AR Hitchhike Killer
Funny, but what I remember most about our family vacation to the World's Fair in Vancouver is that everyone we met asked if we were from Georgia. Jimmy Carter was President, & we were still decades away from our current “information age” of everyone knowing everything all the time. We were always met with blank stares or confusion when we would respond, “No, we're from Arkansas.” Where or what in the world is Arkansas? That changed significantly when Bill Clinton hit the national political scene, but to this day, I'm still amazed at how little the rest of the country knows about, or even acknowledges, The Natural State. My accent has changed a bit in the intervening years, but wherever I go, people still hear me speak & ask where I'm from. And usually the next question is, “Who would I know from Arkansas?” or “Is anybody famous from there?”
Yes, a lot of famous, semi-famous, & infamous people (AKA a lot of people you would know) are from Arkansas.
Glen Campbell was born & raised in Delight (pronounced DEE-lite). Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland & moved with his family to Dyess, a WPA farmers' commune, during the depression. Levon Helm was born in Elaine, & grew up in Turkey Scratch. Al Green is from Forrest City. The bands Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Black Oak Arkansas, & Evanescence are from Arkansas too. Maya Angelou wasn't born in Arkansas, but her mother was, & Maya was raised by her grandmother in Stamps. Singer/songwriter (& Cher's mother) Georgia Holt & politician Wilbur D. Mills are both from Kensett. Bear Bryant is from out in the sticks near Fordyce; Sonny Liston is from Sand Slough; & Alad Ladd is from Hot Springs. NFL Hall-of-Famer Willie Roaf & Watergate whistle-blower Martha Mitchell are both from Pine Bluff. While not born in Arkansas, Don Tyson & Sam Walton both made their lives & lifelong careers here, & Jerry Jones moved here at age three. Baseball legends Daffy & Dizzy Dean were both Arkansans, as were basketball legends Sidney Moncrief, Scotty Pippin, & Nathaniel Clifton, & golfing standout John Daly. You already know of Bill Clinton & Mike Huckabee, but how about Dale Bumpers, the Senator from Arkansas who gave us the “right on red after stop” law? General Douglas MacArthur? Yep, born in Arkansas. Billy Bob Thornton & Mary Steenburgen? Yep, both Arkansans too. Ne-Yo, Gennifer Flowers, Joycelyn Elders, Iris DeMent, Rodger Bumpass, Michael Utley . . . the list goes on & on.
I would like to introduce you to an Arkansan you probably don't know. Even though he's been dead for almost 80 years, I was only just introduced to him myself a few weeks ago. James Weybern Hall, Arkansas' own serial killer, was electrocuted in “old sparky” at Tucker penitentiary near Pine Bluff back in 1946.
Another notable Arkansan, author/journalist Janie Nesbitt Jones, compiled all the available information about our home-grown horror into book form. Most of my knowledge about Mr. Hall comes from Mrs. Jones' published work, The Arkansas Hitchhike Killer. It's a good read; her writing style kept the information coming but was never dry or impersonal. I was able to find newspaper articles, court records, & published photos on my own, but I would never have known this man existed, much less known where to look for information about him, had Mrs. Jones not done the hard work first.
Mr. Hall, often called “Red” because of his hair color, was born in Faulkner County, in an area called Happy Valley near the small town of Enola. My grandmother's people were from Faulkner County, & even though my grandmother was already married with children when Red was born in 1921, it occurred to me that the families probably knew each other.
According to public records & those interviewed by Mrs. Jones in her book, Red was an ornery kid with a preacher for a father. He may have suffered brain damage, as a result of either an accident or a beating from his father, depending on whose story you believe. Sometime between the end of his 8th grade year & the start of his 9th, Red quit school. You see, Red had wanderlust. He likely just wanted to get away from his very large family & the prying eyes of his abusive father, but Red was already a roamer. In Arkansas in the 30s, during the Depression, in a farm home with lots of mouths to feed, kids were expected to work. A 14-year-old male like Red would have been expected to handle a sizable share of the physical labor. Instead, Red would just disappear for long periods of time, & would offer no information about where or why he'd gone. He did stay home long enough to marry a young lady he met at church, but that relationship couldn't withstand Red's frequent disappearances. He & his wife lost their first child, but they did have a son (whom Red later said he was “crazy about”) before she finally filed for divorce.
Shortly after that, Red, now occasionally called Jim, met & married 19-year-old Fayrene Clemmons in Little Rock. By all accounts, Fay was feisty, loved life, & loved the newfound independence of women in the World War II era. Jim found a bit of security as a cab driver, but still liked to roam. At Fay's request, he even took her with him on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Oregon. Shortly after their return to Arkansas, Fay & Jim had a night out on the town with a friend. Fay & Jim had an altercation in front of Fay's friend, & by the next morning, Fay was missing.
Fay's family in Alma, Arkansas made the long journey to Little Rock to report Fay missing. Jim was questioned, & said simply that they had fought & Fay had left him for another man. He said he had no idea where she went, but she was alive when she left & he had no reason to think she would ever contact him again. In the meantime, police in Arkansas, Oklahoma, & Kansas all had unsolved murders. Each of the victims was known to be in his vehicle, driving a specific route for a specific personal reason, but was later found robbed & murdered. Police in all these different jurisdictions deduced that the perpetrator must be a hitchhiker, but because the locations were so far apart, the dots weren't really connected. And no one had yet connected these murders with Red's missing wife or his absences from his home & job in Little Rock.
Shortly after Fay's disappearance, a friend of Red's alerted the Little Rock Police Department of some concerns. He had loaned Red his vehicle, & discovered that, when his vehicle was returned to him, two bullets were missing from the gun he kept loaded in his glovebox. The ballistics of that weapon were linked to one of the unsolved hitchhiker murders in Arkansas, & that was enough to get a search warrant for Red's apartment.
The rest is absolutely spectacular by-the-book police work – a testimonial to a great working relationship between the Arkansas State Police & the Little Rock municipal police. The search warrant revealed a second gun later linked to two of the unsolved hitchhiker murders, & some items stolen from hitchhiker victims. A postal slip in Red's pocket at the time he was detained linked him to a stolen item he had sold & shipped to an acquaintance. The detectives matched their interview style to that of their jovial, friendly detainee, & Red started talking. Over several interviews & encompassing several field trips (one to Alexandria, Louisiana), Red gave police the location of Fay's body & other key details about other murders. He admitted to beating Fay to death with is bare hands. He admitted to shooting & robbing five other victims after they gave him a ride. He also admitted killing a black woman in Oklahoma & ten Mexican migrant farm workers in California much earlier in his life. When asked how many people he had killed, he replied, “It's more like twenty-four.”
You know the end of the story. James Weyburn “Red” Hall was executed from Arkansas' death row exactly two weeks before his twenty-fifth birthday, on January 4, 1946. Of the eighteen murders to which he confessed, six are supported by circumstantial evidence & the details given in his own recounting of events. He was, however, only prosecuted for one murder – that of his wife, Fayrene Clemmons Hall. While he seemed to be okay with his fate at the time of his confession, he pled both not guilty & not guilty by reason of insanity. He said he didn't confess, but if he did, it was under duress, & he didn't kill his wife, but if he did, he was insane. A jury found him guilty & sentenced him to death. Both his appeal & his request for clemency were denied, & the Arkansas Hitchhike Killer was put to death, not for the murders of the kind motorists who picked him up, but for the single offense of beating his wife to death.
So, if you're ever in earshot when someone asks me, “Is anyone famous from Arkansas?” you'll have a few answers of your own to contribute.
Yes, a lot of famous, semi-famous, & infamous people (AKA a lot of people you would know) are from Arkansas.
Glen Campbell was born & raised in Delight (pronounced DEE-lite). Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland & moved with his family to Dyess, a WPA farmers' commune, during the depression. Levon Helm was born in Elaine, & grew up in Turkey Scratch. Al Green is from Forrest City. The bands Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Black Oak Arkansas, & Evanescence are from Arkansas too. Maya Angelou wasn't born in Arkansas, but her mother was, & Maya was raised by her grandmother in Stamps. Singer/songwriter (& Cher's mother) Georgia Holt & politician Wilbur D. Mills are both from Kensett. Bear Bryant is from out in the sticks near Fordyce; Sonny Liston is from Sand Slough; & Alad Ladd is from Hot Springs. NFL Hall-of-Famer Willie Roaf & Watergate whistle-blower Martha Mitchell are both from Pine Bluff. While not born in Arkansas, Don Tyson & Sam Walton both made their lives & lifelong careers here, & Jerry Jones moved here at age three. Baseball legends Daffy & Dizzy Dean were both Arkansans, as were basketball legends Sidney Moncrief, Scotty Pippin, & Nathaniel Clifton, & golfing standout John Daly. You already know of Bill Clinton & Mike Huckabee, but how about Dale Bumpers, the Senator from Arkansas who gave us the “right on red after stop” law? General Douglas MacArthur? Yep, born in Arkansas. Billy Bob Thornton & Mary Steenburgen? Yep, both Arkansans too. Ne-Yo, Gennifer Flowers, Joycelyn Elders, Iris DeMent, Rodger Bumpass, Michael Utley . . . the list goes on & on.
I would like to introduce you to an Arkansan you probably don't know. Even though he's been dead for almost 80 years, I was only just introduced to him myself a few weeks ago. James Weybern Hall, Arkansas' own serial killer, was electrocuted in “old sparky” at Tucker penitentiary near Pine Bluff back in 1946.
Another notable Arkansan, author/journalist Janie Nesbitt Jones, compiled all the available information about our home-grown horror into book form. Most of my knowledge about Mr. Hall comes from Mrs. Jones' published work, The Arkansas Hitchhike Killer. It's a good read; her writing style kept the information coming but was never dry or impersonal. I was able to find newspaper articles, court records, & published photos on my own, but I would never have known this man existed, much less known where to look for information about him, had Mrs. Jones not done the hard work first.
Mr. Hall, often called “Red” because of his hair color, was born in Faulkner County, in an area called Happy Valley near the small town of Enola. My grandmother's people were from Faulkner County, & even though my grandmother was already married with children when Red was born in 1921, it occurred to me that the families probably knew each other.
According to public records & those interviewed by Mrs. Jones in her book, Red was an ornery kid with a preacher for a father. He may have suffered brain damage, as a result of either an accident or a beating from his father, depending on whose story you believe. Sometime between the end of his 8th grade year & the start of his 9th, Red quit school. You see, Red had wanderlust. He likely just wanted to get away from his very large family & the prying eyes of his abusive father, but Red was already a roamer. In Arkansas in the 30s, during the Depression, in a farm home with lots of mouths to feed, kids were expected to work. A 14-year-old male like Red would have been expected to handle a sizable share of the physical labor. Instead, Red would just disappear for long periods of time, & would offer no information about where or why he'd gone. He did stay home long enough to marry a young lady he met at church, but that relationship couldn't withstand Red's frequent disappearances. He & his wife lost their first child, but they did have a son (whom Red later said he was “crazy about”) before she finally filed for divorce.
Shortly after that, Red, now occasionally called Jim, met & married 19-year-old Fayrene Clemmons in Little Rock. By all accounts, Fay was feisty, loved life, & loved the newfound independence of women in the World War II era. Jim found a bit of security as a cab driver, but still liked to roam. At Fay's request, he even took her with him on a spur-of-the-moment trip to Oregon. Shortly after their return to Arkansas, Fay & Jim had a night out on the town with a friend. Fay & Jim had an altercation in front of Fay's friend, & by the next morning, Fay was missing.
Fay's family in Alma, Arkansas made the long journey to Little Rock to report Fay missing. Jim was questioned, & said simply that they had fought & Fay had left him for another man. He said he had no idea where she went, but she was alive when she left & he had no reason to think she would ever contact him again. In the meantime, police in Arkansas, Oklahoma, & Kansas all had unsolved murders. Each of the victims was known to be in his vehicle, driving a specific route for a specific personal reason, but was later found robbed & murdered. Police in all these different jurisdictions deduced that the perpetrator must be a hitchhiker, but because the locations were so far apart, the dots weren't really connected. And no one had yet connected these murders with Red's missing wife or his absences from his home & job in Little Rock.
Shortly after Fay's disappearance, a friend of Red's alerted the Little Rock Police Department of some concerns. He had loaned Red his vehicle, & discovered that, when his vehicle was returned to him, two bullets were missing from the gun he kept loaded in his glovebox. The ballistics of that weapon were linked to one of the unsolved hitchhiker murders in Arkansas, & that was enough to get a search warrant for Red's apartment.
The rest is absolutely spectacular by-the-book police work – a testimonial to a great working relationship between the Arkansas State Police & the Little Rock municipal police. The search warrant revealed a second gun later linked to two of the unsolved hitchhiker murders, & some items stolen from hitchhiker victims. A postal slip in Red's pocket at the time he was detained linked him to a stolen item he had sold & shipped to an acquaintance. The detectives matched their interview style to that of their jovial, friendly detainee, & Red started talking. Over several interviews & encompassing several field trips (one to Alexandria, Louisiana), Red gave police the location of Fay's body & other key details about other murders. He admitted to beating Fay to death with is bare hands. He admitted to shooting & robbing five other victims after they gave him a ride. He also admitted killing a black woman in Oklahoma & ten Mexican migrant farm workers in California much earlier in his life. When asked how many people he had killed, he replied, “It's more like twenty-four.”
You know the end of the story. James Weyburn “Red” Hall was executed from Arkansas' death row exactly two weeks before his twenty-fifth birthday, on January 4, 1946. Of the eighteen murders to which he confessed, six are supported by circumstantial evidence & the details given in his own recounting of events. He was, however, only prosecuted for one murder – that of his wife, Fayrene Clemmons Hall. While he seemed to be okay with his fate at the time of his confession, he pled both not guilty & not guilty by reason of insanity. He said he didn't confess, but if he did, it was under duress, & he didn't kill his wife, but if he did, he was insane. A jury found him guilty & sentenced him to death. Both his appeal & his request for clemency were denied, & the Arkansas Hitchhike Killer was put to death, not for the murders of the kind motorists who picked him up, but for the single offense of beating his wife to death.
So, if you're ever in earshot when someone asks me, “Is anyone famous from Arkansas?” you'll have a few answers of your own to contribute.
