Criminal Justice Matters:  Charlie Thomas Murder, 1957, Grant Parish, LA.
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483


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>From the July 15, 1952 Winn Parish Enterprise-News American


Fatal Stabbing

Calvin Dunn, Negro, Charged With Murder

Calvin Dunn, Winnfield Negro, is in the Grant Parish jail charged with
murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of Charlie Thomas, also a
Negro, formerly of Homer, La., at a Negro honky-tonk in Montgomery early
Saturday morning.

Thomas had been in Winnfield two or three weeks working on a new sewerage
treatment plant, is it reported.

Grant Parish Deputy Sheriff Will Fletcher, who investigated the killing
shortly after it occurred at about 1 a.m., pieced together one version, as
follosw:

According to wintnesses, both men had been drinking beer at Bubba
Bankston's Joy Room in Montgomery and apparently there was some old
trouble between them over a woman.  One bystander quoted Dunn as saying he
didn't even know Thomas by name.

Dunn, according to a witness, either picked a fight with Thomas or jostled
him, and beer sloshed on Dunn.

Dunn then pulled a knife from his pocket.  The knife, it was said, had
been borrowed from a man outside the establishment.

Thomas made a dash for a screen door but the door was locked.  He turned
and ran in another direction, crashing into a blank wall.  He reversed and
came face to face with Dunn, who had his knife poised in mid air.  He
slashed Thomas across the chest.

Thomas kept running and broke down the same screen door he previously had
sought to open.  He continued out into the street and 145 feet down the
street before he collapsed.  He died soon after, never speaking a word.

Dr. Kuhlman of Montgomery was called and the Grant Parish coroner later
made his investigation.

It is reported that Dunn maintained that he had acted in self defense and
that Thomas also had a knife.

Deputy Fletcher radioed an APB (all points bulletin) which was picked up
via Natchitoches Sheriff's office, by the Winnfield City police.

Dunn in company with four other Negroes had left the Joy Room and were
believed headed for Winnfield by way of Clarence, not knowing that Thomas
had died.

They were met near Winnfield at about 2 a.m. by Police Sgt. Percy Roberts
and Patrolman Don Thompson who placed them under arrest.  Later Deputy Joe
Morgan of Grant Parish arrived and with the aid of State Trooper James
Poisso of Winnfield and Grant Deputy Fletcher took the five to Colfax.

Dunn was held and charged with murder.  The other four were released.

Dunn, according to officers, had been in trouble before, having stabbed a
Negro man in a previous altercation.

(Submitted by Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, LA.)