Five Men Guilty, Year Suggested In Lowe Killing
Three Deputies, Two Companions Are Convicted
Charged, with the murder, of Bob Lowe, roadhouse operator near Lake City, five men were convicted of manslaughter in criminal court last week and the jury recommended that they be sentenced to serve a year and a day in prison. The defendants were former deputy sheriffs, C F Beach, Mitchell Beach, Clifford McGhee, Carl Allen, and Levi Hawkins. Sentence had not been pronounced by Judge Jess L Rodgers in the case Thursday morning. Bob Lowe, operator of a roadhouse near Lake City, on old Andersonville road, was killed about 2 AM Sunday, March 24, this year within a few steps of his doorway. He was mowed down by four bullets, said to have been fired by Deputy Sheriffs Mitchell and Franklin Beach. A .22 caliber revolver was found under Lowe, after he had fallen, fatally wounded. Along with the two deputies were Deputy Clifford McGhee, Levi Hawkins, and Carl Allen, driver of the car. The officers had been warned earlier by Lowe to stay away and the shooting took place when the officers returned to Lake City from Clinton and had halted at a spring near Lowe’s place, according to their story. The officers said Lowe fired five times at their car, and that the Beach brothers returned the fire, killing Lowe. It was reported that the pistol under Lowe was the same one he had used in a killing 15 years earlier. After killing Lowe, the officers surrendered to Sheriff R A Smith, and the Beach brothers were released on bonds of $1,000. The same officers had had trouble with Lowe not a great while before the killing, and Lowe was charged with interfering with an officer. The case was dismissed in court. Fifteen years earlier, Lowe was convicted along with Daniel Brittian Daugherty of the murder of Byrd Daughterty, and his two sons, Bob and Fisher, and sentenced to serve 25 years in the state prison. The killing took place in the New River section. Lowe later was pardoned by Governor Horton. For a time Lowe made his home in Clinton.
Clinton Courier – Oct 3, 1940
[Transcribed by Susie Bullock]