These two brothers were both shot and killed in the same area of Bogue Chitto Swamp, several years apart. The first murder was never solved. The second murder was solved because the murderer, who was a relative of the victim, confessed.
Milton Adolphus Smith & Samuel Wyatt Smith
Sons of Walter Lorraine Smith & Emma Julia Warren
My 1st cousins, 3x removed
Milton Adolphus Smith
18 October 1877 MS – 2 July 1912, 34 years old
Dr. Milton Smith Assassinated
Shot from Ambush by Unknown Men
Blood Hounds Loose Trail After a Short Distance
No Clew [sic] to the Murderers
On Tuesday shortly after noon, while walking towards his father’s house from Warnerton, at a point about one hundred yards east of Stalling bridge, Dr. Milton Smith was shot from ambush and killed instantly by parties yet unknown. The assassins had hidden behind a clayrot, well over-grown with bushes and vines, making a complete screen, and the impressions showed they must have waited hidden, some long time. As Dr. Smith walked along alone thru the swamp and just as he passed beyond the line of waiting men and only about 10 feet from the end of the guns, three heavy loads of buckshot were discharged into his back, tearing and mutilating the body terribly, from which death must have ensued at once. There was no witness to the tragedy but parties at a distance hearing the shots say they came in such rapid succession as too show beyond a doubt that there were at least two who fired from ambush. About 30 minutes after the firing the body was discovered by Mr. Wilkes who gave the alarm and in a short while friends conveyed the remains to the home of W. L. Smith the father of the dead man, where the inquest was held and where the funeral was preached on Wednesday morning by Narvel Fortenberry, interment taking place in the family burial ground in the Mt. Point neighborhood.
Dr. Smith was a well known practicing physician of Mt. Herman, an unusually progressive man of very strong personality.
He leaves a wife and two children, a father, mother and several brothers and sisters to bear the sorrow of his tragic death, the burden being all the greater thru his having been allowed no chance to save his life.
The sheriff telephoned Tylertown for blood hounds to track the assassins but after following the trail only about a mile they gave up, and there now seems no possible clue to work upon, there being no sign whatever other than tracks made by about a No. 7 shoe.
Source: Dr. Milton Smith Assassinated (Franklinton, LA: The Era – Leader, 4 July 1912) 3; digital image, Newspapers.com: accessed August 2020.
Samuel Wyatt Smith
15 December 1886 MS – 4 October 1918, 31 years old
Sam Smith Shot from Ambush
Sam Smith of the Mt. Point neighborhood was shot from ambush Friday on his way thru Bogue Chitto Swamp near Warnerton, twelve buckshots being fired into the center of his back and producing instant death.
While there was no eye-witness to the killing, George Smith, a neighbor and kinsman of the slain man, called up sheriff Bateman and confessed to the crime and asked that the officer come after him. He was lodged in jail in the night and the grand jury has been called for a special meeting to investigate the matter in advance of the November term of court.
Sam Smith is a son of Mr. Walter Smith and one of the best and sturdiest men of the parish who for years was president of the police jury and who, six years ago suffered a bereavement of his eldest son, Dr. Milton Smith.
Dr. Smith was ambushed from a point in the same swamp only a few yards distance from where his brother was killed Friday, tho [sic] his murderer has never been apprehended.
Ill feeling has existed between George and Sam Smith for some time, in fact it appears that a case was pending before the grand Jury in which George Smith was accused of having broken the leg of a mule belonging to Sam Smith, and while it is not known whether or not a full statement has been made by the murder yet, it is generally understood that the crime was the outgrowth of the old grudge. Both are men of family, Sam Smith having left a wife and several children.
The deceased was buried Saturday afternoon by the side of his slain brother in the family burying ground at Mt. Point.
Source: Sam Smith Shot from Ambush (Franklinton, LA: The Era – Leader, 10 October 1918) 2; digital image, Newspapers.com: accessed Aug 2020.
Note: Walter & Emma had 13 other children, not shown in chart.
