Emanuel Jones Shoots Aleck Benton

Title

Subject

The Law, Crime and Punishment

Description

A series of newspaper articles reporting the Saturday night, March 16, 1907 shooting of African-American and Hardin County, Tennessee native Aleck Benton by African-American Mississippi native Emanuel Jones near the corner of Irvine Avenue and Locust Streets in Florence.

Benton, a porter with Young & Smith of Florence was escorting an unnamed young lady to her home on Handy Hill in Florence when the jealous Jones appeared and demanded that Benton leave and allow him to escort the lady home. Upon Benton's reluctance to leave Jones pulled a pistol, firing five shots, one of which wounded Benton between the knee and ankle; he then fled to Mr. John Smith's residence, leaving a trail of blood on the sidewalk, while the young lady attempted to prevent Jones from pursuing him and herself wound up being bitten on the arm. Jones then fled himself, but according to the Florence Herald sent word to Chief of Police Anderson, asking "how much it would cost him to come back," however at the time of publication, "negotiations" had not "proceeded to any extent looking to the return of" Jones.

Aleck Benton (ca. 1878-) was a son of Amos and Ellen Benton, farmers of Savannah, in Hardin County, Tennessee. At the time of his being shot he had lived and worked in Florence only a short time.

Nothing is known of Emanuel Jones at this time, save that he was a Mississippi native who had only been in Florence a short while at the time of his shooting Benton.

The papers didn't make any further mention of this case,

Source

1. Birmingham (AL) News

2. Montgomery (AL) Advertiser

3. Florence (AL) Herald

4. Florence (AL) Times

5. Coosa (AL) River News

6. US Census, 1900 Hardin County, Tennessee.

Publisher

1. Newspapers.com

2. Bell & Howell Micro Photo

3. Newspapers.com

4. Newspapers.com

5. Newspapers.com

6. Ancestry.com Library Edition.

Date

Contributor

Lee Freeman

Rights

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