| Notes |
- Death Notice:
Shot By Escaping Prisoner
Killer Surrenders To Special Deputy On Trolley Here
A former Coast Guardsman who shot and killed a Springhill policeman after being arrested in the little Webster parish town early Saturday morning boarded a trolley in Shreveport a few hours later, sat down by a special deputy of the Caddo parish sheriff's office and announced that he was ready to surrender.
Don McDonald, 25, a member of the Springhill police force for the past nine months and father of two children, was killed instantly when struck by a bullet as he and another officer engaged in a running gun battle with the prisoner in an alley near the town's jail at about 2:30 a. m., according to Springhill's Chief of Police Vol Eubanks.
The fleeing prisoner, Thomas H. Markham, 35, then went to the home of a friend, C. H. Dyer, a meat cuter, and forced Dyer at gun point to drive him to Shreveport, Chief Eubanks said.
Markham then parted company with Dyer, boarded a trolley on Texas avenue, and sat down by Special Deputy Clyde McAdoo, a construction foreman for the city waterworks department.
"How do you think you'd feel if you'd killed a man last night?" Markham told officers that he asked of McAdoo.
"Did you kill a man?" Markham said McAdoo asked him.
Markham said he replied in the affirmative, declaring that he had decided to telephone the Webster parish sheriff's office and surrender.
McAdoo then told him, the prisoner said, that it would be better if he would surrender as quickly as possible.
Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy of Caddo parish and McAdoo took Markham into custody and brought him to the sheriff's office where Markham surrendered to Deputies W. T. Prudhomme and Charles Kneipp.
Sheriff Oscar H. Haynes of Webster parish came to Shreveport within a few hours, as did Chief Eubanks, and other officers, and Markham was taken to the Webster jail in Minden to await disposition of his case.
(Published in The Shreveport Journal on February 14, 1948)
- Death Notice:
TWO MEN MURDERED IN 36-HOUR PERIOD
Feeling Prisoner Slays Springhill Officer Saturday
Killer Surrenders Voluntarily After Using Gun for Ride
Saying "Like ---- you'll lock me up," Thomas Markham, 35-year-old Springhill man taken into custody on a charge of being drunk, broke loose from two arresting officers early Saturday morning in Springhill and engaged in a running gun battle in which he killed Officer Don C. McDonald, 28, almost instantly as one bullet entered back of the victim's left shoulder; emerging from the right side of his chest, and the second entered the lower palm of his right hand, according to R. M. Gailbraith, second officer present, in eye-witness testimony given to Deputy Coroner T. A. Richardson.
Both Springhill officers were seated in the Owl cafe at 2:20 a.m. when Markham and another man entered together, Gailbraith told the coroner, and when the two were told to leave, Markham's companion left. Markham, however, said he had no cab and McDonald told him, "You are too drunk to be in here - there's a cab outside," the officer said.
The 35-year-old former Coast Guardsman made no move to leave, however, and McDonald was said to have asked him what he was going to do. When no answer was given, McDonald said, "You'll have to go or we'll carry you to jail," according to the witness, and Markham got up and left in custody of the two officers. The group went through the rear of the cafe, as the Springhill jail is located in the alley immediately behind the Owl cafe. McDonald was in the lead followed by Markham and Gailbraith in that order, according to the officer, and as they were walking toward the jail Markham is reported to have said he would have walked home if they had let him alone.
As McDonald straddled a small puddle of water and was getting the jail key from his pocket, Markham whipped out the .32 revolver from his pocket of the heavy mackinaw he was wearing and said, "Like ---- you'll lock me up," according to Gailbraith. Firing one shot, the prisoner broke into a run, and he and McDonald travelled in a zig-zag path up the alley for approximately 50 feet, both shooting, before McDonald fell on his back, wounded fatally, the witnessing officer said. The fleeing prisoner made good his escape as Gailbraith stopped to give assistance to McDonald.
Officers throughout North Louisiana were alterted within a few minutes to be on the lookout for the escaped man. an armed search throughout the Springhill area was conducted by officers of the Webster sheriff's office state police, and Springhill and Cotton Valley police departments.
However, the fleeing man went to the home of C. H. Dyer and forced him, at the point of a gun, to carry him to Shreveport, according to Dr. Richardson. The gun later proved to be empty.
Letting Markham out of his car on Texas avenue in Shreveport, Dyer then went to the police and told how he had been forced to drive the prisoner to Shreveport. Police, upon notifying the sheriff's office that they were holding Dyer in custody, were told that Markham had arrived in custody of Special Deputy Clyde McAdoo and had surrendered.
Markham is reported to have boarded a Shreveport trolley, sat down by the special deputy of the Caddo sheriff's office, and announced that he was ready to surrender, and that he had decided to telephone the sheriff's office here to give himself up.
Sheriff O. H. Haynes went to Shreveport as soon as he learned that Markham had surrendered there, and returned the prisoner to the Webster parish jail where he is now being held on a charge of murder awaiting action of the grand jury which is scheduled to convene in March.
McDonald is survived by his wife and two small children, and had been on the Springhill police force approximately 15 months.
(Published in The Webster Review the Signal-Tribune on February 17, 1948)
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1920 - 1948 (27 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
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