True Crime Stories

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 an...

This case ended up being way more interesting than I first believed going in. When it was all said and done I have to say I am not sure what happened for sure in this case and while Tommy Arthur was executed after a conviction for murdering a man named Troy Wicker Jr., even if he were innocent of that crime (which I cannot say for sure), an innocent man was not put to death. I am unsure what surprised me the most in this case. There were three trials, with three convictions; there was a changing of stories; there were eight execution dates before it was followed through; and there was a system in place that let a known killer out on the streets freely. At the time of Troy Wicker's murder in February of 1982 Tommy Arthur had already been convicted of murder. Apparently, and admittedly, in 1977 Arthur killed is sister in law, Eloise West. By all accounts it appears that he was sentenced to life, which I cannot say what that entailed at that time in Alabama but sometim...