HISTORY: Jackson’s criminal history is mostly unknown

I did something that greatly influenced my life several years ago. I attended a Continuing Education Class on the History of Madison County. 

It was taught by someone who I have great admiration and respect: The late Harbert Alexander, Sr. I was always interested in history, but this class and the books I will note are incredible. 

As a retired law enforcement officer, I am naturally drawn to the crimes of Old Jackson. They will have you think this wasn’t the frontier, but at one point it was. 

The oldest unsolved murder occurred on Feb. 3, 1859. 

George Miller was a clerk for the Union Bank in Downtown Jackson before he was a victim of homicide. Several thousand dollars of notes and gold coins were stolen. 

In today’s dollars, this would probably equate to almost a million dollars. The clerk suffered a fatal blow to the head, probably from a hammer, according to information in the book “Historic Madison” by Emma Inman Williams written in 1946.

The case went cold for decades. As time went on, eventually something miraculous happened. The case got a break after over 100 years. 

On Sept. 12, 1985, City of Jackson workers were doing some work at the city parking lot on West Main Street. They located jars of gold coins, which led to a real problem. 

The city workers took some of them to the nearby bank and got cash value for them. They were worth well over a million dollars in today’s money. 

Mr. Alexender showed me some of these coins. Alexander told of this story in his 2002 book, “Tales of Madison.” 

This was right before the Civil War, and Mr. Alexander told me in person that there was a man who owned that lot and had a horse stable there at the time. The speculation was he did the crime, hid the gold and was never able to come back to dig it up, or didn’t have the nerve to. 

Some of the City employees made some money from them. 

There are several interesting stories from old Madison County. If the editor allows me, I will share more of them here. 

Next time, I will write about a man who was probably hanged unrightly in Madison County, and another who was for sure a murderer. 

Captain Jeff Shepard retired from the Jackson Police Department after over 32 years and is the current President of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge.