Howell County Man Falsely Accused of Murder, 1894

For this issue, I’ll take you to the southwest corner of Howell County and a horrific set of lesser-known events that occurred there around February 1894. It was hard to find direct sources for this story, but luckily, other newspapers echoed what local papers wrote. I found this article in The St. Joseph Observer, quoting the West Plains Gazette dated February 4, 1922. The story is told on the occasion of the death of a man, J. W. McAninch of Moody, who was falsely accused of the murder of a prominent stockman and attempted murder of his wife at their home in Bennet’s Bayou near the Arkansas line in 1894. The Gazette recalled:

 

“In February 1894, Mr. McAninch had a thrilling experience that almost cost his life and shows that circumstantial evidence, while generally accepted by courts and juries, is not always correct. It was not in this instance, for an innocent man was accused of a crime he never committed and finally came out of the affair with a clean record and a clear conscience.”

“It was in the early part of February 1894 that Hunter Wilson, a farmer and stockman residing on Bennet’s Bayou, in Baxter County, Arkansas, a few miles south of Bakersfield, was shot and killed in his home. His wife was also shot and thrown in the fireplace. More than $1,000 was taken from a trunk in the house, and then the house was set on fire. Mrs. Wilson revived after the robbers left and put out the fire.”

 

“When Mrs. Wilson had sufficiently recovered, she told the story of the robbery. Three men entered the house after dark and demanded money. They knew Mr. had just sold a big lot of cattle and believed he had the money at home, for people in those days did not use the banks as they do today for safe keeping of their cash. When Mr. Wilson refused to tell where his money was hidden, one of the robbers shot and killed him, while another shot Mrs. Wilson and threw her into the fireplace.”

 

Mrs. Wilson stated that all of the men wore blue fascinators. In the yard of the Wilson home, a price tag was found. This later was identified by a West Plains merchant who declared it had been placed on a fascinator sold to Mr. Aninch. The arrest of Mr. Aninich followed. His home was in Howell County, and he was brought to West Plains. Excitement was at fever heat in the community where the crime occurred, and Mr. Aninich’s life was in danger.”

 

I puzzled over what a fascinator was, and it turns out to be. Today it is a small hat and, according to the Internet, quite fashionable. In 1894, it referred to a variety of headwear, often knitted from wool. I’m thinking a stocking cap or scarf, since the crime occurred in cold weather. So, back to the Gazette:

 

“The officers and leading citizens of Baxter County were making an investigation of the case at this time and confident that Mr. McAninch had nothing to do with the murder. A clue was found, and Bart Carter, a young lad and neighbor of the slain man, was arrested. Carter confessed that his father, Anderson Carter, and Jasper Newton, together with himself, had done the killing and the robbery.”

 

The confession of Bart Carter caused the immediate discharge of McAninich. He returned to his home in Moody. But, there is more to the story, as related in an article in the West Plains Quill, dated 1920.

 

"It was twenty-four years ago, the golden autumn time, just as it is now. The hills along the Missouri-Arkansas border line were red and gold, and the cotton fields of the adjoining low lands in the south were white, just as they are today. Judge Henry D. Green of West Plains, who was Anderson Carter's attorney and visited him in the jail at Mountain Home, recalled today the beauty of the hills and cotton fields as he made the trip overland from West Plains to Mountain Home the day before the lynching.”

 

“Mattie Deatherage, then Mattie Carter, was only a little girl, unconscious of the thorny path she was to tread through life. Suddenly all the hills and low lands were astir with excitement. Men were grabbing their pistols and rifles, jumping into their saddles and riding away as fast as their horses could carry them.”

 

“Hunter Wilson, a well-to-do farmer and livestock dealer, who lived near Mountain Home, had been murdered and robbed a few days before. The eighteen hundred dollars in gold and greenbacks, which had been taken from his home after he was murdered, had been found buried on the farm of Anderson Carter. Carter and a neighbor, Jasper Newton, with Carter's 17 year old son, Bart Carter (known as "Young Bart" to distinguish him from his father's brother, Bart Carter) had been charged with the murder and were being held in jail at Mountain Home. Young Bart had been frightened into a partial confession, and a mob was gathering to lynch the three men.”

 

“Judge Green hurried to Mountain Home to make an effort to save his client, but officers declined to make an attempt to move the prisoners to a place of safety. The mob already was in Mountain Home, and the officers would not jeopardize their own lives in an effort to save the accused men.”

 

“The mob, however, not wishing to kill the boy, did permit, and in fact, requested, the officers to remove young Bart Carter from the jail before they did their work. The mob did not take the prisoners from the jail and hang them as had been planned. They simply opened the jail door and fired a volley of shots inside.”

 

“The prisoners had known for twenty-four hours that they were to be mobbed. Anderson Carter dictated to Judge Green his last message to his family and friends, but declined to make a confession.”

 

“Judge Green, who stayed with the doomed men until only a few moments before the mob did its work, and who talked with Carter when the muttering men could be heard just outside the door, has never believed that Anderson Carter was guilty of the murder of Hunter Wilson.”

 

“‘Carter's bravery was uncanny,’ Judge Green said. ‘He talked with me until the last moment and made his plans as calmly as though he had merely been going on a journey. He looked me squarely in the eye as I was leaving him and declared his innocence. When he shook hands with me, his grip was firm and steady. There was no trembling, no trace of nervousness, and when I went to the jail at daybreak, I saw in the ghastly scene there that he had died facing the mob."

 

The Gazette wrote that “Anderson Carter and Jasper Newton were shot to death on the night of February 24, 1894, in the Baxter County jail at Mountain Home. One hundred and fifty men stormed the jail early in the night and fired several hundred shots into the cells occupied by the two men. Bart Carter had been taken to the Salem, Arkansas, jail for safekeeping. He was afterwards tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. He escaped from jail and has never been heard from.”

 

It was speculated that the same men responsible for the jail killings assisted in Bart Carter’s escape. Bart was around twenty years old when involved in the murder. Anderson Carter’s wife informed authorities that her husband and the other two men committed the crime, leading to their arrest. One account states that Mr. McAninich was in the cell next to the two men shot and he and Bart were removed before they were killed.