Murder of John Thomas
Little Cypress
February 1900
Written by Justin D. Lamb
Above: Sheriff L.E. Wallace investigated the John Thomas Murder
A knock came at the door of Illinois Central Railroad boarding house on the Altona-Sharpe Road in Little Cypress on the Friday evening of February 23, 1900. “Who is it?” asked Henry Carroll. “It’s me, John Greer.”
“The door’s open. Let yourself in.” Carroll said. As John Greer entered the cabin, he lit a match and put it to the coal oil lamp on the table. “It’s awfully late John. What do you want?” Carroll asked. Greer held up a bottle of whiskey and said “My brothers Joe and James are outside waiting. Come on out and drink with us.”
After first refusing, Carroll finally relented and went outside with the Greer boys. As Carroll stepped off the porch and went behind the Greer’s wagon, he noticed a body lying in the back of the wagon. “Is he ok?” Carroll asked. “We picked us up a negro on the way back from Paducah and we are going to straighten him out” replied Joe Greer as he struck a match on the elderly black man and then jerked him out of the back of the wagon and threw him onto the ground into the mud.
“Do you know who this is?” James Greer asked Henry Carroll as he pointed to the elderly black man on the ground. “It looks like John Thomas” replied Carroll. John Greer then took out a whip and began whipping Thomas as his brother Joe Greer brought a quart bottle of whiskey and poured it on Thomas. James Greer then took the bottle and poured the whiskey down Thomas’ mouth. As Thomas spit the whiskey out, James Greer poured the whiskey all over Thomas and then whacked him on the head.
“Let’s tie a strip around his neck and hitch the mule to it.” James Greer suggested in his drunken state to his brothers. “No, I don’t think you all should do that.” Carroll replied. “He’s had enough, just leave him be.” Not listening to Carroll’s advice, the Greer brothers tied Thomas’ hands and feet and placed a rope around his neck before tying him to the wheel of the wagon. “I am not taking part in this.” Carroll said, but James Greer pointed a pistol at Carroll and told him that he was coming with them. As the wagon pulled off, John Thomas screamed for them to stop. After being drug for 700 yards, the wagon stopped and James Greer jumped out, cut the rope and he told Thomas that he was free. As Thomas stumbled to his feet and began to limp away, James Greer waited until Thomas made it 700 yards away before he shot him three times with his pistol. Joe and John Greer ran to Thomas and discovered that he was still alive. James Greer then ordered them to throw Thomas into a nearby creek and they held him under in the cold water for several minutes. Carroll asked James Greer to stop and leave Thomas alone, but they continued the torture. Unable to help Thomas and afraid of James Greer, Carroll walked back to his house fearing the worst for Thomas.
The next morning when Carroll arose and began to go to work on the I.C.C. Railroad, a neighbor stopped by to ask him if he had heard the news. “What news?” Carroll asked. “They found a negro dead on a fence on the Iverlett’s farm” the neighbor said.
Marshall County Sheriff L.E. Wallace arrived shortly after and found John Thomas’ body frozen by the cold February weather. As Sheriff Wallace began questioning the citizens in the area, Henry Carroll told him that he knew who had committed the heinous crime. “I know the Greer boys done this.” Carroll told Sheriff Wallace. “How do you know?” Sheriff Wallace replied. Carroll said “Because I was with them and tried to stop them, but couldn’t.” Within a few short hours, Sheriff Wallace secured an arrest warrant and organized a posse to help take the Greer boys into custody. After a minor scuffle, the Greer brothers were picked up for the murder of John Thomas and taken the Marshall County Jail.
After an indictment was handed down against the three Greer brothers for the murder, the trial began in the March 1900 term of the Circuit Court. Several witnesses were called and many testified that they had indeed seen the Greer boys abuse John Thomas. Witnesses from McCracken County testified that they saw the Greers take Thomas and forced him to drink large quantities of alcohol. The key witness for the Commonwealth was Ed Sargent who testified that he saw through his bedroom window the Greer brothers beat, shoot, and eventually kill Thomas and then place the dead body on Iverlett’s fence which was located across the road from the Sargent home.
After two weeks of testimony, the case was handed over to the jury who acquitted both Joe and John Greer of murder. “How does the jury find James Greer in the murder of John Thomas?” asked Circuit Judge L.D. Husbands. “Guilty and we fix his punishment at life in prison” answered D.W. Smith, foreman of the jury.
Greer’s attorneys, William Reed and Jack M. Fisher, immediately filed an appeal with the Kentucky Court of Appeals and in May 1901, a ruling was made that a new trial was to be given for James Greer on the grounds that Circuit Judge L.D. Husbands should have recued himself from trial and Commonwealth Attorney W.F. Bradshaw committed witness tampering when he spoke to Henry Carroll during a recess of the trial on the day of Carroll’s testimony.
The new trial didn’t begin until the summer of 1902 and James Campbell was appointed as special judge in the case. Jury selection began in June 1902, but with the high profiled nature of the case, seating a jury became very difficult. A panel was finally secured in mid June and after a short two day trial, the jury handed down a not guilty verdict for James Greer. Henry Carroll, who had quit his job with the I.C.C. Railroad and returned to his native Grayson County, was never called to testify in the second trial. Greer was set free and justice was never served for the murder of John Thomas.
