Criminal Justice Matters: Sgt. Hankle, 1945, Winn Parish, LA.
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: July 12, 1945 Winn Parish Enterprise

Mob Attempts To Lynch Negro Soldier Here Saturday Afternoon

Negro Arrested for Disturbing Peace Tries to Shoot Officer


A mob of Winnfield citizens crowded around the city jail in Winnfield Saturday
afternoon in an effort to lynch a negro soldier, Sgt. Hankle, of Missouri,
after the negro lifted the gun from a deputy marshal and tried to shoot the
officer in the back, according to City Marshal W. C. Colvin, Sr.  Hankle,
stationed at the Calvin bombing range, was a mong a truckload of negro
soldiers visiting the L. & A. Quarters Friday night.

The trouble began at 11:30 p.m. Friday, at which time the wife of an L. & A.
section foreman asked the city officials to investigate a disturbance in the
L. & A. Quarters.  Sgt. Hankle, "drunk enough to be mean", and Mildred Black,
a negro woman, were arrested and confined in the Winnfield jail.  Another
negro, Sgt. Davis, also stationed at the Calvin bombing range, offered to
assist the deputys marshals, George Dean and C. O. Barnes, in further
restoring peace in the quarters.  Another trip was made to the quarters, and
upon returning to the jail, the Hankle negro was released to Sgt. Davis, who
ordered him into a truck across the street from the jail.

Deputy Marshal Barnes stated that he thought everything was under control, and
he left the jail to buy food for a prisoner, while Deputy Marshal Dean and
Sgt. Davis were telephoning the lieutenant in charge of the Calvin bombing
range.  Hankle, sitting in the truck across the street, saw Deputy Marshal
Barnes leave, and the negro slipped across the street into the jail while
Deputy Marshal Dean's and Sgt. Davis' backs were turned to the door, lifted
the marshal's gun from his hip holster, and jammed the barrel of the gun
between the marshal's shoulder blades.  Sgt. Davis grabbed Hankle's hand and
forced the gun above the marshal's head just before Hankle pulled the grigger,
Marshal Colvin reported.  

In the scuffle which followed, the Hankle negro held the gun on the negro
sergeant and the officer as he backed out the door, got into the army truck
and drove away.  A short time later Deputy Marshal Barnes and Deputy Sheriff
Douglas Durrett arrested Hankle at the Calvin bombing range.  The officers and
the negro began the trip back to Winnfield and several miles from Calvin the
negro stated that he had thrown the stolen gun from the truck at a certain
point along the highway.  When the officer turned the car back toward Calvin
to search for the gun, the negro told them to keep on driving, and he led them
to a spot about fifty yards from the Calvin bombing range, where the gun was
buried.  The negro had pulled one of his sock over the gun before burying it
and had marked the spot with a yellow piece of cloth on a stick.

The negro was again placed in the Winnfield jail, and by Friday afternoon, a
mob had collected at the jail.  Marshal Colvin and his deputies stated they
had to plead with the mob to keep them from lynching the negro.  Military
police from Barksdale Field, Shreveport, spirited the negro from the jail at
about four o'clock Saturday afternoon and the military police took him to
Shreveport for trial.