THE MURDER OF YOUNG RACHEL BILLINGS
Blood, sweat, and tears.
Slaughter, homicide, and reversion.
Combined, the above six words seem to imply a stoic murder, which is defined as “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” And, these words are implacably applied to a murder/homicide in DeKalb County in the beginning of the twentieth century. What happened on that day will penetrate and isolate your heart and your mind. If you are compassionate, you might regurgitate. I almost did just reading about it.
Lynching’s definition is “a form of violence in which a mob under the pretext of administering justice without trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation.” This is how Charles Davis died on August 2, 1901. He was lynched by the local townspeople on the steps of the DeKalb County courthouse.
DEFENDANT: Charles Davis
PROSECUTION: The State of Tennessee
On July 29, 1901, Davis, age 24 and a legal adult, was charged with the rape of his teenage girlfriend, a minor, Kate Hughes, age 15. He was then placed in the DeKalb County jail under the guidance and direction of Sheriff John T. Odom. Unlike today when Chancery Court very slowly convened, the townspeople echoed that Davis was causing major trouble in the local downtown streets and he needed to be “dealt with promptly.”
Earlier, the terrified and failed defendant tried to escape from the DeKalb County courthouse and tried to jump from a window while knowing his
family was upset at the entire matter. Preceding, Davis began dating the young Kate Hughes, whom he met through her younger brother, Shawn. The problem that greatly irritated the local townspeople was the couple’s adult to child age difference – he was age 24 and she was age 15 – a nine-year age difference. To summarize, the ages of the two lovers were what sparked the lynching. Another two addendums are that mom was19-years younger than daddy; while Marlon was eight-years older than me!
Answering my inquisition about the following question, local attorney and historical expert, Sarah Jane Cripps, said, “Statutory rape didn’t exist during 1901, when the lynching occurred. “There was Shannon’s Code,” said Tennessee public defender (with unparalleled legal knowledge), Mack Garner of East Tennessee. This code divides females by ages and criminal actions and charges. “It also is called, ‘Violation of Contempt,”’ Cripps further added, which is defined as, “To hold someone in contempt of court, one has to prove they intestinally violated their court order. A legal representative has to show they knew about the court order and knowingly violated it despite being able to comply with it.”
Because of the couple’s age difference, they were in a “Predatory Relationship,” she added. Miriam-Webster defines the above two words as “An interaction between two unlike organisms in which one of them acts as a predator that captures and feeds on the other organism that acts as the prey.”
Cripps said because of the couple’s age difference, they were in a “Predatory Relationship.” Miriam-Webster defines the above two words as “An interaction between two unlike organisms in which one of them acts as a predator that captures and feeds on the other organism that acts as the prey.”
His name was Charlie Davis, a moonshiner from Shiny Rock in DeKalb County, one of the locale’s unincorporated communities. The public dispersion of alcohol was, at that time, legal. All preliminary actions toward Hughes seemed to manifest itself in the common observation that she was a “lover of, and involved with, much older men.” The female with such a sexual preference (older men) is called a “gerontophile” or a “gerontosexual.” These two descriptive nouns describe the primarily sexual attraction to the elderly.
In the journey’s continuation, Sheriff Odom brings Davis out of the Jail facing a malicious congregation of DeKalb Countians. Odom assured Davis that he would be “fine,” but he wasn’t, added Cripps, who further commented, “The gathered crowd yelled, “We’re going to hang Charlie!” They continued their malice by hitting Odom in the head with a chair, but he continued his trek to the Masonic Lodge building, then located off the court square, where he confiscated a riding horse. While there, the rambunctious crowd threw a rock and hit Odom in the back. And then took him to Zollie Webb’s house, located within the city limits. Transferring later to the Bright Hill area, the phase echoed from thetownspeople, “Your next drink of water will be in hell!”
The Smithville Review editor at the time, D. F. Wallace, said sympathetically, “We don’t need to do this.” Contrasted with, “Go on and do it!” by former dentist and Kieu Klux Klan member, Jim Bell, who lived at 109 East Webb Street, the former home of attorney McAllen Foutch. Today, it is owned and occupied by attorney, Jim Judkins, Foutch’s maternal grandson.
There is a large white oak tree, still standing in the front yard of the current Smithville Elementary School. It was there that the townspeople hung the young man. Yet, there was a major problem. Charles Davis did not die. His neck was not broken. “He was dangling helplessly for several minutes,” Cripps recalled, “and then began urinating and having convulsions.”
Davis was buried in Shiny Rock while the Christian song, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” was played. The meaning of the time-honored song is: “For those who feel weak and need rest, for those at their wits end in times of trouble, at time that we don’t know what to do, the idea of God being with us, holding us with his everlasting arms, gives us a chance to rest,” (Psalm 112:7 in the Bible).
On August 8, 1901, five men were arrested for the lynching of Davis. Their bond during that time was $14,000 each! (This large amount is also extravagant today). Then, on August 16, 1906, the men were found guilty, yet the verdict was later dismissed.
In conclusion, Dr. Hugh Don Cripps recalled, “Charles Davis’s younger brother, Joe White Davis, holding on to his brother’s leg while he was resting on the stirrups. He knew there was about to be trouble,” as Davis was being taken to the White Oak tree.
And, there truly was.
