L.E. Ford would "fight a circular saw at the slightest provocation," as the Clarion-Ledger put it back in 1893 when it reported his hanging in a rather colorful story. To call him a sumbtich is an insult to sumbtiches everywhere. The current crop of street thugs had nothing on this guy.
I came across this oooooold story when digging through the archives of the Clarion-Ledger. The only way to keep it legible for you, the reader, was to screenshot sections of the article. Read the left column all the way down then go back to the top right. Sorry for the inconvenience.
17 comments:
Man, this is as good an article as ever was. Thank you
It says right there in the paper that he was a good person and never hurt anybody in this entire life. Unless you had a little bit of the whiskey in him.
Not too far removed from a lot of personalities during the wild west. Interesting character study KF.
White privilege has limits—even in 1893 Magnolia, MS.
If only reporters would learn to write like that again…
A hanging was the lynchpin of criminal justice back in the day.
Great story. I'm surprised no one has made a movie...Open with Ford on the gallows, then start the flashbacks.
"There must have been some charm about the man of which only his immediate friends were aware."
I look forward to using this sentence.
Literally reads like a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Ha! I see what you did there. Well played.
3 months from trial to hanging. Such expediency today would surely deter some of these brazen thugs.
The Clarion Ledger once contained news worth reading? Who knew!
I think we might be related--
It has been said of hime that "when sober he was clever a gentleman and as jovial a companion as ever lived _______but that he was never sober."
Super stuff Fish.
"I don't think I have been treated right. Men are committing murder every day, and are getting cleared."
That sounds familiar. Apparently, this guy also had plenty of fanboys back in the day.
Oh how we love the idea of the drunken badass. "Women wanted to have sex with him, and men wanted to be him" and all that sort of bullshit.
Found this article in his local McComb newspaper. Many more details of the execution and funeral. Should be paywall free.
Some of the locals were suspicious that a non public hanging would be carried out, they were first in line to see the body.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-mccomb-city-enterprise-le-ford-a/173840626/
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