The Last Hanging Mystery Cache
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The news article describing the events was obtained from the Tuscaloosa News as printed in 1957.
There’s Grave Silence Today in the County’s Death Cell
By Bob Kyle
News Staff Writer
Tuscaloosa News
Sunday April 28, 1957
The old death cell, gallows and trap door in the Tuscaloosa County Jail is now silent as a grave. You can thump on the iron bars and it bounces all around, a hollow sound that comes back and rings in your ears.
The old iron ring, attached to the ceiling overhead where the hangman’s noose was tied is still like the pendulum of an ancient clock that has gone to sleep forever.
But somehow a man doesn’t feel alone in the place. Not when he’s heard old-timers talk about the last public hanging that took place on a hot, muggy day, June 27, 1919.
Same Cell Still Used
On that day almost all the grownups in Tuscaloosa County turned their mules into the pasture and came to town. The crowd surrounded the jail. Guards were employed to hold back the curious while a desperate man inside calmly went about tying his own hangman’s knot.
The same gallows and trap door stand intact today, but the hinges are rusted. Very few people have had occasion to view the famous old death cell on the second floor of the jail. Many, perhaps, have walked by it without knowing what it was. They even use the same cell now to house juvenile offenders to isolate them from older inmates.
Last Legal Hanging
But right over the head of the jail keeper as he sits at his desk today is the trap door where Doc Bigham dropped to his death at two minutes past 11 a.m. that day 38 years ago. It was the last legal hanging in Tuscaloosa County, but it won’t be soon forgotten.
They say Doc was an extremely smart man for his educational opportunities – affable, genial and witty, but a man you couldn’t push around. He had friends that he believed in, but had a persecution complex and figured that a man had a right to operate his own “booze” still.
Once he begged his captors to kill him after they’d shot and fatally wounded his boy.
Had Good Points
The West Alabama Breeze said of Doc Bigham “He was one of the most notorious criminals ever produced in West Alabama.” But there were many that said he had his good points.
Some said his whole life was one of lawlessness. The Breeze said Doc was “raised in a part of Tuscaloosa County where making of booze was the calling of a good many men until prohibition sentiment grew to such an extent that wildcat stills were largely exterminated.”
“He believed he had a right to grow his own corn and turn it into booze and it was no man’s business” the paper said.
Shot Down Sheriff
His name was linked with other crimes and Doc Bigham was serving a 25-year sentence for killing a Negro, Sonny Pruitt, when he shot down popular Sheriff P. M. Watts on Aug. 15, 1918.
Twenty years before that he was arrested on a charge of assassinating his uncle, E. Cooper, who was shot from ambush.
Doc Bigham, when asked about it, said “13 of us have been in jail for that killing and none of us have been convicted.” He denied killing Sonny Pruitt, but said he was present and knew who did it.
He was also questioned in connection with the burning of 12 to 15 houses in the E. B. Tierce neighborhood. He denied it but “owned up” that he knew who did.
Begged to be Killed
Because he was such a likeable fellow, Doc Bigham gained the confidence of state prison keepers and was made a trusty. He escaped and came back to Tuscaloosa County.
When Sheriff Palmer and other attempted to arrest him in the woods near Fosters Ferry where he’d been living in the swamp with his 15-year old boy, a fight occurred and the boy was wounded in the leg. He bled to death.
It was while they were bringing Doc back up the Warrior River in a boat (he was wounded in the hip by buckshot) that he asked them to kill him.
Captured Unarmed
He was sent back to prison at Wetumpka, but escaped a second time. By then he had become a greatly persecuted man in his own mind and vowed never to be taken alive.
Later, Sheriff Watts and his deputies raided a still. Doc Bigham arose from behind a bush and fired a shotgun loaded with buckshot. The sheriff fell dead. A U.S. Deputy Marshall shot Bigham in one arm and shot off a kneecap. But he escaped into the woods.
Three days later when bloodhounds caught up with him, Bigham was unarmed except for a switch which he used to keep the dogs off. He had attempted a surgical operation on is knee with his pocket knife.
Refused to Talk
Two months before his execution, Bigham posed for his picture to be taken for the newspaper. He didn’t much want to, but he’d promised it. He wouldn’t talk anymore about his case because “every time he got to talking about it, he got mad.” He didn’t like to get into that frame of mind “any more than he could help.”
He’d been convicted in the spring of 1919. The solicitor who prosecuted him died soon after the trial.
On May 29, 1919, the State Supreme Court affirmed his death sentence.
Several people still living heard the trap door fall.
Guards Posted
The lever releasing the trap door was pulled by B.V. Hughes, brother of the sheriff, Perry B. Hughes, Sr., who did so at Bigham’s request. Doc said he wanted to be “hanged by an honest man.”
The crowd gathered early on the execution day. Many asked permission to see Doc Bigham but they were denied. The sheriff put a lock on the gate by the jail and posted guards. Deputy Will Lee, Deputy W.F. Wright and others were there. Three physicians and the condemned man’s spiritual advisor were in the cell with him.
Between 9 and 10 o’clock the sheriff and his deputies began fixing the rope and oiled the trap door hinges. Doc Bigham asked them to let him tie the rope knot. He tied the knot so that it would hit him behind the ear.
“Perfect Hanging”
When the hour of 11 came, the crowd outside fell silent. Men took off their hats. Three minutes later members of the crowd donated money to bury him.
Because he’d tied such a perfect hangman’s knot, the Breeze described the results as “one of the most perfect hangings that ever took place in Tuscaloosa County.”
Requests Granted
Doc Bigham asked to be buried in Macedonia Cemetery on the Crabbe Road. His request was granted.
In the last hour, he asked the sheriff not to let the crowd cut the hang rope into pieces and keep them as souvenirs. That too was granted.
It was the same summer that the papers were full of stories about Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard.
And it was also said that World War I was officially over.
Your task is to locate the final as it is not at the posted coordinates. The posted coordinates are for the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Department, a building that was built in the 1960’s to replace the old Sheriff’s Department mentioned in the news story.
The final is near Macedonia Cemetery, where a grave was given for his burial. In this cemetery each grave has a marker, the generous donation of a local man. Although markers are present, many have no inscription, including the one marking the grave of Doc Bigham.
To locate the final, gather information from the news story. The final is located at:
33 AB.CDE
87 FG. HIJ
A = The news story was published by the Tuscaloosa News on a Sunday. Use the first digit of the date the story published.
B = How many legal hangings have taken place in Tuscaloosa County since the Bigham hanging?
C = On the day of the hanging, the sheriff posted guards at the jail. The names of two deputies were mentioned. Count the number of letters in the first name of Deputy Lee.
D = The second digit in the date of Doc Bigham’s hanging.
E = The number of times mentioned in the story that Doc escaped from prison.
F = Bigham said that a number of men had been put in jail for the killing of Sonny Pruitt. Take the second digit of that number.
G = The news paper story was written by a news staff writer. Count the number of letters in his first name.
H = The last digit in the year that he shot and killed Sheriff Palmer Watts.
I = When Bigham was captured in the swamp near Fosters Ferry, his son was killed in the fight. Add together the two digits of Bigham’s son’s age.
J = The cemetery that Bigham was buried in was located on a specific road. Count the number of letters in the name of the road.
You can check your solution for the final using the following link to GeoChecker:
(visit link)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Unatf ybj va n Zbhagnva Ynhery
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