Appeared in The Angolite, November/December 2001, pp. 34-36.

The biggest prison break of 20th century America took place on Labor Day 1940, when 36 convicts, led by trusty guards who turned their guns on other guards, escaped from Arkansas's Cummins prison farm, the institution later made infamous in the memoirs of reform warden Tom Murton and the popular prison film, "Brubaker." Barely six months after their escape, four of these convicts would be unwilling participants in another historic event--Louisiana's last hanging.

In what was to be not only the state's last hanging but also its biggest execution of the century, these four men kept a Friday afternoon appointment with the hangman in the Caldwell Parish Courthouse in Columbia, Louisiana:

William MeHarg, 25

Floyd Boyce, 29

William Landers, 39

William Heard, 43

After the mass breakout from Cummins, later attributed to the terrible living conditions at the old prison farm, the escapees had split into different groups, "taking off in all directions," according to news accounts. Six of them--commandeering and wrecking cars, capturing and releasing hostages along the way--fled into north Louisiana by Monday night, September 2, 1940. Newspapers labeled their spree a two-day "reign of terror," and it appears that every law enforcement officer and half the male citizenry was armed and out looking for them, while the other half stayed home to protect the women and children from the heavily-armed desperados. Even the trusty guards from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola joined in the search. Steve Alford, the state police superintendent, took to an airplane to direct the search from overhead.

The desperados' escape plan--"to go to Mexico"--completely unraveled after they kidnaped three Rayville high school students--Voncille Williams, Gladys Diamond, and Gerry Harrigill--Monday evening. The convicts were repairing a flat tire on their stolen car near Belvue farm north of Columbia about midnight Monday when a group of possemen approached the car with flashlights. Frank Gartman, a prominent Columbia auto dealer, acted as spokesman for the possemen, warning the fugitives that they were surrounded and pleading with them to surrender. The escapees opened fire, killing Gartman as he ran for cover.

One of the leaders of the prison break, Frank Conley, was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire. He was killed by law enforcement officers on Tuesday while attempting to surrender. Conley was waving his gun from the bushes and yelling, "Don't shoot," when he was shot.

Two of the remaining five broke away from the main group, commandeered another car, took the driver hostage, and tried to flee across the Mississippi River bridge at Vicksburg. In a shootout with police, one convict, Bruce Fowler, "got the top of his head blown off." The other convict, Floyd Boyce, surrendered.

The other three convicts--MeHarg, Landers, and Heard, all coincidentally nicknamed "Bill"--and the three hostages were surrounded in a swampy forest northeast of Columbia. They tried to negotiate an exchange--their freedom for the release of the hostages. When that failed, they gave up on Wednesday, September 4. The three hostages, with wild tales to tell of their captivity, were exhausted but unharmed.

The trial of the four surviving convicts began on October 14, 1940, in Columbia. Despite the reign of terror label, their only capital crime in Louisiana was the killing of Frank Gartman. They would continue to maintain, right up to the day of their execution, that they were only trying to escape the brutal conditions of imprisonment at the Cummins prison farm southeast of Pine Bluff, conditions that would eventually result in the entire Arkansas prison system being held in violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment." They said they meant no harm to anyone. They were just trying to get away.

Jury selection in the trial took longer than expected, when some prospective jurors expressed reservations about giving death sentences to all four men when only one, most likely Boyce, had done the killing. More than 125 names were drawn from the jury box before the 12 jurymen were seated.

Trial testimony lasted three days. The undertaker testified that Gartman had 28 bullet wounds, most of them shotgun wounds to the back. The jury deliberated for about a hour Thursday morning before returning a verdict of "guilty as charged" to capital murder. Judge Cass Moss ordered the four hung.

Radio station KMLB of Monroe had arranged to broadcast the criminals' final statements live from the jail, but this plan was canceled the morning of the execution by Louisiana Attorney General Eugene Stanley. Each of the four gave a final interview the morning before the execution. They asked that an Arkansas state investigation into conditions at the Cummins farm continue, and they told their audience that "crime doesn't pay."

All of them thanked Sheriff George E. Erskine, their jailers, and the townspeople of Columbia, particularly the "little Sunday school girls" who had brought them Christmas gifts.

Floyd Boyce said: "I want to thank all of the good people in and around Columbia for the nice things they did for me. They have made things a great deal more pleasant. My advice to all young people is to avoid crime and sin and try always to live good."

William Heard said: "I think you have a mighty fine sheriff. He has been kind to us . . . . I would like to tell all of the youngsters and old timers, too, that crime does not pay. There is no such thing as `easy money.'"

William Landers also made a final statement, and he gave Sheriff Erskine a dummy pistol made from corrugated cardboard and tin foil. He apparently meant to use it in an escape attempt but never got the opportunity.

William MeHarg gave the longest final statement. He said: "At the beginning I want you to know that I am one of the happiest men in the world. Friends, it may seem strange I can stand before this microphone just a few minutes before my execution and tell you that I am happy. I am happy because I have found the only true happiness in this life. God has spoken to me and has saved me from my sins and I know that where I am going there is only happiness.

"Friends, I have one of the sweetest mothers in all the world, a good Christian, one who has prayed for me, and slaved over the washtub doing other people's laundry that she might give me and other members of the family the necessities. While she was doing this I was in sin, gambling and drinking away the money that I should have given her.

"During the time I was wasting my life in crime and sin my dear mother was praying that I would not be taken from this life in that sinful condition, and I am happy that her prayers

have at last been answered, and she is also happy today to know that I will meet her in Heaven.

"You may wonder how I have come to change my life after having lived so sinful. It is easy to understand. A few days ago I received a letter from my lawyer telling me that everything had been done that could be done in my behalf, and no other steps could be taken. I realized that I had to die. Naturally, I was heartbroken and I didn't know which way to turn.

"Your good sheriff told me to brace up and I wondered if there wasn't some way I could repay my dear mother for all the sorrow I had caused her. It seemed like the Lord spoke to me and told me there was. Then I knew that the dearest gift I could give her was to trust in God. That was the only thing my mother ever asked of me--to turn from sin and be saved. I can remember when I used to come in, regardless of what hour of the day or night, she would always ask me if I was well and safe, and I know now that she is happy knowing I am saved from my sins.

"I want to send this message to all those who are inmates of prisons, young boys in school, and any who are living in crime or thinking of crime: There is no way to win in crime. May look like easy money and pleasure but you see where it got me. My advice is to live clean and honest and turn to God for help, for that truly is the only happiness and pleasure in this world.

"In closing I would like to play my favorite song. A few days ago a group of ladies came up to sing for us. They asked if there was a request, and I called for an officer and tried to request a song that I heard my mother sing many times, `If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again.' Then I realized I could hear my mother pray again, and the song has been a comfort to me in my last days. And so I would like to close by playing this wonderful song on the harmonica and dedicate it to my mother."

The Caldwell Parish Court House was closed all day Friday, March 7, 1941, the day of the hanging. The Caldwell Watchman reported that the four were ready "to walk thirteen steps to the death chamber which surmounts the new Caldwell parish court house. . . . The men are said to be keeping up much courage as the death hour is closely approaching. All four ordered bounteous lunches--fried steak, with all the extra additions--one was so heavily loaded an extra waiter had to be sent up in order to get it all to his cell. They have had spiritual counsel, and the prayers and sincere spiritual advice and instructions have no doubt given them courage to endure the long, anxious hours of suffering and waiting. A number of relatives of the condemned men are here and lending their sympathy and with broken hearts are doing what they know to comfort them."

The hangings started shortly after noon, in accordance with state law. William MeHarg went first, at 12:09 p.m., followed by Floyd Boyce, at 12:39 p.m., William Heard, at 1:13 p.m., and William Landers, at 1:57 p.m. The bodies of Boyce and Heard were buried in the Columbia city cemetery. The body of MeHarg was accompanied back to Missouri by his sister and brother-in-law. The body of William Landers, the last man legally executed by hanging in Louisiana, was carried to Jena, where his brother had arranged for burial.

The 1940 Louisiana legislature had changed the method of execution, providing that effective June 1, 1941, executions were to be carried out by electrocution. Eugene Johnson, a black man convicted of robbing and murdering Steven Bench, a white farmer who lived near Albany, was electrocuted in the Livingston Parish Jail on September 11, 1941, the first use of Louisiana's portable electric chair. It was the first of 87 electrocutions over the next 50 years.