DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker on this one reads, here's the story as it's been set down for the record — and it's a story worth sittin' with for a minute. John L. Southall was born on June 11, 1869, and by the time his life ended on October 6, 1912, he had made his name as the assistant chief of police of Greenville, Texas.
That's a title that carries weight, and Southall carried it the way a man carries something he believes in. He was killed in the line of duty — killed in the attempt to arrest a drunken gunman. That's the kind of sentence that deserves a moment of quiet before you move on.
He was doing his job, doing it on purpose, doing it knowing the risks. Now here's the detail that the marker wants you to hold onto, because it tells you something about the man himself. Southall's soft nosed bullets were ineffective in the battle.
And the reason for that is this — his practice was to wound and stop, not to kill. He carried a particular kind of round because he had already decided, before things ever got dangerous, that his goal was to bring a man in, not to put a man down. That's a moral position loaded right into the chamber.
Whether that cost him everything that day is the kind of question that hangs in the Texas air and doesn't quite answer itself. Also killed in that same encounter was Special Deputy Sheriff Emmett Shipp. Two men.
One attempt. One drunken gunman. Two families who didn't get their people back.
John L. Southall tried to do things the harder, more merciful way — and the marker makes sure you know it.
What the marker says
(June 11, 1869 - Oct. 6, 1912) Assistant chief of police of Greenville. Was killed in line of duty in attempt to arrest drunken gunman. Southall's soft nosed bullets were ineffective in battle, as his practice was to wound and stop, not kill. Also killed was Special Deputy Sheriff Emmett Shipp.