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Miscellaneous Details Gleaned from Family Trees and Original Documents

George B. Winningham was born May 22, 1871, in Pickett County, the son of John and Martha (Smith) Winningham.  He died April 22, 1933, at 11 p.m., following abdominal surgery at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville.  His death certificate differs from multiple newspaper accounts, in that only a “gunshot wound of the abdomen” was the cause of death.  He is buried at Cope Cemetery in Boom, Pickett County.

John Floyd Winningham was born November 23, 1892 (tombstone year is wrong), at Byrdstown in Pickett County.  When he registered for the draft in 1917, Floyd was a self-employed merchant and farmer in Rockwood and Byrdstown, noting he was single, had weak eyes, and had “rheumatic.”  Clearly literate, he had a beautiful signature.  Floyd served as a Sergeant in World War I and was a Freemason.  He first married Amy Babb and second married Mary E. Grider (later Sawyer).  Floyd had a son and daughter.  He is buried at Cope Cemetery in Boom, Pickett County.

Willie McKinley Winningham was born July 7, 1895, in Pickett County.  Willie was murdered in the line of duty just 98 days after his father and brother.  After serving 7.5 years as Sheriff of Clinton County, Kentucky, Willie was serving a warrant at approximately 9 p.m. on Red Cox at his home in the Highway Community.  Cox had shot at another man earlier in the day and been arrested recently for wife-beating.  

Willie was shot twice from inside the darkened house as he stepped on the porch.  Willie fatally wounded Cox with two returned shots.  Willie was married and had two children.  Sadly, Willie’s teenaged daughter, Chrystell, died on Christmas Eve, 1933. 

Willie’s wife, Annie Winningham [née Anne Pauline Harrison], was appointed to serve out Willie’s approximately 6-month term as Sheriff.  He is buried at Albany Cemetery in Clinton County.

Details of the shooting are from Willie’s death certificate and regional newspaper articles.

Martha Smith Winningham lived fifteen years after the deaths of her husband and two sons, dying on June 15, 1948, at the age of 77.  She is buried at the Cope Cemetery in Boom, Pickett County.

 

“Across State Lines”

Click here to view a blog post that contains details and numerous photos. Note that many discrepancies exist among the various stories, both contemporaneous news and later published stories.

 

Pickett Deputy Is Slain, His Father, the Sheriff, Shot

Officers Fired upon as They Seek To Make Arrest

The (Nashville) Tennessean, April 22, 1933, Pages 1-2

Rock Creek, Tenn., April 21 — (Spl.) — Brutally shot down as they sought to make an arrest, one Pickett county officer was dead and another was thrice wounded and is not expected to live.  The slain officer was Deputy Sheriff Floyd Winningham, 40, of Byrdstown, while the wounded man was his father, Sheriff George Winningham, 60.

Sought for the attack are Jerome Boyatt, 28, reputed bootlegger and “bad man”; his deaf and dumb brother, whose name could not be learned, and Walter Crabtree.

The Boyatts and Crabtree, sought in connection with an attack earlier this afternoon on Albert Boyatt, 60, uncle of the Boyatts, hid in a box car when the officers approached at 8 o’clock tonight.

Sheriff Winningham and his son walked up to an open door of the car and demanded their surrender.  As they spoke, the men in the car began shooting.  Floyd was killed instantly.  His father fell with three pistol bullet wounds, one in the head and two in the abdomen.  A third officer, Deputy Sheriff Garrett, was unwounded.

After the shooting, the three men leaped from the car and fled into the woods.  Late tonight they had not been captured.

Quincy McDonald, attorney of Byrdstown, organized a party of Byrdstown citizens, obtained bloodhound [sic] and late tonight were searching for the alleged killers.

John Henderson, assistant general manager of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company of Stearns, Ky., said the wounded sheriff was given medical aid and was to be sent to a hospital as soon as an ambulance could be obtained from Livingston, Tenn., 48 miles away.  Mr. Henderson said Sheriff Winningham’s condition was critical and that doctors despaired of his life.

The Boyatts are from Scott county, Tennessee, while Crabtree’s home is in Pickett county.

When Sheriff Winningham and his officers reached Rock Creek they were told the Boyatts were “bad characters” but they ignored the warning.

The slain man was married.  During the World war he served overseas and later was with the Army of Occupation in Germany.  He was a highly respected officer and word from Byrdstown was that the town was aroused to a high pitch over his killing.

Although the Stearns company has a loading camp here, Mr. Henderson said none of the men involved were employyes of his firm.  He said Jerome Boyatt was a police character but he knew nothing of his brother or of Crabtree.

The fight between Jerome and his uncle, Albert, was said to have been over some family difficulty.  Mr. Henderson said the elder Boyatt was severely beaten in his fight with his nephew.

Rock Creek is 18 miles northwest of Jamestown and about 45 miles from Stearns, Ky.

 

Sheriff, Shot, Dies; Possemen Jail Three

Son, Deputy, Was also Killed in Byrdstown Raid

Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 24, 1933, page 12

Nashville, April 24 (by Associated Press). — Sheriff G. B. Winningham of Pickett County and his son, Deputy Sheriff Floyd Winningham, were dead today as the result of wounds reeived during a raid at Byrdstown, near the Kentucky line.

Young Winningham was killed instantly by gunfire coming from a box car as the party of officers were approaching to arrest several men alleged to have attempted to attack an aged resident of the Rock Creek section.  Sheriff Winningham, wounded in the abdomen, was brought to a Nashville hospital, where he died.

Another deputy in the party arrested three men and took them to the Cookeville jail for safekeeping.  Officers were searching for three others.  The shooting occurred Friday night.

 

Violence Against Killers Feared

Morristown Gazette Mail, April 25, 1933, Page 1

Cookeville, Tenn., April 25. — Although denied at the sheriff’s office here, the rumor is persistent over three counties that Jerome and Ted Boyett, alleged slayers of Sheriff George Winningham and his son, Floyd, deputy sheriff, both of Picket [sic] County, have been apprehended and are under guard somewhere for their own safety.

Feeling is still tense in the Cumberland plateau section where the two Picket County officers were well known and popular; and some threat of mob violence should the two men be caught has been manifested.

 

Title Unknown

Crossville Chronicle, April 27, 1933 (from FindaGrave memorial)

Sheriff G. B. Winningham of Pickett county, who was serving his 5th term as sheriff, was fatally shot and his son, Floyd Winningham, a deputy, was instantly killed Friday night when they attempted to arrest men charged with an assault on an aged citizen a few miles from Byrdstown.

The sheriff and his son located the men in a box car and when they ordered them to surrender, shots were fired that killed the son instantly and so seriously injured the sheriff that he died in St Thomas hospital, Nashville Saturday night at 11:15. [Floyd’s death certificate notes he died at approximately 8 p.m. Friday night.]

Deputy Sheriff Bramlett Garrett arrested Late [sjc] Perry, Walter Crabtree and Eugene Boyatt and took them to Cookeville for safekeeping.  It is charged that the fatal shots were fired by Jerome Boyatt, who had not been arrested up to Monday.

Sheriff Winningham is a brother-in-law to James Smith, having married Mr. Smith’s sister.

 

Named Pickett Sheriff

Wife and Mother of Slain Officers Is Husband’s Successor

Byrdstown, Tenn., April 27. — (Spl.) — Mrs. Martha Winningham, wife of Sheriff George Winningham and mother of Deputy Floyd Winningham, the two victims of the pistol fire of a man they sought to arrest Friday, has been named to succeed her husband as the chief peace officer of Pickett County.

Mrs. Winningham was named sheriff by County Judge J. I. Robbins.  She will serve until May 4 when the county court will meet to name her permanent successor.

The four men held in connection with the shooting, Lige Terry, Eugene Boyett, Charles and Walter Crabtree, will be given a preliminary hearing at 10 o’clock Saturday here at Byrdstown.

The search for Jerome Boyett, the alleged slayer, continues, but no trace of him has been found.

 

 

Hunt on with Bloodhounds in Wilderness for Boyatt

Enraged Men of Tennessee Hill Country Chase Alleged Slayer of Pickett County Sheriff and Son; but wily Fugitive Knows Every Path in Region

Knoxville News-Sentinel, April 28, 1933, page 22

(Special to the News-Sentinel) — Jamestown, Tenn., April 28. — A man hunt is on in the rugged hills and mountains along the borders of Scott and Pickett Counties where officers say they believe Jerome Boyatt is hiding.  Boyatt is sought on a charge of fatally wounding Sheriff George Winningham of Pickett County and son, Floyd, at Rock Creek.

Boyatt has the advantage of knowing every path in the region where he was born and reared.  He also has many relatives in that section.  Pickett County, where feeling is high and there was talk of mob violence, has offered a reward for Boyatt’s capture.

Two Sets of Bloodhounds

Two sets of bloodhounds have been used in the hunt.  One is under Pugh from the state prison at Nashville and the other under J. E. Sullivan from Celina.  More than a hundred men joined officers in the search.  Five men under the leadership of Mose Hurt Littrell of Clinton County, Ky., passed thru Jamestown.  Cars from Byrdtown [sic] have to come by way of Jamestown to reach Rock Creek, 55 miles from Byrdtown [sic].  A great part of the road is narrow and rough, scarcely passable for cars.

A man accused of a killing at Monticello, Ky., once fled into that wilderness and avoided arrest for five years.  He was killed by officers while resisting arrest.

2500 Go to Funeral

Twenty-five hundred persons Wednesday went to the funeral of Sheriff Winningham and son.  They were from Overton, Clay, Fentress, Pickett Counties in Tennessee, Clinton, Wayne and Cumberland Counties, Kentucky.

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At this point, the story turns to the capture and death of Jerome Boyatt.  Click here to read that article on this site.