Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land piratePitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
History
Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate
Pitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
Copeland, James, 1823-1857; Criminals -- Gulf States -- Biography
Almost under any plea life was taken with but little hesitation by
lawless violence. However, these good citizens held meetings to
protect themselves against such diabolical outrages which then, of
late, had been perpetrated in large numbers. They, well knowing Mr. B.
F. Woulard to be a close observer, and active and energetic in every
other respect, appointed him as the most suitable and reliable person
in the capacity of detective to ferret out and apprehend the guilty
parties. He obeyed the call, and, after Frost, took the first train to
Mobile, Alabama, where, after much trouble, he learned that Frost had
departed for Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Still forward, and without
delay, he very soon reached that place, where he found him stopping
with one of his aunts, and arrested him almost without disturbing
the family. There taken before the City Marshal, who was acquainted
with Frost, and knew him to be of very bad character—knew that he had
sometime before endeavored to induce young men of that city to engage
in the counterfeiting business. Mr. Woulard well knew that Frost, prior
to the murder of Stanley, was without money, and did not really have
respectable clothing to wear, though, when arrested, he had two valises
well packed with good, substantial clothing, which he had purchased
when passing through Mobile, as learned by detective Woulard on his
return to this city, with Frost still under arrest. Then and there,
the firm of Jacobins & Brisk gave information to the effect that Frost
had purchased from seventy to eighty dollars worth from this firm. It
was now plain to detective Woulard that Frost had received money some
where, and was required to give an account of the same. He answered
by declaring to have obtained it by registered letter. On further
investigation, it was satisfactorily shown that he had received no
registered letter; and now finding it was vain to attempt to conceal
any further, he was about to make a confession of the whole affair; but
a person by the name of Cotton, in Mobile, stepped up and learned the
cause of arrest, when, to detective Woulard, he proposed for Frost to
be turned over to him for a while, during which time he would be apt
to get from him a full confession of all the facts connected with the
case. Accordingly, Frost was placed in Cotton’s custody for something
like an hour, when he returned with this report: “You have certainly
got the right man; go now and arrest Oye and his wife, at Escatawpa.”
In compliance with such advice, detective Woulard lost no time, but
hurried back with Frost, and there did arrest Oye.
But here Frost’s confession should be given, which in substance, was as
follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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