[Granville-Hough] 27 Dec 2009 - Anse McLaurin and Eustace Boykin

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:01:10 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Anse McLaurin and Eustace Boykin - 27 Dec  2009


Anse McLaurin, the preferred lawyer for Sullivans and others in trouble.

My father, Lisha Hough, was approached in 1905 by his Aunt Caroline 
Matilda (Hough) Boykin, who had a sad story. Her son, Eustace, a twin of 
Eugene had been accused in Raleigh of murder/manslaughter and was in 
jail. Lisha already knew the story, he was not at all fond of Eustace, 
but he could hardly refuse his Aunt. She asked him if he would be a 
bondsman for Eustace, so he could get out of jail and prepare for a 
trial. So Lisha, with approval of the remainder of the Hough family, put 
up the Hough homestead and other property as bond for Eustace.
The Boykins were not without means and hired the best lawyer in the 
area, Anse McLaurin, who prepared for the trial. What was the crime? The 
twins, Eustace and Eugene, born in 1882, lost their father, James 
Boykin, to natural death about 1895. Their teen years were unguided, and 
they became undisciplined bullies. They goaded an old man in Raleigh for 
no known reason and eventually beat him up. The old man vowed revenge 
the next time he saw a Boykin twin.
At the next encounter, only Eustace was present. When the old man 
accosted him, Eustace drew out a knife and killed him. Eustace claimed 
self-defence, but the old man was unarmed and no match in any way for 
the 23 year old Eustace. It did not look good. Eustace was only charged 
with manslaughter, as I remember the telling, but it would probably 
merit a 20 year to life sentence at the State Penetentiary at Jackson or 
at Parchman Farms. Anse McLaurin was looking for any loophole and angle 
he could find.
On the day of the trial, the bondsmen produced Eustace Boykin and the 
trial began. The jury was seated, the prosecution had plenty of 
witnesses, and by noon; it looked it would be a short trial and swift 
verdict. The judge called a halt for dinner (lunch was a citified term 
which was not used, country folks having breakfast, dinner, and supper.) 
The sheriff gave not a thought to Eustace. He was a prominent politician 
who grabbed his cronies and went across the street from the courthouse 
to the hotel in order to be the first served the great dinner reserved 
for the jury and the officers of the court.
Eustace Boykin, the accused, was left standing in the courthouse with 
his family and lawyer Anse McLaurin, who suddenly saw a way out. After 
the sheriff was safely out of sight in the hotel, lawyer Anse took 
Eustace aside and said, ôCan you see that pine tree at the end of town?ö 
Indeed, there was a lone, longleaf pine standing next to the road on the 
north edge of Raleigh. Yes, Eustace could see that tree. Anse McLaurin 
then said: ôYou walk down this street until you get on the other side of 
that tree and out of sight. Then you run like hell till you are out of 
Smith County and across at least two state lines. Never stop and never 
say who you are.ö
Then lawyer Anse told the family, ôYou just sit here while I go down the 
street to a law office and come back with a law book.ö So, the family 
did not see where Eustace went and only knew that Anse McLaurin returned 
with a law book.
After the two-hour recess for dinner, everybody returned to the 
courthouse and the judge gavelled for order. However, the trial could 
not resume. There was no accused! The bondsmen were called up and their 
possessions listed for sale unless they produced the accused. My father, 
Lisha Hough, never forgot his anxiety of that moment. When lawyer Anse 
McLaurin felt he had gained all the time he safely could for Eustace, he 
rose and addressed the court, ôYour Honor, with your indulgence, I would 
like to read a law which applies to this case. I have here the code of 
the state of Mississippi and I have the statute which applies to 
bondsmen. (When he read the statute, it specifically stated that the 
bondsmen were, on the date and time of the trial, to deliver the bonded 
person to the sheriff or other specified officer of the court.) So, your 
Honor, we all know the bondsmen did their duty this morning. They 
delivered the accused to this court. We were all here. Their duty was 
over. If you want to continue to try the accused this afternoon, you 
must ask the Sheriff of this County to produce him.ö) The Judge could 
only turn to the Sheriff and say: ôWhere is he?ö ôWhy donÆt you have him 
in custody?ö The embarrassed Sheriff had no answers and never was able 
to find Eustace.
Eustace followed the advice of Anse Mclaurin and wound up in Indian 
Territory or Oklahoma, across two state lines, with another name. It is 
said he married and had a family there. It is possible he came back and 
visited his mother before her death in 1913. One niece believes she saw 
him once near Hattiesburg where his twin brother Eugene lived as a 
locomotive engineer.
In the 1960 and 1970 decade when I, Granville Hough, was documenting the 
Boykin descendants of Zeno Hough, I found members of the Boykin family 
just as interested as I in finding Eustace descendants. We could think 
of no way we could ever do it without a Eustace descendant learning 
about the name change and then contacting one of us.
My brother Rudolph loved to tell this story of the cleverness of Anse 
McLaurin, who also figured in the case of Uncle Amos Arender after the 
murder of Moses Boone. He may also have been the lawyer who saved the 
McAlpin boy from the gallows after the murder of his Thornton pal. Anse 
McLaurin had been a U. S. Senator and Mississippi state Governor before 
1900, according to Harold Hopkins; and his life is probably covered in 
suitable biographies. I wonder, however if anyone has ever done a study 
of his legal maneuvers to save his clients. This may be the kind of 
history they do at Ole Miss Law School (University of Mississippi, 
Oxford.) EustaceB, 6 Jul 2005.
P. S. It appears that Caroline Matilda Hough was named for her aunt, 
Caroline Matilda (Everett) Hough, wife of Richmond Hough, brother of Zeno.