William S. Shackleford (alias J. P. Davis)
Nos. 293, 294
In the fall of 1889 John D. Horton was living on his farm in
Williams township, Chatham county. At Durham, a year or two
previously, he had met and employed as a hired hand a man who
called himself J. P. Davis. A bachelor, Horton sported around
the countryside with Davis and shared a room with him in the
Horton farm house.
678 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
On the night of November 15, Horton left Walter Edwards' (a
neighbor's) house for home, playing his fiddle. "That," in the lan-
guage of the Pittsboro Chatham Record (November 28, 1889),
"was the last seen or heard of him."
Questioned next day, Davis accounted for Horton's absence by
saying that Horton had gone on one of his customary long trips to
Raleigh. During the following week Davis sold some cotton, on
Horton's order, he stated, and returned home. A day later sus-
picions about the continued absence of Horton were expressed in
Davis' presence, and on the following morning he was missing. .
Search of the bedroom and the premises discovered signs of foul
play. On November 2;^ Horton's body was found in a tobacco barn
on the place, buried under the dirt floor. A coroner's jury rendered
a verdict that Horton "had come to his death from blows inflicted
with an edged tool by J. P. Davis."
After a brief manhunt, during which the railway ticket agent at
Chapel Hill remembered having sold to a man answering the de-
scription of Davis a ticket to Danville, Davis was found and arrested
at that place. Waiving extradition, he was brought to Raleigh for
safekeeping. He admitted having killed Horton, pleading self-
defense. For a while feeling in Chatham county was so high that
authorities feared a lynching if Davis should be tried at Pittsboro
(Chatham Record, January 23 and 30, 1890).
Nevertheless, his trial was held there, without disorder, in Feb-
ruary 1890 (Chatham Record, February 20, 1890). Davis main-
tained that, following a violent quarrel over a money settlement
betwen the two, Horton had tried to shoot him in their bedroom
with Davis's own shotgun, which "snapped," and he had killed
Horton with a bootjack. Then, becoming panicky from fear of a
lynching, he had disposed of the body. In the light of all the evi-
dence against him, especially the nature of the lethal wound, the
jury did not believe him but found him guilty, and he was sentenced
to be hanged on March 28, 1890. Some doubt about his guilt was
resolved by exhumation of Horton's body, the skull of which clearly
confuted Davis's assertion that he had killed Horton with a boot-
jack (ibid., March 26, 1890).
Shortly before Davis was executed, investigation of his past his-
tory in South Carolina brought information that his real name was
William S. Shackleford; that he had been a member of a once-
prominent and well-to-do family in Horry and Marion counties,
of that state, and for several years a Methodist, then a Free Will
Baptist, preacher; and that rumors charging him with incest and
infanticide had forced him to flee from South Carolina. Admitting
this identification, he wrote "for publication a full history of his
life," in the form of a pamphlet.^ He also prepared several other
* The existence of this pamphlet, indicated by the Chatham Record,
March 26, 1890, is confirmed by W. B. Morgan in "Old Diary of
Doomed Killer Tells Story of Crime in Chatham County," Greensboro
Daily News, Sunday, June 23, 1946, section 2, p. 6, cols. 6-8. "We are
indebted," states the writer, "to Abner B. Campbell, of Pittsboro, Route
2, for a copy of Shackleford's biography," and Mr. Morgan gives a
summary account of the facts about the murder.
NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS 679
written documents showing him to be a man of some education and
with some facility of expression: a letter of thanks to the editor
of the Chatham Record and his "counselors," pietistic in content
and ending with a three-stanza prayer-poem (Record, March 20) ;
a ballad of fourteen stanzas giving his version of the murder story
and insisting on the bootjack as the weapon used (ibid., March
13); a letter of farewell to his family (ibid., March 27); and a
statement to the public, to be read on the gallows (ibid., April 3).
While in jail awaiting execution, he was visited freely and fre-
quently by curious citizens. "He is," wrote the editor of the Chat-
ham Record, in his March 13 issue, "something of an artist and
passes much of his time in drawing little fancy pictures, which he
gives to his visitors. He is also a rhymester, and has given the
Record the following verses, composed by him since his trial :
"Though I am doomed to be hanged,
In March, on the twenty-eighth day,
I fear not the dreadful pang,
Nor the new and uncertain way.
"Could I feel that I had done wrong.
In that I slew my friend,
How different now would be my song,
How bitter to me would be the end !
"Though sorrow bears me to the ground,
'Tis not that I feel a murderer's guilt,
But that I had to strike him down,
And then the blood of my friend was spilt.
"I was hemmed in and upon my bed.
While he stood between me and the door.
And with the gun presented at my head,
I listened for the fearful roar.
"But fortunately it came down with a whack
And as he turned to the wall for a shell,
I stooped down, took up the little old boot-jack
And struck him two blows and he fell.
"Though he had fallen I feared to remain,
So I escaped to the yard below ;
But becoming alarmed I entered again
To see the result of the blow.
"My God, my God, what a fearful sight
I beheld as I stood in the door.
The spirit of my friend taking its flight.
While he lay in his blood on the floor.
"I took him to the new barn closet,
Where I laid his body by :
For well I knew to expose it
Would be by lynchers' hands to die.
"So when I had fulfilled his last request,
And obeyed his latest command,
I laid him in his grave to rest
And started for the river Dan.
680 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
"Not that I hoped he would long remain
Crouched in this narrow space,
But that he might be found again
And interred in a more befitting place.
"And when I had decided upon a land
Of temporary refuge to me,
I went to Edwards, a neighbor man,
And said, if wanted, where I would be.
"How clearly now to my mind the mistake
I made in this unhappy aflFair !
I might have gone to the sheriff of Wake
And been taken into custody there.
"This God knows I did not know,
But thought it all for the best
To some adjoining country to go
And wait there for my arrest.
"Is there no truth to all I say?
Hear what the Judge has said,
In March, on the twenty-eighth day.
He shall hang by the neck till dead !"'
The execution, according to the Chatham Record (April 3, 1890),
took place in a field three-fourths of a mile north of the courthouse
in Pittsboro, Shackleford insisting, in his last statement: "It was
the bootjack. I certainly used the bootjack."
At the hanging, the crowd disgusted the editor of the Cliathain
Record and others of civilized sensibilities (who wrote letters of
protest) by scrambling for pieces of the rope as souvenirs. Pho-
tographers took several pictures of the execution. One "shot"
caught Shackleford, while his body was suspended, the moment the
body was declared dead. Another was made after the body had
been lowered to the platform and then obligingly strung up again.
The April 10 number of the Record contains this advertisement:
PICTURES OF DAVIS
Those wishing Photographs of the Hanging of James
P. Davis at Pittsboro, can get them of C. W. Rochelle,
Photo-Artist, Durham, N. C. Five Photographs 6^ x 8^2
inches for $2.
April 3, 1890. 4ts.
Last Words of William Shackleford
Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co.
March 28, 1890
From Southgate Jones, Durham, May 5, 1920, with this account of it :
"Some time ago an old darkey recited to me a poem composed by a
^ In the March 20, 1890, issue of the Chatham Record there is a twenty-
seven stanza ballad by J. E. Johnston, of Morrisville, N. C, prefaced
by this statement : "Noticing the verses written by Davis, the condemned
murderer, in last week's Record, I decided, as there are 'two ways of
telling a story,' to tell his story in a slightly different style, and as a
result send the enclosed for publication."
NORTH CAROLINA BALLADS 68l
preacher who was condemned to die for murder and it struck me as
being interesting enough to record. The story that he told in connection
with this incident was that the preacher was attacked by his victim who
drew a pistol and was about to fire when the preacher killed him with
a boat-jack [sic\. The jury, evidently, did not believe his story and
he was sentenced to hang and while waiting for the sentence to be
executed he composed this poem. I have had the old darkey to write
it out for me and I am enclosing portions of it to you. There may be
some portions of it that you cannot make out and in that event, I shall
be glad to help you. "S'ou will notice that the last page contains a song
that this preacher wrote in the same connection."
The excellence of the old darkey's memory is attested by tlie fact
that, thirty years after the event celebrated by the ballad (though how
long after the informant learned it is not known), he reproduced with
substantial accuracy thirteen of the fourteen stanzas in the original. The
following is a copy of his version.
1 Though I am doom to be hang
In March 28 day,
I dread not the fearful i^ang
Nor the new and uncertain way.
2 Could I feel that I have done wrong
In that I slain my friend
How different now would be my song
How bitter would be the end.
3 Though sorrow bowers me down
Tis not that I feel a murder guilt,
But I had to strike him down and thus
The blood of my friend was spilt.
4 I was hemmed in and upon my bed
While he stood before me door
With a gun presented at my head,
I listen for the fearful roar.
5 But fortunately I came down with a whack
And as he turned to the man for a shell
I stopp down took up the old boat jack
Struck him — twas blows and he fell.
6 Though he had fallen I feared to remain
So I escape to the yard below —
But becoming alarm I entered again
To see the result of the Blow.
7 My God what a fearful sight
I beheld as I stood within the door.
The spirit of my friend taking its flite
While he lay in his blood on the floor.
682 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE
8 I took him to the new Barn Clorset
Where I lade his body by
For well I knew then to expose it
Would be by linchers hands to die.
9 Twas not that I hope he would long remain
Crush in that narrow space.
But that he mite be found again
And entered in a more befited place. ^
10 And when I had desided uppon
A land of tempenalay refuge to me
I went to Edwards a naboro man
And said if wanted where I would be.
11 How clear to my mine the mistake
I have made in the unhappie afifair.
I mite have gone to the Sherifif of Wake
And been takend in Custerday thair.
12 This God knows that I did not know
But thought it all for the best
To some adjoinin countray to go
And wate for my arest.
13 Is thair no trouth in all I have said.
Hear what the Judge have said.
In March 28 day he shall hang
By the neck until dead.