Daddy was a Mountain Lawman

DADDY WAS A MOUNTAIN LAWMAN

BY

Lois Sullins

Daddy when he was a Corporal

Chapter One  

The Kidnapping - 1941 - January

Mother didn't even know Daddy was missing until she read in the paper that he had been kidnapped.  We lived in the Kenilworth section of Asheville, North Carolina when it happened on January 28th.  Daddy's 25-year-old brother, Clyde, had spent the night at our house.  He woke up before the rest of us and brought in the Asheville Citizen Times.

He sat down and unfolded the newspaper.  As he read the headlines on the front page his mouth fell open and his hands began to tremble.  He went to the foot of the stairs and called up to Mother, "Lou, is Jess up there?"  "No," she replied.  "I don't think he came home last night."  "Come down here!" he told her.  She came down the stairs, putting on her robe as she descended.  At the time Mother was 29 and the mother of four children.  The youngest was only six months old.

Her red hair was matted down on one side from sleeping and her brown eyes were squinted from not being fully awake.  Her complexion was sprinkled with freckles.  They sat down on the sofa and read the article under the headline, both of them trembling from dread and the cold morning air.  "Fugitive Disarms One State Patrolman, Kidnaps Another."  It took them some time to finish the article, taking turns reading aloud because they were so apprehensive.

Mother had slept soundly, never noticing that Daddy hadn't come home.  Even if she had awakened to notice he wasn't there she wouldn't have been alarmed.  He frequently had to work well into the night!

I was only six at the time and don't remember any of it.  Mother told me years later that she couldn't understand why no one had called her so she wouldn't have to find out by reading about it in the newspaper.  Later they explained that everyone was so wrapped up in trying to locate Daddy and find out what had happened to him that they never thought to notify her.  We had moved into the house recently and no phone had been installed yet.

When Daddy finally got home he filled in the details for Mother and Uncle Clyde.  Since I was too young to be in on the conversation I'll relate Daddy's version of that night as told to Bob Terrell, a reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times and a former neighbor of ours.

February 1st.  Bob's article appeared in 1970 on the occasion of Daddy's retirement from the State Patrol.

"These two fellows," Jess related, "named Thomas Edward Leahy and Ralph Smith were supposed to have held up the cashier at a dog track in Florida, among other things, and escaped in a 19441Chrysler.  An alert was out on them."

"Corporal E. W. Jones who is now (1971) a patrol major in Raleigh, and Patrolman O. R. Roberts, now (1971) a captain in Raleigh, were cruising through Canton, North Carolina when they saw a 1941 Chrysler with two men in it parked at a filling station.  The car fit the description of the wanted car and when they flashed their spotlight on it, the car took off."

"They chased it at ninety miles an hour all the way to West Asheville, where I joined in the chase.  The Chrysler cut down Craggy Avenue where we ran him up a bank and wrecked him.  The man on the right hand side jumped out the door and ran.  Roberts, chased him on foot.  I pointed my pistol at the driver and captured him.  I handcuffed him and turned him over to Jones, then got in my car and began cruising around looking for the other man."

"In the meantime Smith, the one who ran, turned and held up Roberts, taking his pistol away from him.  He also encountered fourteen-year-old Joe Joyner, and took him at gunpoint too.  After they went across a cornfield, Smith told Roberts and Joyner to run, which they did.  They circled back to the Joyner house and called for help."

"I was cruising down a street near there when I saw something moving at the side of the road.  I stopped and aimed my spotlight over there and the beam fell right on Smith standing not fifteen feet from me, covering me with two pistols."  I got out of the car.  He said, "Throw up your hands."  I put them up and he took my pistol and told me to get back in the car, that I was going to drive him out of there."  "I drove them through Biltmore to Marion, up Buck Creek Gap, through Burnsville and to the Tennessee state line."

(This crook had a large bit of luck here.  There were few, if any other law enforcement officers in Asheville more familiar with that route than Daddy was.  He grew up in the area.)

"There he told me to get out of the car.  I told him not to damage my car, that it was checked out to me, and it and my pistol were my responsibility."  "Tell you what, Smith told me."  He unloaded my pistol and tossed it over on the side of the road.  "There's your gun.  I'll leave your car in Johnson City."  He drove off into the night." 
The article ends here.  What Daddy didn't tell the reporter was that Smith took him out of and behind the car three times and threatened to kill him.  Each time Daddy was able to talk him out of it by telling him his four young children might starve if he were killed.

After Smith drove away in the patrol car, Daddy walked to the first house which was far from any town.  The man who lived there didn't believe that he was a real patrolman and didn't want to let him in.  "You ain't no real patrolman!  Where's your car?"  "It was stolen by a crook."  "How do I know you ain't the crook?"  Daddy took out his unloaded gun and pointed it at him.  "The man didn't know that there were no bullets in it.  "I just want to use your phone and then I'll be on my way."  After the homeowner heard Daddy's end of the conversation as he heard him call his supervisor, Sgt. Nail at headquarters, he realized what was really going on and became more cooperative.

Daddy was picked up by another patrolman and several cars were dispatched to search for the man and/or the car.  The patrol car was indeed found in the Johnson City area.  The F.B.I. arrested Smith near New Orleans, Louisiana, thanks to the sharp eye of an F.B.I. agent, who was riding by on a street car and spotted the car they knew he had recently bought.  They had agents watch the car and sure enough he came back for it.

The only thing I do remember about the whole event was Daddy brought all of us presents when he returned from New Orleans that summer when he had gone to identify his kidnapper.  Smith was sentenced in late July to ten years in the federal penitentiary for kidnapping.  Our family didn't think that was nearly long enough.

Mama later told us that she couldn't cry for four days after the kidnapping.  Later she burst into tears every time Daddy walked into the room.  She'd come so close to losing him.