Earll family murders
On February 14, 1902, six members of the Earll family were found dead in a cabin near Welsh, Louisiana. Albert Edwin Batson, an itinerant farm worker who had worked for the Earlls, was suspected of the crime. He was tried twice and sentenced to death four times for the killings; despite the sentencing board recommending his sentence be commuted to life in prison, governor William Wright Heard refused to commute his sentence, and on August 15, 1903, Batson was hanged.
| Earll family murders | |
|---|---|
An illustration of Ward Earll's cabin that appeared in the Houston Post on April 15, 1902 | |
| Location | near Welsh, Louisiana, United States |
| Date | 1902 |
| Target | Earll family |
Attack type | Mass shooting |
| Weapon | Shotgun |
| Deaths | 6 |
| Perpetrator | Albert Edwin Batson |
The murders and subsequent trial were a cause célèbre in Louisiana in 1902 and 1903, though even then Batson's guilt was controversial. The case inspired the murder ballad "Batson", most famously recorded by blues musician Wilson Jones in 1934. In 2014, a book was published that raised questions over the certainty of Batson's guilt.