City Marshal Richard M. Cloy

Richard M. Cloy

City Marshal Richard Cloy was shot and killed while attempting to collect a license fee from a local hotel owner. The subject began to argue with Marshal Cloy who left, giving him an opportunity to calm down. Later on in the day he shot him in the back with a rifle from a distance of 130 yards.

On October 16, 1891, the suspect, 42, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. On March 8, 1893, he was hanged at Magnolia. The suspect invented the Ford-Whitworth Automatic Car Coupler, that allowed train cars to connect by simply bumping into each other without having a worker involved. It made him a wealthy man, with a net worth of well over $100,000. Relatives and others described him as a genius with a bad temper he could not control.

Marshal Cloy had served with the McComb Police Department for only seven months. He was survived by his wife.