More details emerge in wild tale of ‘forgotten’ deputy killed in 1944 shooting

More details emerge in wild tale of ‘forgotten’ deputy killed in 1944 shooting

Sheriff makes plans to add Robbins, two others to Fallen Officers Memorial

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department investigators have solved a 74 year-old mystery surrounding the 1944 shooting death of a deputy in Crawfordsville.

Sheriff Mike Allen was recently approached by Jim Robbins, an acquaintance of his wife, who told him that he heard a story that his grandfather had been a deputy and was killed in the line of duty in Crawfordsville, but didn’t know any of the details surrounding his death.

Allen checked the department history and could not find any record of a James Robbins having been killed. Robbins gave Allen a copy of his grandfather’s death certificate which showed that James Edward Robbins, a peace officer, died at Baptist Hospital in Memphis on June 12, 1944 from a gunshot wound to the chest that happened a few days earlier on June 9.

Allen had his newest investigator, James Hardin, go to the Memphis Library to check and see if there were any news accounts of the shooting. Hardin found a story in the Commercial Appeal which reported that Deputy Robbins was shot in the back by a black sharecropper while investigating a dispute between several women and the man over the purchase of some peaches. Following the shooting, the man fled into a wooded area in Crawfordsville. Sheriff Cecil Goodwin the assembled a posse of 100 men to hunt down the shooter. The news story, however, did not report the shooter’s name and Allen did not know how the story ended.

Investigators went to the state archives in Little Rock and eventually found a news account in the June 16, 1944 edition of the Crittenden County Times on microfilm.

According to the news story, the shooter was tracked down and killed by the posse in a shootout following an 18-hour man hunt.

“What a story,” Allen said.

“It explained everything.”

“Negro Slayer Is Killed By County Posse: Eighteen Hour Hunt Is Held For Man Following Shooting Of Constable At Crawfordsville,” the headline proclaimed.

The story contained numerous details which filled in the gaps about what happened to Robbins’s grandfather that day in 1944.

Robbins was a native of Leighton, Alabama who came to Crittenden County 18 years ago and settled in Crawfordsville, Before being elected as constable and Crawfordsville’s city marshal, Robbins was employed by the county as a construction worker. He had served as the Crawfordsville and Jackson Township official for nine years and for the past two years as deputy sheriff.

Robbins went to the Coleman place to investigate trouble that the man had had with some women who had attempted to buy some peaches. The man was identified as 45 year-old John Brooks, who was a sharecropper. The women claimed Brooks threatened them with a gun.

Robbins and a soldier from the Crawfordsville prison camp went to investigate and found Brooks in the field. Robbins noticed that Brooks was armed and turned to go back to his patrol car to get his pistol when he was shot. The soldier ran back to Crawfordsville following the shooting and reported what had happened. A posse was immediately formed.

Robbins had told a friend before he set off to investigate that Brooks “was a bad one.”

Witnesses said Brooks thought Robbins would die shortly and propped his head up with a rock and waited by his side for about 40 minutes. Brooks eventually took Robbins’s gun and fled to a wooded area near Lehi.

Goodwin and the posse caught up with Brooks early the next morning and circled the woods to prevent him from escaping until the bloodhounds arrived.

According to Goodwin, the dogs caught up with Brooks but he beat them off. More dogs were brought to the scene and Brooks was eventually cornered.

During the shootout,

Brooks killed a horse which a trustee from the state prison who was aiding

in the search was riding.

Brooks was eventually hit by fire from a shotgun and killed.

Goodwin told reporters that Mr. Coleman told him that Brooks had previously served a jail sentence on an assault charge with intent to kill, but that he did not recall the case.

Allen said he is glad that they were able to find out what happened to Robbins. “It’s kind of neat being able to bring back history,” Allen said. “He was intrigued by the story. He was amazed that he lived his whole life and heard bits and pieces. This just put it all together. And now he has that history and his grandkids will get know about their great-greatgrandfather.”

Allen said the news story really brought back the history of the area in the 1940s. The country was still fighting World War II.

Crawfordsville was home to a Japanese prisoner of war internment camp.

“Times were so different,' Allen said. “The guy who accompanied him was a soldier from the prison camp. The camp is long gone, but there is still a dirt road called Prison Camp Road in Crawfordsville.”

Allen said the story was something you might see in an old time 1940s black and white movie.

“It was an old fashioned man hunt complete with blood hounds,” Allen said.

“They basically got a posse together of citizens and went after him. There were 100 people in that posse.

They just got John Doe citizen to join in the hunt. It’s just an amazing story.”

Allen said he’s planning on holding a ceremony later this spring to add Robbins’s name to the Crittenden Fallen Officers Memorial, along with two other law enforcement officers.

By Mark Randall