Jim Bradshaw
At dawn on a muggy morning in late July 1916, Sheriff Marion L. Swords was in the Mallet Woods in rural St. Landry Parish, watching an old cabin where he thought a murder suspect was hiding. It would be the last sunrise “one of the best-known politicians in Louisiana” would ever see.
Swords and deputy Charles Chachere left Opelousas late on Sunday, July 17, headed for the Pot Cove section of Bois Mallet near the St. Landry-Acadia border. On the way, they were joined by Paul Durousseau and Bruno St. Andre, who led the lawmen to a cabin where Hilaire Carriere was reportedly staying.
Carriere was a dangerous man. He’d been sent to the state penitentiary in 1911, escaped in January 1912, was recaptured that April. He was finally properly released in May 1915, but was arrested shortly after that for killing two men. He’d escaped from the St. Landry jail, fled to his old family stomping grounds, and “began to terrorize that section of St Landry, threatening several persons with their lives if they should reveal his whereabouts.” He said he planned to kill some other men. That’s why Swords and his men were out to find him.
They watched the house through the night without incident, but “at the break of day some one came onto the gallery of the little cabin,” according to the St. Landry Clarion.
Chachere yelled for the man to put his hands up, but “instead of seeing a pair of hands go up,” the deputy was “very impolitely greeted with a pair of bullets from a .44 Winchester that passed close to his head.”
Chachere and one of the other men returned fire, and Carriere fled into a parch of tall corn next to the house. Swords, Durousseau and St. Andre followed. More shots were exchanged. Then, suddenly, Carriere appeared in a furrow between the rows of corn, “directly in front of Mr. Swords,” and about 35 yards away. He fired one shot. It hit the sheriff in the heart and killed him instantly.
More shots rang out as Deputy Chachere was “advancing on the corn patch from the front of the house.” St. Andre yelled that he’d been badly wounded. Seconds later, Durousseau was knocked down by a bullet.
Chachere caught a glimpse of Carriere and fired, “cutting a corn stalk right above the dodging fugitive.” Finally, the deputy got a clear shot at him, but Carriere fired first. His shot hit the end of Chachere’s rifle barrel and sent bullet fragments into the deputy’s face. The fugitive then “made a quick getaway.”
While Chachere, Durousseau, and St. Andre, were rushed to the St. Landry Sanitarium, the coroner, R.M. Littell, who became acting sheriff, organized a posse of several hundred men to search the Mallet area. According to the Clarion, “So many men were willing to go into the woods, at the risk of their lives … that it was impossible for the local gunsmiths to furnish enough ammunition for the crowd.”
Sheriffs and deputies from across the area rushed to St. Landry to help in the search. “A carload of rifles, guns, and pistols, together with the necessary bullets, were hurried from Washington (La.) to the scene of the killing. Blood hounds were wired for, two coming from Krotz Springs and two from New Iberia.”
The hounds followed a trail for more than two miles from the cabin, but then lost the scent. The killer eluded all of the men and all of their guns.
The hunt went on for more than a month, until Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Henry Reid heard that the fugitive was hiding in an old sawmill near Elton. Reid and his deputies surrounded the mill and early in the morning of Aug. 17 saw Carriere on a platform of the abandoned building.
Reid called out twice, telling him to surrender. When he refused, Reid “shot Carriere with buck shot and floored him,” according to the Lake Charles American Press.
He was seriously wounded, but had recovered enough by October to go on trial in St. Landry Parish, where he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Authorities quickly moved him to the Baton Rouge jail. They were afraid a lynch mob might take things into its own hands while the conviction went to by the Louisiana Supreme Court. That court found no reason to overturn Carriere’s conviction or sentence.
Ironically, Carriere regarded Sheriff Swords as his friend. Swords had once let Carriere out of jail briefly so that he could attend the funeral of one of his children. He told Sheriff Reid he was sorry he’d killed Swords and regretted it badly. He said he thought Swords was somebody else, that he wouldn’t have intentionally shot him.
Regret notwithstanding, Carriere was hanged Oct. 19, 1917.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.