Sheriff John Elbert Nelson

John Elbert Nelson

Sheriff John E. Nelson was shot and killed as he responded to a domestic disturbance at a residence near Lucedale.

Sheriff Nelson went to the home of a local farmer with the farmer's 18 year-old daughter who told him that she ran for help when her father became violent and abusive with her mother. As Sheriff Nelson stepped out of his car, he was met with a shotgun blast from the father who was hiding behind a nearby fence. The suspect fled in the sheriff's car which was found ten miles away, wrecked, with the daughter's body inside. She had also been killed by a shotgun blast. Back at her home, deputies discovered the buck-shot riddled bodies of her mother and her two month old daughter.

The suspect, who was captured at his mother's home in Hurley on Christmas day, admitted that he had killed all four. He was convicted of Sheriff Nelson's murder and executed in the electric chair on February 2nd, 1951.

Sheriff Nelson was survived by his wife.