American history records the Great Depression as a time of unprecedented economic suffering, especially for the Southern region of the United States. Some of the people who lived in Louisiana during that period already lived in great poverty, so when the Great Depression hit, they did not notice that much of a change. As an agricultural state, Louisiana suffered from steep regressions in farm prices, especially in the price of sugar, with additional deficiencies in revenue from the oil and natural gas industry. Even the larger areas of the state—specifically, New Orleans and its port businesses—felt the impact of the Great Depression. Companies once active with the hustle of foreign trade sat motionless with workers vying for limited employment.
Before the Great Depression, Louisiana suffered from floods that devastated crops and left many people homeless. Federal disaster aid did not exist then and the survivors of such tragedies had to make their way to recovery on their own. It took almost a whole generation beyond the Great Depression for Louisianans to fully recover from the Great Flood of 1927.1
Around this time, the plight of the less fortunate was recognized by those who believed they could garner change. Huey P. Long, Jr., ran a concentrated campaign in 1928 to become the state’s governor. With the onset of national financial melancholia, Long’s campaign promised to reduce the poverty level by making the rich a target for his progressive “Share the Wealth” ideology. After Long became governor, he formulated a road and highway-building program that did not really lessen the unemployment ranks, but gave the appearance that Louisiana was moving toward a greater economic recovery. Long ruled the state with an iron-handed autocracy and although some of his programs helped to relieve the widespread poverty within the state, the scourge of homelessness and desperation became evident in the people of the rural (and even the urban) areas in 1934.
In Shreveport, Louisiana, in particular, homeless people gathered under railroad overpasses and established small unofficial townships for shelter and survival. In one of these municipalities, a middle-aged man and his wife lived a pauper’s existence. He sold homemade accessories—specifically, little butterfly bows that young girls could place in their hair, keeping with the fashion of the time—on the streets. The little trinkets proved especially attractive to adolescent girls from poverty-stricken families in and around Shreveport. On a humid April day in 1934, one young girl admired the adornments enough that she met the “Butterfly Man,” as he came to be known, and the encounter proved tragic. Moreover, strong suggestions surfaced that the Butterfly Man may have been involved in one of the most infamous legal cases in the annals of American crime.
On the morning of April 15, 1934, between 8:30 and 9:00 AM, Will Marion, a Shreveport local, walked through the woods on the outskirts of the town with his friend, Albert Green, to their favorite fishing spot near Cross Lake. As they plodded through the wooded area, the boys discovered what first appeared to be a pile of clothing in the middle of a clearing in the Cross Lake woods. Marion later elaborated:
We were walking through the woods and I saw something piled up in a cluster of brush and I told Albert, “I see something” and he says “Well, what is it?” and I said, “I don’t know until I get there.” And Albert says, “It looks like something dead,” and I told him to wait and go over there and see. I went over there and I saw that there was a girl that was murdered and she had a cluster of leaves and rotten wood piled on top of her and she was lying kinder [sic] on her side with her legs spread open. So when Albert walked up, I told him, “Don’t come up any closer than ten feet of the body.” He [Albert] asked then what we would do about it and I told him, in a case like this we would have to go and notify the sheriff’s department.2
After their discovery, Marion and Green quickly ran to a boat launch owned by Lee Thompson. When they related their discovery to the business owner, Thompson called the sheriff’s department, but he did not go to the clearing to examine the scene.
Approximately two hours after Thompson made the call, Caddo Parish sheriff Thomas Roland Hughes, along with Shreveport Police Chief Dennis Bazer and his city detectives, and Parish Coroner Dr. W.P. Butler, made their way to the local access road, Jewell Street, where Marion stood waiting. Sheriff Hughes, Dr. Butler, and the rest of the Shreveport detectives followed in another vehicle and arrived close to the body.
When the authorities arrived at the site, Dr. Butler, the coroner, noted that the body of the young girl laid on her back, with “her head slightly to the left, right arm folded across the chest, left arm folded up by the left side and toward face, left leg extended and markedly out to the left, right leg thigh extended and left leg folded backward.” The clothing on the young girl’s body was pulled up above her thighs, barely covering her pubic area.3 Dr. Butler made a detailed diagram of the crime scene where he noted blood and toiletries scattered around the body. The victim wore a “yellow figured print dress” covered with a “black coat” saturated with blood. The assailant(s) took her hat, a jar of face cream, and an ironed cloth of some type and stacked them neatly between the victim’s legs. Secondly, the assailant(s) gathered leaves and pieces of wood and placed the debris around the body. The meticulous manner in which these items were placed suggested that the assailant(s) contemplated starting a fire to conceal the evidence. After making a detailed diagram of the body’s position and noting other observations at the crime scene, Dr. Butler requested that the body be removed from the scene and brought back to his office for further examination.4
When the body arrived at the autopsy table of Dr. Butler, he noted that the young woman was about fifteen or sixteen years old, five-foot-four in height, and weighed approximately 112 pounds. Dr. Butler noted, “Her hair was long, hanging loose, auburn in color and bloody.” Maggots had gathered around a wound in her neck, which Dr. Butler paid particular attention to. He stated:
Crime scene sketch made by Caddo Parish coroner, Dr. W.P. Butler, at the time that he and other authorities examined Mae Giffin’s body (Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSU Shreveport).
The throat was cut in several places, one cut began 2” below the lower border of the left ear, crossing under the chin and terminated 3” below the right ear, this cut completely severing the left carotid artery, jugular, and the trachea. Another cut just below the first one beginning about 3” below the lower border of the left ear, ranging down to the right, crossing the trachea and ending in the lower right side of the neck…. There was a bruise on the right side of the neck, mid portion, that had the appearance of being made by a finger or a thumb. There were three small cuts in the palm of each hand going through the skin…. Vaginal examination was made before the body was opened and showed normal organs externally with slight secretion in the vestibule, dry blood, tiny larvae of maggots starting in one small location and three tears about ⅛ to ¼ of an inch long in the vaginal opening, two on the right side and one on the left.5
The coroner’s examination also revealed deep stab wounds through the ribcage that penetrated her liver and another wound that penetrated her left lung. Dr. Butler surmised this young woman suffered from some sort of sexual trauma before her death.6 In addition to the wounds inflicted by the assailant were cuts on the child’s hands, which showed that she had tried to fight back against her assailant.7
Mae Giffin, fifteen years old at the time of her disappearance. From April 18, 1934 (The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana).
It did not take long for authorities to identify the young woman on the coroner’s table. According to Deputy Sheriff Bert Stone, he went to the residence of Mrs. Maggie Peters of Lyba Street, Shreveport on the morning of April 12, 1934. Mrs. Peters told the sheriff, “Mae and I were at home when that man came here about 11:00 o’clock Thursday morning.”8
The man identified himself as “Jackson” and inquired about employing a young girl to look after his wife while he worked at an auto shop. The man left and returned several times to present the offer to Mrs. Peters’ daughter, Mae Giffin. When first offered the employment, Mae turned it down, but she eventually agreed to go with Jackson. She left the house between 12:00 and 1:00 PM. Dep. Stone noted:
She [Mrs. Peters] tried to find the address given by this man on Alabama Ave. and, failing to find such a number, she became suspicious and reported to the police and sheriff’s department. We continued searching for this girl Friday and Saturday and Saturday night, up until the body was found near Cross Lake by two negroes Sunday morning.9
As they searched the area for a man matching Jackson’s description, authorities interviewed witnesses who claimed to have seen Mae Giffin with a man exhibiting a rather “pleasing demeanor” toward the young girl on the afternoon of April 12. John R. Jacobs, who lived about two blocks from the Peters residence and was quite familiar with the young girl, told police that he saw Mae Giffin with a man who matched Jackson’s description walking toward Greenwood Road, three blocks from her home.10
Home of Mae Giffin, where she left on the afternoon of April 12, 1934, and was never seen alive again. From April 18, 1934 (The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana).
Mrs. C. M. Born, who lived two blocks away from the Peters and was very familiar with Mae Giffin, stated to authorities that a man came to her door attempting to sell her butterflies “shortly before he went to Ms. Giffin’s home.” Mrs. Born further stated that her son, Millard, spoke with the stranger for half an hour before the man moved on.11
Upon learning the identity of the victim, endeavors to find the assailant, or assailants, began in earnest. Sheriff Hughes and his deputies looked as far east as Tallulah, Louisiana, located in Madison Parish, on the border with Mississippi. The dragnet yielded three suspects: J.A. Conroy, Fred Lockhart, who vehemently swore during his questioning that he had nothing to do with Mae’s death,12 and A.J. Jackson, who matched the description of the man who enticed Mae from her home. As news of these men’s detainment spread, crowds gathered outside of the Caddo Parish Courthouse, ready to dispense some extralegal justice.13
Police felt sure that of the three men in custody, one must be the man who murdered young Mae Giffin. Mae’s mother, Mrs. Peters, made her way to the courthouse jail and attempted to identify the man that she saw with her daughter on that Thursday afternoon. At first, Mrs. Peters identified trinket salesman J.A. Conroy as such, declaring, “That’s the man that took my daughter away from home.” But the local police chief, Dennis Bazer, doubted the validity of the grief-stricken mother’s identification. After all, Mrs. Peters had identified Conroy as she rode in the passenger seat of a patrol car while Conroy paced back and forth in front of the courthouse. Mrs. Peters’ declaration that Conroy was the man she saw with her daughter brought out the ire of the local citizenry who, appalled by the death of the young Mae, gathered once more outside of the courthouse, excited with the prospect of lynching a suspected murderer. With an excitable crowd waiting outside for the suspect, police whisked Conroy to an undisclosed location for his safety.14
On the morning of April 17, 1934, one of the three men in custody, drifter and butterfly trinket salesman, Fred Lockhart (later identified by his alias, D.B. Napier), confessed to his captors that he actually murdered Mae Giffin. Lockhart stated that the first time he saw Mae Giffin he knew nothing about her. Lockhart claimed he wanted to hire her to help him with his invalid wife. At first, when Lockhart approached Mrs. Peters and Mae about the proposal, Mrs. Peters refused. Later that day, Lockhart went back and Mae agreed to go with him with the permission of Mrs. Peters. Lockhart elaborated on the meeting:
Fred Lockhart (a.k.a. Daniel “Bunce” Napier), confessed murderer of Mae Giffin. From April 18, 1934 (The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana).
We then went down the road and hit the Greenwood Road and then went across and through the golf course and went to that next street and there was a little dim road that lead off the lake. I told her my wife was down there fishing and we would wait for her. She [Giffin] sat down and I put my arms around her and she hit me.15
Lockhart then stated he groped Mae and she said, “no,” but Lockhart persisted after a second attempt and Mae still proved resistant. Lockhart then stabbed her in the side and concluded his statement in saying, “I went on and assaulted her and then I cut her throat and left and went home. The suspect gave no details as to the attempted sexual assault.16
A pocket knife discovered at the crime scene as well as another pocket knife discovered where Lockhart had been residing underneath the highway overpasses confirmed him as Mae’s murderer. Moreover, police also discovered some bloody clothing that belonged to the murdered girl in one of the hovels that Lockhart occupied.17 Once police corrected the information about Mae’s suspected killer, the citizens of the parish who had already gathered outside of the new jail shouted Lockhart’s name instead of Conroy’s and threatened Lockhart with hanging.18
In an effort to prevent bloodshed, Sheriff Hughes called on the governor of Louisiana, O.K. Allen, to send reinforcements to keep the rioters at bay. Governor Allen issued a directive that one company, Company F of the Louisiana National Guard, travel immediately to Shreveport to quell any disturbances which might arise. In spite of the precautions taken by the local authorities and the supreme executive of the state, the crowd vowed justice. One witness declared:
Following the prisoner’s [Lockhart’s] confession about six p.m. last night, a mob of approximately 3,000 began a march on the Caddo courthouse and jail. Using rails off a railroad, they battered down the doors of the Texas street entrance and started toward the top floor of the courthouse which is the jail. Officers which tried to prevent their entrance turned the fire hose on them and finally succeeded in turning the mob without seriously injuring anyone.19
Gunfire and smoke grenades were used in order to subdue the crowd, but police reported no serious injuries. On the morning of April 18, police and National Guardsmen dispersed the unruly crowds. Sheriff Hughes did not expect a second attack, even though rumors circulated that a second, much larger mob had assembled in Mena, Arkansas, just across the border from Shreveport (near the home of Mae Giffin’s fiancé, Lee Looney). No further disturbances occurred near or in the courthouse.
Fred Lockhart was held at the Caddo courthouse and jail, which was stormed by an angry mob that sought justice against the confessed child murderer. Luckily, through the efforts of local authorities, no casualties occurred. From April 19, 1934 (The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana).
Sheriff Hughes and other law enforcement officials concentrated on Lockhart’s rendition of the events that led to the death of Mae Giffin. Judge Robert Roberts ordered a grand jury empaneled to investigate the Giffin murder, even though the murderer had already confessed. Judge Roberts also ordered the summoning of potential jurors for voir dire and, if accepted, to empanel petit jury to sit for Lockhart’s trial to begin that Monday, April 23, 1934. Lockhart’s predicament proved interesting to law enforcement in Louisiana, as they discovered he had escaped from a Georgia chain gang in 1931, evading a life sentence for the sexual assault of a young female. Lockhart also had an alias: Daniel Bryce “Bunce” Napier. The more the police investigated this drifter, the more they discovered about his past that made them sure he was capable of murdering a young girl, if not more than one. In the meantime, preparations continued for the trial.
Perhaps in an effort to preserve his own life for a little longer, or to project a sense of over-importance, Lockhart gave an interview to a local newspaper where he made an astonishing claim that warranted further, more precise investigation. Lockhart confessed that he drove a car in 1915 that led to the lynching death of a man many thought guilty of brutally murdering a young girl of Mae Giffin’s age in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913.
On the morning of Sunday, April 27, 1913, a black night watchman named Newt Lee discovered the mutilated body of a young girl at the bottom of an elevator shaft in the basement of the National Pencil Factory of Atlanta, Georgia. The girl, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, worked in the factory and was last seen leaving the office of the factory manager, Leo Frank, the day before. Frank, a Jewish man from New York, was charged with Phagan’s murder, perhaps because of the rampant anti–Semitism of the time. After a highly controversial trial that relied mostly on circumstantial evidence, a jury of twelve men convicted Frank and the court sentenced him to death. The case drew a great deal of media attention, which, no doubt, played a significant role in influencing public opinion.
John Slaton, the governor of Georgia at the time and a respected jurist in his own right, suspected that Frank was not solely responsible for Phagan’s death; or, alternatively, he was not guilty of the crime at all. Governor Slaton re-examined the evidence against Frank and determined that enough reasonable doubt existed to commute his sentence to life imprisonment. Because of the constant death threats Frank had been receiving since his initial incarceration, the chief executive ordered the sheriff of Fulton County to move Frank from Atlanta to a prison camp just outside of Milledgeville, Georgia. But even there, Frank fell victim to a stabbing that nearly killed him. Vigilantes alerted to Frank’s relocation planned for their own brand of justice.20
Leo Frank, the suspected killer of Mary Phagan in 1913 Atlanta, Georgia. Frank was lynched two years after the crime after his sentence had been commuted by Governor John Slaton. Lockhart claimed to have been a driver for the lynch mob (Library of Congress).
On Monday, August 16, 1915, at approximately 11:40 PM, a group of twenty-five men calling themselves the “Knights of Mary Phagan,” drove to the Milledgeville prison camp and abducted Leo Frank from his barracks. The guards and the warden offered no resistance to the kidnappers as they placed Frank in one of their vehicles and drove off into the night.21
Two and a half hours later, the morbid convoy stopped in Marietta, Georgia, the hometown of Mary Phagan. At approximately 3:00 AM, on the morning of August 16, members of the “Knights” lynched Leo Frank. Frank’s dying wish was that his wedding ring be sent to his wife. The Mary Phagan murder case still generates controversy today and doubts still exist as to whether Leo Frank murdered the young girl. An ongoing pardon campaign continues to the present day.22
In examining Lockhart’s claim, the state of Georgia substantiated part of Lockhart’s assertion. Records from the Georgia Department of Corrections verified that Lockhart, using the alias D.B. Napier, “was convicted on an assault charge in Crisp County,” Georgia, where the court sentenced Lockhart to life imprisonment in the penitentiary at Milledgeville in 1926. In 1931, state authorities transferred Lockhart to a prison camp in Murray County, Georgia, from where he escaped shortly thereafter. Regarding the Frank lynching incident, the State of Georgia never mentioned Lockhart as a suspect in the lynching nor in Phagan’s murder (although several historians have made the unsubstantiated assertion that Lockhart may have been involved directly). With Lockhart incarcerated in Louisiana for murder, the State of Georgia would not seek extradition. His alleged involvement in the Georgia crimes proved an interesting historical footnote to a truly bizarre case.23
The aftermath of the Leo Frank lynching in 1915, Marietta, Georgia, by the “Knights of Mary Phagan.”
On April 20, 1934, a grand jury met at the behest of Judge Roberts and returned two indictments against Lockhart for the murder of Mae Giffin and for criminal assault. If convicted, Lockhart faced the death penalty.
When Lockhart made his way to the court for arraignment, he looked “pale and haggard,” needing help from courtroom deputies to stand and listen to the indictments against him. Judge Roberts steadfastly rejected the defendant’s guilty plea and, instead, entered a plea of not guilty and set the trial to begin on Monday, April 23, 1934, at 9:00 AM.24
The trial began in a crowded courtroom on that muggy Monday morning. Dr. Butler, the coroner of Caddo Parish, testified as to the injuries suffered by the victim; Will Marion then testified as to the discovery of Mae Giffin’s mutilated body in the woods near Cross Lake; Sheriff Hughes testified how he shadowed Lockhart to eastern Louisiana where he captured the suspect and read portions of Lockhart’s confession into the trial record; and finally, Mrs. Peters, the victim’s mother, testified that Lockhart came to her residence and offered her daughter, Mae, employment as a caretaker for his invalid wife. At this time, Mrs. Peters apologized for wrongfully identifying J.A. Conroy as the man who initially came to her house.25
One of the most dramatic moments in the Lockhart trial occurred when Shreveport police chief Bazer produced the bloodstained female clothing discovered at Lockhart’s hovel. When the chief showed the clothing—along with the pocket knife that Lockhart admitted belonged to him—to the jury, gasps came from the gallery. Each juror’s face displayed the horror and sadness as they imagined how Lockhart descended upon the defenseless Mae.26
Judge Roberts announced that because of the expediency of the proceedings, there would be no recess. After three hours and 18 minutes of the testimony and presentation of evidence by Caddo Parish district attorney J.N. Galloway (and no objections from Lockhart’s defense attorneys W.A. Mabry and Lal C. Blanchard), the jury deliberated for approximately five minutes and returned a verdict of guilty.27
Judge Roberts then pronounced the sentence of death upon Lockhart, who stood at the bar and exhibited no emotion. Defense attorneys Mabry and Blanchard “waived all delays and reserved no bills on which an appeal can be based.” Heavily armed guards escorted the condemned man back to his jail cell in the Caddo Parish Courthouse until Governor O.K. Allen set the date of execution. Mrs. Peters, who sat stoically throughout the trial, said, “I am thankful,” before she collapsed in an elevator while leaving the trial. Lee Looney, the man whom Mae was supposed to marry within the coming months, commented, “I am glad he is going to be killed.”28
On May 18, 1934, barely a month from the time that authorities discovered Mae Giffin’s body, deputies for the Caddo Parish sheriff’s office led Lockhart to the gallows in the courthouse and he ascended the thirteen steps to the noose. Lockhart had no last words or remorseful declarations. The condemned man stood very stoically as the executioner placed the hood and then the noose around his neck. At the appointed time and at the command of the sheriff standing near to Lockhart, the executioner sprang the trap door. Lockhart’s body reached the end of the rope quickly and the snap of his neck could be heard clearly. The condemned man’s corpse then swung motionless until the coroner pronounced him dead. The sentence for the murder of Mae Giffin was carried out without much fanfare. After pronouncing death, Caddo Parish authorities brought Lockhart’s body to the Greenwood Cemetery and buried his remains in an unmarked grave.29
Most people in the Shreveport area only remember the “Butterfly Man” case in Shreveport because of the legends that accompany it. The Caddo Parish Courthouse, now referred to as the “old” parish courthouse, carries the echoes of a bygone era. People have reported that Lockhart’s ghost still walks the halls of the seventh floor, on which his cell was located.
Death certificate of Daniel “Bunce” Napier. Notice that the coroner listed the certificate under both of the names Napier and Lockhart (Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSU Shreveport).
Lockhart became the monster of everyone’s nightmares; the fear of every parent who tries to protect their child from the boogeyman. To take the life of a child is horrific enough, but to also rob that child of her womanhood and treat her remains like a discarded piece of refuse is inhuman. To this day, the memory of Mae Giffin’s death still reverberates throughout Louisiana history. In 1985, Ms. Audrey Turner (née Audrey Peters), sister of the murdered girl, recalled her sister’s death fifty-one years before:
When we had to give her up, that was the worst. She was just a walking angel…. They were going to lynch him [Lockhart]. It took every law officer in Shreveport to hold them off…. Such revenge was in my heart. It liked to kill me…. We all loved her so much, it just broke our hearts.30
Ms. Turner remembered with clarity the events of her sister’s disappearance and murder as well as Lockhart’s execution. “His hands were all scratched up,” Turner recalled, “and there were cuts and bruises on his face. My little sister had put up a hard fight for her life.”31
The Giffin family had no money at the time of Mae’s death and relied on the kindness of strangers, who ensured she was buried in Arkansas. Wellman’s Funeral Home in Shreveport, Louisiana, took care of the funeral, and the Kansas City Southern Railroad made sure that the family made the journey from Shreveport to the cemetery for the funeral. Mrs. Peters received letters from as far away as London, England, expressing condolences for the loss of her daughter. “Some sent money,” Turner remembered, “Our church friends sent food; we didn’t have to buy food for weeks.” The still bereaved sister concluded, “I prayed over it, I think it would be a good lesson. That’s what put me to thinking…. But if people want to do something like that, they’re going to do it anyway.”32