By Jessica Gorman
Just after Thomas R. Martin was shot and killed in 1906 by Charley Bradley, as Bradley sat in the sheriff’s office, he was visited by Tully Franks. Franks was among those who felt that the shooting was justified.
Tully Franks had an older brother named Clem. In 1877, Clem worked for Judge John D. Watkins as toll-keeper for the bridge that crossed Bayou Dorcheat at Murrell’s Point, today, Dixie Inn. On the night of 16 May 1877, Clem was sitting outside Leary’s store with Willie Berry and John Martin, likely the brother of Tom Martin. Between 11:00pm and midnight, Franks headed back to his room for the night never suspecting that an assailant lay in wait behind a pile of boxes between the store and the bayou. A shot was fired from a double-barrel shotgun. Franks was hit in the small of his back and between his shoulders. His friends rushed to his aid, carried him to his room, and summoned a doctor. Clem Franks lingered for five days before succumbing to his injuries on May 21st. He was about 22 years old.
Newspapers described him as “a most estimable young man” with “a large circle of friends and relatives, and is universally esteemed by all who knew him.” He “did not think he had an enemy on earth, and hence has not the remotest idea who could have committed the dastardly outrage.”
In the immediate aftermath, three people were arrested: George Bowie, Dave Lewis, and an unnamed woman. Bowie, identified as the perpetrator, was said to have been from Texas and had only been in the area a few weeks. He was said to have been in possession of a shotgun loaded with three different kinds of shot and that Clem Franks had been hit with at least three different kinds. Also, in the mud at the scene, a footprint was found. The print of a bare foot, with the second toe noticeably longer than the others, was thought to match George Bowie. The other two were arrested and charged as accessories. All were released by mid-June on account of insufficient evidence.
Over a year and a half later, another arrest was made. A man living near Lisbon named Anderson Ames was arrested by W.H. Berry, the same Willie Berry who was with Clem Franks the night he was shot. Ames confessed to the shooting. He said that Hardy Gooden helped him and that Tom Martin had paid him to do it. Both Gooden and Martin went free.
In February 1879, a trial was held. Anderson Ames recanted and said that Willie Berry had offered him $1000 to confess to the crime. Ames was found guilty. The sentence was death by hanging, scheduled to be carried out the day after Christmas. A new trial was requested on the grounds that evidence had been presented implicating others. A new trial would allow Ames to turn states evidence. The request was denied.
Ames was housed in the Webster Parish Jail. In the meantime, a petition was sent to Governor Nichols requesting that his sentence be commuted to life in prison at hard labor. The reason being that “Ames is of weak mind, and that he was instigated to the deed by unknown parties, who used him as an instrument to attain their own ends.” By the date scheduled for his execution, no response had been received. Therefore, the sentence was not carried out.
While Ames was in the parish jail, several jailbreak attempts were made by inmates. One occurred just days before he was set to be hanged. On 22 December 1879, Anderson Ames, Ned Bradley, and Lewis and Ed Jones were being held in the jail. They set it on fire in an attempt to escape. Two months later, Ames, Lewis Jones, and Lewis Alford burned the jail door and this time were successful. It was reported to have been the third attempt in six months. Anderson Ames managed to elude authorities until July. This time, he was placed in the jail at Bellevue.
With Ames in custody, Sherriff James W. Reagan needed a decision on whether his sentence was to be commuted. At the recommendation of R.W. Turner, who had been the judge in the case, and Attorney General James C. Egan, of Claiborne Parish, a decision was finally received from Acting Governor McEnery to commute the sentence. In August, Sherriff Reagan transported Anderson Ames to the state penitentiary. No one else was ever prosecuted, but Tully Franks’s visit to Charley Bradley, 30 years later, speaks volumes to his belief that Tom Martin was ultimately responsible for his brother’s death.
Clem Franks was the second son of William L. and Elizabeth Franks. His father served as parish judge from 1872 to 1874. It is not known if he is buried in the family plot in the Minden Cemetery. There is only one marker there for W. L., Elizabeth, their daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Jerry Hilman. Elizabeth’s mother, Clementine Stephens, was reported to have been buried in the Minden Cemetery, likely in the Franks plot. There is certainly room to accommodate her grave, as well as that of Clem and his older brother William L., Jr. who died in February 1882.
The Franks family plot is nearly adjacent to the Martin family plot in the Minden Cemetery.
(Jessica Gorman is Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, Webster Parish Historian, and an avid genealogist.)