McCOMB — I remember, as a boy, hearing my grandfather and an uncle talk about a sharp-shooting outlaw named Kennie Wagner escaping from Parchman Penitentiary.
Later, as a freshman in a political science class at Ole Miss, I heard a professor talk about practices at the state penitentiary, mentioning a trusty known as “Hogjaw” who tracked fugitives and escapees.
Kennie Wagner and Hogjaw Mullen come alive in a fascinating book about a murder case in Attala County where three white men were convicted of murdering three black children in 1950.
Stokes McMillan, an engineer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Houston, Texas, wrote the book entitled “One Night of Madness.” It was published last year by Oak Harbor Publishing of Houston.
McMillan is a native of Attala County. His great-grandfather founded the county seat newspaper, the Kosciusko Star-Herald, and his grandfather and father published the newspaper in later years.
Stokes’ father, Billy McMillan, was the newspaper’s photographer and reporter, working for his father-in-law in 1950.
That year the National Press Photographers Association judged Billy McMillan’s picture of two killers being captured the best journalistic photo of 1950, beating 600 other entries.
Billy’s wife — Stokes’ mother — compiled a scrapbook of photographs and articles on the case. For decades the scrapbook was mostly ignored by family members until one of Stokes’ sons wanted a poster made from the prize-winning photograph. It showed an armed convict standing over two men lying on the ground, being searched by officers.
Stokes started reading the articles in the scrapbook and decided the story was worth a book. He was right.
After spending several years doing research and interviews, he put together what is a great piece of non-fiction, which would make a gripping movie.
Writing must be in McMillan’s genes, because his book is a page turner.
It is full of Mississippi history, accurately descriptive of a time, as late as the mid 20th century, when women didn’t serve on juries, racial segregation was the law in Mississippi and interracial marriages were illegal.
What made the trials of Leon Turner and brothers Malcolm and Windol Whitt so unusual in 1950 was that they were white men who were convicted of killing black people. That usually didn’t happen then.
J.P. Coleman, who later became state attorney general and then governor, presided over the trials.
A measure of how much customs have changed since 1950 is that Coleman sent women and children out of the courtroom before a tape recording was played for the jury that contained some foul language, the likes of which can now be heard regularly on cable television.
The account of the trial itself is highly readable, but it is in his portrayal of the characters involved in the events that Stokes McMillan excels.
Hogjaw Mullen, whose real name was Clarence B. Grammer, grew up poor in Greenwood and was first sent to Parchman at age 18 for a two-year sentence.
After being sent back in 1940 on a murder charge from Natchez, Grammer, at some point, adopted the name and identity of a former welterweight boxer, Curtis “Hogjaw” Mullen, enhancing his image among the prison population.
At Parchman, Hogjaw became a trusty and earned a pardon by killing a prisoner trying to escape, which was the practice in those days.
He didn’t stay out long, though, getting back in trouble and being sent back.
He had become a dog handler, training under Kennie Wagner, known as “Parchman’s legendary Main Mos’ Dog Boy.” By the time Hogjaw returned to Parchman, Kennie Wagner had escaped, walking out the front gate, carrying a firearm and eluding the dogs he had trained. The camp boss wasn’t happy with Kennie’s successor, who didn’t catch the escapee, and gave Hogjaw the jog as top dog handler.
Hogjaw Mullen then became a legend, being called out over the state with his tracking dogs to hunt fugitives and lost children. Highway Patrolman Tom Sadler was assigned to take him to the various manhunts.
While on the outside, Hogjaw had married and enjoyed conjugal visits from his wife frequently. The practice of allowing wives to visit prisoners for sex was something that was pioneered at Parchman.
As McMillan described the man who tracked down Leon Turner, the main culprit in the killing and who Mullen had once known at Parchman:
“Hogjaw was in his element. As the prison’s chief dog handler, he had authority over dozens of men; he had a pearl-handled revolver in a strap-on holster to wear during manhunts; he had all the food he wanted; and he had Connie Ruth on Sundays. Parchman was where he belonged; the one place in the world where he fit in perfectly.”
