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Submitted: 4/21/21 • Approved: 4/21/21 • Last Updated: 4/24/21 • R311834-G0-S3
Six inmates escaped from the Cummins Prison Farm, Arkansas on September 2, 1940. A prison guard was reportedly killed during the escape. After kidnapping three teens near Rayville, Louisiana, the stolen vehicle carrying the six escapees and three kidnapped teens had a flat tire near Columbia, Louisiana. When approached by a posse member and ordered to surrender, one of the six escapees shot and killed the posse member. Four of the escapees (Floyd Boyce, William Heard, William Landers, and William MeHarg) were captured the next day and subsequently hanged on March 7, 1941, after being found guilty at trial. The fifth escapee, Frank Conley, was shot and killed the next day near the location where the vehicle broke down. The sixth escapee, Bruce Fowler, was shot and killed the next day trying to cross the Mississippi River bridge into Vicksburg, Mississippi.
~ Frank Conley was killed September 3, 1940, in a gunfight with authorities near the location where the vehicle broke down. He was buried in Columbia Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Louisiana.
~ Bruce Fowler was killed September 3, 1940 in a gunfight with authorities while trying to cross the Mississippi River bridge into Vicksburg.
~ William MeHarg (age 25) was the first to hang on March 7, 1941 and was buried by family members in Missouri.
~ Floyd Boyce (age 29) was hanged second on March 7, 1941 and was buried in Columbia Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Louisiana.
~ William Heard (age 43) was hanged third on March 7, 1941 and was buried in Columbia Hill Cemetery, Columbia, Louisiana.
~ William Landers (age 39) was hanged fourth on March 7, 1941 and was buried by family in Jena, Louisiana.
This hanging was the last in Louisiana, and was the state's largest mass execution of the century.
Contributed on 4/21/21 by bridges1026
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Record #: 311834