Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
LEADER OF A DEVASTATING CLAN RANGING OVER A GREAT PORTION OF THE NATION, PARTICULARLY THE GULF STATES, SPREADING TERROR AND INSECURITY EVERYWHERE.
FOR THEIR SECRET CORRESPONDENCE, GIVING A LIST OF ALL THE MEMBERS THROUGHOUT THE UNION, WITH AN APPENDIX OF
BRINGING TO LIGHT MORE OF CRIME, CORRUPTION AND DISSIMULATION, UNVEILING THE MANY WAYS IN WHICH TALENT, WEALTH AND INFLUENCE HAVE GIVEN ASSISTANCE.
PILOT PUBLISHING COMPANY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, 1874.
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1874, by DR. J. R. S. PITTS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved.
The author of the ensuing publication was born in Effingham county, Georgia. His grandfather, Dr. Soda, was a native of Cologne, an ancient city on the Rhine, in Prussia. Here educated to the science of physic, he afterwards became a practicing physician. Rather early in life, he came to the United States of America, and settled in the city of Savannah, Georgia, where the remainder of his life, some thirty years, was spent. Here, and during this time, he practiced in the medical profession with success and distinction. He married an American lady, the issue from which consisted in only one son and one daughter, Robert and Jane Rosettah.
About the year 1830, the latter, with J. G. W. Pitts, were married in the city of Savannah, Georgia. The result from this nuptial union is the existence of the “author.” With him, in 1834, his parents removed from Georgia to Rankin county, near Brandon, Mississippi; but the wife and mother did not long survive afterward, as will be seen from the following record found in the family Bible:
“Mrs. Jane Rosettah Pitts, wife of J. G. W. Pitts, departed this life the 7th day of January, A. D., 1835, in the 21st year of her age, after severely suffering under a complicated disease of two years’ standing, which battled the skill of the best physicians.”
The author was left an orphan at a very early age—only two years old. He was consigned over to the guardian care of an affectionate grandmother, who performed the charge both creditably to herself and in perfect accord with the welfare of the infant entrusted to her charge.
J. R. S. Pitts
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MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION.
PREFACE.
POISONING THE OVERSEER.
MURDER OF THE TWO MEXICANS IN TEXAS.
WELTER AND HARDEN’S DECEPTION—WELTER ACTING AS UNITED STATES MARSHAL.
WAGES’ AND HARDEN’S PLOT TO KILL ROBERT LOTT AND THOMAS SUMRALL.
MR. MOORE AFTER PREACHER M’GRATH, IN TEXAS.
M’GRATH IN DISGUISE.
MURDER OF O’CONNOR ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
MEETING OF THE CLAN IN MOBILE, ALABAMA.
BURNING OF ELI MAFFITT’S HOUSE, AND ATTEMPTED MURDER OF HIS WIFE.
WAGES AND M’GRATH KILLED BY HARVEY.
REWARD OF ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS OFFERED FOR HARVEY’S SCALP.
PRESENTIMENT OF POOL’S DEATH.
THE FAMOUS HARVEY BATTLE.
TRIAL OF JAMES COPELAND.
THE DEATH WARRANT.
THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
THE EXECUTION.
GRAND JURY.
WITNESSES.
MEMBERS OF THE COPELAND AND WAGES CLAN.
LETTER OF JAMES COPELAND TO HIS MOTHER.
MYSTIC ALPHABET
APPENDIX.
S. S. SHOEMAKE, THE ARCH-MONSTER OF ATROCITY AND THE PERFECTION OF DECEPTION, WITH HIS JOHN R. GARLAND LETTER.
SHOEMAKE VISITS THE SHERIFF IN PERSON WITH HIS BOGUS AUTHORITY FROM THE PROBATE JUDGE OF KEMPER COUNTY.
SHOEMAKE RETURNS WITH A WRIT FOR THE SHERIFF’S ARREST.
SHOEMAKE’S OBJECT WAS ASSASSINATION.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION GATHERED ABOUT THE BURIED TREASURE.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS TOUCHING THE TRIAL.
THE RECORDS OF THE TRIAL FROM THE CITY COURT OF MOBILE.
COMMENTS ON THE RECORDS.
SHOEMAKE AND B. TAYLOR IN COURT.
M’LAMORE FELL A VICTIM TO THE VENGEANCE OF THE CLAN.
G. Y. OVERALL PROVES AN ALIBI
THE ARGUMENTS FROM BOTH SIDES.
THE COURT AND THE JURY.
TAMPERING WITH THE JURY.
SYMPATHY AND REGRET AS EXPRESSED BY SEVERAL JURORS.
FAILURE OF PETITION—RECEIVES THE KINDEST TREATMENT WHILE IN PRISON.
THE CLAN GROVELLINGLY PENETRATES PRIVATE TRANSACTIONS.
MISS BOWEN’S LETTER.
DR. BEVELL’S LETTER TO MISS BOWDEN.
MISS BOWEN’S REPLY TO DR. BEVELL’S LETTER.
AN EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF THE DEFENDANT BEFORE THE COMMITTEE.
A LETTER FROM A FRIEND IN TEXAS AFTER DEFENDANT’S RELEASE.
A LETTER TAKEN FROM THE “TRUE DEMOCRAT.”
THE CHARACTER OF THE PROSECUTOR.
THE CHARACTER OF THE PROSECUTION.
CONCLUDING SKETCH OF THE TRIAL.
ANOTHER DESIGN OF ASSASSINATION.
SHOEMAKE AGAIN.
THE TWO HARDENS AND THE MURDER OF SHERIFF SMITH.
JAMES M’ARTHUR, OR “CALICO DICK.”
REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING, AND ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF INABILITY TO REPRESS SUCH FLAGRANT AND WELL KNOWN CRIMES.
THE HORRID MURDER OF W. C. STANLEY AT ESCATAWPA.
MORE ABOUT FROST, “CALICO DICK’S” NEPHEW.
NECESSARY COMMENTS ON UNPUNISHED CRIME.
INDEX.
