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1:11

Southern fraud true crime covers cases

1:13

that are not suitable for young listeners, and

1:16

there may also be some explicit language

1:18

use.

1:18

listener discretion

1:19

is advanced.

1:25

It

1:25

was a cool Mississippi night in April

1:27

of nineteen fifty one as Haddie

1:29

Lee Barnes was closing down the bar where she

1:31

worked. The three quarter moon

1:33

would have made it lighter out side for anyone creeping

1:35

up to the roadhouse. She

1:38

was sleeping there that night to keep an eye

1:40

on things for her boss, extending

1:42

her job is made. to overnight caretaker,

1:45

and she had a gun to defend herself

1:48

and the bar. But the

1:50

man who broke through the window near the bed where Huggies

1:52

Lee was sleeping, wasn't there to

1:54

rob the place. He came for

1:56

Haddie Lee as she justifiably defended

1:59

herself.

2:00

She immediately called the sheriff.

2:03

She waited until he got there

2:04

and fully confessed to what happened. Of

2:08

course, he still had to take her to jail

2:10

and charge her as an investigation would

2:12

be pending. But the danger

2:14

to Hedding Lee was just the beginning. because

2:17

the man she shot came from the respected

2:19

craft family. And the

2:21

patriarch, Ed Kraft, would

2:23

go to any

2:23

links. to prove his son

2:25

was not trying to rape a black woman.

2:30

Welcome to one sixty

2:33

eight. the trials of Haddie

2:35

Lee

2:35

Barnes.

2:37

As

2:38

I open today's episode, I

2:40

want to thank author Trent Brown for

2:42

again collaborating with me.

2:44

He wrote a book on the Tina Andrews

2:46

case, my episode number eighty seven.

2:49

His bogant Tina's case is called Murder

2:51

and McComb, the Tina Andrews case.

2:54

Mister Brown has a unique ability

2:57

to pull obscure and yet culturally

2:59

significant cases from small

3:01

towns in Mississippi, particularly Mc

3:03

Home.

3:04

which has its own storied history in the civil

3:06

rights era.

3:08

Tina's case happened in Macomb, Mississippi,

3:10

and the tavern where Haddie Lee

3:12

was forced to defend herself was about

3:15

nine miles from McComb. You

3:17

will recognize some of the names in this case

3:19

from Tina's case. Specifically, attorney

3:22

Joe Pagot, who is district attorney

3:25

by the time of Tina's murder. And

3:27

I am pretty sure I mispronounced his

3:29

name the first time. For that, I apologize.

3:32

He is a hero both in Haddie Lee's case,

3:35

Antina Andrews. And Trent

3:37

was kind enough to gently warn me about

3:39

pronouncing his name right this time.

3:42

Another familiar figure is Mississippi

3:44

governor Hugh White, who released

3:46

a woman named Ruth Dickens after

3:48

serving only six years for the brutal murder

3:50

of her mother, Adella Thompson.

3:53

I covered this case in two thousand nineteen.

3:55

It's episode fifty two. Ruth

3:58

Dickens came from a wealthy family

4:00

and had a rich husband who had people

4:02

in hot places that never stopped

4:04

pushing for her release and White finally

4:06

buckled. Governor Hugh

4:08

White also released a white man early

4:10

in this case, not believing his

4:12

life should be ruined for assaulting and trying

4:15

to kill a black woman. Ironically,

4:18

right before Hadi's case hit the papers,

4:20

the murder of Adella Thompson, had

4:22

remained front page

4:23

news for a long time. Her mirror was

4:25

in nineteen forty nine, and her daughter

4:27

and murderer was a prominent

4:29

socialite, so it was still front

4:31

page news when Haddie Lee's case

4:33

began. While these

4:35

murders are not similar, the time

4:37

period is virtually the same when it

4:39

comes to politics and race relations,

4:41

and there are other similarities.

4:44

There was a fictional black man Ruth Dickens

4:47

try to blame for her mother's murder, and

4:49

there was a real black man in today's

4:51

case that people try to pin Lamar Kraft's

4:53

murder on. despite Harry Lee's confession.

4:56

If not for the ethical people in the judicial

4:58

system, an innocent black man

5:00

very well could have been blamed in both of

5:02

these cases. And

5:04

this is where I'm going to warn you about language.

5:07

There is no way to discuss a case

5:09

this old and quote from newspapers.

5:11

without using words that are no longer accepted

5:13

in modern

5:14

language. As I

5:16

have said many times before, words

5:18

matter. and the words used to

5:20

describe

5:20

Hettiely Barnes certainly mattered

5:23

then and now.

5:27

Of all the people I will discuss in this

5:29

case, Harry Lee Barnes is the biggest

5:31

mystery. Even her age seemed

5:33

up for debate. published as twenty,

5:35

twenty one, and twenty five.

5:37

Trent Brown wrote that

5:39

she was twenty one, and he certainly researched

5:41

her life more than anyone else has.

5:44

At twenty one years old, she was single,

5:46

had no children, and worked as a maid

5:48

and caretaker for Rob Lee and his

5:50

tavern. or roadhouse called

5:53

Lee's Place. In photos, she

5:55

appears to be a slim young woman with short

5:57

hair.

5:58

She lived nearby with her mother and

5:59

stepfather Lizzie and Dan McGee.

6:02

Their home was about a hundred yards from

6:04

Lee's place, and they both worked

6:06

for Lee's other business, which was

6:08

called, quote, Rob Lee's Negro

6:10

joint. In the early morning

6:12

hours of April seventeenth, had

6:15

he had finished closing up the tavern and

6:17

had gone to bed. She

6:19

slept in a small bed in a back room of

6:21

Lee's place. She was there to watch

6:23

over the place at night, and her boss had

6:25

given her a gun for protection. She'd

6:27

been staying overnight in that back room as

6:29

a caretaker for weeks after

6:31

an earlier break in. At

6:34

around one thirty AM, she heard

6:36

a noise. Someone was coming

6:38

through the window in the small room near

6:40

her bed. She grabbed the

6:42

thirty eight caliber Smith and Wesson revolver

6:45

and fired twice as what she

6:47

described as a figure outlined

6:49

in the window. She heard a

6:51

grown and a man fell through the window

6:53

onto the bed. After

6:56

she fired the gun, she yelled out

6:58

to her stepfather that she had just

7:00

shot a man and that other men were still

7:02

outside the bar. While he

7:04

had not heard the shots, he did

7:06

hear how do Lee call for help. so

7:08

he ran outside and fired his own

7:10

gun into the air several times, hoping

7:12

to scare off the other men. The

7:14

figure had he had fired at, was

7:16

a man named Lamar Kraft of

7:18

the prominent Kraft family of Tylertown,

7:20

Mississippi. He now lay dead with

7:23

a great deal of blood on his face. which

7:25

seemed to be coming out of his mouth.

7:27

His father,

7:28

Ed Kraft, had been a candidate

7:30

for sheriff and the recent Democratic

7:33

primary. As Trent Brown

7:35

put it, he was a man with deep roots

7:37

and connections in wall tall. The

7:39

family raised cattle and operated

7:41

the pure oil franchise service station.

7:43

The counties in this story

7:45

may become confusing. By

7:47

nature, road houses are typically

7:49

on highways out of town. So

7:52

three different counties are involved and

7:54

will be mentioned because of where Lee's place

7:56

was and where everyone involved,

7:58

worked, and lived.

7:59

that

7:59

Walthau, Pike, and Marion

8:02

counties are on the southwestern corner of

8:04

Mississippi that border Louisiana. Tylertown,

8:07

where the crafts lived, was in Walton

8:10

County. Robly lived in

8:12

Marion County and the town of Columbia.

8:14

which will involve yet another shooting in this

8:16

story. Rob Lee's

8:18

Roadhouse was in Pike County,

8:20

so the eventual trial for Lamar Kraft's

8:22

murder was held in that county,

8:25

not in Macomb, the largest town, but

8:27

in Magnolia, the county seat.

8:29

I

8:29

hope I haven't already hopelessly confused

8:32

you. What is

8:33

most important to remember is

8:35

that Hadi Lee Barnes would be going on trial

8:37

for murder in Mississippi. It

8:40

wasn't just that she shot a white man.

8:42

she was facing the death penalty for defending

8:45

herself.

8:46

I'm going to

8:48

pause now for a short commercial break.

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10:22

Richard

10:26

Lamar Kraft, the

10:29

man who had broken into Lee's place

10:31

that was nineteen twenty nine in

10:33

Mississippi to parents Ed and

10:34

Gertrude Kraft. He was the fourth of

10:37

seven children, six boys

10:39

and one girl. Lamar

10:41

played football in high

10:42

school, and after he graduated, he

10:44

enrolled in the Air Force in nineteen forty

10:46

seven. After the Air Force, he

10:48

attended Mississippi Southern

10:49

College, where he was a member of

10:52

Piecapa Alpha Fraternity.

10:54

In nineteen fifty one, Lamar

10:56

was twenty two or twenty three years

10:58

old and was working as a service station

11:00

operator in Tylertown, the

11:02

station his family owned. He

11:04

was also engaged to a woman named

11:06

Lucy Scott, and they

11:07

were to be married in June nineteen fifty

11:10

one. Despite

11:10

the circumstances of his

11:12

death, was

11:13

referred to as a tragedy victim in

11:15

his obituary, the

11:16

popular son of a prominent man

11:19

with, quote, a great throng of friends at

11:21

his funeral, as

11:22

how the paper described him.

11:24

And on paper, he was a

11:26

nice young man. His

11:27

funeral was at the Methodist Church in

11:29

Tylertown in Marion County.

11:31

He was survived by his father, Ed,

11:34

and stepmother, Katie, his own

11:36

mother having died ten years earlier,

11:38

as well as his five brothers and one

11:40

sister. His

11:42

family was

11:42

already trying to control the narrative about

11:45

Lamar's death, not

11:46

that most families would necessarily

11:48

name their sons, attempted rapists

11:50

and their obituaries, but it

11:52

was the beginning of the plan that Ed

11:54

Kraft had to clear his son's

11:56

name. To

11:57

show the support from his community,

11:58

What

11:59

is important to remember

12:01

for this story is that while the Craft

12:03

family was framing their narrative, there was

12:05

plenty of reporting

12:06

on the real story.

12:08

One particular reporter and newspaper

12:10

would take up Patty Lee's cause, but

12:12

the

12:12

story being reported so far

12:14

was already salacious.

12:17

On

12:17

the day after the murder, Wednesday, April

12:19

eighteenth, the Clarion ledger was

12:21

already running the

12:22

full story and got off to quite

12:24

the start.

12:25

quote, a

12:26

nigra made who shot and killed

12:28

a white man as he attempted to

12:30

break into the room in which she was sleeping

12:32

at one thirty AM Tuesday. was

12:34

later in the morning charged with his murder

12:37

according to the county prosecutor.

12:38

The wording is interesting.

12:41

The paper knew they had to lead with it being a

12:43

black woman who shot a white man, but

12:45

they also were already hinting at

12:48

what Lamar Kraft was trying to do by

12:50

saying he had broken into the room where she was

12:52

sleeping. The article

12:54

goes on to detail the arrest of

12:56

Kraft's two friends who were with him

12:58

that night. twenty seven year old James

13:00

Easterling, and twenty two year old

13:02

Oscar Hope. They were charged

13:04

with breaking and entering. And

13:06

then the story ends with the funeral arrangements

13:08

of Lamar Kraft set for the

13:10

next day Thursday at two

13:12

PM. but said that a

13:14

preliminary hearing had been moved to Friday, so

13:16

it would

13:16

not conflict with Craft's funeral

13:18

service.

13:19

So we've got the county prosecutor a

13:21

man named RB Reeves, nicknamed

13:24

Breezy, already giving a full account

13:26

of the shooting and break in to

13:28

the papers. A press

13:30

release is also not unusual in

13:32

modern true crime, but maybe some

13:34

details would have been held back for

13:36

trial. But in this case, Haddie

13:38

Lee Barnes had already confessed and full

13:40

to the sheriff, and Easterling and

13:42

Hub had already told their stories as

13:44

well. And their story was that on

13:46

the evening of April sixteenth, Lamar

13:48

Kraft, James Easterling, and Oscar

13:50

Hope, went to Robleys tavern at

13:52

around nine PM. and stayed

13:54

until closing time, drinking whiskey

13:56

and beer until well after midnight.

13:59

Wilmar

13:59

Craft and Rob Lee were actually said

14:02

to be good

14:02

friends and Lamar was a regular customer of

14:04

the tavern. The three men

14:06

left the tavern in Lamar's car and drove

14:09

east towards Tylertown before

14:11

turning around and going back to the tavern.

14:13

James

14:13

later testified that Lamar said he was

14:15

going back to the tavern to see Hettley.

14:18

Oscar

14:18

confirmed this and said they all knew

14:20

that Hettley was still in the tavern when

14:23

they back. On the

14:24

way there, they passed Robly and

14:26

his wife in their separate cars as

14:28

they left the tavern for the night. When

14:31

they got to the tavern, they

14:33

parked the car in the back, out

14:34

of sight from the road, and then

14:36

they knocked on the front and back doors

14:39

and looked through the shutters. While

14:40

looking through the windows, Oscar said

14:43

he saw Haddy, eliminated by

14:45

light coming from the window in the back

14:47

room. When she didn't open the

14:49

door, they went to the back of the tavern to the

14:51

window of the backroom. Lamar

14:54

told Oscar to go to the front of the tavern and

14:56

keep watch At which

14:58

point, Oscar said he warned him not to go

15:00

inside because, quote, she

15:02

probably has a gun. But

15:04

Oscar said Lamar wouldn't listen instead

15:06

saying he was going inside to have sex

15:08

with Heddy Lee. Obviously,

15:10

these were not his exact

15:11

words, but it would be a long time

15:13

before the real words came out.

15:15

James and Oscar claimed they did

15:18

not know that Harry Lee slept in the back

15:20

room and that while Lamar knew what he

15:22

wanted to do, they didn't really have a

15:24

plan once they got back to the tavern,

15:26

but they did

15:26

as Lamar Kraft instructed. Oscar

15:28

went around front to stand watch as

15:31

James and Lamar opened the back window of

15:33

the tavern. James

15:34

was holding the window open for

15:36

Lamar to crawl through

15:38

when the shots rang out.

15:40

After Lamar was shot, James

15:42

dropped the

15:42

window and ran. Oscar,

15:45

the lookout, also ran off

15:47

running as soon as he heard the shots. James

15:50

caught up to Oscar quickly. and

15:52

they ran about a mile to the home of a man they knew

15:54

and told him they had been in a

15:55

car wreck and asked to use

15:58

his phone.

15:58

They then used the phone to

15:59

call a taxi to take them to the

16:02

sheriff's department where they arrived at

16:04

around three AM and reported the

16:06

shooting to the deputies. Haddie

16:08

Lee had immediately called the

16:11

sheriff, a man named Robert Eley at

16:13

his home to report that she had shot

16:15

someone at Lee's place. and that she

16:17

would stay there and wait for him.

16:19

Side note, I

16:20

want to point out for any listeners who are

16:22

not from the states that it's not unusual

16:24

to hear different men named

16:25

Robert Eley or some variation like

16:28

Robley and older stories from the

16:30

south. He

16:30

was a general who became chief commander

16:33

of the

16:33

Confederate army during our civil war.

16:36

So it was a common name in the

16:38

south. For people from the

16:40

apologize for the history lesson, but I know

16:42

our neighbors appreciate it.

16:44

When sheriff Lee found out that

16:46

James and Oscar had gone to the station to

16:48

report the shooting, he had an

16:50

officer escort them back to the

16:52

crime scene, and then they were later

16:54

taken into custody at the Pike County

16:56

jail. Haddie Lee

16:58

surrendered to the sheriff, but he later said that,

17:00

quote, he had a difficult time making the

17:02

woman understand who he was so

17:04

she would let him enter.

17:07

She was clearly rattled, probably

17:08

terrified. Once she

17:10

surrendered, the sheriff had officers

17:13

take her to the jail for her protection.

17:15

Those

17:15

were the words used before she was

17:18

charged. At the

17:19

tavern, Lamar Kraft was found

17:21

dead and lying across a single bed

17:23

near the window. He had fallen head first through the

17:25

window after he was shot, and the

17:27

window fell down and held him there as James

17:30

dropped

17:30

it and ran away.

17:32

As I said, there was a lot of blood on his

17:34

face and mouth, so it was

17:36

initially believed that Lamar had been shot in

17:38

the mouth and that this was the shot

17:40

that killed him. The

17:42

second bullet went past him and into his

17:44

car, which was parked behind him.

17:46

The bullet was

17:47

later found lodged in the

17:49

car. Lamar's father, Ed

17:51

Kraft, was also called to the tavern

17:53

that night. This is obviously not

17:55

something that would happen today. father of

17:57

a shooting victim would not be allowed into

17:59

the

17:59

scene. No one

18:00

besides police would be allowed into an

18:03

active crime scene. But this was

18:04

nineteen fifty one, and the aircraft was a well

18:07

known respected man in Waldhall

18:09

County who had just run for

18:10

sheriff the previous summer.

18:12

As soon as officers realized

18:14

it was his son, he was

18:16

called. It

18:17

would have been a common

18:19

courtesy.

18:19

Later that day, Haddie Lee Barnes

18:21

was officially charged with Lamar

18:23

Kraft's murder. At

18:25

the same time, James East Drilling

18:27

and Oscar Hope were charged with breaking

18:30

and entering. Author Trent

18:30

Brown asked the question on all of our moms

18:33

in his book. Why was she charged with

18:35

murder and not manslaughter? or

18:37

some other lesser

18:38

offense. Not only had

18:40

she confessed to what happened, James

18:42

and Oscar had supported her story and

18:45

gave Lamar's that he intended to

18:47

have sex with her.

18:49

Mister Brown's answer was, quote,

18:51

Pike County authorities charged Barnes

18:53

with murder perhaps to forestall

18:55

any inclination among

18:57

local whites to take justice into

18:59

their own hands. He goes on to point

19:01

out that vigilant anti justice was not

19:04

as prominent in the early fifties

19:06

as it had been decades before in

19:08

the area. but the threat remained

19:10

real as he put it. On

19:13

Thursday, April nineteenth, Hadi

19:15

was placed on a one thousand dollar

19:17

bond and her was before a grand

19:18

jury. James and Oscar

19:20

were also put on thousand dollar bonds

19:22

for their breaking and entering charges

19:24

and their cases were sent to a grand

19:27

jury. One thousand would be

19:28

a little over eleven thousand and two

19:30

thousand twenty two money.

19:32

Both men were immediately released

19:35

on the promise that they would return to

19:37

pay their

19:37

bond. Despite her

19:39

bond being set in Pike

19:42

which

19:42

she couldn't afford anyway. Haddie Lee

19:44

was moved from the Pike County jail to the

19:46

Tylertown jail in Walthall County

19:48

for

19:48

what was called protective custody.

19:51

but she was

19:51

held there for a more insidious reason that I

19:54

will get into in a moment. At

19:56

the preliminary hearing on the

19:58

nineteenth, it was

19:59

revealed that Lamar had not been

20:02

shot in the mouth, but in the

20:04

shoulder. The manager of the funeral home

20:06

where Lamar's body had been involved

20:08

revealed that the bullet hit Lamar

20:09

on the shoulder traveled into his

20:12

chest and lodged itself in his lower

20:14

spine. Sheriff Lee

20:15

testified that Lamar's body

20:17

was not properly examined

20:19

at the scene, and that there was a lot of blood on

20:21

Lamar's face, leading officers to conclude that he

20:24

had been shot in the face. At

20:27

around four thirty on the day of

20:29

the nineteenth, A man named

20:31

JCPenney paid Huggies Bond,

20:33

and she was taken to the Pike Court House

20:35

to sign the Bond document. A

20:38

sheriff's deputy released Haddi Lee to

20:40

JC Henson, and another man

20:42

who she later said was a private

20:44

detective named Roberts. The

20:46

group

20:46

then went to a service station in Macomb,

20:48

and one of the men made a call

20:50

to Tylertown.

20:51

Haddie Lee asked to be let out of the car when

20:54

they got close to her home. but the

20:56

men refused instead

20:58

taking her back to Tylertown. That

21:00

would

21:00

be where the Craft family lived.

21:02

Once in Tylertown, had he

21:04

was taken to the office of a lawyer

21:06

named breed monger. He

21:09

represented the Craft family. There

21:11

were other men in the office, including

21:13

Ed Kraft, Lamar's dad and his

21:16

brothers. Had

21:16

he was told she could go to the

21:17

electric chair for shooting Lamar, and

21:20

was urged to change her

21:22

story.

21:22

Charles Gordon, the newspaperman,

21:25

I told you would take up Hettie

21:27

Lee's cause. Reported that she

21:27

was held in this office until four

21:30

AM, and that even the Pike County

21:32

prosecutor, RB Reeves, showed

21:35

up to the office for this informal

21:37

questioning. Imagine

21:38

being Haddily Barnes, a

21:40

young black woman, already charged

21:43

with murder, being held in an office

21:45

by a group of powerful white

21:47

men, all

21:47

of them telling her to change her story,

21:50

including the prosecutor in

21:52

her case. She

21:53

eventually relented and said

21:55

it was Rob Lee, the owner of the tavern

21:57

who shot Wilmore Kraft.

21:59

The men

21:59

called the Wallhall prosecutor to take

22:02

Hettley's new statement for the

22:04

record. Then she

22:04

was returned to the Wallhall County

22:07

jail at around four AM.

22:09

The Wall tall sheriff drove Haddie Lee

22:11

Barnes back to Pike County where she was

22:13

met by sheriff Lee.

22:15

Haddie would soon talk to reporter Charles

22:18

Gordon about her ordeal, but

22:19

just the handoff alone was for

22:22

boating. The

22:22

walk all sheriff told her to keep her head down as

22:24

he drove her over the Pike County line.

22:27

Then sheriff Lee and Pike County

22:29

drove her to a place to stay

22:31

and what was known as the center of Black McComb,

22:33

a safe place

22:34

to stay. The cooperation

22:37

of the two sheriffs says a

22:39

lot. It's unclear if Hadi

22:41

understood her rights, but she had

22:43

already asked the men who bonded her out

22:45

to take her home. Instead,

22:47

was taken to the office of a powerful

22:50

Tower Tower, who represented the

22:52

Craft family. It's

22:53

likely she understood but

22:56

felt it was safer to not try and

22:58

resist. And she

22:59

already knew what the Craft family

23:01

wanted her to say. that Rob Lee

23:03

had shot their son, not

23:05

her. Haddie

23:06

Lee told the reporter that at

23:08

one point, she was even driven around

23:11

Marion County to look for a black named Leroy

23:13

Collins who was reported to be near the

23:15

tavern on the night of the shooting, but

23:17

she did not point

23:17

out the man. though

23:19

you will hear his name again. This reminds

23:21

me of when Ruth Dickens was

23:24

allowed out of prison to go look

23:26

for the imaginary black man

23:28

she blamed for

23:29

killing her mother. She was

23:30

actually taken to a mental institution

23:33

and did point out a sixteen year

23:35

old black kid. who thankfully had

23:38

a rock solid alibi. Haddie

23:40

Lee later said that while she was not

23:42

physically harmed in Tylertown, She

23:44

was scared to death, and she did change her story

23:46

due to this fear. She

23:48

said

23:48

that she told the men anything they

23:51

wanted. But as

23:52

soon as she was back in Pike

23:53

County, she reversed her story back to the

23:56

truth.

23:56

She had shot Lamar Kraft, not

23:59

Rob Lee, but

24:00

it didn't matter. The Craft family

24:02

had their story brewing and a couple of

24:04

Craft brothers were about to take matters

24:07

into their own hands.

24:11

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27:14

On May

27:14

ninth, Robly was

27:16

getting into his pickup truck. Outside

27:18

of his home on the wall tall Marion

27:21

County line, when he was

27:23

ambushed. Vernon and Milo

27:25

Craft, two of Lamar's brothers,

27:27

shot him as they drove by.

27:29

They sprayed his truck

27:29

with pistols and shotguns.

27:31

a shock Lee

27:33

dove to the

27:33

floor of his truck and wasn't struck by

27:36

any of the bullets or pellets, but

27:38

a piece of glass from windows did cut his

27:41

eye. The sheriff of Marion County

27:43

responded and later reported

27:45

that there were forty two bullet holes in

27:47

Lee's truck. and that he was lucky to be

27:49

alive, and he may

27:50

not be able to see out of one eye.

27:52

Vernon and

27:53

Milo Craft were both arrested and charged

27:56

with assault and battery with intent

27:58

to kill. Both brothers

27:59

were released on

27:59

two thousand dollar bonds. Lee

28:02

was in

28:03

the hospital for a few days, needing

28:05

an operation to remove the

28:06

glass from his eye. but

28:08

he did recover. And he had

28:10

a plan of his own.

28:12

Haddie Lee Barnes had loved the Pike

28:14

County area for Leeland, Mississippi.

28:17

about two hundred miles north in Washington County.

28:20

Ironically, Leland is also

28:22

Ruth Dickens' hometown. But

28:25

Hadi had been led there by Rob Lee. It

28:27

is unclear how that went down, but

28:30

she had plenty of reason to want to hide

28:32

far away from this madness.

28:34

especially after what the Craft family had

28:37

done to Rob Lee. She

28:38

had had her own run-in with the family,

28:40

which although may have seemed formal at a

28:43

lawyer's was still frightening,

28:45

and now the

28:45

Kraft Brothers were shooting at people.

28:48

And if you think about it, she

28:50

may have trusted Rob Lee. He

28:52

had been her employer. And

28:54

despite the machinations of the Craft family

28:56

and members of law enforcement

28:58

and the court, Haddiely

28:59

Barnes had told the truth in a very

29:02

public way. that

29:03

she had shot Lamar

29:05

Kraft, not Rob

29:07

Lee. So

29:07

when Rob Lee came to get her on

29:09

June twelfth, she may

29:10

have felt no reason to

29:13

fear him. But then he

29:13

took her for a ride, stopping at a

29:16

roadhouse to have some drinks, where he

29:18

met up

29:18

with a black man named Walter

29:20

Watson. She,

29:21

Walter, and Rob Lee would ride around

29:23

for the next two days,

29:25

ostensibly

29:25

on their way back to Pike County,

29:28

stopping to get whiskey as

29:30

they

29:30

drove. and the mood growing more ominous

29:32

for Haddi Lee. They

29:34

mainly stayed around Marion County near

29:37

Robley's

29:37

home, where he would go in to

29:39

sleep those two nights. leaving Haddie Lee

29:41

and Walter to sleep in the car. At

29:43

one juke joint, the

29:46

men were drinking early times whiskey and

29:48

Hadi was probably getting more and more

29:50

nervous. Walter was up

29:52

and around, socializing, and going

29:54

to the jukebox to play music,

29:56

so he

29:56

didn't hear everything that was said,

29:59

but he later testified that he heard

30:01

Robly say to Haddy that he

30:02

would blow her brains

30:04

out. Lee

30:05

was clearly threatening his former employee.

30:07

Maybe he was

30:08

just telling her as she changed her

30:11

story, the way the Craft family wanted

30:13

her to, he would have to kill

30:15

her. She did leave willingly with

30:17

him again. It's

30:18

hard to say what had he was thinking

30:20

or feeling other than fear.

30:23

didn't ask for help anywhere

30:25

or try to escape, but that's how she

30:27

had behaved all during this long waking

30:29

nightmare. She went along

30:31

and kept her head down.

30:32

so far it had kept her

30:35

safe. But she was in much more

30:37

danger from Rob Lee than

30:39

she realized. On

30:41

the last evening, she was with the two men.

30:44

Robly drove her to a tenant cabin

30:46

on his land in Marion County. where a

30:48

bootlegger lived. But

30:49

then he marched her back behind the

30:52

cabin.

30:52

There, he shot her three

30:55

times. Had he begged him to call

30:56

a doctor or take her to

30:58

the hospital, but he walked away,

31:01

and

31:01

then Walter Watson walked up to her.

31:03

and

31:03

she begged him to leave her alone, but

31:06

he shot her twice more, once

31:08

in the face. Watson

31:10

would later say he tried to miss

31:12

Haddy, but

31:12

that was probably a lie. What

31:15

was

31:15

the truth was what he said

31:17

about Rob Lee's demeanor that

31:19

night. Trent Brown wrote that Watson

31:21

described Lee as volatile

31:23

and violent. He insisted

31:26

that Watson helped him. and

31:27

Watson said he was afraid of

31:30

robbery.

31:30

Haddie Lee Barnes was shot in

31:32

the head, shoulder, abdomen, and

31:35

arm but still managed to get up and walk towards the

31:37

nearby highway

31:38

after the shooters fled.

31:40

And it was Rob

31:41

Lee's wife who saw Haddie

31:44

and took her to hospital where she had emergency

31:47

surgery and was in critical condition.

31:49

Some people

31:50

were confused by missus Robley's

31:52

help of Haddie. until Charles Gordon

31:55

reported that she was the estranged

31:57

wife of Rob Lee. It's

31:59

possible she

31:59

knew nothing about what her

32:01

estranged husband was up to and

32:03

just saw a mortally injured woman and helped

32:06

her. I think that is

32:07

much more likely, but who's

32:10

to say? Haddie made a

32:12

statement to the Marion County Sheriff,

32:13

an attorney, breed monger, from her

32:16

hospital room, about

32:18

the attack. She said

32:19

that Rob Lee and a black man named

32:21

Walter Watson were responsible.

32:23

Why the

32:25

attorney for the Craft family was continuously

32:28

allowed? and on formal

32:30

questioning is still a mystery, except

32:32

that this informal cooperation

32:34

between local attorneys and law

32:37

enforcement was common, as I've already

32:39

demonstrated. But it

32:40

doesn't make it right. He had

32:43

clearly tried to intimidate her.

32:45

Rob Lee had

32:45

shot Hadi in the shoulder abdomen and

32:48

arm with a snub nest

32:50

pistol and then walked away. Walter

32:52

Watson

32:52

shot her two times

32:55

with

32:55

what she described as Rob's regular

32:58

pistol. affidavits

32:58

were filed against Lee and Watson and

33:01

Marion

33:01

County, and they were both charged

33:03

with assault and

33:03

battery and intent to murder. They

33:06

were both

33:06

apprehended and arrested in the days following

33:09

the shooting. Walter

33:11

Watson went on trial in less than two weeks

33:13

after the shooting. Haddy was

33:15

the

33:15

star witness in the trial.

33:18

lyping into court with a bandage on her face

33:20

to testify. The road

33:22

trip had begun on June twelfth

33:24

and had ended on June fourteenth.

33:27

but before Hadi was taken and shot, they had stopped

33:29

at a

33:29

bar in Marion County. The owner

33:32

of that

33:32

bar, a woman named Ernestine

33:35

James, testify that Hadi,

33:37

Rob, Walter, and another man

33:39

were at her place at around two

33:41

thirty PM, and that they bought

33:43

several half pints of whiskey. The

33:45

group then went outside and started practicing firing

33:47

their pistols. Ernestin claimed

33:49

to have heard Rob say he had to

33:51

get rid of Haddie Lee.

33:53

The group then went to visit a bootlegger,

33:56

which was at the tenant cabin where Haddie Lee

33:58

was shot. Walter

33:59

testified in his own defense. and

34:02

stated that he was in the car when he

34:04

heard three gunshots. And had he

34:06

cry, oh lord. He said

34:08

he waited in car until Rob

34:10

came back and told him to go kill

34:12

Haddy. After shooting

34:13

her, Walter returned

34:14

to Rob who was waiting in the

34:17

car and told him we got

34:19

her. The

34:19

third testimony came from the chief of police

34:22

of Columbia, the town where

34:24

Hadi Lee was shot. He said that

34:26

after he was arrested, Walter told

34:28

him that he was hired to

34:29

drive Rob's car home. Walter

34:31

told the

34:31

sheriff that he

34:32

had heard Rob Freton Hadi on

34:35

the trip. He also testified that Walter claimed

34:37

to have tried to miss Hettley when he

34:39

shot at her, but he failed.

34:41

On June

34:42

twenty six, after deliberating for only

34:44

twenty five minutes. A jury convicted, Walter

34:47

Watson, as guilty of a assault

34:49

and battery with intent to

34:51

kill. He was

34:51

sentenced to ten years. Walter

34:54

appealed

34:54

his conviction, but in December of

34:56

nineteen fifty one, it was upheld by

34:59

the Mississippi Supreme Court. Rob

35:01

Lee's trial was scheduled to start on June twenty

35:04

seventh right after Walter Watson's,

35:06

but he failed to appear despite being out

35:08

on bond. A judge

35:10

issued a bench warrant for his

35:12

arrest and set a new bond of ten

35:14

thousand dollars. He had previously

35:16

been out on a twenty five hundred

35:18

dollar bond. the highest one that

35:20

ten thousand would be about a

35:22

hundred and fourteen thousand in two thousand

35:25

twenty two money. Rob

35:27

Lee had

35:28

attended most of Walter's trial

35:30

and was believed to have left sometime

35:32

during the night of the twenty sixth

35:34

after Walter was convicted. officers

35:37

believed that he had left in a light blue two door mercury car.

35:39

The Mississippi State Highway Patrol

35:41

were notified of

35:44

Robly's escape. and told to keep an

35:46

eye off for him. They were also

35:48

asked to inform state police throughout

35:50

the US South and US

35:52

border

35:52

patrol on the Mexican border.

35:55

On

35:55

July fourteenth, Rob Lee surrendered

35:57

to deputy sheriffs in Marion

35:59

County. He said that he hadn't left

36:01

the county. And even though he had skipped

36:03

out on bond already, he was

36:05

released on the new ten thousand bond. Then

36:08

despite all of this, Haddie Lee

36:10

Barnes was still

36:12

formally indicted for the murder of

36:14

Lamar Kraft on October

36:16

second nineteen

36:18

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code fried. Haddie

39:06

Lee's trial began

39:07

on October twenty

39:08

fourth nineteen fifty one in

39:09

the Magnolia Court House in

39:12

Pike County.

39:14

she was represented by two court appointed attorneys,

39:16

Joe Pigott and George Cutler.

39:18

One of her attorneys,

39:22

Joe Pigott. grew to be a very

39:24

respected member of the community. He was born in nineteen twenty five

39:26

in Waldhall County, Mississippi.

39:28

He attended

39:29

Mackomb high school, and

39:31

then attended Southwest Mississippi Junior

39:33

College. During World War

39:35

two,

39:35

he volunteered for

39:38

military service and was an intelligence officer in

39:40

Europe. This job required him to

39:42

parachute behind enemy lines where

39:44

he acted

39:45

as a spy. and

39:47

destroyed Bridges and was even imprisoned

39:49

by Nazi SS. All of

39:52

this happening before he was

39:53

twenty years old. He

39:54

also fought at the battle of the Bulge and was in the mob in

39:57

Milan, Italy that hung the body

39:59

of

39:59

Benito Mussolini. and

40:02

then he ordered the mob to take the body down and go away.

40:05

After Eisenhower became

40:06

president, Joe was fond

40:09

of reminding people I was in

40:12

the army with Eisenhower. After the war, he attended law

40:13

school at the University

40:16

of Mississippi, and

40:18

started practicing law in nineteen fifty three. He married

40:21

a woman named

40:21

Lorraine, and they had five

40:24

children together. Joe started

40:25

his career as a Pike County

40:28

attorney and then is the DA for

40:30

Pike, Walthaus, Lincoln, and

40:32

Capaya counties. As I told you

40:34

at the beginning of the episode, he was

40:36

the district attorney who prosecuted

40:38

the men accused of murdering Tina

40:40

Andrews.

40:41

Again, That is episode eighty seven,

40:43

my other collaboration with author, Trent

40:46

Brown. At the time of Haddie Lee's

40:47

arrest and indictment in nineteen

40:50

fifty one, Joe

40:52

Pigott was the youngest and newest

40:54

attorney in Pike County. He

40:56

was only twenty five years old.

40:58

And that's how it went

40:59

for court appointed attorneys then. Though

41:01

there was supposedly a fair pool to choose

41:04

from, as Trump pointed out in his

41:06

book, it was usually

41:07

the youngest and

41:08

most inexperienced attorneys.

41:10

who were assigned as public defenders simply

41:12

because the

41:13

older, more seasoned lawyers were the

41:16

busiest.

41:16

What makes Joe

41:17

Pagot remarkable is

41:20

not just what he will do for Haddie at trial. It's

41:22

what he did not do before the

41:24

trial. Trent also spoke

41:26

about this in his book.

41:28

but I'm sure a lot of you can

41:30

already guess. He did not pressure Haddie

41:31

Lee Barnes to take a plea

41:34

deal.

41:35

Many attorneys would probably

41:37

have counseled a black woman who had confessed to shooting a white

41:39

man to take a plea and avoid

41:41

the death penalty. Even

41:44

modern defense attorneys advise please for all

41:46

kinds of reasons, but especially if

41:48

the personal trial has

41:52

confessed. But Target made the decision

41:53

to take Heather Lee's case to

41:55

trial and probably had a

41:57

strategy already prepared.

42:00

a

42:00

jury, but the

42:01

prosecutor and Pagot asked the

42:04

question, would the fact that the

42:05

defendant as a black woman and

42:07

the slaying victim a white man affect your verdict

42:10

in this trial. All of the

42:12

jurors said

42:12

they would not let this affect their

42:14

judgment.

42:14

testimonies

42:15

in the trial included that of sheriff

42:17

Robert Eley, Oscar Hope, and

42:20

James Easterling. As

42:22

Trent

42:22

Brown pointed out in his book,

42:24

for

42:24

all the times Haddie Lee had to tell her story. She did not

42:26

have to tell it at

42:27

her own trial. The same

42:30

day the

42:31

trial began, it ended. Without

42:33

calling any witnesses, Joe pocket made a

42:36

motion to the judge, Thomas Brady,

42:38

to instruct the jury to acquit Harry Lee

42:40

Barnes because she acted in

42:42

self defense. He

42:44

even

42:44

invoked what we think of as the Castle

42:46

doctrine because

42:47

testimony had shown that Haddie Lee

42:49

had been sleeping in the tavern

42:51

to watch over at night for weeks

42:54

before. Much has been made

42:55

over this motion and

42:57

the judge's decision. mostly because

43:00

judge Brady was a well known

43:02

segregationist. But

43:04

the truth is, as Trent Brown also

43:06

pointed out and as many of you probably

43:08

know, Any

43:09

good defense attorney is constantly

43:11

making motions all throughout a

43:14

trial, particularly a motion

43:16

to dismiss. after the state rests,

43:18

or a motion to instruct

43:19

the jury. Now, these motions

43:21

don't always work, but

43:23

they are common. So common,

43:25

I rarely mention them in

43:27

many cases. There are

43:29

no existing transcripts in

43:32

Haddie Lee's trial, and we do not know exactly what Joe

43:34

Pega said to the judge. But as

43:36

mister Brown wrote, whatever he

43:38

said, worked.

43:41

Considering the testimony of the sheriff and

43:43

the Markroft's two friends who were

43:45

helping him that evening, it would not

43:47

have been too hard for the

43:49

judge to see. that Hadley Barnes had a right to

43:51

defend herself and or the property

43:53

she was guarding. The jury

43:56

did

43:56

as the judge instructed and

43:59

Haddie Lee

43:59

was freed. After her acquittal, she

44:01

married a man named Leon Gardner under

44:03

an assumed name. They

44:06

moved to Arkansas and became tenant farmers

44:08

on a cotton farm. But the

44:11

Craft family

44:11

was still trying to posthumously

44:13

clear Lamar's name And

44:16

somehow, on March fifteenth

44:18

nineteen fifty two, a man named

44:20

Leroy Collins was charged

44:21

and arrested for the murder

44:23

of Lamar Kraft. This is

44:26

the same man who Haddie Lee was taken

44:28

to look for. While she was held in

44:30

Tylertown in April of nineteen

44:32

fifty one, with the Kraft family, their attorney, and even prosecutor

44:34

who were pressuring her to say

44:36

Rob Lee shot Lamar. It would

44:38

seem that in place of Rob Lee,

44:42

they were looking for a black man to pin it on. Leroy

44:44

worked for

44:45

Robleys Tavern and had

44:47

given a statement saying that the

44:49

night of Lamar's death. He was given a

44:51

ride home by Rob Lee after the

44:53

tavern closed. He claimed that he

44:55

didn't even know about Lamar's death until two

44:57

days after it happened. On March

45:00

twenty first, the affidavit against him

45:02

was dismissed due to a

45:04

lack of fusion. A bond was set at seven hundred and fifty

45:06

dollars because Leroy was considered

45:08

a material witness, but he was

45:10

unable to

45:12

post it and stayed in

45:13

jail until around April he was released. On

45:16

June third nineteen

45:17

fifty three, Hadi was taken

45:19

into custody by Arkansas

45:21

office It's not clear if

45:23

she avoided a court order, but we do

45:25

know the

45:25

officers knew where she was because her mother

45:28

came to

45:30

visit her. She was given an extradition order to Saan to back

45:32

to Mississippi. She couldn't read it,

45:34

but

45:34

it didn't matter. She never

45:37

argued with authorities.

45:39

They had come

45:39

to get her to testify at Rob Lee's

45:42

trial for when he almost

45:44

shot her to death. She was

45:46

taken first to the

45:48

Columbia jail before

45:48

being moved to the Marion County jail. She

45:50

had done nothing

45:51

wrong. A jury had found her not

45:54

guilty by reason of

45:56

self defense in Lamar Kraft's death. And now she was

45:58

held as a material witness in a

45:59

trial for her own attempt

46:02

at murder. Most

46:04

witnesses are put up in hotels as they wait to testify,

46:07

particularly the victims. But Haddie

46:09

Lee sat in jail as she waited two

46:11

weeks for the

46:13

trial to start. Rob Lee's trial finally

46:15

started on June seventeenth, nineteen fifty

46:18

three. There were only two

46:20

testimonies

46:20

in the trial.

46:22

that of Haddie Lee and Walter Watson. They repeated what

46:25

they had said in previous

46:26

repeated what they has trials and

46:28

hearings.

46:30

That

46:30

same day, June seventeenth. A jury deliberated

46:32

for five

46:32

minutes and found Robly guilty.

46:35

He was sentenced

46:36

to ten years in prison.

46:38

Then

46:39

Haddie Lee Barnes was still

46:39

kept in jail even after she

46:42

testified in Robley's trial on charges

46:43

of obstructing

46:46

justice. and as a material

46:48

witness. I don't understand the

46:50

obstruction of justice part, but wait

46:52

till you hear what trial she

46:54

was expected to testify in. On

46:56

June seventeenth nineteen fifty three, the DA

46:59

filed an affidavit charging Rob

47:01

Lee with killing

47:03

Lamar Kraft. Ed

47:05

Kraft had finally gotten his

47:08

way. On

47:08

July twentieth nineteen fifty three,

47:10

Robly was arrested and charged with

47:13

the murder of Lamar Kraft. At

47:15

the time of the arrest, Rob Lee had

47:17

been free on bond while

47:19

his assault conviction was being

47:21

appealed. Shortly

47:22

after his arrest, he was freed on bond

47:24

of seven thousand five hundred dollars.

47:27

And yet, Haddy

47:28

Lee Barnes still sat

47:32

in jail just because she was a material witness. She

47:34

had already been found not guilty in

47:36

her own criminal trial, and

47:38

Robly had been found guilty of

47:40

shooting her but he was out on

47:42

bond. And now she was in jail

47:44

waiting to testify against

47:46

him for shooting Lamar Kraft.

47:48

It

47:48

mind boggling is mind

47:50

boggling. in

47:50

mid July, Hadi's attorney, Joe pocket, the

47:52

man who had represented her throughout all

47:54

of the court proceedings so far, filed

47:58

a petition for rid of Habius Corpus the claims that

47:59

Hadi Lee was being falsely and

48:02

unfairly imprisoned. A statement

48:04

in the petition also mentioned

48:06

Hadi's past

48:08

treatment by law enforcement, and that she had been forced to sign statements

48:10

that she knew were false. This

48:13

made people suspicious that Haddie

48:15

Lee had changed her story once

48:18

again and was claiming to not be

48:20

Lamarck's shooter. On July

48:21

fourteenth, Joe's

48:23

petition was dismissed. and

48:25

Haddie Lee's bond was set to remain

48:27

at twenty five

48:28

hundred dollars. In

48:30

the decision to dismiss the

48:32

case, It

48:32

was ruled that Hadi's imprisonment was lawful,

48:34

and some of her statements were labeled

48:36

as contradictory. Despite

48:38

their contradictory statements, when

48:41

she testified in a hearing for the she once again stated

48:43

that she had killed Lamar

48:46

Kraft. During these

48:48

proceedings, it was revealed that on

48:50

June eighteenth nineteen fifty three,

48:52

while imprisoned, Haddie Lee had signed

48:54

a statement saying that Lamar had been killed

48:57

by someone other than her and his body was placed

48:59

in the tavern where it

49:01

had been found. Haddie Lee

49:03

later said in the hearing, that

49:05

she had only saw in the statement because she

49:07

was tired and afraid.

49:10

Joe Pagot appealed the

49:12

decision immediately. During

49:14

this time, Haddie

49:15

Lee was moved between gels

49:17

several times. She

49:18

told reporter Charles Gordon that

49:20

she didn't feel afraid in jail. but

49:22

that she preferred the Brookhaven gel to others because, quote, at

49:25

Brookhaven, I could look out the

49:27

window. And here, there's not any window

49:29

I can look out of.

49:32

She just sadly seemed to accept her fate.

49:36

I'm going to pause

49:36

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51:44

In

51:45

total, Haddie Lee Barnes had been in three different jails, the Marion

51:47

County Jail in Columbia, the Lincoln

51:49

County Jail in

51:52

Brickhaven, in

51:53

the Pike County Jail in Magnolia,

51:55

and briefly in Arkansas

51:57

State custody. Also

51:58

brought during these

51:59

proceedings was a suit

52:01

filed in Walton County Circuit report

52:03

on July eighteenth nineteen fifty

52:05

three by Ed Kraft. The suit

52:07

was filed against the American

52:09

National Insurance Company. Edcraft filed the suit saying

52:11

that his son's death was accidental,

52:14

and he should get two

52:16

thousand dollars.

52:17

which

52:18

would be over twenty two thousand dollars today. He

52:20

had already been paid one thousand by the

52:24

insurance company. Ironically,

52:26

Joe Pega represented the

52:28

insurance company in this

52:29

case, which, since he knew the

52:32

case backwards and forwards,

52:33

put him in a very good position.

52:36

Interestingly, the Kraft family

52:38

attorney, breed monger, grilled

52:40

James Easterling about Lamar Kraft's

52:42

intentions that April night. At this time, he

52:45

was

52:45

more explicit. He said that Lamar

52:47

said, quote, I'm going to screw

52:49

that negro girl.

52:52

He had

52:52

first said they were going to see Haddie Lee, but as

52:55

Mungar hounded him, he finally told

52:57

the truth. Then when Mungar accused

52:59

him of changing his

53:02

story, lying at this time. Easterling insisted

53:04

he wasn't changing his story but, quote,

53:06

mister Munger, I

53:08

wasn't coming out and playing words

53:10

and say it until I was forced to. I

53:12

tell you the reason why I didn't tell it.

53:14

The truth is, after the boy was killed,

53:16

I didn't want to tell the reason he

53:19

went back. He had a good name. That is the reason

53:21

I didn't tell exactly why he went back

53:23

there. He didn't want

53:24

to ruin Lamar Kraft's good

53:26

name and had he lee's trial or his own

53:28

criminal trial. But now,

53:30

he had been bajored into telling the

53:32

truth by the Kraft family lawyer.

53:35

Yes. and

53:36

maybe he didn't want to ruin his own good name either. Still,

53:40

on

53:40

August twelfth

53:41

nineteen fifty three, aircraft

53:43

was granted the additional thousand dollars by a

53:45

jury. This trial

53:48

was also tried before judge Thomas

53:50

Brady. And this time, he

53:52

denied Joe Poggett's request for

53:53

a directed verdict and the jury ruled

53:55

in favor of the powerful

53:58

Ed Kraft.

53:59

However, the Supreme Court

54:02

of Mississippi disagreed with the

54:04

decision in favor of American

54:06

National on the grounds that

54:08

the plaintiff Ed Kraft had to prove the shooting was

54:10

accidental. The court found that

54:12

Lamar Kraft

54:12

was shot to prevent the commission

54:14

of a burglary, which

54:15

is a felony. Meaning,

54:18

Haddie Lee Barnes shot

54:19

him on purpose, not

54:21

by accident, which is what the Craft

54:23

family was trying to

54:25

prove to get additional

54:26

thousand dollars. No one

54:28

really believes it was about the money though.

54:30

It was always

54:31

about trying to make

54:33

Lamar Kraft's death about anything other than him trying to

54:35

break into a tavern to have sex with a black

54:38

woman. The court

54:40

further found

54:40

that the danger of

54:42

a great personal injury to Barnes afforded

54:45

justification for her to

54:47

fire the fatal shot. or

54:49

as Trent Brown put it. Twice now, the state of

54:51

Mississippi ruled that Haddie Lee Barnes had the right

54:53

to defend herself with

54:56

lethal force. Then

54:58

on

54:58

September thirteenth nineteen fifty three, the

55:00

enterprise journal led by

55:01

reporter Charles Gordon announced that

55:03

a group of white Macron citizens were

55:06

coming together to raise money

55:08

to pay for Haddie's two thousand five hundred

55:10

dollar bond. At that

55:12

point, she had been in jail for three and a half

55:14

months as a

55:16

material witness. The people who formed the group did so because they

55:18

believed that the due process of the

55:20

law should apply even to the

55:22

least influential.

55:24

Together,

55:25

the group formed the Haddie Lee Barnes Trust Fund. Publisher,

55:27

j o Emmerich, told the

55:29

clerian ledger that, quote,

55:32

the people felt it unfair for the woman to remain in jail charged

55:34

with no crime until such time as

55:36

the state called her as a witness. In

55:39

order to get

55:40

Haddie released, The

55:42

group collected donations or pledges for five or ten

55:45

dollars. The goal was to get

55:47

enough signatures and pledges that

55:49

the sheriff would be forced to recognize the money

55:51

as bond money and release

55:54

Haddie. The

55:54

next day, September sixteenth, Haddie's

55:57

bond was lower to five

55:59

hundred dollars.

56:00

On September eighteenth, Haddie

56:02

was finally released from jail. one

56:04

hundred prominent citizens of Macomb gave five

56:06

dollars to the fund, so Hadi could

56:09

be released. Following her release,

56:11

Hadi

56:11

was given a

56:14

bus ticket. and the option to leave the city if she wished. She ended

56:16

up leaving but made a promise

56:17

to return in October if her

56:19

presence was needed by the grand jury

56:21

that would be convening

56:24

at that com to go over the new murder charges against

56:26

robbery. On October fifteenth

56:28

nineteen

56:28

fifty three, a grand jury

56:30

was hurt for the murder charges

56:32

against robbery.

56:34

and had he returned as promised to testify.

56:36

During this testimony, she

56:39

repeated her confession of shooting

56:41

and killing Lamar Kraft. Let

56:43

me

56:43

repeat all of that. After having

56:46

gone on

56:46

trial for her own life and being

56:48

found not guilty for the murder of

56:51

Lamar Kraft, Then being

56:52

shot at and almost killed, she had

56:54

testified against her shooters, and then she

56:56

had been held in jail for months

56:58

just as a material witness. and

57:00

yet she still returned to exonerate the man who

57:03

had shot her. She still came

57:05

back and told the truth. The

57:07

grand jury did not indict Rob Lee. The

57:10

seven thousand five hundred dollar bond in

57:12

Lee's case was dismissed because there was no no

57:14

reason

57:14

to call him back to Haddie

57:16

Lee's remaining

57:16

five hundred dollar bond was also dismissed

57:18

because there was no need for her

57:20

to testify in a potential trial.

57:24

After it was all over and she was finally released,

57:26

there isn't much if any

57:28

record of her life. She

57:31

he disappeared disappeared. Perhaps

57:32

going back to Arkansas with her husband. We don't know if

57:34

she had any

57:35

children or what became of her.

57:37

On the one

57:38

hand, I am sad that

57:41

I don't have loving quotes about her from her

57:43

children or grandchildren. I would love to

57:45

have a

57:45

quote about her laugh or

57:48

warm smile. The only

57:49

photos we have of her were taken in

57:52

jail, and she certainly

57:53

wasn't smiling. But on

57:54

the other hand, I am glad she

57:56

was able to fade into obscurity. because

57:59

it's obvious, that is what she

57:59

wanted. In March of nineteen fifty

58:02

four,

58:02

Rob Lee's appeal in his assault and battery

58:04

in attempt to kill conviction

58:07

was denied and his conviction and ten year sentence

58:09

were upheld. After his

58:11

conviction was

58:12

upheld, Rob Lee ran yet

58:16

again. The

58:16

assistant attorney general then went to Columbia to collect

58:18

forfeiture's only his bond. His

58:20

bond's men were forced to pay off

58:24

the five thousand dollars. That's over fifty five

58:26

thousand in two thousand twenty two.

58:28

dollars On March thirteenth, Rob

58:30

was located at a

58:32

local hospital where he was in

58:34

critical condition from stomach

58:36

hemorrhages. While in the hospital, he

58:38

was kept under heavy guard. There's no

58:40

explanation about the stomach hemorrhages, but if I

58:42

had to guess It would be an ulcer,

58:44

which is the most common cause

58:46

of upper GI bleeding. Lee was

58:48

released after five days into custody

58:50

at the Marion County jail. and then

58:53

he was processed into state custody at parchment

58:55

on May

58:55

first nineteen fifty

58:58

four. but he served just

59:00

over a year of his

59:01

ten year sentence when in July of

59:03

nineteen fifty five, Mississippi governor

59:06

Hugh White grantedly a ninety day suspension of

59:08

sentence. By September, he was granted

59:10

an indefinite suspension of

59:12

his sentence.

59:14

And

59:14

remember, governor White would be the same governor

59:16

who released Ruth Dickens after

59:18

only six years for the brutal

59:20

murder of her mother.

59:22

For

59:23

what it's Walter served about half of his

59:25

ten year sentence. But after his parole,

59:27

he didn't have the audacity

59:30

to ask for a full

59:32

pardon like Rob Lee did in nineteen

59:34

fifty nine. He

59:35

petitioned then governor JP Coleman

59:37

for the pardon because as

59:39

he put it, He had been a law abiding

59:41

citizen for several years. He didn't get that pardon,

59:43

and it does seem he lived the rest of his life

59:45

out of

59:48

trouble. and god at the ripe old age of seventy

59:50

five. It pains me to point

59:51

this out, but to be

59:54

fair, Rob Lee would never have shot

59:56

Hettley Barnes much less

59:58

skipped bond and behaved

59:59

the way he

59:59

did. If it wasn't for

1:00:01

Ed Kraft and his friends and

1:00:03

family, doing everything they could to be

1:00:05

sure that Rob went down

1:00:07

for shooting Lamar Kraft. And why?

1:00:09

They never actually gave an

1:00:11

alternate theory except that I guess it

1:00:13

would be

1:00:14

better

1:00:15

for their golden boy. to be

1:00:17

considered a common burglar than a man intent on

1:00:18

raping a black woman, and that

1:00:21

is the dirty word

1:00:22

you will never read about

1:00:23

in this case.

1:00:26

As

1:00:26

the years of reporting went on, Charles Gordon for

1:00:28

the enterprise journal did get more explicit

1:00:31

about Lamar Kraft's intentions. but

1:00:34

it was still a time period for euphemisms

1:00:36

and innuendo, not words like rape

1:00:38

or sexual

1:00:40

assault. No

1:00:41

one ever framed what happened in this

1:00:44

case in terms of an attempted

1:00:46

sexual assault or

1:00:48

attempted raid. Oscar Hope

1:00:50

and James Easterling said Lemar Craft

1:00:52

planned to break into that bar to

1:00:54

have sex with Haddie Lee. As if

1:00:57

once he was inside, she would just

1:00:59

comply. Or maybe worse,

1:01:00

they intended to join in.

1:01:02

Maybe Lamar

1:01:03

was a bully a

1:01:05

ring leader who made his friends help,

1:01:07

or maybe they just covered their own

1:01:09

asses when they reported the shooting.

1:01:12

Remember, James was holding the window

1:01:14

open for Lamar he was doing

1:01:16

more than just acting as a

1:01:18

lookout.

1:01:18

Author Trent Brown never

1:01:20

really questioned the motives of

1:01:22

three drunk young white men returning to

1:01:25

a bar after hours to go see

1:01:27

a young black woman. He felt

1:01:29

it was pretty obvious.

1:01:32

So do I?

1:01:33

And I've done a

1:01:36

lot of thinking about the heroes in this

1:01:38

case. Joe Pega

1:01:39

worked hard for Huggiesley Barnes.

1:01:41

and he went on to become a very well

1:01:43

respected district attorney who always fought

1:01:45

for good. Reporter

1:01:47

Charles Gordon insisted

1:01:48

on covering Haddie Lee's

1:01:50

case, which while salacious in the beginning

1:01:53

might have dropped out of the headlines if

1:01:55

he had not cared. If he had

1:01:57

not kept pushing his editor. His

1:01:59

coverage spurred the citizens of Macomb

1:02:02

to raise Harry Lee's bond to see her

1:02:04

as they would see a white woman being

1:02:06

held illegally. And Gordon's

1:02:08

language changed over time. He

1:02:10

never

1:02:10

called Haddie Lee a girl as a

1:02:13

black woman would often have been

1:02:15

called then. and he

1:02:15

stopped using the word Negra's early

1:02:18

on, though he did still

1:02:20

write Negra Woman, which

1:02:22

was

1:02:22

the typical language

1:02:24

used. If it happened a decade later,

1:02:26

he and other newspapers would have called Haddie Lee,

1:02:28

a colored woman. And

1:02:32

Joe pocket, did not just collect his small fee, which seventy

1:02:34

five dollars as public defender and

1:02:36

push Hallelu Barnes to take a

1:02:38

plea

1:02:40

deal. although it may have been the safest bet for her

1:02:42

at the time. But he not

1:02:44

only believed

1:02:45

in her. He believed in his

1:02:47

own ability as a lawyer, and

1:02:49

his respect for the law. He

1:02:52

believed

1:02:52

that judge Brady, despite his

1:02:54

views on segregation, would respect

1:02:56

the law. It was a gamble

1:02:58

but he won.

1:03:00

Joe Pega is most certainly

1:03:02

a hero in this case. But

1:03:05

the biggest

1:03:05

hero of all is Haddie

1:03:07

Lee Barnes herself. all

1:03:09

through the trials even after being

1:03:11

nearly shot to death. She always had

1:03:13

the courage to go to court and

1:03:15

tell the truth. She

1:03:17

was given the opportunity to blame the shooting on robbery

1:03:19

and go free, but she insisted

1:03:21

on telling the truth.

1:03:24

and went on

1:03:25

trial for Lamar Kraft's murder, not

1:03:27

manslaughter, but murder, under the fear of

1:03:29

the death penalty. She

1:03:32

was illiterate and therefore unable to understand the

1:03:34

many papers put in front of her

1:03:36

to sign. Some of them

1:03:40

false statements. but she was a

1:03:42

smart woman. She knew inherently what was in those papers. But

1:03:44

she knew when to keep her head down and

1:03:46

sign whatever they wanted and say whatever

1:03:50

she had to to stay safe. But when she went to

1:03:52

court, she always told the

1:03:54

truth. She had nothing

1:03:56

to

1:03:56

hide. And

1:03:58

while the state of Mississippi did twice say

1:04:00

that she had the right to defend

1:04:02

herself, no one ever really

1:04:04

addressed the fact that she could have

1:04:06

been raped. She was

1:04:08

never treated as a victim, not

1:04:10

even in the trials for her own

1:04:12

attempted murder. Instead, she

1:04:14

was held in jail as a witness

1:04:16

while the man who shot her, walked

1:04:18

free on bond. I wonder if anyone

1:04:20

ever really thought about the

1:04:24

true terror Haddie

1:04:24

Lee may have felt that April night in nineteen fifty one

1:04:27

when she knew men were breaking

1:04:29

into the tavern where

1:04:31

she was alone. She

1:04:33

knew what they wanted, what they

1:04:35

really wanted. Haddie Lee

1:04:37

Barnes did not

1:04:38

shoot Lamar Kraft to protect

1:04:40

whatever cash was left in the till.

1:04:42

or to protect Rob Lee's liquor. She

1:04:44

shot him to

1:04:45

protect herself.

1:04:46

She knew she was in

1:04:48

danger. And once knew

1:04:50

she had killed a white man, she knew

1:04:52

she was in even more danger, but

1:04:54

she didn't run. She called the sheriff,

1:04:56

and told the truth.

1:04:58

She risked her own

1:05:00

life to tell the truth and

1:05:02

continued to do so at great

1:05:05

personal cost until finally the

1:05:07

state of

1:05:07

Mississippi, left her

1:05:10

in peace.

1:05:14

Southern

1:05:15

Fraud True Crime is

1:05:16

hosted and produced by me, Erica

1:05:19

Kelley. Today's episode was researched and

1:05:21

written by me with the help of

1:05:23

Trent Brown's amazing book. Roadhouse

1:05:26

Justice, Haddie Lee Barnes in the

1:05:28

killing of a white man in nineteen

1:05:30

fifties, Mississippi. This is

1:05:32

the sec