My aunt called him brother, but
my mother called him Jimmy. Two persons with a common mother and different
fathers are half-siblings, but Mom only admitted such was the case when the
point was pressed. Perhaps Mom’s reason for withholding full family
recognition of her half-brother was rooted in the times, where persons born
outside of wedlock often suffered ostracizing by others. Perhaps Mom’s
reasoning ran much deeper. After all, she had idolized her father (William
Fredrick "Fred" Crausby), and when he died following injuries from a bus/car
wreck, she was devastated.
What followed was rarely discussed in the open atmosphere of conversations
in the dining room or living room, but my late Aunt Jo phrased it a few months
prior to her death in dated terms, "Mama acted ugly."
My grandmother’s "ugliness" netted me an uncle, five years older than
me, but I was not allowed to call him Uncle, as mother insisted Jimmy was
sufficient.
A rift in the relationship between my mother and her mother would survive
in varying degrees until my grandmother’s death in 1973. I never knew
the name of Jimmy’s father. Mama had a way of changing the subject or
deflecting the question whenever she was asked of Jimmy’s dad.
My mother was eleven years old at the time of her father’s death. How
soon after her husband’s death grandmother starting "acting ugly," is
no longer germane, but at age sixteen, my mother married William Henry Carter
who offered to "get her away from all this," an apparent reference to the
disreputable circumstances at home.
In my early years, I didn’t know Jimmy Crausby very well. My family
moved from Pontotoc when I was two years old and returned nine years later.
I have a few memories of visiting my grandmother, Mama Nona, and her second
husband, "Little Man" Enlow, but I don’t recall anything of Jimmy Crausby
during the years we lived away from Pontotoc.
Mama Nona and Jimmy lived on Inzer Street for a few years before selling
their place to my Aunt Jo and Uncle Julius Lee "Pearlie" Collins. My
parents’ home, the old Owen place, on Woodland Street, was also home
to my grandparents, Hayden and Becky Carter, formerly of Thaxton, at the
time of their respective deaths in 1960. Around 1962, Mama Nona and Jimmy
moved into the "other side" of our home on
Woodland Street, the part my grandparents had utilized.
My memories of Jimmy Crausby pretty much began during my later years of high
school and college. I remember Aunt Jo buying a new 1958 Chevrolet, which
Jimmy drove on occasion. During this time, Jimmy’s best friend was Billy
Joe Kidd. The two of them spent a lot of time together. Both of them enjoyed
singing and were members of West Heights Baptist Church in Pontotoc.
I was probably a college student at the time Jimmy invited me to go deer
hunting with him. Mama figured I would get shot in the woods, and she
wouldn’t hear of me going off with Jimmy. However, when Jimmy and Billy
Joe became interested in archery, I did get to go with them occasionally
to an archery range a few miles southeast of Pontotoc, just off Hwy. 41.
I remember it was hard for me to pull a bow with a draw weight of forty pounds,
but Jimmy and Billy Joe could do pretty well with draw weights of sixty pounds
or more.
Jimmy became a salesman for a small wholesale company and visited area stores
assigned to his route. Later, he married Linda Todd, whose family lived a
block away from my parents. Though, I didn’t attend the marriage ceremony,
my sister relates that Billy Joe sang at the wedding.
"He sang How Great Thou Art, about as well as I’ve ever heard it sung,"
Sarah recently shared. "And I’ve heard it sung by persons who were trained
for the opera."
One would think that two young men of such a close friendship, would never
have become sworn enemies, but it happened. Barbara and I were living in
Ripley at the time the friendship between Jimmy Crausby and Billy Joe Kidd
dissolved.
Billy Joe and his wife filed for a divorce and a custody battle ensued over
their daughter. In those years, there was nothing like a no-fault divorce,
where a husband and wife could breakup housekeeping over something trivial
or in legal parlance, "irreconcilable differences." Linda, Jimmy’s wife,
was a friend of Billy Joe’s wife. She may have influenced Jimmy to testify
against his friend.
Jimmy’s testimony, that he walked into Billy Joe’s store (convenience
store on Hwy. 9 South) and found Billy Joe on the floor behind the counter
in the throes of adultery, may have been the deciding factor in child custody
being awarded to Billy Joe’s wife. Whether or not Jimmy supplied the
testimony most damaging to his friend’s divorce case, there can be no
doubt that Jimmy Crausby nailed his own coffin shut on that day.
When Jimmy Crausby lived on Inzer Street, one of his neighbors was Lamar
Roberts. Jimmy Roberts was a youngster at the time, but he has fond memories
of Jimmy Crausby. Recently, Jimmy Roberts recounted how Jimmy Crausby was
always friendly toward him and his family, and stated how he was impressed
that Jimmy took time to stop and chat with a young kid. Most of us go through
life without realizing how the small things we do for others are often the
things that others recall about us.
Friend, Jimmy Roberts, also told me he was a law student at Ole Miss when
Billy Joe Kidd was on trial for the death of Jimmy Crausby. The trial and
its outcome were important to Jimmy, from both a legal perspective and his
own personal knowledge of the deceased. Most of the persons who know what
actually happened on that fatal December night in 1968 are no longer living,
but the testimonies of several witnesses who arrived on the scene that evening
provide some insight into what took place.
Shortly after the divorce case was settled, Jimmy Crausby began to receive
threatening phone calls. Caller ID didn’t exist in that era, so there
was little to support Jimmy’s belief the calls were from either family
or friends of Billy Joe Kidd. Also, the caller or callers muffled their voice
in order to avoid recognition. As I recall, there was a period of time when
Jimmy offered to meet with the caller and would drive to a designated place
only to have no one show up. After several no-shows, Jimmy was quite angry.
Circumstances often drive persons to desperate measures, and Jimmy took to
carrying a .38 revolver in his car. On the night of his death, he received
another threatening phone call, but this time, according to family remembrances,
he recognized the caller’s voice as that of his former friend, Billy
Joe Kidd. The two agreed to meet alone at a site on Clark Street known as
Dynamite Hill, so named because of a structure the City of Pontotoc used
for the storage of dynamite. At that time, Clark Street connected Hwy. 6
and Brooks Street.
Joe Kidd did not keep his pledge to meet Jimmy Crausby alone. Joe’s
dad, Walter "Honey" Kidd, his sister, Dot Kidd, and Joe’s daughter,
all arrived at the scene in time to witness and/or participate in the fighting
that followed. Apparently, heated words were exchanged before the shooting
and knifing occurred. The order of events, as related during the murder trial
that followed, is weighted favorably on the part of the defendant as only
Joe Kidd and members of his family survived to testify.
Jimmy’s revolver was fired several times with one bullet striking the
elder Kidd in the chest fatally wounding him, and one bullet severing the
right index finger of Joe Kidd. Joe was also shot in the chest. The abdomen
of Jimmy Crausby was opened by a knife wound, partially disemboweling him.
As participants in the melee left the scene, Jimmy Crausby drove his car
to the foot of the hill stopping at the intersection of Hwy. 6 and Clark
Street. A passerby, seeing Jimmy bleeding and bent over in front of his car,
stopped to assist him. Soon a crowd had gathered. Those who heard Jimmy speak
recall him stating that "Joe and Walt" had cut him. Jimmy was eventually
taken to the Pontotoc Hospital and died on the operating table.
Among the passersby who stopped on the side of the highway to help, were
George and Ruth Simon. Mrs. Simon was wearing a mink coat, and when she heard
Jimmy tell bystanders that he was cold, she took her mink coat and placed
it on him for warmth. Her selfless act of kindness was one my family has
never forgotten.
Though murder charges were filed, a Pontotoc County jury found Joe Kidd guilty
of manslaughter. The conviction was later voided and remanded to the lower
court by the Mississippi Supreme Court, which ruled in part that the dying
declaration was not a dying declaration in that the victim was "in no fear
of impending death" but hopeful of recovery at the time the statement was
made.
This contradicts the testimony of James H. Brandon, a special investigator
for the Memphis Police Department, who was visiting his parents home, which
is near the intersection where Crausby was found bleeding.
Brandon stated Jimmy said, "I know I’m dying, don’t leave me here,
get me to the hospital."
In light of Crausby’s death some five hours after being knifed, it would
seem the High Court made a "bad call."
Most members of my family believe Billy Joe held Jimmy while Walter Kidd
cut him. Apart from the testimony by members of the Kidd family, we have
no way of knowing if Jimmy fired his gun in self-defense or not. Every story
has two sides, but unfortunately no one on my family’s side was a witness
to the criminal act and Jimmy Crausby didn’t survive to give his account
of the events that night on Dynamite Hill.
The tragic outcome of this event is not bereft of speculation: Jimmy Crausby
may have been the aggressor in the fight. Billy Joe Kidd may have told the
truth. Jimmy may have been the victim of a planned attack on his person.
Justice may have been served by the courts.
Yet, two people died in the violence; family and friends on both sides carry
emotional scars from that night, but what really happened on Dynamite Hill
is something most of us will never know.
Bodock Beau Political
Short Cuts
Found among items of interest in a recent issue of The Patriot Post:
"Anybody who’s convinced that Barack Obama belongs in the White House,
except as part of a tour group, is the same sort of twit who actually believes
that Jimmy Carter is a living saint and that Hillary Clinton is the smartest
woman in America." —Burt Prelutsky
Jay Leno: It was quite a weekend, politically. An estimated 75,000
people attended a Barack Obama rally on the banks of the Willamette River.
And if you believe the media, listen to this: After the rally, Barack Obama
fed them all with just five loaves of bread and two fish.
The oldest serving member of Congress, former Klan member, Senator Robert
Byrd, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. That’s got to make Hillary
feel good, huh? Even the Klan guy is going, "I’m gonna go with the black
guy."
Hillary Clinton is doing whatever she can to stay in the race. Yeah, things
are not looking good for Hillary. In fact, today, she was thinking of changing
her name to "Gas Prices" just to see her numbers go up.
In response to climate change, Barack Obama said we can’t drive our
SUVs, keep our houses at 72 degrees, and eat all we want. When Al Gore heard
we can’t eat all we want, he called Obama a global warming fanatic.
All eyes are on Al Gore now. Ooh, who’s Al Gore going to endorse? And
analysts think Gore will jump on the Obama bandwagon. Have you seen the size
of Al Gore lately? That could be the end of the bandwagon.
My aunt called him brother, but
my mother called him Jimmy. Two persons with a common mother and different
fathers are half-siblings, but Mom only admitted such was the case when the
point was pressed. Perhaps Mom’s reason for withholding full family
recognition of her half-brother was rooted in the times, where persons born
outside of wedlock often suffered ostracizing by others. Perhaps Mom’s
reasoning ran much deeper. After all, she had idolized her father (William
Fredrick "Fred" Crausby), and when he died following injuries from a bus/car
wreck, she was devastated.
