 West Hill Cemetery Sherman, Texas Sherman Daily Democrat
July 8, 1886 INVESTIGATED The Death of Phil Akers Officially Viewed A Post Mortem Investigation of the Deceased's Brain Conflicting Evidence In Regard To The Shot Which Hurried the Boy Into Eternity Phil Akers, the unfortunate young colored boy who was shot at the residence of Dixie Risenour, on East street, a few days since, died at the residence of his sister, Julia Whitby, near the Union depot yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock. Up to 3:30 p.m. he remained in a comatose condition unable or at least unwilling to say much in regard to whether the nature of his wounding was accidental or suicidal. About a half hour before his death, he aroused from his deathlike condition and began to murmur something. A brother came near, and surrounded by his relatives and with the knowledge of fast approaching death, the dying boy made the following statement: "I did not shoot myself, I know I did not. But please don't ask me any more about it. I am afraid I can't tell it right; please let me alone about it, it hurts me to talk about it." After this it was impossible to get him to speak on the subject, and up to the time of his death he remained silent on that as well as everything else and died at last without ever having stated who shot him or how it was done. After the death, the attending physician, Dr. Lankford, asked the relatives to be allowed to make an examination of the course of the ball through the brain, and was granted their permission. Accordingly at 5 p.m., Doctors Lankford, Taylor, Stinson and Weight, assisted by student Thompson, repaired to the house, and in the presence of several officers and newspaper reporters. REMOVED THE HAIR and traced the course of the ball as it passed through cerebrium or that part governing the fuental faculties of the human system. The ball penetrated the skull just above the right orbit and ranged downward lodging against the back part of the skull. The attending physician and those assisting in the post mortem examination all are united in their expressions of surprise at the time the deceased lived after receiving the wound. After the operation the brains were replaced and after the head had been recomposed the body was turned over to the family for burial. INQUEST The jury of inquest on the body of Phillip Akers around which a cloud seems to rest assembled in the Justice court room this morning at 9 o'clock and commenced the investigation of the facts in the case. The following evidence was introduced in substance: WILLIE WHITBY Being sworn deposed and said: "I know Phillip Akers. I was with Phillip Akers when he got wounded; he was at our house. Phillip Akers was wounded with a seven shooting pistol; deceased was wounded in the forehead, he shot himself. Five minutes before Philip was shot, he told my sister, Delia, that he was going to shoot himself. There were three loads in the pistol when it was fired. The shooting occurred on Friday, July 2. I am fourteen years old. I do not know the deceased's age. He was about grown. The deceased had the pistol in his hand some time before he shot himself. The shooting took place in the morning about 7 or 8 o'clock. There had been no quarrel between the deceased and Dudley Yocum. Phillip came to our house that morning and had been there about one hour. The pistol was a .22 calibre. The pistol was under the pillow of my mother's bed. The deceased was on the porch when he shot himself. Signed Willie Whitby DUDLEY YOCUM being duly sworn deposed and said: "My name is Dudley Yocum, I was present at the time Akers shot himself. I did not see Akers shoot himself, I was sitting down. Delia was begging me to make a fire in the stove. After the deceased shot himself, he fell over and the pistol dropped out of his hand. The deceased tried to catch the pistol twice. I ran over by the school house. I remained away sometime and then came back and went into the house. Phillip was there laying in the house. I never had a quarrel with Phillip. The school house was east almost half a block or fifty yards from our house. When Felix came to Whitby's house, Willie and I were asleep on the porch. He pulled the cover off of us and then he went into the house and got the pistol from under the pillow of Julia Whitby's bed." Signed Dudley Yocum ANNIE REED being sworn deposed and said: "My name is Annie Reed; I am the sister of Phillip Akers, the deceased. The deceased told me that he did not shoot himself and said that he was not shot. He said that he and Willie Whitby and Dudley Yocum were at Mrs. Whitby's house playing and jerked the cover off the boys said that they were teasing him about the girls and made him mad. He said he could not get to strike them. He said that Dudley Yocum called him a son of a bitch and he said he caught Bud and tried to butt him and that he stuck a nail in his head. The deceased said that he took the pistol from Dudley Yocum to see how many loads there were in it. The deceased was eighteen years old." Signed Annie Reed DIXIE GIBSON being sworn, testified as follows: "My name is Dixie Gibson. I am the sister of Phillip Akers. I first saw deceased about 7 o'clock. He told me that he did not shoot himself, but that he thought that he had hit his head against a nail when he butted Dudley Yocum. The deceased was about 17 years old." Signed Dixie Gibson TATE PATTERSON being sworn deposed and said: "I saw the deceased about 6:30 o'clock after he was wounded. I live about 100 yards from the place where he was shot. It was about 15 minutes from the time I heard the report on, til I went over. He was lying on the south end of the porch; the porch is on the east side of the house, The deceased was unconscious. When I first saw him, he was lying on his left side. Julia Whitby was standing in the door of the house. I asked what was the matter. Julia Whitby said 'Phillip had shot himself. I straightened Phillip out. I wiped the blood off his forehead and saw that a bullet had entered it, he was not conscious. After some time, about 10 o'clock, the deceased said nobody shot him. He said he shot himself; said he was tired of life. This pistol was not in sight when I first saw the deceased. Julia Whitby afterward showed me the pistol. It was a Smith & Wesson, .22 caliber pistol single action and would have to be cocked at the time the shooting took place. I saw the deceased's hat lying on the floor, the hat is powder burnt with a bullet hole through it." Signed Tate Patterson The Remains of Phillip Akers, colored, who was shot and died a few days afterward, were buried at 4 p.m. yesterday. LAWRENCE AKERS being sworn deposed and said: "The first I knew of the killing was when Willie Whitby and Bud Yocum came to my sister's house where I was staying and told us about it. I never heard my brother speak of intending to kill himself. He was a boy of good sense. The deceased had no troubles, was never gloomy or sullen, but was of a lively disposition. I never heard of any trouble between deceased and the Whitby's or Bud Yocum. The deceased told me at Whitby's house that Willie Whitby and Bud Yocum were teasing him about some girls and that Dudley Yocum called him a son of a b------. Yocum was too small for him to strike and he caught him and was going to butt him with his head when he got hurt. The deceased said Dudley Yocum had the pistol in his hand when he took hold of him. Phillip knew how to handle pistols. He was 16 years old. Deceased died at 5:35. The deceased was in his right mind when he told me of the shooting." Signed L.B. Akers DELLA WHITBY being sworn deposed and said: "The deceased told me that he was going to shoot himself; I heard the deceased say a month ago that he was going to kill himself. My mother and brother were there. He said he never had been...since his sister died, and about five months, before he shot himself he said, "Look, Delia I am going to kill myself." Signed Della Whitby JULIA WHITBY being sworn deposed and said: "The deceased came to my house between 6 and 7 o'clock in the morning. He pulled the cover off my face and told me to get up. I turned over and went to sleep and in about 10 minutes I heard a pistol fire and when I went out on the gallery deceased was falling to the floor, trying to catch the pistol which had fallen from his hands. The pistol was lying under the bolster of my bed when the deceased first came into the room. He know where I kept it. I never saw Bud Yocum with my pistol. Bud is about 12 years of age. When I went out into the gallery Bud was coming from toward the school house. I asked him what he ran for and he told me he was scared. Phillip Akers had been talking about killing himself for two months. He never talked like he meant it, always talking in a joking manner. The deceased died at his sister's house. The deceased said "I shot myself. I am tired of life," that is what I heard him say." Signed Julia Whitby DR. A. F. WRIGHT made a deposition as follows: "I found Phillip Akers Friday, July 2nd, at a house beyond Mr. Darnall's residence, with a small round hole in his skull as if made by a No. 3 buckshot from which wound the said Akers died July 7th. At the post mortem examination the pistol ball was found. It had passed entirely through the brain near its back. The trench of the ball was mostly traced by the broken....brain tissue and coagulated blood and pus. The wound was the cause of his death." Attest, A.F. Wright The evidence of Jim Scroggins and John Risenor was also introduced but was of no material value to the investigation. The jury retired for a few minutes and returned with the following verdict in the matter: "We, the jury of inquest upon the body of Phillip Akers, having examined into the cause, time, manner and place of the death of the deceased do find as follows, towit: First, That the name of the deceased was Phillip Akers. Second: That the deceased was a....person aged about sixteen years. Third: That said deceased came to his death in the city of Sherman on or about the hour 3:30 p.m. of the 7th, Fourth: That the death of the said deceased was caused as follows, towit: That on the 2nd day of July, between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. the deceased shot himself through the forehead with a pistol, from the effects of said wound the said deceased died at the time and place heretofore stated. Witness our signatures on this the 8th day of July, A.D. 1886. C.J. Hinkle, J.P. W.N. Tinsley H.C. Latham M.L. Boling J.M. Hecton H.M. Scott J. Marshall, Jurors The inquest then adjourned with....closely packed with white.... The case has attracted attention throughout the city. West Hill Cemetery Elaine Nall Bay ©2023 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |