The capture, trial and execution of
Silas Richardson
as reported in the Sea Coast Echo
1928 – 1929
Sea Coast Echo, August 17, 1928
MAN KILLED, POLICEMAN SHOT, NEGRO MURDERER ESCAPES, OFFER REWARD
John Victor Dambrio Is Dead, Chief of Police Mark Oliver Seriously Wounded as Result of Shots Fired By Negro Tuesday at City Hall
John Dambrino, 32 years old, of Kiln, Miss., was killed and Chief of Police Mark Oliver of Bay St. Louis was wounded with two bullet wounds Tuesday when Silas Richardson, 30 year-old Logtown and Bay negro, shot his way to freedom at the city jail where he was held as a suspect in an automobile theft. The negro escaped after the shooting, going around the northwest corner of the jail, running through the park behind the jail, reaching the home of his parents, Ben Williams and wife, where he changed his clothes except his shoes, reloaded his gun and took three additional rounds of ammunition for it, and escaped to the woods.
Searching parties including several hundred men and officers from the entire Coast section scoured the woods and roads and trains from Bay St. Louis, east, west and northward through Tuesday night, Wednesday and Wednesday night, without finding the negro.
Story of the Shooting
The clearest story leading up to the shooting and of the shooting itself that could be obtained from questioning many connected with the case is given below:
The negro was suspected of having stolen a Willys-Knight sedan about 6:30 o’clock Tuesday morning belonging to J. H. Duncan of New Orleans who is spending the summer at Henderson Point and who commutes daily to the city, leaving his car in the care of Monti Brothers Garage on Hancock and Union streets. Police were notified and Mr. Oliver arrested the negro near the traffic bridge on Front street and took him to the Monti’s Garage. He was not in the car. When questioned as to the car the negro denied knowing anything about it. It was later found back of the college baseball park. The negro had formerly worked for the garage on the greasing and washing rack but had been fired about three weeks ago, and had been suspected of taking this same car once before. Claude Monti told officer Oliver to lock the negro up, which he did, taking him to the city jail.
About an hour and a half later officer Oliver went to the jail to search the negro for the keys belonging to the auto. He was accompanied by Mr. Dambrino who formerly worked for the Monti Garage but who had not been regularly connected with the garage for several months, but who was there Tuesday working on his own car, putting on a fender. He is said to have gone to the jail to see what was going on.
Two boys, Linoel Vicery, 15, and Johnny Dameran, 15, were sitting in the hallway of the hail talking to the negro who was in a cell when the officer and Dambrino arrived.
As officer Oliver opened the cell door he told the negro he had come to search him; The negro took a pen knife out of his pocket and gave to the officer stating that was all he had. Officer Oliver started to search the negro and the negro resisted the search backing up going into the cell with Oliver following. The boys, one of whom was lying on the floor and the other hiding behind a stool heard shots from the cell and saw Mr. Oliver backing out drawing his gun. They saw the negro shoot Mr. Dambrino who was going to the aid of Mr. Oliver and saw him fall. Then Mr. Oliver shot at the fleeing negro, missing him Mr. Oliver stated that as he approached the negro in his cell the negro drew his gun and shot. Two shots entered Mr. Oliver, on in the scalp and the other entered the upper vertebras of the spine. The one shot at Mr. Dambrino entered his forehead over the left eye, killing him. As he fell one of the boys reported hearing him say, “I’m shot: I’m dying.”
Vicery assisted Mr. Oliver outside and up the stairs to the city hall.
Mayor Chas Traub, Sr., and Commissioners H.F.Egloff and S.J. Ladner, were upstairs in the city hall working on the pay …… (Not readable on microfilm copy at BSL Library)..
……answered and the search began.
Search Parents Home
A group including Policeman A. E. Saucier, E.S. Drake and a Mr. Ransey, former employees of the Dixie Construction Company here made the first search of the house where Richard(s)on’s parents live, finding that the negro had gone. Assisting them were Albert Jones, Frank Quintini, Harry Witter and George Aiavolasati. When they failed to find the negro they departed.
They learned that the negro had changed his clothes at home except his shoes and had gotten four rounds of ammunition for his gun which means 24 loads and had left.
Later Policeman Saucier, Gaston Telhiard and John Beuhler, returned to the house to secure some clothing to give the bloodhounds for the scent and the woman said she had burned the clothes. Mayor Chas Taub, Sr., and a squad of men went to the house and found some buttons and the shells from the gun in the stove.
Search From All Directions
Searching parties numbering, it was said, several hundred men and officers searched all of Hancock and Harrison county roads, bridges and passing trains. Officers from Picayune and points north were out on a search. special officers from New Orleans were placed as a searching and watching party on all roads and railroads entering New Orleans from the east. Autos bearing negroes were stopped and searched Wednesday night.
Policeman Saucier and others
REWARD OFFERED
Reward totaling up to this writing $650.00 has
been offered for the capture of Silas Richardson,
dead or alive, by the following:
City of Bay St. Louis —-$100.00
Jos. C. Jones, Sheriff—– 50.00
Hancock County ——— 250.00
State of Mississippi —— 250.00
Total $650.00
The reward will more than likely be increased
several hundred dollars by popular subscription
Sea Coast Echo, August 24
NEGRO MURDERER IS STILL AT LARGE AFTER TEN DAYS SEARCHING
Silas Richardson Has Not Been Captured – Two Negroes killed and One Wounded in Attempt at Apprehension – Still Searching
Silas Richrson, 30-year old negro, who shot and killed John Dambrino of Kiln, and wounded Mark Oliver, Bay chief of police, Tuesday, August 14, at the city hall, is still at large after a ten days’ search by officers and men of Hancock county aided by officers from all neighboring counties in Mississippi and Louisiana parishes.
Two negroes are dead, one in Gulfport and another at Bogalusa, and a third is wounded at Bogalusa camps, as a result of the zeal of the officers and citizens to apprehend the escaped murderer, each instance of the wounding and killing of the coming from a refusal on the part of the negroes to surrender, and in at least two instances caused because the negroes attempted to conceal or destroy liquor carried on their persons, which in reaching for, the officers or men mistook for an attempt on the part of the negroes to draw a gun.
The search for Richardson has let to every part of Hancock county, from Mobile to New Orleans, into the woods and marshes of St. Tammany parish, through the dense growth of Honey Island and Pearl River swamps, but without avail. Every clue that came to the sheriff’s office was followed by Sheriff J. C. Jones and men. Little sleep and constant pursuit has been the order of the day and night for the sheriff and his augmented force since the escape of the negro.
A suspect was captured in Mobile, and held until Bay St. Louis officers headed by Deputy Sheriff Jos. Bontemps, went to Mobile, finding the negro held was not Richardson. Suspects in Gulfport were visited by officers. A suspect was held in New Iberia Wednesday and the description of Richardson was telegraphed by local officers there.
Every possible investigation to secure a probable clue has been used. All methods known to officers of the law in the trailing of men has been employed including the use of blood hounds, dragnet tactics, coercion of relatives and friends, questioning of any who might give information and unflagging searching. Until the past two days the searching parties went out from the Bay quite often but for two days officers have let up a bit in their search, assuming that the negro has gotten too far away from this area to be found by constant searching.
The reward for the capture of Richardson will stand, officers said, until he is found dear or alive.
Sea Coast Echo, August 31, 1928
RICHARDSON CAPTURED AFTER LONG MAN HUNT NEIGHBOR TIPS OFFICERS
Negro Neighbor Gives information Which Leads to Arrest of Negro, Who Killed John Dambrino and Shot Bay St. Louis Chief of Police.
Bay St. Louis and surrounding communities were notified Sunday of the capture just before noon of Silas Richardson who had been sought by officers since Tuesday, August 14, as the alleged murderer of John Dambrino of Kiln and for the wounding of Chief of Police Mark Oliver of Bay St. Louis as he shot his way to freedom from the Bay St. Louis city jail where he was held on a charge of alleged theft of an automobile.
The capture of Richardson was effected through information given by Raphael Favre, negro, who resides next door to the parents of Richardson and who saw Richardson go under the house which his parents occupy. Favre went to Albert Favre, who with his brother, Octave Favre, both deputy sheriffs, arrested the negro and lodged him in the county jail. he remained in jail for an hour and a half before Sheriff J. C. Jones who was in Bogalusa arrived on the scene. During this time quite a crowd assembled about the jail but there was no effort on the pat of the crowd to take the negro from the jail.
Later Sheriff Jones accompanied by Lemuel Miller and Albert Favre, deputies and Will Colmer of Pascagoula , district attorney, took the negro from the jail and boarded the afternoon train to New Orleans. Sheriff Jones had phoned to Gov. Theo. Bilbo for advice and had been told to do as he thought best and for the best method of upholding the law, and acting on the feeling that it would be better to take the negro out of the county went to New Orleans. The Bay St. Louis officers and prisoner were met at the L. & N. station by a patrol wagon and squad of policemen who took the negro to the third precinct jail where several hundred persons viewed him before he was taken by Sheriff Jones and deputies to Jackson on the midnight train. At Jackson the sheriff turned the prisoner over to the officers who have placed him in the hands of some unnamed Mississippi county sheriff where the negro will be kept until brought back to the Bay to stand trial.
The Negro’s Story
After Richardson’s capture he was questioned by the county and district attorneys whom he told that he had left the Bay on a southbound L. & N. freight train the night following the fatal shooting and had been living openly under his own name in New Orleans since that time, until returning to the Bay on a late train Saturday night preceding his capture. He stated that he had lived at “Aunt Melissa”s” boarding house at 1221 Poydras street and he had worked daily with a ditching contractor, using his own name.
Richardson told Sheriff Jones that he came to the Bay to get his clothes and when he was found under his father’s house he had a bundle of clothes ready to take with him. He stated that when he arrived in the Bay Saturday night he found the door to his parents house locked and slept the remainder of the night under the house and that next morning when his father went to the jail to take some things to Richardson’s mother, he went inside the house. As he saw his father returning from jail he ran under the house and it was then that the neighbor saw him and reported his presence in the Bay to the Sheriff’s office.
The negro stated that after the shooting he went a short distance from the Bay and hid in the swamp until he caught the freight train to New Orleans.
The capture of Richardson ended a long manhunt in which sheriff’s officers and posse of citizens joined for ten days and which led the searchers throughout South Mississippi in Louisiana and Alabama. The negro declared he never went into St. Tammany parish nor Honey Island swamp nor dressed as a woman as had been reported. He read the daily accounts of the manhunt in the papers.
Court In September
The regular term of circuit court will be opened in Hancock county at the court house at the Bay September 17. The grand jury will convene the same day and it is expected that the trial will be held the third week of September.
Reward Divided
The reward for $650 offered by city, county, state and sheriff, will be divided three ways between the negro who found Richardson and the two officers who effected his capture, it was said.
Several negroes are held in the county jail as accessories in the case against Richardson. Two arrests were made Sunday night when Clarence Williams and his mother Harriett Williams were put in jail. Ben Richardson, Father of the alleged slayer and his brother from Pass Christian have been released.
Sea Coast Echo, September 21, 1928
GUILTY OF MURDER AS CHARGED, REPORTS JURY IN RICHARDSON CASE
Alleged Slayer of John Dambrino to Be Sentenced by Judge White Saturday Morning – Jury Was Twenty-Five Minutes
After being out twenty-five minutes the jury in the case of State versus Silas Richrdson, negro, of Bay St. Louis, charged with the killing of John Dambrino of Bay St. Louis, brought in a verdict of guilty as charged. This was shortly before 4 o’clock Thursday afternoon.
Richardson’s attorneys, when questioned by the newspaper men, replied they did not know whether they would appeal the case.
Judge White told the Echo reporter he would sentence Richardson Saturday morning. He said this would be the second time in his judictal career he would sentence a man to death, although in the first case the man died in his cell from natural causes before the day of execution.
District Attorney Colmer and County Prosecuting Attorney E. J. Gex were vigorous in their prosecution. The plea was Richardson was either guilty or not guilty and if he were, as they had every reason from evidence to believe, then they wanted the full penalty.
Silas Richardson was indicted Monday morning by the Hancock county grand jury for the murder of John Dambrino, who was shot and killed in the city jail at Bay St. Louis August 14, and at the same time chief of police Mark Oliver was shot and wounded, the negro escaping and being captured in the city at his parents’ home after 12 days search. Judge W.A. White, circuit judge, appointed Myron P. Nailing of the firm of Foster and Nailing of Gulfport and Robert W. Thompson of the firm of Mize and Mize & Thompson, Gulfport, to defend the negro. A motion for a change of venue was made by the defense attorneys Monday afternoon but the judge did not allow this motion after testimony had been taken of witnesses to determine if a prejudgement has been formed in the minds of citizens. A motion for a special venire was allowed and Sheriff j. C. Jones was instructed to summon 50 men for Wednesday, the date set for the trial.
All of Wednesday morning was taken up with selection of a jury, 42 of the special venire of 50 men having been questioned before 12 men were accepted by state and defense counsels.
A number of reasons for the failure of the men to please as jurors were found, such as fixed opinions of guilt, participation in the citizens posses in search for the negro, relationship by blood or marriage to Dambrino. William C. Sick and I. T. W. Mitchell were named bailiffs by Sheriff Jones.
The jury accepted and swore in as follows: Luther L. Lee, P. W. Smith, John Howze, Stanley Koch, Sr., Roger Lee, Forest Moran, L. J. Summers, Neal Koch, Jr., Olen Anderson, Willie Ladner, C. W. Fountain, and William Bennett.
A great crowd of men and women from all parts of the county and from every walk of life were present in the court room, hundreds standing through the hours of the trail.
Witnesses examined included Lionel Vickery and John Dermoran, 15-year-old Bay youths who were in the hallway of the jail when the shooting occurred. both of whom testified that they did not see the shooting which took place in the cell. Mark Oliver told the story of the shooting in which he asserted he was shot by the negro when he attempted to search him to determine if he had keys to the auto which he, Richarsdson had been arrested for alleged theft. Oliver also testified that Richardson shot and killed Dambrino.
Mayor Chas. Traub, Sr., was called to the stand and testified that he heard the shots from the city hall above the jail and that when he went down stairs he found Oliver wounded and Dambrino dead from a bullet wound.
Richareson put on the stand testified that he shot Mark Oliver but asserted that he did so by the accidental discharge of his gun, stating that he was attempting to hide the weapon from the officer. He denied shooting and killing Dambrino, stating that if a bullet from his gun killed Dambrino it must have glanced back from the wall.
A curious incident occurred during the trial Wednesday afternoon when the district attorney, Will H. Colmer of Pascagoula, and county attorney, Emile J. Gex, rested their case and the jury was sent from the room, but was recalled upon the defense attorneys pointing out that the fact had not been established by testimony that Dambrino was killed with a bullet.
Incidentally it is understood that the bullet which is alleged to have killed Dambrino must have been buried with him as it was not known to have been taken from his before interment.
Sea Coast Echo, September 28, 1928
NUMEROUS CASES ARE HENDLED AT SEPT. TERM CIRCUIT COURT
…..The murder trial, that of Silas Richardson, negro, who shot and killed John Dambrino and wounded chief of police Mark Oliver as he shot his way to freedon from the Bay St. Louis city jail August 14, was tried Wednesday and Thursday, September 19 and 20, and Richardson was found guilty by the jury. Saturday morning Judge White sentenced Richardson to death and ordered him to ge hanged October 22. ….
HANGING OF NEGRO TO BE IN PRIVATE
Board of Supervisors Nest Monday will Pass on Details – Few Admitted
Exactly one month and day will have elapsed from his day of fateful sentence, when Silas Richarsdson, convicted Bay St. Louis negro of the killing of John Dambrino, will hand on Monday, October 22nd.
The law fixed the time, one month from the date of sentence, or over. Whether Richaredson will be executed inside the walls of the county jail or on a specially constructed gallows built within walls and on the outside of the jail, has not been decided.
The fact that these details are left to the board of supervisors when that body will convene on Monday next, October 1st, it will deliberate and decide on this matter.
There is a trap built in the county jail, over the south-eastern corner, used once for an execution, but while this has been dismantled in a measure, it can, if desired, be again brought into reqkuisition. At what cost, delay and inconvenience is not known. On a previous execution the county built a gallows, and as all executions in Mississippi are, under law, private, a huge fence was built to shut out the public gaze. Only public officials, physicians and newspaper men, selected, are admitted within the confins of the gallows.
Sea Coast Echo, March 29, 1929
RICHARDSON TO HANG ON APRIL 26, DECISION OF LOWER COURT CONFIRM’D
Three Dissent As Sentence of Hancock County Court Is Upheld – Attorneys Will Seek New Hearing
The death sentence of Silas Richardson, Bay St. Louis negro, convicted by the Hancock county circuit court for the murder of John Dambrino, was confirmed Monday in the state supreme court and April 26 was the date set for the hanging
Three judges of the state supreme court, Etheridge, Griffith and Anderson were dissenting judges in the decision, thus making the division of the court divided in half. it is understood that this an en banc decision, where equal division of the court three judges for confirmation and three for reversal meant that the three for reversal meant that the lower court should be upheld, as this the practice when there is a decision of this character.
Richardson’s appeal to the Supreme Court was made by R. W. Thompson, Jr., of the firm of Mize, Mize and Thompson, and Myron P. Nailing of the firm of Foster and Nailing, both of Gulfport. These two attorneys had been appointed by Judge W. A White to defend Richardson. A sensational court case followed the apprehension of Richardson here captured after a man search of 12 days. Richardson had shot and killed Dambrino and wounded Mark Oliver, Bay St. Louis chief of police in the city jail here when they went into the cell where Richardson was to obtain a key, it was said.
The attorneys for Richardson announced immediately following the receipt of the state Supreme Court decision that steps would be taken to again get the matter before the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent the hanging of Richardson, stating that they would file a suggestion of error. The law permits 15 days for this action.
Judge Etheridge wrote the dissenting opinion that was concurred in by Judges Griffith and Anderson.
“It was a reversible error for the court below to refuse to permit circumstances under which Richardson’s arrest was made to be shown in evidence,” Judge Etheridge said.
“The case should be remanded for a new trial in which facts bearing on the arrest and search should be fully inquired into’” he said.
Sea Coast Echo, April 19, 1929
RICHARDSON WILL HANG APRIL 26, SUGGESTION OF ERROR IS OVERRULED
Last Appeal to Supreme court Finds Three Judges, Ethridge, Griffith and Anderson of the Opinion that Decision of Court Was Final
Silas Richardson, Bay St. Louis negro found guilty of shooting and killing John Dambrino of Bay St. Louis and wounding Chief of Police Mark Oliver, in the city hall here in the summer, will hang April 26 in the local jail, the final appeal of attorneys for the convicted man having failed. After the Negro was found guilty in circuit court here and sentenced to hang, his attorneys took the cast to the supreme court and a decision was handed down by that body a few weeks ago in which three judges, Griffith, Ethridge and Anderson, dissented and the decision of the circuit court was therefore upheld
The attorneys for Richardson filed with the fifteen days granted a suggestion of error. Monday a decision was handed down from the supreme court in which the suggestion of error was overruled, the same three judges dissenting in this decision as in the former decision.
Sea Coast Echo, April 26, 1929
SILAS RICHARDSON, MURDERER TO PAY PENALTY WITH LIFE
Will be Hung in Hancock County Jail at Noon Today Execution to be private.
Bay St. Louis, the seat of Hancock county, will be the scene of a legal execution this Friday noon. Which will be within the prison walls and in the presence of a few officials, physicians and newspapermen.
Silas Richardson, negro, is to pay penalty for the murder of John Dambrino who was killed with a piston shot in the Bay St. Louis city jail last August 14.
It will be remembered that Mark Oliver, city chief of police had arrested Richardson for alleged robbery of an automobile. The prisoner was not searched when arrested and it later developed that he was armed with a formidable gun, which he brought into action when attempting to escape and resulting in seriously wounding Chief Oliver and instantly killing Dambrino, who was in his path of exit.
Richardson was brought to Bay St. Louis this week from the hinds county jail where he was held for safekeeping the past several weeks.
An appeal to the State Supreme court was recently denied, and after all pleas had been exhausted, April 26 set as the date of the execution.
Sheriff Jones and deputies report everything in readiness for the execution, which will take place as scheduled unless unforeseen fate or executive clemency intervenes.
Sea Coast Echo, May 3, 1929
NEITHER GUILT NOR INNOCENCE IS CLAIMED BY RICHARDSON
Bay St. Louis Negro is Hanged at Bay St. Louis Friday for The Murder of John Dambrino – Goes to His Death Calmly – Prays As He Stands on Scafford.
The first hanging in twenty years took place in Bay St. Louis at the Hancock County jail Friday morning when Silas Richardson was hanged at 10:15 and at 10:29 was declared dead and was removed from the hangman’s knot at 10:35. He was executed as a result of the sentence passed upon him by the circuit court, sustained by the State Supreme court, for the murder August 14 of John Dambrino whom he shot at the city jail, wounding at the same time Chief of Police Mark Oliver of B;ay St. Louis.
A crowd of approximately half a thousand people gathered around the jail before 10 o’clock, but only about 35 consisting of Hancock County officials , physicians, members of the clergy, press representatives and city and county police authorities of neighboring towns were permitted inside the jail corridors where they could witness the execution.
Sheriff J. C. Jones sprang the trap that sent Richardson’s body dangling at the end of the rope after Deputy Sheriff Ladnes Necaise and Lemuel Miller assisted by Tom Mallini had tied his hands and feet and placed over his head the black cap.
His neck was not broken, physicians said, and his death was produced by strangulation, Dr. C. M. Shipp, county health officer, assisted by “Drs. C. L. Horton, N. W. Fountain, D. H. Ward, and W. S. Speer made the examination and pronounced Richardson dead 14 minutes after the trap was sprung. The body was turned over to relatives of the deceased for burial.
Richardson walked to the gallows unassisted in a calm and calculated manner and the Rev. Leo Fahey, Bay St. Louis Catholic priest performed religious rites after he took his place on the gallows. He had spent nearly the whole of Thursday and a large part of Friday morning in company with Rev. Fahey and Rev. John Koehler, Catholic priest of St. Augustine Seminary at Bay St. Louis.
“I am going to a world unknown” he said. “God will forgive my sins and save my soul……….(page torn)…he breathed his final prayer on the gallows.
Richardson’s execution was the first legal hanging in Hancock County in 20 years, the last having been in 1909 a negro, Joseph Douglas. At that time Albert J. Carver was sheriff.
Other prisoners in the county jail were taken from their cells and carried to the jail yard under guard a few minutes before the execution of Richardson and were returned after his body was removed.
Dambrino, the victim of a bullet from Richardson’s piston had gone to the city jail at Bay St. Louis on August 14 in company with Police Officer Mark Oliver to obtain from Richardson an automobile key, it was believed he had in his possession and belonging to a car that had been stolen. Richardson resisted the officer’s search and opened fire upon him wounding him and killing Dambrino. Following the shooting he escaped and after a man hunt of several weeks in which hundreds of citizens joined with county officers was captured underneath the house of relatives at Bay St. Louis. He was convicted in circuit court, the state supreme court affirmed the conviction and death sentence and later overruled a suggestion of error. An unsuccessful attempt was made Thursday before the hanging by Jackson attorneys for Richardson to get Governor Bilbo to commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
After the body was removed from the rope it was taken in charge by relatives and an undertaker from Gulfport prepared it for burial. The funeral was held in Pearlington.