This all began in September of 1885 when Emma Hawes
gave birth to a child who three months later died. This suspicious because her husband Richard Hawes
and his wife Emma had a troubled marriage. Richard married 18 year old Emma in Atlanta, Georgia and marital difficulties due to her cheating, it lead the couple to leave Atlanta for Montgomery, and then once again for Birmingham. Working for Georgia-Pacific, Hawes often left his family alone in their cottage while running trains between Birmingham and Columbus, Mississippi. Emma was accounted as an alcoholic. Richard would file for divorce two years before the murders. Eldest daughter May
was forced to care for her younger sister, Irene, and her little brother Willie (4 or 5) with household help from Fannie Bryant,
(artist rendition)
a young biracial woman who did laundry and cooked for the family, and otherwise held this dysfunctional family together.
May's body, the body of a young white female was found in Eastlake on Tuesday, December 4, 1888 by local teenagers John Keith and Ben Culbalson.
Jefferson County Coroner Alfred Babbitt determined the cause of death to murder. The body was then laid out for view to the general public at Lockwood & Miller's Funeral Parlor in hopes that someone would identify the girl. Birmingham teachers dismissed their students early so that they could participate in viewing and identification.
Despite being viewed by thousands it wasn't until the next day that a local butcher was able to identify the deceased as May Hawes, daughter of Richard and Emma Hawes.
During the following inquest, conflicting reports arose. While many witnesses believed that Emma was Richard's wife, several witnesses swore that Richard Hawes was divorced and had left for Columbus, Mississippi to marry again. Fannie Bryant, the woman of mixed race that worked in the Hawes household, stated that on the weekend before May's body was found, she saw Richard and May help Emma pack for a trip to Atlanta to retrieve youngest son Willie, who was staying with Richard's family at the time.
After the inquest adjourned, a telegram was delivered to the Weekly Age-Herald office announcing Hawes' marriage to the former Mayes Story in Mississippi that very afternoon. It also listed their train itinerary from Columbus, Mississippi to Atlanta, Georgia. When the train made a stop at the Birmingham station, police officers boarded and arrested Hawes for murder. According to the Age-Herald reporter on the scene, Hawes "asked no questions as to which of his children he was accused of having murdered, nor did he express any desire to see the remains. About all that he said on the way to the jail was that he was innocent."
In custody, Hawes pleaded his innocence. To police, he claimed to have completed his divorce to Emma, citing her frequent infidelity, and arranged for the care of his daughters. Hawes told an Age-Herald reporter that he had last seen May three days before her body was discovered.
Rumors that Emma was known to have a sum of cash lent credence to the idea that Fannie and her white male companion, Albert Patterson, were behind the deaths, though no evidence ever came to light to support this.
On Friday, December 7th 1888, Mayes Story Hawes admitted that Richard Hawes told her that he was divorced and had only one male child. In a letter that he wrote to her from jail, Richard told her that he never mentioned May because she would be in a convent, and he did not want to trouble his new bride. Irene was never mentioned.
While Hawes' youngest child, Willie, continued to remain safely in Atlanta with Richard's brother Jim Hawes, Birmingham police began a full scale search for Emma and Irene. During one of many searches, police found a freshly dug grave within a nearby suburb that contained the body of a four year old black female child. Eclipsed by the high-profile Hawes murder, apparently little effort was made to find out what happened to the young black girl, considering it was a KKK murder and the police and Klan in Birmingham are two sides of the same coin.
The discovery of a bloody hatchet and a torn red ribbon, led investigators to Lakeview Park,
now the Highland Park Golf Course
where, on Saturday, December 8, they dragged the lake, revealing Emma Hawes' bruised and beaten body, weighted down with iron.
Beneficiaries of a growing national scandal, the Age-Herald vied with the Atlanta Constitution and other papers to uncover the most lurid details and offer the most notable speculations on the case. As the news spread through the city late on the evening of Saturday, December 8, a mob about 2,000 people converged at the Jefferson County Jail to see Hawes hanged.
Sheriff Joseph S. Smith issued shotguns and rifles to prison guards and placed them on the roof of the jail.
After shouting several warnings at the advancing mob, he ordered a volley of shots into the crowd, which resulted in 10 deaths, but did succeed in dispersing the crowd.
After the riot ensued, a renewed effort was made to find the body of Irene Hawes. Though repeated dragging of the lake offered up no body, the lake was then drained. On the third day of draining, Irene's body was found approximately thirty feet from where her mother's was, also weighted down. Irene's body was taken to the Lakeview Park Pavilion for a cursory examination. Hoping to avoid another riot, Irene's body was taken from the pavilion directly to the city cemetery, where she was immediately interred.
Friday, September 6, 1889, the Hawes case again became front page news as Fannie Bryant’s trial began. The trial ended in less than two hours with the jury foreman announcing that they had found Fannie Bryant guilty of aiding and abetting Richard R. Hawes in the murder of his wife and two daughters.
February 8th. In the manipulative confession Hawes accused John Wylie and Fannie Bryant of doing the actual murders for him for $500. On February 12, 1890, Solicitor James E. Hawkins and a reporter hastened to interview the Fannie Bryant in the women’s state penitentiary The Walls at Wetumpka, Alabama
After being told of Hawes confession, Fannie Bryant promptly responded that he had
lied. She had never seen John Wylie before he was jailed and that Hawes himself had
taken May Hawes away on Monday night, December 3, 1888. According to the
reporter, She insisted on her own innocence and repeated at length the story she had
told in court several times consistently. She lays the responsibility of her conviction
on the newspapers that kept writing her up until they got a mob after her as it became apparent that whites in the city were looking for an excuse to persecute black citizens. She does not propose to make a confession about anything to satisfy them. The police had concocted a story that Fannie was a protege of the nefarious Scratch Ankle districts Biracial madam, The 'Speckled' Queen. Police interrogated Fannie as they believed she was sexually attacked by Mr Hawes and after coming to Emma for help and not getting it, police suspected Fannie turned to the Queen for vengeance against the Hawes. It was only until the questions of Paternity of the Hawes children arose that police retired this suspicion. Emma was a historical cheat and drunk, who was know to carry large sums of cash on her, making her an easy target, police questioned if any of the Hawes children were actually fathered by Richard. Some say Fannie Bryant died in a prison riot, some say she was pardoned eleven years later on December 21, 1901.
February 28 , 1890 Richard Hawes, 33, was hanged for the murders of his family. The Good people of Birmingham sold tickets for up to two hundred dollars, in a time when a loaf of bread was 3 cents.
Below I have linked a Youtube video that talks about this in more detail. Enjoy.
. Police interrogated Fannie as they believed she was sexually attacked by Mr Hawes and after coming to Emma for help and not getting it, police suspected Fannie turned to the Queen for vengeance against the Hawes. It was only until the questions of Paternity of the Hawes children arose that police retired this suspicion. Emma was a historical cheat and drunk, who was know to carry large sums of cash on her, making her an easy target, police questioned if the Hawes children were actually fathered by Richard. Some say Fannie Bryant died in a prison riot, some say she was pardoned eleven years later on December 21, 1901.
Yorumlar