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- Description is exactly "A Collection of newspaper articles and other documents regarding the May 3, 1948 murder of Rogersville taxicab driver James Herschel Phillips by African-American farmer Nathan "Cush" Bowlin/Bolin.
Bowlin, a married farmer of Rogersville with at least one child, refused to pay his cab fare and when Phillips threatened to turn him over to the police, Bowlin pulled out a .38 caliber pistol and shot Phillips, who died at Limestone County Hospital in Athens Monday night, May 3rd.
Bowlin fled and had not been apprehended by June of 1948, at which time citizens of Rogersville collected $200 for a reward and the State of Alabama also collected $200 for a reward.
Bowlin was finally apprehended to stand trial, at which he was sentenced to life in prison on Monday, March 28. 1949; he appealed his conviction, which was upheld by the Alabama Supreme Court in March of 1950. He was sentenced to Kilby Prison where he served approx. 11 years of his life sentence.
In April of 1961 Bowlin and several other Alabama prisoners were granted parole. Bowlin moved back to Lauderdale County. In a weird twist of fate he died in a house fire at the Bend of the River, off Gunwaleford Road in southwest Lauderdale County.
Nathan Bowlin is buried at the Southside Church of Christ Cemetery at Rogersville, in East Alabama."
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