Collins, killed a deputy sheriff named McBride. "If he had failed to get what was coming to him in the Courts, that tree (pointing to the one on the left going into the courthouse) had been picked out as his final resting place" was the enlightening information given on this case. The story goes that when sentencing Jim (Collins) Judge Frank Machen solemnly imposed the sentence and concluded by saying, "And Jim, I hope this will be a lesson to you." The conclusion is that he got his lesson. The third murder conviction was about 1914 when the negro Seth Jefferson was tried for the brutal slaying of Mr. and Mrs. S. N. Chandler near Calvin. Jefferson was hanged in Baton Rouge. Harper's conviction in district court this week for the murder of Hardie Peppers refutes the charges that a jury could not be found in Winn Parish to convict a man for any crime whatsoever. (The above references to 'Harper' will be presented in a separate entry into these archives. Other sources found by the submitter state that the first legal hanging to occur in Winn Parish was during the Parish's infancy following the murder of a white slave owner named Nugent by one or two of his slaves, near Albright's Prairie, in the extreme southern portion of Winn. Supposedly the first court in Winn Parish was held at John Watson's saloon at Albright's Prairie. Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.)