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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 26, 1919
Bogalusa, Louisiana – White Union Men Shot Down Defending Black Labor Leader
From The Shreveport Times of November 23, 1919:
Bogalusa, La., Nov. 22.-Three white men were shot to death and two wounded in a fight at a garage here today in which several men attempted to prevent special police [company gunthugs] from arresting a negro labor leader, suspected of inciting negroes, and two white men who had carried shotguns to protect him while parading him down the main street of the city.
The dead are:
L. E. Williams, president of the allied trades council of Bogalusa and owner of the garage.
J. P. Bouchillon and Thomas Gaines, carpenters. They were shot by the officers.
[The wounded are:]
S. J. O’Rourke, carpenter and one of the men for whom a warrant for arrest had been sworn, and Jules Leblanc, a special policeman and a former captain in the United States army.
Saul Dechus [Sol Dacus], the negro, is president of the Negro Union. He escaped from the garage with four white men during the shooting.
James Williams, brother of the slain leader, was arrested, charged with assault with intent to kill.
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