Criminal Justice: Albert Sholars Murder, 1914, Winn Parish, LA Submitted 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 ********************************************** From: March 14, 1914 Monroe News Star April 30, 1914 Monroe News Star May 1, 1914 Monroe News Star May 2, 1914 Monroe News Star May 4, 1914 Monroe News Star May 8, 1914 Monroe News Star (Ms. Lora Peppers, Research Specialist, Ouachita Parish Public Library graciously obtained these articles for our use in the archives - GED) No. 1 Sensational Affair Near Dodson Friday Winnfield, La., March 13 - Meager details of a tragedy in which one man lost his life, another was fatally wounded, and a third slightly wounded, reached here this evening from the Dodson neighborhood. The dead man is Albert Sholars, young son of former Police Juror J. R. Sholars, of Winn Parish. A Mr. Jordan, father in law of young Sholars, sustained mortal wound, and a young man named McCullen was shot in the arm. The shooting affray occurred at the Sholars home near Dodson and was the result of a quarrel about the wife of the man now dead. The only particulars obtainable here tonight were received from parties who passed through Dodson today on their way to Winnfield. From them it was learned that the wife of young Sholars remained away from home last night and is said to have been in the company of two men, named McCullen and Hudgens. Early this morning Sholars took a shotgun, went hunting for his wife and found her. He took the woman back home with him and shortly after he reached there McCullen and Hudgens appeared. Jordan, father of the woman, tried to prevent trouble and was not a participant in the row. Sholars fired both barrels of his shotgun at McCullen. One load glanced along the young man's side and the other lodged in his arm near the shoulder. Sholars was standing eight feet away from McCullen when he fired. Hudgens drew his pistol and emptied it at Sholars. Three or four of the bullets took effect in the body of the young husband, killing him instantly. One of the shots went into the groin of Jordan, inflicting a mortal wound. Hudgens was the only one of the four who escaped absolutely unhurt. It is not known here tonight whether Hudgens was arrested or is a fugitive. The sheriff and coroner went over to the scene of the tragedy to conduct an examination and hold an inquest and has not yet returned. At last accounts, Jordan was expected hourly to succumb to his wound.. All the parties to the deplorable affair are well known. No. 2 Mrs. Sholars Good Witness Details Before Jury Circumstances At Time Husband Was Killed Ordered Man Away Albert Sholars Attempted To Avoid Trouble By Ordering McCullom To Leave - Hugens Deliberately Fired Fatal Shots Into Body Of The Prostrate Man A special to the Shreveport Times, dated Winnfield, April 29, says: A crowd that filled every available inch of room in the courthouse where Clarence McCullom and Will Hugens are being tried for the murder of Albert Sholars, near Dodson, on March 12th last, listened today almost breathlessly to the story of the tragedy related by Mrs. Bernice Sholars, seventeen year old widow of the victim. Mrs. Sholars took the stand at 8:50 o'clock as the State's first witness, and she justified the prediction that she would prove a strong witness for the prosecution. Merciless cross examination and the most searching investigation of her moral conducted failed to shake the main facts of her story. Nor could she be forced into an admission that her relations with either or both of the accused had at any time been improper. The substance of her testimony along this line was that her only sins were errors of judgment. Mrs. Sholars was composed and calm except when the clothes her husband wore when he was killed were exhibited and when her alleged misconduct with Clarence McCollum was made an issue by the defense. On these two occasions she broke down and wept. But even tears did not shake her recital or weaken the vehemence of her denials. The substance of her testimony was that Albert Sholars was killed by Will Hugens after he had been shot down by Clarence McCullom. She testified that she had had a disagreement with Sholars the night before the killing and left home as a result of it. Just prior to the tragedy, however, she and her husband had become reconciled and she was seated on his lap when Hugens and McCullom came up. McCullom entered the room and Hugens remained on the gallery. When her husband saw McCullom, the witness testified, he told him that if he had come there to make trouble between himself and his wife, to get out; and, if he hadn't, to get out anyway. Sholars told McCullom not to draw his revolver, but he drew it notwithstanding, and as he did so Sholars grabbed his shotgun. The two fired simultaneously, McCullom being wounded in the shoulder. Sholars was also wounded and fell to the floor. Several shots were fired by McCullom, one of the bullets entering the hip of W. M. Jordan, father of Mrs. Sholars, badly wounding him. Sholars fired his shotgun twice, but only a portion of one of the charges took effect in McCullom's shoulder. Mrs. Sholars declared that when McCullom was wounded he ran out of this house. She rushed over to her husband and tried to raise im up. He told her not to worry about him as he was not badly wounded. Hugens, said Mrs. Sholars, was on the gallery all this time. While her husband was prostrate, however, Hugens walked to the door and holding his pistol with both hands, shot Sholars. Then he entered the room, looked down on the dying man and walked out. Sholars lived two hours. Mrs. Sholars testified that the two accused with Bud McCullom and Will Clark, who are under indictment as accessories before the fact, had interfered between herself and husband. She had yielded to their insistence that she leave Sholars and Hugens and Clarence McCullom had come to her house to get her trunk, she having agreed that they do so. After the agreement was made, however, she had become reconciled to her husband. The defense attorneys started a better legal controversy in opening the cross- examination by asking Mrs. Sholars a question about her movements on the night before the tragedy. The State presented a prompt objection and the jury was withdrawn for two hours while the attorneys argued. The question was finally admitted, but throughout the cross-examination objections were frequent and altogether the jury was retired twelve times while the attorneys wrangled. Judge Cass Moss plainly indicated that his patience was about exhausted. Mrs. Sholars testified that after the quarrel with her husband, which she admitted was due allegations about her conduct, she left home and went to the residence of her father, W. M. Jordan. The father, however, also upbraided her and she concluded then to go to the home of Will Hugens. This was after midnight and she remained there the balance of the night. Mrs. Sholars denied vigorously that her relations with either Hugens or Clarence McCullom had been improper. She was pressed specifically for information about her relations with McCullom, her sweetheart before her marriage to Sholars. She entered repeated and emphatic denials to every charge contained in the questions. Asked if it was a fact that shortly after her marriage she quarreled with her husband, who accused her of infidelity and declared that Clarence McCollum was the father of her unborn child, she answered in the negative. It was during the cross-examination of Mrs. Sholars that the defense outlined its case. It will endeavor to establish that Mrs. Sholars was a young woman of loose morals, that she was responsible for the presence of Hugens and McCullom at the Sholars home on the morning of the tragedy, and that the accused shot in self-defense. It was established that Mrs. Sholars was frequently in the company of the accused but it was not shown that she remained away from home with them at nights, except in the single instance of the night before the tragedy, part of which she spent at the Hugens home. Hugens married a sister of McCullom. No. 3 Size Of Bullet An Important Factor Winnfield, La., May 1- There was no sign Thursday of abatement of interest in the trial of Clarence McCullom and Will Hudgens for the murder of Albert Sholars, near Dodson on March 13, last. The courtroom was packed with spectators and close attention was given every move of the State and defense. The calibre of the bullet which killed Sanders occupies a conspicuous place among the important links of testimony. The State contends that Sholars was shot twice, once in the arm by Clarence McCullom, and once through the body by Will Hudgens. The defense holds that both wounds were caused by the same bullet and that it came from the revolver of McCullom, who fired in self- defense. Hudgens, the defense claims, did not fire his pistol at all. The weapon McCullom used was of .38 caliber. Hudgens' pistol was .32 calibre. So the defense believes that if it succeeds in establishing to the satisfaction of the jury that a 38-calibre bullet, and not a 32-calibre bullet, caused the death of Sholars, Hudgens will be eliminated as a principal in the case. Then, for McCullom, will come the plea of self-defense. An effort to fix responsibility for the presence of both men at the Sholars home on the young widow of the victim, was indicated by the defense attorneys in cross-examining Mrs. Sholars. Coroner A. J. Peters, who held an autopsy on the disinterred body of Sholars on March 24, today gave testimony which appeared to lend strength to the theory of the defense that one bullet, and that of a .38 calibre, wounded Sholars in both the arm and body. Dr. Peters testified that when the autopsy was held, he found the bullet that had evidently caused the death would of Sholars. It was apparently of .38 calibre and weighed 148 grains. A .38 calibre bullet taken from post inside of the room where the tragedy occurred, weighted 154 grains and one found in the yard, also a .38, weighed 152 grains. Dr. Peters believed that the wounds in the arm and body were made by the same calibre of bullet, a .38. The coroner was on the stand both during the morning and afternoon sessions and his examination was long and searching, but the gist of what he testified to is contained in above statement. Dr. Peters, in answer to a question from the prosecution, said that it was possible for the two wounds to be caused by bullets of different calibre, but hardly probable. No. 4 Jurors Considering The Sholars Case Winnfield, La., May 2.- The twelve jurors empaneled to try Clarence McCullom and Will Hudgens for the murder of Albert Sholars, at the Sholars home, several miles from Dodson on March 13 last, received the case late last night and retired to deliberate. The defense concluded its presentation at 11:30 o'clock in the forenoon and the examination of rebuttal witnesses occupied but 15 minutes. Much of the argument was heard during the afternoon and last night the attorneys completed their addresses to the jury. The charge of District Judge Cass Moss immediately followed and the jury retired at its termination. One of the striking features of the final day's testimony was the utter absence of any reference to the character of the young widow of Sholars, who has been so conspicuous an issue in the trial. The defense had indicated an intention to place the responsibility for the tragedy largely upon the shoulders of the young woman, who was represented to have quarreled with her husband, at least on two occasions, because of alleged undue intimacy with one or both of the prisoners. Both of the accused took the stand in their own behalf today, however, and neither referred to this phase of the case. When Mrs. Sholars testified for the State she denied tearfully, but none the less vehemently, that her conduct had been improper and her statements about her actions on the night before the showed nothing more than errors of judgment. They were not contradicted. There was no diminution in the crowd on hand yesterday to hear the proceedings. A noticeable feature of the attendants of the trial has been the small percentage of women spectators. No. 5 Two Found Guilty In Sholars Case Winnfield, La., May 4. - After 22 hours' deliberations, reported hopelessly divided and about to be locked up for Sunday, the jury in the case of Clarence McCulom and Will Hudgens, charged with the murder of Albert Sholars, near Dodson on March 13, at 10 o'clock Saturday night returned a verdict of manslaughter. The men will be sentenced early this week by Judge Cass Moss, of the District Court, and the penalty is imprisonment of not more than 20 years. No. 6 Young Men Given Twenty Years Each Winnfield, La., May 8 - Clarence McCullom and Will Hudgens, convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of Albert Sholars, were sentenced here Thursday to twenty years in the penitentiary. The 17 year old widow of Albert Sholars testified at the trial that she had quarreled with her husband and had gone to the home of McCullom but the following day returned home and effected a reconciliation with her husband. Shortly after the young wife returned home, McCullom accompanied by Hudgens came for her trunk, she said. A quarrel had ensued between McCullom and Sholars, which terminated in an exchange of shots between the two, Sholars using a shotgun and McCullom a revolver. Sholars was killed and McCullom wounded. Hudgens, she said, entered the door after the shooting began and fired several times at Sholars. During the fight W. M. Jordan, father of Mrs. Sholars, who had come to the house as a peacemaker, was injured by a stray bullet. Hudgens denied that he participated in the shooting.