Roscoe Jackson
May 11, 1901 - May 21, 1937
Roscoe Jackson was born May 11, 1901 in Ozark County, MO to A.J. Jackson (born Ky or Ohio) and Kyle Jackson (born in MO).
He was married to Dona Jackson, and was a farm laborer.
He died on May 21, 1937, at Galena Missouri, according to the Missouri Death Certificate due to being "Legally Hanged by the neck". He was 36 years and 10 days old.
Physician who signed was H.L. Kerr, Crand MO, who stated, "I saw him hanged".
Burial was at Howards Ridge Cemetery, Ozark Missouri on May 22, 1937.
Informant on the death certificate shows: Roscoe Jackson.
---------------
According to newspaper article and other sources:
Jackson was born in a log cabin on Liner Creek, not far from Howards Ridge, in 1901
---
A concealed weapon charge was Jackson's first brush with the law. As a teenager, Jackson and another boy were both enamored of the same girl. Jackson and his rival had a fight, with the rival the winner. Jackson started carrying a gun and let everyone know about it, although he really had no intention of using it. This resulted in his being arrested by the town constable for carrying a concealed weapon. His father, Andrew Jackson, hired General Washington (G. W.) Rogers to defend Jackson. He was convicted and sent to the state penitentiary.
He was later paroled, but Jackson jumped parole and went to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
He had other brushes with the law and penetentiary prior to the murder of the salesman. (Information online)
---
In late August of 1934, he started home to see his father. Hitch hiking, he was given a lift by Pearl Bozarth, a well known chicken remedies salesman. They spent the night in Forsyth. Jackson slept on the courthouse lawn and Bozarth stayed at Swan Creek Camp, operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Reed. Bozarth and Jackson left for Ava about 8:30 A.M. the next day.
Later that day, a farmer found Bozarth's body with a bullet wound in the abdomen.
Jackson had been hiding out periodically at Pauls Valley, Ok at a girlfriends place where he had gone to visit when the tragedy occurred.
---
The trial had been moved to the county where it was tried due to a change of venue.
On the eve of his execution, Jackson told Sheriff Frank Stevens, of Ozark County, that he had committed three other murders.
---
Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged at dawn on May 21, 1937, for murdering a traveling salesman for his car and $18. Several hundred witnesses were jammed inside the temporary stockade, built around the gallows, and many more people milled about the courthouse square.
Sheriff Isaiah H. Coin had issued about 400 written invitations to the hanging. Holding a pass was enough to get inside the 40-foot-square stockade.
Nobody could have known it then, but they constituted the last big audience for an execution in the United States.
Missouri followed suit in 1938, ordering that all executions be carried out in a gas chamber at the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
It certainly was on the evening of May 20, 1937, when townsfolk and strangers packed the square in Galena. Marie Tilden went downtown that night with her parents and was amazed by the commotion. What she most remembers is the solitary older man who rested in the street, his head propped against the curb.
"It turned out to be Red Jackson's dad," said Tilden, 75, who still lives in Galena. "There were all these strangers having bonfires and ducking in and out of the taverns, and all I could think of that night was that little man with nobody talking to him."
One week later, the Stone County News said this: "One of the most disgusting things in connection with the execution was the attitude of some folks who came to Galena the evening before. While some of them conducted themselves in a way befitting the occasion, others considered it a time for merriment. . . ."
May 11, 1901 - May 21, 1937
Roscoe Jackson was born May 11, 1901 in Ozark County, MO to A.J. Jackson (born Ky or Ohio) and Kyle Jackson (born in MO).
He was married to Dona Jackson, and was a farm laborer.
He died on May 21, 1937, at Galena Missouri, according to the Missouri Death Certificate due to being "Legally Hanged by the neck". He was 36 years and 10 days old.
Physician who signed was H.L. Kerr, Crand MO, who stated, "I saw him hanged".
Burial was at Howards Ridge Cemetery, Ozark Missouri on May 22, 1937.
Informant on the death certificate shows: Roscoe Jackson.
---------------
According to newspaper article and other sources:
Jackson was born in a log cabin on Liner Creek, not far from Howards Ridge, in 1901
---
A concealed weapon charge was Jackson's first brush with the law. As a teenager, Jackson and another boy were both enamored of the same girl. Jackson and his rival had a fight, with the rival the winner. Jackson started carrying a gun and let everyone know about it, although he really had no intention of using it. This resulted in his being arrested by the town constable for carrying a concealed weapon. His father, Andrew Jackson, hired General Washington (G. W.) Rogers to defend Jackson. He was convicted and sent to the state penitentiary.
He was later paroled, but Jackson jumped parole and went to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
He had other brushes with the law and penetentiary prior to the murder of the salesman. (Information online)
---
In late August of 1934, he started home to see his father. Hitch hiking, he was given a lift by Pearl Bozarth, a well known chicken remedies salesman. They spent the night in Forsyth. Jackson slept on the courthouse lawn and Bozarth stayed at Swan Creek Camp, operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Reed. Bozarth and Jackson left for Ava about 8:30 A.M. the next day.
Later that day, a farmer found Bozarth's body with a bullet wound in the abdomen.
Jackson had been hiding out periodically at Pauls Valley, Ok at a girlfriends place where he had gone to visit when the tragedy occurred.
---
The trial had been moved to the county where it was tried due to a change of venue.
On the eve of his execution, Jackson told Sheriff Frank Stevens, of Ozark County, that he had committed three other murders.
---
Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged at dawn on May 21, 1937, for murdering a traveling salesman for his car and $18. Several hundred witnesses were jammed inside the temporary stockade, built around the gallows, and many more people milled about the courthouse square.
Sheriff Isaiah H. Coin had issued about 400 written invitations to the hanging. Holding a pass was enough to get inside the 40-foot-square stockade.
Nobody could have known it then, but they constituted the last big audience for an execution in the United States.
Missouri followed suit in 1938, ordering that all executions be carried out in a gas chamber at the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
It certainly was on the evening of May 20, 1937, when townsfolk and strangers packed the square in Galena. Marie Tilden went downtown that night with her parents and was amazed by the commotion. What she most remembers is the solitary older man who rested in the street, his head propped against the curb.
"It turned out to be Red Jackson's dad," said Tilden, 75, who still lives in Galena. "There were all these strangers having bonfires and ducking in and out of the taverns, and all I could think of that night was that little man with nobody talking to him."
One week later, the Stone County News said this: "One of the most disgusting things in connection with the execution was the attitude of some folks who came to Galena the evening before. While some of them conducted themselves in a way befitting the occasion, others considered it a time for merriment. . . ."
Roscoe Jackson
May 11, 1901 - May 21, 1937
Roscoe Jackson was born May 11, 1901 in Ozark County, MO to A.J. Jackson (born Ky or Ohio) and Kyle Jackson (born in MO).
He was married to Dona Jackson, and was a farm laborer.
He died on May 21, 1937, at Galena Missouri, according to the Missouri Death Certificate due to being "Legally Hanged by the neck". He was 36 years and 10 days old.
Physician who signed was H.L. Kerr, Crand MO, who stated, "I saw him hanged".
Burial was at Howards Ridge Cemetery, Ozark Missouri on May 22, 1937.
Informant on the death certificate shows: Roscoe Jackson.
---------------
According to newspaper article and other sources:
Jackson was born in a log cabin on Liner Creek, not far from Howards Ridge, in 1901
---
A concealed weapon charge was Jackson's first brush with the law. As a teenager, Jackson and another boy were both enamored of the same girl. Jackson and his rival had a fight, with the rival the winner. Jackson started carrying a gun and let everyone know about it, although he really had no intention of using it. This resulted in his being arrested by the town constable for carrying a concealed weapon. His father, Andrew Jackson, hired General Washington (G. W.) Rogers to defend Jackson. He was convicted and sent to the state penitentiary.
He was later paroled, but Jackson jumped parole and went to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
He had other brushes with the law and penetentiary prior to the murder of the salesman. (Information online)
---
In late August of 1934, he started home to see his father. Hitch hiking, he was given a lift by Pearl Bozarth, a well known chicken remedies salesman. They spent the night in Forsyth. Jackson slept on the courthouse lawn and Bozarth stayed at Swan Creek Camp, operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Reed. Bozarth and Jackson left for Ava about 8:30 A.M. the next day.
Later that day, a farmer found Bozarth's body with a bullet wound in the abdomen.
Jackson had been hiding out periodically at Pauls Valley, Ok at a girlfriends place where he had gone to visit when the tragedy occurred.
---
The trial had been moved to the county where it was tried due to a change of venue.
On the eve of his execution, Jackson told Sheriff Frank Stevens, of Ozark County, that he had committed three other murders.
---
Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged at dawn on May 21, 1937, for murdering a traveling salesman for his car and $18. Several hundred witnesses were jammed inside the temporary stockade, built around the gallows, and many more people milled about the courthouse square.
Sheriff Isaiah H. Coin had issued about 400 written invitations to the hanging. Holding a pass was enough to get inside the 40-foot-square stockade.
Nobody could have known it then, but they constituted the last big audience for an execution in the United States.
Missouri followed suit in 1938, ordering that all executions be carried out in a gas chamber at the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
It certainly was on the evening of May 20, 1937, when townsfolk and strangers packed the square in Galena. Marie Tilden went downtown that night with her parents and was amazed by the commotion. What she most remembers is the solitary older man who rested in the street, his head propped against the curb.
"It turned out to be Red Jackson's dad," said Tilden, 75, who still lives in Galena. "There were all these strangers having bonfires and ducking in and out of the taverns, and all I could think of that night was that little man with nobody talking to him."
One week later, the Stone County News said this: "One of the most disgusting things in connection with the execution was the attitude of some folks who came to Galena the evening before. While some of them conducted themselves in a way befitting the occasion, others considered it a time for merriment. . . ."
May 11, 1901 - May 21, 1937
Roscoe Jackson was born May 11, 1901 in Ozark County, MO to A.J. Jackson (born Ky or Ohio) and Kyle Jackson (born in MO).
He was married to Dona Jackson, and was a farm laborer.
He died on May 21, 1937, at Galena Missouri, according to the Missouri Death Certificate due to being "Legally Hanged by the neck". He was 36 years and 10 days old.
Physician who signed was H.L. Kerr, Crand MO, who stated, "I saw him hanged".
Burial was at Howards Ridge Cemetery, Ozark Missouri on May 22, 1937.
Informant on the death certificate shows: Roscoe Jackson.
---------------
According to newspaper article and other sources:
Jackson was born in a log cabin on Liner Creek, not far from Howards Ridge, in 1901
---
A concealed weapon charge was Jackson's first brush with the law. As a teenager, Jackson and another boy were both enamored of the same girl. Jackson and his rival had a fight, with the rival the winner. Jackson started carrying a gun and let everyone know about it, although he really had no intention of using it. This resulted in his being arrested by the town constable for carrying a concealed weapon. His father, Andrew Jackson, hired General Washington (G. W.) Rogers to defend Jackson. He was convicted and sent to the state penitentiary.
He was later paroled, but Jackson jumped parole and went to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.
He had other brushes with the law and penetentiary prior to the murder of the salesman. (Information online)
---
In late August of 1934, he started home to see his father. Hitch hiking, he was given a lift by Pearl Bozarth, a well known chicken remedies salesman. They spent the night in Forsyth. Jackson slept on the courthouse lawn and Bozarth stayed at Swan Creek Camp, operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Reed. Bozarth and Jackson left for Ava about 8:30 A.M. the next day.
Later that day, a farmer found Bozarth's body with a bullet wound in the abdomen.
Jackson had been hiding out periodically at Pauls Valley, Ok at a girlfriends place where he had gone to visit when the tragedy occurred.
---
The trial had been moved to the county where it was tried due to a change of venue.
On the eve of his execution, Jackson told Sheriff Frank Stevens, of Ozark County, that he had committed three other murders.
---
Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged at dawn on May 21, 1937, for murdering a traveling salesman for his car and $18. Several hundred witnesses were jammed inside the temporary stockade, built around the gallows, and many more people milled about the courthouse square.
Sheriff Isaiah H. Coin had issued about 400 written invitations to the hanging. Holding a pass was enough to get inside the 40-foot-square stockade.
Nobody could have known it then, but they constituted the last big audience for an execution in the United States.
Missouri followed suit in 1938, ordering that all executions be carried out in a gas chamber at the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City.
It certainly was on the evening of May 20, 1937, when townsfolk and strangers packed the square in Galena. Marie Tilden went downtown that night with her parents and was amazed by the commotion. What she most remembers is the solitary older man who rested in the street, his head propped against the curb.
"It turned out to be Red Jackson's dad," said Tilden, 75, who still lives in Galena. "There were all these strangers having bonfires and ducking in and out of the taverns, and all I could think of that night was that little man with nobody talking to him."
One week later, the Stone County News said this: "One of the most disgusting things in connection with the execution was the attitude of some folks who came to Galena the evening before. While some of them conducted themselves in a way befitting the occasion, others considered it a time for merriment. . . ."
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