Doctors Carpenter and Huyette examined the body at seven minutes after the drop, and again at ten. They pronounced Bohannon dead at 11:20 A.M. The body was cut down from the gallows and delivered to his stepfather, Robert Melton, for burial at the new Pea Ridge Cemetery (also known as Roach Cemetery). As soon as the body was cut down, the crowd rushed for the rope, which was cut up into six-inch pieces and given entirely away. The rope around the gallows that had restrained the crowd also disappeared, but was returned a week later with an old valentine addressed to Sheriff Orchard attached to it … .

George Bohannon is remembered now for the dubious distinction as the object of the first and only hanging in Phelps County. He was a tie rafter and may well have been a drunken rowdy, but it is difficult to see him as an evil creature. Court records do not bear evidence of George’s “dissolute life.” In fact, his name does not appear in Phelps County Circuit Court dockets until he is charged with first-degree murder… .

As in many murder cases, the person least remembered historically is the victim, William Light. It is not even known today where his burial place is. Light’s friends probably called him Bill or Will, but he is forever William in newspaper accounts and court documents … Light was described as a “steady, inoffensive fellow of about 21 years of age, but of sufficient animation to resent an insult when deliberated offered.” He didn’t know that day outside of the cave that liquor was talking or that George was carrying a gun. Had he known, he might have let Bohannon’s insult pass. And had he lived, Light might have made a name for himself as a farmer or merchant, even as a fiddler.

In 1887, the Rolla Herald reported that a mysterious ball of fire had been seen moving across the field west of the Rolla cemetery. Some folks were sure that it was Bohannon’s ghost, but if his spirit made his appearance again, no one reported it. For many years, the anthropomorphic outline of a man was carved into the plaster of Bohannon’s cell in the old Phelps County Jail. Local legend has always held that it was George’s outline, but the carving in the plaster was not mentioned by the Rolla newspapers at the time. Gene McFarland photographed the carving in the cell during a Boy Scout expedition in the 1950s, but the plaster has shelled off the wall in the intervening years. Gene’s photograph may be the only documentation of that bit of Bohannon lore.

 

Originally published in the Newsletter of the Phelps County Historical Society, April 2001. Reprinted with permission.

 

 

Murder at a community picnic

Why George Bohannon was executed

 

Rolla newspapers carried public invitations by the families of the Pea Ridge and Beaver Creek neighborhoods for a pleasant summer diversion on Monday, August 15, 1881. The location was Poole Hollow Cave, about six miles southwest of Rolla and a couple miles east of the future site of Newburg. Poole Hollow, Gourd Creek, and other caves in the area, were popular cool gathering places in the summer months …

August 15 turned out favorable. Nearly everyone within a five-mile radius of the cave turned up for the event; nearly two hundred people may have been in and around the cave at the height of the day. William Light, a twenty-one year old fiddler from the neighborhood, was among the local musicians providing music throughout the day. In the spacious mouth of the cave were a number of stands for lemonade and various refreshments. There were other libations, too. Some of the men nipped from their own flasks and jugs. Outside the cave from a wagon was parked in the brush, neighborhood preacher Jotham Rice sold his homemade wine.

Among the crows were Bohannon brothers: Carter, George, Hance, and Luke … . The day passed pleasantly enough until late afternoon when the crowd began breaking up. William Light put up his fiddle, started out of the cave, and headed for home. He was followed shortly by George Bohannon and John McGowan. They caught up with Light a few hundred yards from the mouth of the cave and walked along with him. They hadn’t gone far when Bohannon and Light exchanged words and some shoving ensued. Witnesses heard a pop and then saw Light stagger backward a step before crumpling to the ground. He may have exclaimed “Boys, look there,” but he never moved again … .

The coroner’s inquest and preliminary investigation began the next day in the court of Justice of the Peace A.L. Stiff … John and William Aaron (fifteen and nineteen years old, respectively) testified that they had walked form the cave with George Bohannon, John McGowan, and William Light. Bohannon and Light began quarreling over some kind of debt owed to Bohannon, and each accused the other of lying. Talk gave way to violence when Light hit Bohannon in the side of the face. He was about to strike another blow when Bohannon pulled out a pistol and fired one shot, exclaiming “Lie there you son of a bitch.” Both Aarons saw the shooting. They testified that Bohannon was not in the habit of carrying a pistol, and that he was a good fellow except when he drank. They also agreed that Light had been unarmed, and that Bohannon had been drinking, but Light had not. After the shooting, Carter Bohannon had gotten his brother a horse and advised him to leave the area …

George Bohannon remained a fugitive during these proceedings and for nearly a month afterward … On September 15, 1881, the Rolla Herald carried the bold headline “Caught and Caged.” The particulars were somewhat less dramatic. Bohannon gave himself up, some said at the instigation of William Melton, his step-brother. He had gone to Melton’s home in Dade County after having been on the run as far as St. Louis and Memphis …

Justice moved swiftly that fall … Judge Charles C. Bland … instructed the sheriff to assemble a pool of forty jurors for trial on October 24. Local interest was intense and there was standing room only in the courtroom when the trial began …

The jurors began deliberations on the following day. Twelve hours had passed when they notified the judge that they had reached a verdict. Brought into the courtroom and polled individually, the jurors announced their unanimous verdict of guilty …

Judge Bland sentenced Bohannon on November 3, 1881 … to hang on December 23, 1881. Bohannon simply nodded his head and sat down, but his brother, Hance, wept as though his heart would break. Mary, George’s wife, clung to his neck as Sheriff Orchard handcuffed him to be taken back to jail …

Bohannon got an early Christmas gift on December 22 when the Missouri Supreme Court stayed his execution until January 20, 1882 …

On January 19, 1882, the Missouri Supreme Court confounded unanimous popular opinion by reversing the Bohannon verdict and remanding the case back to the circuit court in Phelps County….

… George Bohannon’s second trial began on Saturday, February 25, 1882. Spectators filled the courtroom again. There were no new developments … The case proceeded swiftly … The jury began deliberations on Tuesday, February 28, 1882 … They deliberated only two and a half hours before returning another guilty verdict. Bohannon showed no emotion when the jury was polled. He must have known that his fate was sealed, but said nothing when he rose for sentencing. For the second time, Judge Bland sentenced him to hang, and set Friday, April 21, 1882, as George’s last day on earth. – John Bradbury Jr.  

 

George Bohannon was held in the Old Phelps County Jail, which faces north. Bohannon’s cell is on the north side of the first floor. The jail was built in 1860 and may be the earliest building yet extant in Rolla. Both the Old Courthouse and the Old Jail are on the National Register of Historic Places.