Richard Coker Thomas

 

Little River News

October 11-1955 

Bullet Kills Prosecutor

ASHDOWN, Ark. 

Prosecutor Richard  Coker Thomas, 40, was shot to death in front of the little River County jail here last night, and a former mental patient whom Thomas was sending to jail was  arrested on an open charge.

 Sheriff Aubrey Thrash said a murder charge would be filed against 67 year old John Spencer Furlow, who lived alone on a small farm three miles outside this small southwest Arkansas town. Thomas was shot in the heart with a .22-ca!iber revolver. Thrash said Furlow fired two other shots into a group of men standing nearby, but no one else was injured. The sheriff said Furlow was committed to the state hospital for the mentally ill at Little Rock from 1936 to 1940. 

Thomas had ordered Furlow jailed on grounds that he had threatened several townspeople with a shotgun. The sheriff said that when he took Furlow's arm to lead him to jail, Furlow drew a pistol and fired at the prosecutor. 

Richard Coker Thomas

1915-1955 

Buried Ashdown Cemetery, Ashdown, Ar

Son of 

Richard Emory & Leona Permilla Graves Thomas

Husband of Alphatique Cole

married 4/13/1941 

Out of Town Papers ~ Little River County Gossip

 Out of Town Newspapers Gossip  about Little River County, Arkansas

1909- Banks at Ashdown get swindled out of nine thousand dollars by a fast talking man who claimed to be John Studstill from Ga. 

1910-Mr. Overton  is under indictment for the shooting of a postmaster in Long, Arkansas on 12-24, 1908. 

1912- Two Wilton men die from drinking cologne after their supply of liquor played out. 

1914- Sixteen buildings in Ashdown are destroyed by a fire that was caused by the explosion of an oil stove in a restaurant. Estimated damage is $25,000.  This is the second fire in four months for Ashdown. 

1916- John Hawkins murdered Mrs. Ben Diles and her 15 month old daughter. 

1920- Mrs. Grover Cobb of Ashdown visits Della Robertson in Jonesboro.

Murder of William Nichols

Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, OK

7/17/1911

Man and Wife to Prison Together

Ashdown, Ark., July 16-- For the killing of William Nichols, a former state representative, John Ford and his wife, Lelia, must serve twelve years each in the state prison. They were found guilty of second degree murder by a jury in the circuit court here Saturday and the court passed sentence immediately after receiving the verdict.  Nichols was slain at Lockesburg last September.  A jury in the first trial found the defendants guilty and they were both sentenced to hang.  The Supreme Court reversed the case.

Arkansas Supreme Court Case: 
Event: 
John R Ford and Lelia (Wilson) Ford were tenants of W.F. Nichols and lived on his farm near Lockesburg in Sevier County, Arkansas.  On the night of September 30, 1910, the Fords quarreled with Nichols about him letting down a fence and driving through one of his fields, which they had rented.  J.R. Ford killed Nichols by cutting or stabbing him with a barlow knife.  

Adcock Brothers

The Dallas Daily Herald- Dec 10, 1881

Texarkana- Special to the Herald

Texarkana, December 9

There were two men found about five miles from the city on the Richmond road murdered. They proved to be two brothers by the name of Adcock, of Little River county, Arkansas.

They were both shot through the head.

The supposed murderers are friends of a man that was sent to the penitentiary from that county, against whom the Adcock brothers were witnesses.

The murder was not committed for the purpose of robbery. They had money on their bodies when found.

About thirty men left the city in search of the murderers at dark this evening.