Willie “Wash” Martin (Execution of)

Willie “Wash” Martin, an African American man, was put to death by electrocution on June 9, 1926, after being convicted of first-degree murder in the shotgun slaying of a white Pulaski County woman.

Lena Blevins, age twenty-eight, was standing in the road about 300 yards from the home she shared with her parents on Hilaro Springs Road about nine miles southwest of Little Rock (Pulaski County) on December 11, 1925, when a Black man with a shotgun reportedly stepped out of a clump of bushes “and ordered her to accompany him into the woods.” Blevins grabbed the barrel of the shotgun and said, “Go ahead and shoot for I’m going to scream.” The man fired “directly into Mrs. Blevins[’s] groin at close range” before fleeing.

Her injuries were too serious for her to be transported to Little Rock, so she was carried to her parents’ house where “she retained consciousness and was able to tell the story of the attack and to furnish a description of her assailant” before dying of her wounds.

The next day, thirteen-year-old Francis Morgan heard his mother reading an Arkansas Gazette article that included the attacker’s description and said, “Why, mama, that’s old Wash” and said that he had seen Willie “Wash” Martin, age thirty-six, wearing the clothing described in the article and carrying a shotgun. (Morgan later received a $100 check from “the Little Rock Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” for identifying Martin.) Morgan’s mother called the police, who arrested Martin at his home at 2120 Short Twenty-fourth street on December 12.

The suspect initially “denied any knowledge of the crime,” but after “27 hours of continuous questioning,” he admitted firing at Blevins but said “the shooting was accidental.” After hearing a rumor that a lynch mob was threatening to take Martin from the Arkansas State Penitentiary, Sheriff Homer M. Adkins (a future Arkansas governor) had him temporarily moved to Hot Springs (Garland County).

Detectives suspected that Martin may have been responsible for the murders of four white women and one Black woman in the Fourche Creek bottoms, but he maintained that he had killed only Blevins. He was again moved from Little Rock on December 17 amid “repeated and renewed rumors of violence,” this time taken by train to Fort Smith (Sebastian County).

A Pulaski County grand jury indicted Martin on a first-degree murder charge on December 22, 1925.

When his trial began on January 11, 1926, hundreds of people crowded into the Pulaski County Courthouse to watch. Prosecutors called twenty-eight witnesses, including several who said they had seen Martin near the crime scene, but “Martin sat in the courtroom throughout the day apparently asleep.” His attorneys called witnesses who “testified regarding the mental condition” of the defendant, and “they declared Martin had the mind of a child.” The jury deliberated for one hour and two minutes before returning with a guilty verdict, and Martin was sentenced to be electrocuted on March 19.

That execution was delayed while Martin’s conviction was appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court, which affirmed the sentence on May 10, 1926. Governor Thomas Jefferson Terral set a new execution date of June 9, the same day Mississippi County murderer Albert Jones was to be electrocuted.

A group of Black female inmates were allowed to serenade the condemned men with spiritual music on the night before their execution. On June 9, officials took Jones to the electric chair first because warden Clifton Evans wanted to give Martin a final opportunity to confess to the unsolved slayings. As he was strapped to the chair, Evans said, “Are you sure, Wash, that you know nothing of the other murders?”—to which Martin replied, “Not that I knows of.” The “current was applied at 5:37 a.m.,” and Martin was declared dead two minutes later.

For additional information:
“Condemned Negro to Gain Reprieve.” Arkansas Gazette, March 18, 1926, p. 5.

“Confessed Slayer Rushed from City.” Arkansas Gazette, December 18, 1925, p. 5.

“Death Chair Takes Lives of Negros.” (Conway) Log Cabin Democrat, June 10, 1926, p. 4.

“Death Penalty Is Asked for Martin.” Arkansas Gazette, January 12, 1926, p. 1, 11.

“Killer Detected by a Boy, Aged 13.” Arkansas Gazette, January 27, 1926, p. 1.

“Martin Evasive in Final Statement.” Arkansas Gazette, June 10, 1926, p. 7.

“Martin Is Guilty, Must Die in Chair.” Arkansas Gazette, January 13, 1926, p. 1.

“Negro Admits Murder after Long Grilling.” (Jonesboro) Sun, December 16, 1925, pp. 1, 14.

“Negro Murderers Die in Chair Today.” Arkansas Gazette, June 9, 1926, p. 1.

“Negro Shoots, Killing Plucky White Woman.” Arkansas Gazette, December 12, 1925, pp. 1, 17.

“Negro Slayer Is under Indictment.” Arkansas Gazette, December 23, 1925, p. 18.

“Officers Continue to Question Negro.” Arkansas Gazette, December 15, 1925, p. 7.

“Quizzing of Negro Slayer Is Delayed.” Arkansas Gazette, December 17, 1925, p. 5.

“Sheriff Hastily Removes Suspect.” Arkansas Gazette, December 14, 1925, p. 1.

“Wash Martin to Die for Killing.” Arkansas Gazette, May 11, 1926, p. 3.

“Wash Martin, Negro, Is to Be Electrocuted June 9.” Arkansas Gazette, May 29, 1926, p. 8.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas