The Hawes Murders

On December 4, 1888 two teenagers were out boating on the recent man-made lake called East Lake in Birmingham Alabama when they came across the body of a young girl floating face down in the water. The body was taken to the local medical examiner and was laid out to the general public as was often the practice of the time. This time it was to see if anyone could identify the young girl. It was thought that whomever she was she was approximately twelve to fourteen years old but no one knew. The body was very bloated from being in the water for so long so it took a day before a local butcher identified her as May Hawes. It has been said that May was seven or eight years old and the daughter of Richard and Emma Hawes, local residents.

There seemed to be a little division between the residents as to whether Richard and Emma were even still married. Some said that they were but the marriage was “troubled” while others claimed that the couple were divorced and Richard had gone to Columbus Mississippi to re-marry. Later that afternoon the local newspaper received a telegram announcing that Richard had married a Mayes Story from Columbus that very day. Included in the telegram was the itinerary the newlyweds planned and it included a train stop in Birmingham.

I did not find a year in which Richard and Emma but it appears that it was around 1878 because Emma was said to be eighteen when they married in Atlanta Georgia. Richard was an engineer for the Georgia-Pacific railroad. A vague statement was repeated throughout my research, “marital troubles had them leave Atlanta to Montgomery to Birmingham.” In cases such as one this old information is often just repeated from one place to another and goes down in history like that. The only things that I saw that elaborated on this was that due to his work Richard was gone a lot and in his absence Emma had taken to drinking quite often. By 1888 they had three children, daughters, May and Irene, who was six years old and son, Willie who was between four and five at the time.

There were things that stated due to Emma's alcoholism, as it was described, May had been forced to help care for the house and her siblings. However, the family did have a housekeeper named Fannie Bryant who was said did the laundry and cooking for the family. It does not appear that she was a live-in housekeeper though so not there all the time but there was a reference that indicated she would sometimes take at least May to her home so it is possible she took the other children also.

So, on the fifth of December after authorities saw the telegram that had been sent to the newspaper they met the train as it made its stop in Birmingham. It is not completely exactly what they knew or thought at that point but everything indicated that Richard was immediately arrested on murder charges. It appears that while they told him it was for the murder of his daughter, they did not specify which daughter. It was said that Richard did not ask which daughter he was accused of murdering, nor did he ask to see her. Authorities also began to question his new wife Mayes. According to Mayes, Richard had told her that he was divorced and that he only had a young son, Willie. Throughout his jail time Richard would continually write his new wife asking for forgiveness for his actions but claiming innocence. In one letter he would tell her that he had not told her about May because he did not want to overwhelm her with the fact that he had children and May was going to be going to a convent anyway. It was noted that he never mentioned his youngest daughter, Irene.

On December 8^th another body was found floating in a body of water. This time it would be Richard's wife, Emma in another man-made lake, Lakeview Park Lake. Her body had been weighted down with iron but apparently not enough weight was used. At this point the whole city was in an uproar! Not only were they calling for Richard to be lynched, they were also demanding that Irene be found. It had long been known that Willie was in Atlanta Georgia with Richard's brother, Jim. That evening it was said more than 2,000 people started out across the street from the Jefferson County jail where Richard was being held. The sheriff and his deputies placed themselves around the building and on the roof while there was apparently an attempt to calm the crowd and have them leave. Instead after the sun fell the rioters began to charge towards the jail to which the sheriff, police chief and the deputies opened fire into the crowd. It seemed to take a few seconds but when rioters saw people next to them fall to the ground injured it did have them leave area. When it was all over ten people were killed, eleven were critically injured and “many others” were wounded. Not long after a state militia came in and the sheriff and police chief were actually arrested but by all accounts nothing came of this. It was a sore spot in the community for decades but it has been said that history has softened people's views and believe the sheriff had no choice in his actions.

In the meantime the lake in which Emma had been found was drug a few times in attempts to find Irene but nothing was found. On the third day of searching it was decided that the lake would be drained. It was then that the body of six year old Irene Hawes was found. Her body, just like her mothers, had been weighed down with iron. Finally all the members of the Hawes family had been found.

Richard Hawes would go on trial starting April 22, 1889 and lasted until May 5^th. It would be the first major murder trial in Birmingham. He was charged with all three murders but the trial focused more on May as it seems prosecutors thought that was the strongest evidence that they had. Prosecutors would claim that Richard had killed May because she had discovered that he had murdered her mother and sister and was scared that she would tell someone. They also claimed that his motive was so that he could remarry and carry on with his life.

Richard was forced to testify in his own defense because really had no one else to defend him. He would claim he had finalized his divorce claiming that Emma had been unfaithful “often” and that he had arranged for the care of the girls but authorities could find no proof of any of this. He would also say that he had last seen May on the 1^st, three days before her body was found. Eyewitnesses testified that they saw Richard and May getting on a train together on the evening of December 3^rd near their home and then departing together near East Lake. Other witnesses say Richard got back on the train alone less than an hour later. Prosecutors had proven then that on the morning of December 4^th he had left for Mississippi. The defense, apparently through Richard, would claim that the eyewitnesses were wrong. Richard would agree that he had been to East Lake with May but he claimed it was on the 1^st and not the 3^rd. He claimed they went on a shopping trip and both returned home together that evening around 8:30. He claimed that after being home a short while he left again to take his son Willie to the train to Atlanta to his brother's home. He said that after boarding Willie he had spent several house in town and returned home in the early morning of December 2^nd. He claimed that when he returned home that morning the door to the home was open and his wife and daughters were gone. He apparently reported nothing and left for Mississippi on the 4^th, just as prosecutors had said. Prosecutors would also argue that there were signs of a struggle and blood inside the home. The jury of twelve men, between the ages of twenty-eight and forty-seven, took just under an hour to deliberate before finding Richard Hawes guilty of three murders and sentencing him to death.

While he was awaiting his execution it was said that Richard told his brother and a guard that he had paid a man named John Wylie to murder Emma and Irene. He said he did not want May murdered but then she found out about it plan. The next part I became confused about. It was not clear if he had claimed that he became intoxicated and killed her or if he had intoxicated her and then murdered her. The guard who claimed to hear the confession notified someone. Richard would then claim that it was not true or he had not said it at all. There was an indication that at some point he contacted Mayes and told her that the claims about John Wylie were false. Still it appears that charges were filed against John Wylie but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. A St. Louis circus owner attempted to place Richard in his “sideshow” claiming he would chain him in a cage and display him as the monster that he was. That request was denied.

One of the men who had served as a juror also constructed the gallows that would send Richard to his death. It was said that tickets for the execution sold for as much as $200.00. In today's money that would be more than $5,000. On February 28, 1890 Richard Hawes would be hung. The sheriff who had been taken into custody after the riot had apparently returned to work and carried out the execution.

There are several side notes to this case. First I want to address Fannie Bryant, the housekeeper for the Hawes family. I mentioned nothing else about her purposely because her story is very confusing. There was a report that she either testified at the trial or at the very least told authorities that weekend before May's body was found on Tuesday she had she had seen Richard and May helping Emma pack to go to Atlanta, “to pick up her son from Richard's brother's house.” There was never real indication other than Richard's claim that he had put Willie on the train to his brother's on the night of the 1^st, which was Saturday. It could that she meant she saw them helping Emma pack Willie to leave instead of how it read. But, this alone is not what became the most confusing when it came to Fannie. In some of the first things I read in my research it stated that at Richard's trial the defense may have attempted to claim that Fannie and her companion, Albert Patterson was to blame for the murders claiming that it was rumored that Emma had quite a bit of money. It also indicated that this attempt failed for them. Later I found something that stated that both Fannie and Albert were in fact sentenced to death themselves for aiding Richard in the murders but it did not elaborate. It also said that before they could be executed Fannie had died in a prison riot and Albert had been successful in having his sentence reduced. I could find no proof of this anywhere. The fact that I saw it said a few times though meant nothing to me as I have stated that oftentimes in cases like these things are just simply repeated from something said earlier.

Another thing that was interesting is that between the time May was identified on December 5^th and the 11^th when her sister was found there had been several searches, first for Emma and Irene and then just for Irene. At some point authorities had come across a “newly made” grave and inside was the body “of a negro-child” and it was reported that nothing was followed up on this.

It was believed that Richard's brother Jim, continued to care for his nephew Willie but it seems that nothing else is known about him. Emma and her two daughters were buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in unmarked graves in Birmingham. After his execution Richard's body was taken back to Atlanta and buried in the family plot. According to pictures on findagrave.com this cemetery, or at least the family area is a complete mess with broken stones all around.

In 1917 the area of East Lake was developed into a city park and the area is said to be one of the most “haunted” places in Birmingham. Every October 30^th flowers are given to the “Child of the Lake” who is believed to be May's spirit and is sometimes called the “East Lake Mermaid” The flowers are “said it appeases her spirit and brings good luck.” It is claimed that her spirit can be seen at dusk. The lake in which the bodies of Emma and Irene were found is no longer there. I do not know if this has remained this way since it was drained in 1888 or not but a golf course is now over that land.