December 13, 1921

The Arkansas Gazette reported that the crowds were so large that the funeral home placed the body of conman, bank robber, and killer Tom Slaughter outside and allowed the curious to view him; the crowd at the funeral was estimated at more than 5,000. Dead before his twenty-fifth birthday, Louisiana native Slaughter was a violent, arrogant, and handsome murderer. When he was shot and killed during an attempted escape from prison on December 9, 1921, in Benton (Saline County), Slaughter had been given the death sentence for murder.