The opening post of this blog centers around the slaying of my great granduncle, Stephen Matthew "Mapp" Brown, who was gunned down during a strike at Aragon Mills September 1934. Eighteen men were indicted for his murder, two tried and acquitted. The remaining sixteen men were released on a $500 bond never to be tried (see the article on the acquittal of Charles Ferguson found
here.)
Recently it was brought to my attention that Mapp's story is included in a chapter found in "Moonshine, Murder and Mayhem in Georgia" a book written by Olin Jackson of Roswell Georgia, published by Legacy Communications. The chapter is entitled "Murder and The Aragon Mill Strikes" and begins on page 384. It appears Wesley Brumbelow, former Mayor of Aragon and Mapp's nephew (my cousin)...son of Mapp's sister Nancy who married Tom Brumbelow, former manager of the Aragon Mill Store, collaborated the story as it is written in the book. However, I have a couple of issues with the story. I have every census that was taken since Mapp's birth, marriage record, death record, photograph of his headstone,
many newspaper articles and not once was Mapp referred to as
Russell. I can't imagine Wesley referred to Mapp as "Russell" for the purpose of this collaboration and since Wesley is now deceased, I can't very well ask him. I did track down Olin Jackson to inquire as to his source for the name and received no response. I should add 28 (twenty-eight) writers and researchers are listed in the Acknowledgements so I am not clear as to who, exactly, wrote Mapp's story only who published the book. Further, if the book was so "carefully" and "painstakingly" researched, I have to ask, how do you screw up the name of a murder victim? Further still, it was the
Rome News Tribune not the Rockmart News Tribune that reported Mapp received two shotgun blasts. Okay, rant over.
In further news, I have received a copy of the "official" docket in this case. I've already established Otto Devaney was tried first, having been the only person to confess his gun fired (though accidentally), and was acquitted. Charles Ferguson was the second man tried and also acquitted. It was during the Ferguson trial a deputy sheriff testified the guards, which includes Mapp, were drinking on the night in question...this is where defense attorneys Henry A. Stewart and J. B. Edwards "hang their hat"...so to speak. Dear readers, that's a total of two attorneys for the defense and according to newspaper articles they both represented Devaney and then Ferguson. I would think intoxicated guards would be "key" and certainly a fact to be brought to the forefront of the first trial. Maybe since the National Guard had arrived on the scene to restore order, Polk County really just needed the whole "strike murder" thing to go away...
maybe...just the opinion of one niece. Major Homer Watkins, a career military man who passed away in 1942 (interred at Arlington by the way - I have been researching during my absence), was the man who represented the State. All of the attorneys involved resided in Polk County.
The eighteen men indicted for the murder of Mapp Brown according to Polk County Superior Court Docket 1893 were:
- Sidney Osborn
- Pink Osborn
- Wesley Turner
- Bill Kiser
- George Smith
- James Tinnerman
- Cecil Howard
- Roy Blankinship
- Ralph Broadaway
- Terry White
- Slim Patterson
- Albert Jenkins
- Otto Devaney
- Charles Ferguson
- Ed Nettles
- Hermon Nettles
- Roy Whitaker
- Raymond Jordan
Whether Mapp was shot by members of the "flying squadron" aka drive-by shooters or by bullets from the guns of the guards firing from across the street, two facts remain. Mapp Brown was killed and he was the
only person shot on that fateful day, a fact I find a bit odd. My research continues. Mapp's
grave.
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Citation:
Jackson,Olin. Co-writer, compiler and editor (2003). Aragon and the mill strikes.
Moonshine, Murder & Mayhem in Georgia.(pp. 384-388) Georgia: Legacy Communications, Inc.
