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The John Batson Murder
The Daily Sentinel
January 23, 1905
The Daily Sentinel 6
January 23, 1905
About 10
o’clock Saturday night John Batson, a farmer who resides about six miles east from
town, was shot and instantly killed by Sam Johnson, a brother of the wife of
the deceased.
The facts,
as they have been ascertained, are as follows:
Saturday,
Batson’s daughter eloped with a young man named Kerr. The couple went to the home of Johnson, the girl’s uncle and
remained there for the night. About ten
o’clock Batson went with his gun to Johnson’s house and called Johnson up. Johnson went to the door and inquired what
he wanted, when Batson demanded to be admitted to the room occupied by the
newly married couple. Johnson agreed
for him to enter upon condition that Batson surrender his gun which he refused
to do. Johnson then closed the door and
bolted it. Kerr, who had heard the
conversation from his room, left the house in his night clothes just in time to
be discovered by Batson who fired one barrel of his gun at him, and then
returned to the house and made an effort to enter the house after thrusting his
gun through a crack and trying to shoot Johnson who was in the room with a light. Johnson secured his gun, and as Batson
entered the door, gun in hand, Johnson demanded that he stop and drop his gun
when Batson raised the gun as if to shoot when Johnson fired, the load of small
shot taking effect in Batson’s body, killing him almost instantly.
Johnson is a young married man recently from Alabama and is said by his neighbors to be a quiet and peaceable man, industrious and sober, this being the first trouble he ever had.
6
- Rest In Peace, Nacogdoches Obituaries 1905-1909, Volume II; by Carolyn Reeves
Ericson