Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate

by J. R. S. Pitts

SHOEMAKE AND B. TAYLOR IN COURT.

As before noticed in another part of this work, S. S. Shoemake will again be introduced as playing a very conspicuous part, not only on trial, but also before the Grand Jury, which was organized for the then present term of the City Court.

Notwithstanding the “records” to the contrary, the following information was given to the defendant, at the time of his trial, by one of the jurors himself. Shoemake, although an old resident of Mississippi, the defendant also a resident of the same State, and the work complained of published in New Orleans, Louisiana, yet he, with audacity enough, went before the said Grand Jury to get another bill for libel in favor of himself and against the defendant, but was sadly disappointed. This Grand Jury had had more time for thought and reflection than the preceding one, and peremptorily refused his application. Had he been unjustly injured, his redress would have been from the juries of Mississippi; but he had penetration enough not to make any efforts of this nature in Mississippi, well knowing that his character was too well-known here to succeed in making juries subservient to his dark purposes of crime and dissimulation.

On the day of trial, the counsel for the defence availed himself of the earliest opportunity to make application for further time, on the grounds of absence of material testimony, but without the desired effect; the Court over-ruled the application, and both sides were ordered to proceed to trial instanter.

While the Sheriff of this court was calling in witnesses for the prosecution, the name of Bentonville Taylor was particularly noticed by the defendant. This man, as was afterward learnt, had been conveyed by the clan from Williamsburg, Mississippi, and appeared quite unexpected on the part of the defence. His knowledge about the case then pending, could have been but very little or nothing at all, and was evident to all who were more conversant with the facts, that his presence there was not in behalf of justice, but for sordid objects of pecuniary gain.

The first witness brought to the stand by the prosecution was S. S. Shoemake. He came up with an air of boldness and majesty not easily described. Calm, deliberate, and with an external appearance of the perfect gentleman, he gave his testimony with elegance and beauty of language, almost sufficient “to deceive the very elect.” His testimony, such as it was, was pretty much confined to a pretended conversation betwixt the defendant and himself during the journey together while under circumstances of arrest; to the effect that the defendant had confessed to him that the names given in the life of Copeland, were not at all reliable, and that the authenticity of the work was entirely valueless. This pretended conversation was wholly a concocted fabrication of his own to serve the ends of the prosecution. But the character of this man in a few more minutes elicited, will satisfy the reader as to what amount of credit his testimony was worth.

His then uninterrupted evidence being given, the next ordeal was his cross-examination by the counsel for the defence. The envelope alone, which at first contained the John R. Garland letter, was handed to him with this question asked: “Did you address this envelope?” After looking at it for a while he answered: “I believe this to be my hand-writing.” He was next asked if he had at any previous time addressed a letter or communication of any sort to the Sheriff of Perry county, Mississippi. He answered that he had no recollection whatever of addressing a letter to the Sheriff of Perry county, Mississippi, who was then seated at the bar before the Court. The John R. Garland letter itself was next handed to him, with the request to state to the Court and Jury if he was the writer of said letter, which had been written and mailed at DeKalb, Mississippi. Here Shoemake hesitated and faltered considerably; and, in a moment, seemed to be fully conscious of the complete wreck before him. A transition so sudden from the heights of promising success to the most forlorn and abject condition of reverse, was too much for him to surmount. In this instance, he manifested a great reluctance to, or desire to evade giving a direct answer, but being forced by the Court to give a definite reply, he answered at last with emphatic words that he was not the writer or author of the John R. Garland letter. Now, for the succeeding and successful conflicting testimony.

The witnesses who had been previously summoned, were now called forth to testify to the hand-writing of the John R. Garland letter, as well as to the general character of S. S. Shoemake, as to whether or not his being a man of truth and veracity. After examining the letter, several of them expressed, according to the best of their knowledge, that the hand-writing was S. S. Shoemake’s; and also, from his general character, they could not believe him on oath. But another witness called for and introduced, Cornelius McLamore, gave still stronger and more decisive testimony. No man could have had greater facilities for thoroughly understanding all about Shoemake than Cornelius McLamore. He, without any doubt whatever declared the hand-writing to be, undoubtedly, S. S. Shoemake’s, and that he for another could not believe him on oath.

M’LAMORE FELL A VICTIM TO THE VENGEANCE OF THE CLAN.

This is the same gentleman treated of in another place, who so mysteriously disappeared the evening after the trial, and, from that time to the present, has never more been heard of. Whatever fate he met with, no one has ever been able to tell; but from all the circumstances connected, it must be almost certain to the thinking mind of all that he was cruelly murdered by the conspiring clan, who had so long maintained a sad career of blood and revenge, with all the practiced modes of concealment.