Bootleggers, murder in the night, armed and angry mobs. Lawlessness, indifference and fear among officials and citizens alike. The Klu Klux Klan parading with burning crosses down Main Street in Franklin.
High-speed car chases and a powerful Whiskey Ring with only hot lead for anything in its way.
Life in Williamson County in 1925 was defined by all these things.
These and the impending murder trial of Jim Kelton, who ambushed and gunned down Constable Sam Locke on the night of March 7, 1925.
This is part two. For part one click here.
Bloody chaos
The killing caused screaming headlines. No one could ignore the creeping power of the bootleggers anymore. The rule of law seemed to be in serious jeopardy.
The Department of Justice came in to take over the investigation. After weeks of pressure and interrogation Kelton confessed on April 15 to federal agents. But only after they took him to the scene of the crime and reenacted the cold-blooded ambush.
His confession implicated the Truetts, and led to numerous arrests of bootleggers and distillers, uncovering the true, staggering size and shape of whiskey ring.
The intervening months between the April confession and the October trial saw all kinds of chaos. The simmering conflict turned into an open war. The KKK rallied and paraded on the square in Franklin, hypocritically denouncing the immorality and illegality of bootlegging.. Informers were targeted and officials and judges were intimidated and attacked, their homes shot into in the middle of the night. A woman associated with distillers was kidnapped by hooded men, driven up Liberty Pike and whipped and abandoned.
A former Sheriff was charged by the Feds with conspiracy to violate the Prohibition Law.
On October 23, 1925, a jury found Kelton, an African American, guilty and a judge sentenced him to life imprisonment. But, the Truetts- charged with accessory- walked free, acquitted by an all-white jury no doubt wary of faceless terrors in the night. As did others arrested for various alcohol-related crimes, if the charges even made it to court.
But the affair “stirred up in Williamson County an unprecedented zeal in determination to break up bootlegging and other forms of lawlessness,” read the Review-Appeal front page on April 16, 1925, the day after Kelton confessed.
The county comes together
The killing of Locke, and the subsequent trial of his killer, brought everything to a head. Citizens finally had enough. They came together in a huge meeting at Franklin High School in early November, 1925, called by a mysterious newspaper advertisement, to make a stand.
“Do you love your county? Your town? If so, attend the Grand Rally Sunday afternoon . . to protest against the deplorable conditions existing in Franklin and Williamson county with regard to flagrant abuse of your laws. Do your duty!”
More than 1000 showed, jamming the auditorium and overflowing into the hallways. .
Dr. Kirby Howlett, one of the most respected figures in the county, stood on the stage with 35 prominent citizens.
“We are here to serve notice on the lawbreakers that we have just begun to fight.” he said to the crowd. “And this meeting is to prepare for a battle to the finish.”
“The question is are you men or rabbits?” Gus Dyer, a Vanderbilt professor, asked.
That day the county banded together to create the Central Law Enforcement Association, and to end the lawlessness.
“By 1930, Williamson County was far and away the most law-abiding county in my circuit,” said Tennessee Attorney General John H. Henderson, to the review appeal in 1963.
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Could someone please confirm that a part of the evidence found at the scene of the murder of Samuel Locke, my Great Grandfather, was a lunch bucket with a beer?? Otherwise, this was a ludicrous statement to make by the writer of this article, and should be retracted.