{{Short description|1902 mass murder of a family in Louisiana}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox civilian attack | title = Earll family murders | location = near Welsh, Louisiana, United States | date = {{start date and age|1902}} | image = Ward Earll cabin illustration.jpg | image_upright = 1.3 | caption = An illustration of Ward Earll's cabin that appeared in the ''Houston Post'' on April 15, 1902 | alt = Refer to caption | target = Earll family | type = Mass shooting | weapon = Shotgun | fatalities = 6 | perpetrator = Albert Edwin Batson }}

On February 14, 1902, six members of the Earll family were found dead in a cabin near Welsh, Louisiana. Albert Edwin Batson, an itinerant farm worker who had worked for the Earlls, was suspected of the crime. He was tried twice and sentenced to death four times for the killings; despite the sentencing board recommending his sentence be commuted to life in prison, governor William Wright Heard refused to commute his sentence, and on August 15, 1903, Batson was hanged.

The murders and subsequent trial were a ''cause célèbre'' in Louisiana in 1902 and 1903, though even then Batson's guilt was controversial. The case inspired the murder ballad "Batson", most famously recorded by blues musician Wilson Jones in 1934. In 2014, a book was published that raised questions over the certainty of Batson's guilt.

== Background == The Earll family{{Efn|Spelling of the family's name varies between sources – some sources use Earle or Earl.}} had moved from Iowa to Louisiana around 1890, to farm rice. They were disliked by some in the area, and there was local gossip that they had actually left Iowa to escape the anger of someone they had wronged. Following repeated crop failures, the family moved to Welsh, where L.S. Earll opened a store. In about 1900, they returned to rice farming.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |date=1997-10-28 |title=Batson murder trial was talk of parish in 1902 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-advertiser-jefferson-davis-015/45262808/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |work=The Daily Advertiser |location=Lafayette |pages=17, 19 |language=en-US |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=March 30, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330033750/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-advertiser-jefferson-davis-015/45262808/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the start of 1902, the Earll family consisted of the heads of the family, L.S. Earll, 53, and Mrs. Earll, 50, as well as sons Ward, 25, Fred, 23, John, 18, and Lemuel, 11, and two daughters, Maude, in her 20s, and Fay, aged 15. The heads of the family, as well as Fay, John, and Lemuel lived on the family farm three miles southeast of Welsh; Ward lived in a separate house roughly a mile to the northeast, and Fred lived in Iowa and Maud lived with a family she worked for in Welsh.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":7" /> Some believed then that Ward's house was haunted, due to both its looks and the fact that at least two people died as a result of or in the house.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" />

Albert Edwin "Ed" Batson, born to a divorced mother in Spickard, Missouri, had previously worked as a railroad hand starting in 1897. He came to Welsh in 1901, where Ward Earll gave him a job working on the family's rice farm, and he moved into the homesteader's cottage along with Ward. Ward Earll was last seen alive on the night of February 11, 1902.<ref name=":4" />

== Murders and investigation == thumb|255x255px|An undated photo of Batson|alt=Black and white front-facing photo of Batson in a suit All the victims were either shot or bludgeoned to death, and additionally had their throats cut.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Jim |title=Until You Are Dead, Dead, Dead: The Hanging of Albert Edwin Batson |last2=Miller |first2=Danielle |date=2014-10-20 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62846-100-8 |location=Jackson |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Winick |first=Stephen |date=2017-06-14 |title="Oh, Mama": A Mother's Love and the Murder Ballad "Batson" |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/06/oh-mama-a-mothers-love-and-the-murder-ballad-batson |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Folklife Today |publisher=The Library of Congress |language=en-US |issn=2692-1731 |archive-date=March 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313004709/https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/06/oh-mama-a-mothers-love-and-the-murder-ballad-batson/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Cloth had been wrapped around the wounds of the victims.<ref name=":7" /> At the time of the discovery, the bodies had undergone significant levels of decomposition, a sign that they had already been dead for several days.<ref name=":7" /> All of the members of the family were killed except for Fred and Maude Earll; neither were present to be murdered.<ref name=":4" />

After the murders, a man claiming to be Ward Earll arrived in the downtown area of Lake Charles, where he attempted to sell Earll's livestock, before heading to a gun store and then a watch repair shop, where he left Earll's shotgun and watch. Likely due to the fact that the owners of the shop would have been able to identify the real Ward Earll, he instead identified himself as C.R. Batson and A.E. Batson to the store owners.''<ref name=":0" />'' The man, later identified as Albert Batson by witnesses, was noted to have a long scar on the left side of his face.<ref name=":7" />''<ref name=":0" />'' He then found a driver for Wells Fargo, and mailed a package to Batson's mother in Missouri — the package was later found to only contain rice — before retrieving the watch, though leaving the livestock and the shotgun.''<ref name=":0" />''

Due to the attempted sale of Ward Earll's animals, his acquaintances became suspicious. Paul Daniels, a local businessman, phoned Maude Earll, who had not heard from her family in days.<ref name=":7" />''<ref name=":0" />'' Maude, with a driver, returned to the house, resulting in the discovery of the bodies at the family home.<ref name=":7" /> In addition, Earll's buggy was searched, where a vest was found which contained a letter signed by Batson. The letter ended "ha ha bye bye I’m gone", and as a result was referred to as the "Ha-Ha letter" by authorities.<ref name=":7" />''<ref name=":0" />'' By the time this was discovered, Batson had taken a train to Missouri.''<ref name=":0" />''

Batson was arrested by deputy Isaac Fontenot the same day the bodies were discovered, in Princeton, Missouri. He was returned to Louisiana and charged with the murders. At the time of his arrest, he carried only $2 in cash.<ref name=":4" />

== Trial and execution == thumb|1900s postcard of the Lake Charles courthouse, where the trials took place|alt=Refer to caption The judge E.D. Miller presided over the trial. Batson did not testify in his own defense in either trial. He maintained his innocence throughout the process.<ref name=":4" /> He was described as a remarkably well behaved and polite prisoner, leading some to maintain that he was innocent; the murders and subsequent trial became a ''cause célèbre'' in Louisiana in 1902 and 1903.''<ref name=":0" />''<ref name=":5" />

Batson was defended by two court-appointed attorneys, Paul Sompayrac and Winston Overton.<ref name=":4" /> The defense argued that Batson had no conceivable motive for killing any of the Earlls, much less the whole family, and that there was no concrete evidence of his guilt, instead arguing that two strangers who had been seen in the area – one of whom had a similar scar to Batson – had committed the crimes. They argued that these men had a grudge against the Earll family, and had tracked them down and murdered them.<ref name=":4" />''<ref name=":0" />''

The prosecution, led by district attorney Joseph Moore, put forward that Batson had murdered the family, stolen and sold the family's mules for $45, then fled to Missouri.<ref name=":4" />''<ref name=":0" />'' Authorities argued that the "Ha-Ha letter" showed Batson had been suicidal, though they did not present any reason as to why he did not end up killing himself if that was the case.<ref name=":7" />

Charles Dobson, an Associated Press reporter, published a book on the trial, ''Guilty? Side Lights on the Batson Case, a Recrudescence of the Murder of the Earll Family in Louisiana'' in 1903, arguing that instead of Batson, two unknown men, "number one" and "number two" had killed the Earlls. In the book he argued this possibly stemmed from an earlier feud the Earll family had acquired in Kansas. This argument was largely repeated in a 1997 article in the ''Daily Advertiser'' in Lafayette.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Brasseaux |first1=Ryan André |last2=Caffery |first2=Joshua Clegg |date=2015-11-30 |title=Six Degrees of Alan Lomax: A Review and Multimedia Excerpts |url=https://southernspaces.org/2015/six-degrees-alan-lomax-review-and-multimedia-excerpts/ |journal=Southern Spaces |language=en-US |doi=10.18737/M7JC8B |issn=1551-2754 |access-date=2024-03-13|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Batson was found guilty in April 1902 and sentenced to death, however, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered a new trial on a technicality, reversing the first guilty verdict.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> In March 1903, he was found guilty a second time and again sentenced to death. The sentence was then suspended when the defense moved again for a new trial, and Batson was sentenced to death a third time when the defense's motions were denied. That death sentence was then immediately suspended, as Batson had not been asked if he had anything to say before sentencing (though he had been asked the previous three times); upon being asked, he said he was innocent, and was then sentenced for a fourth and final time to death.<ref name=":4" />

Following the sentencing, members of Louisiana's State Pardon Board became interested in the case, asking governor William Wright Heard to commute Batson's sentence. Heard requested judge Miller, who had presided over both trials, visit Baton Rogue and discuss the case; Miller refused.<ref name=":4" />

On August 15, 1903, Batson was executed by hanging at the Lake Charles jail.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1" />

== Legacy == Inspired by the case, blues musician Wilson Jones, also known as Stavin' Chain, created a murder ballad titled "Batson", which ran 12 minutes in total, recounting the time leading up to the crime and the capture afterwards – though not the murder itself. The song alludes to the murder ballads "Frankie and Albert" and "Lamkin", in both cases songs in which the perpetrator is actually guilty, but was provoked.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Bronner |first=Simon J. |title=The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies |date=2019-08-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-084063-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=LbSmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA306 306]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=LbSmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA308 308] |language=en-US }}</ref> A transcription of the song was published in John and Alan Lomax's 1941 book ''Our Singing Country''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Winick |first=Stephen |date=2017-06-27 |title="No One Can Ever Forget It": Stavin' Chain's Performance of "Batson" |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/06/no-one-can-ever-forget-it-stavin-chains-performance-of-batson |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Folklife Today |publisher=The Library of Congress |language=en-US |issn=2692-1731}}</ref> Some commentators suggested the ballad portrays Batson as an unlucky, innocent man, accused of a crime he did not commit, contrary to most contemporary descriptions,<ref name=":2" /> though the Lomaxes interpreted the song as showing his guilt, saying "the sympathies of the ballad singer rest wholly with the accused, not with his victims".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Winick |first=Stephen |date=2017-07-12 |title="I Didn't Done the Crime": Stavin' Chain's "Batson" and the Batson Case |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/07/i-didnt-done-the-crime-stavin-chains-batson-and-the-batson-case |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Folklife Today |publisher=The Library of Congress |language=en-US |issn=2692-1731}}</ref> The song was covered by several other performers.<ref name=":0" />

The case was largely forgotten,<ref name=":3" /> but in 2014, a book was published on the case, titled ''Until You Are Dead, Dead, Dead: The Hanging of Albert Edwin Batson.'' The book explores the certainty of Batson's guilt.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Johnson |first=William |date=2015-01-15 |title=New book revisits a 100-year-old murder |url=https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/01/15/new-book-revisits-year-old-murder/21826107/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |work=The Daily Advertiser |location=Lafayette |language=en-US |archive-date=March 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240313004019/https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2015/01/15/new-book-revisits-year-old-murder/21826107/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Coen |first=Chere' |date=2014-11-01 |title=A real Louisiana murder mystery |url=https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/louisiana-books/2014/11/01/louisiana-murder-myster/18185439/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |work=The News-Star |location=Monroe |language=en-US |issn=0899-7748}}</ref> The book received a generally positive reception.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Malka |first=Adam |date=2016 |title=Until You Are Dead Dead Dead: The Hanging of Albert Edwin Batson by Jim Bradshaw, Danielle Miller (review) |journal=Journal of Southern History |language=en |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=198–199 |doi=10.1353/soh.2016.0078 |issn=2325-6893}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Richard |first1=Gregory L. |date=2017 |title=Review of UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, DEAD, DEAD: The Hanging of Albert Edwin Batson, Bradshaw Jim, Miller Danielle |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |language=en |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=114–116 |issn=0024-6816 |jstor=26290889}}</ref>

== Notes == {{notelist}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* {{Cite journal |last=Underwood |first=Richard H. |date=2007 |title=The Other Batson Case |journal=Legal Studies Forum |language=en |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=765–800 |issn=0894-5993}} Category:Attacks on residential buildings in the United States Category:1900s mass murders in the United States Category:1900s mass shootings in the United States Category:Mass shootings in Louisiana Category:Mass murders in Louisiana Category:1902 mass murders Category:Family murders in the United States Category:1902 in Louisiana Category:Murder trials in the United States Category:Trials in Louisiana Category:20th-century American trials Category:Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1900s Category:1902 murders in the United States Category:Capital murder cases Category:Child murder in Louisiana Category:Mass shootings involving shotguns in the United States