Bill Wilson (born 1880) was an American farmer in

Blount County, Alabama Blount County is a county located in the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 59,134. Its county seat is Oneonta. Blount County is a moist county. In the November 6, 2012 elections, a countywide ballot initiativ ...

who was falsely convicted of killing his wife and youngest child.

Background

Bill Wilson, a farmer in Blount County, Alabama, married Jenny Wade in 1900. Their third child was born in 1907. Jenny left Wilson 19 months later with their third child to return to her family. Wilson then chose to move in with his father taking the two older children with him. During the divorce proceedings, Wade and the third child vanished. Shortly before Jenny was last seen, Jane McClendon, a local farmer's daughter, also mysteriously disappeared. For several weeks rumors circulated that foul play was involved in both disappearances. In late 1912, Dolphus Tidwell and his son were fishing on the

Black Warrior River The Black Warrior River is a waterway in west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States. The river rises in the extreme southern edges of the Appalachian Highlands and flows 178 miles (286 km) to the Tombigbee River, of which the ...

near the property of Wilson's father when they noticed a bone sticking out of the soil. The Tidwells found a mat under the soil that exposed what they believed to be the skeletal remains of an adult and a child. Thinking that there may have been an Indigenous

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

nearby, they searched the area for relics but found nothing. They re-buried the bones and returned home. News of the discovery spread, and for several days locals searched the area for Native American artifacts until they lost interest. When no relics were found a farmhand named Jim House began speculating that the remains were not those of Indigenous people but his neighbor Jenny Wilson and her child. He recounted how he had seen Jenny visit her father-in-law's house carrying a basket in 1908 and that the following morning he noticed footprints leading to the river. Following the tracks, he found children's clothing and blood on a rock. The story soon spread until the information got back to the county

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

James Embry. Embry called a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

and

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an indi ...

Bill Wilson for the murder of his wife and child.

Trial

James Embry prosecuted the case before Judge J. E. Blackwood. In his opening remarks, he said that Jenny Wilson went to her father-in-law's house to visit her two older children in late November or early December 1908. Jenny and Bill Wilson had quarreled, which led to Wilson murdering his wife and child. Wilson then took the bodies to the bluff and burned them to destroy the evidence of his crime.

Prosecution evidence

Dolphus Tidwell testified that he found the bones that had been placed into evidence. These bones were speculated to remains of Jenny Wilson and her 19-month-old infant. Dr. Marvin Denton testified for the state in regards to his findings from an examination of the bones. Although he agreed that the bones belonged to an adult and child, he noted that the child had

permanent teeth Permanent teeth or adult teeth are the second set of teeth formed in diphyodont mammals. In humans and old world simians, there are thirty-two permanent teeth, consisting of six maxillary and six mandibular molars, four maxillary and four mandib ...

. Permanent teeth typically do not appear until around the age of six. He also testified that he had never seen permanent teeth in a child under the age of four. Jim House repeated his story about Jenny's visit to the Wilson farm, adding that he was concerned for her safety and had tried to talk her out of going. When he met Wilson the following day, House asked him about his wife and stated that Wilson denied that she visited the farm. It was after this encounter when House found the footprints and followed them to the spot where he found blood on a rock. A convict who had a cell near Wilson, Mack Holcomb, testified that he overheard Wilson tell his eldest daughter Ruthie, "If you tell anything, I will tend to you when I get out." Seven-year-old Ruthie was cross-examined about this statement and stated that her father had said that if she was not a good girl, he would punish her when he got out of jail. Several locals recounted conversations with Wilson where he showed animosity towards Jenny or made comments indicating she would not return.

Defense evidence

Lizzie McClendon, the mother of Jane McClendon, who had gone missing shortly before Jenny, told the jury that House had visited her after her daughter vanished and said that he would testify he saw the Wilsons kill her daughter if she would swear out a warrant for their arrest. Under cross-examination, House denied the claim but did admit to ill-feeling between himself and Bill Wilson. Six witnesses, including Jenny's sister, swore that they had seen Jenny at various times in 1909 and that she was living with a man named John Wilson, who was unrelated to Bill Wilson. Mrs. Benton Cornelius testified that Jenny told her in April 1908 that she intended to move to

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

after the separation. Wilson's brother John, his sister Frances, his daughter Ruthie, and John Rice, who worked for Wilson, all denied that Jenny had visited the Wilson's home at any time after the separation.Collins, Wilkie (2005), p. 163. Testimony was given that the female skeletal remains had no dental work even though Jenny had fillings in her two front teeth. Dr. J. F. Hancock said that he believed that the bones were at least ten years old, that the adult skeletal remains belonged to an elderly person, and that the child's permanent teeth excluded that skeleton from being that of a 19-month-old baby.

Verdict

On December 18, 1915, the jury found Bill Wilson guilty and

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

him of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

in the

first degree ''First Degree'' was a 9-part drama series made by BBC Wales which aired in 2002. The series followed the lives, trials and tribulations of students in the fictional Bay College, one of several hi-tech media schools owned and run by an enigmati ...

. He was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

, served at Alabama's

Wetumpka State Penitentiary The Wetumpka State Penitentiary (WSP), originally known as the Alabama State Penitentiary, was the first state prison established in Alabama, United States.

. An appeal was overturned, and several

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

s for a

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

were also rejected.

Pardon

In 1916, Dr.

Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...

, curator of

biological anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly fro ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, declared the bones to be parts of at least four or five individuals. The remains were very old, and there was nothing to indicate that they were not of Indigenous origin. The trial judge, J. E. Blackwood, believing that Wilson was innocent, pressured the

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

and the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

unsuccessfully to commute the sentence. By this time, the public accepted Wilson's innocence, but prosecutor James Embry blocked all attempts to obtain a pardon. In 1918, Wilson's former appeal lawyer located Jenny Wilson and her daughter, now aged 11, living in

Vincennes, Indiana Vincennes is a city in, and the county seat of, Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville and Terre Haute. It was founded in 1732 by F ...

with her second husband. She returned to Blount County on July 8 and signed an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

giving a complete account of her movements from the time she disappeared until she was found. The same day the governor granted a full pardon, and Wilson was released.

Aftermath

On February 15, 1919, the

Alabama Legislature The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It is one of the few state legislatures in which members of both cham ...

enacted a

statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...

for the appointment of a commission to determine the amount of compensation Wilson would officially receive. It would be "up to the amount of $3,500" and , "for services rendered othe state while in prison," rather than compensation for wrongful imprisonment. An award for the maximum amount of $3,500 was entrusted to the state

public trustee In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

, a Blount County

probate court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

judge. The probate court judge subsequently fled the state with the money. Wilson sued the judge's bondsman to recover the compensation due to an action that cost him $700 in legal fees ($ in ). It is unknown how much he received, but it is believed to have been around $2,500 ($ in ). Wilson used the money to buy a small farm but got into debt and lost it. The last record of Wilson indicates that he was working as a day laborer digging coal in an Alabama mine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Bill 1880 births Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murdering victims who were later found alive American people wrongfully convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Alabama Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Alabama American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Year of death missing Recipients of gubernatorial pardons in Alabama