Deputy Sheriff Row Brown

Row Brown

Deputy Brown was shot and killed during the "Slaughter Bridge Shootout." The family that owned the bridge were described by local newspapers as "a band of desparadoes".

The suspect, Tom Slaughter, who killed Deputy Brown was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life. Slaughter would soon be considered the most dangerous inmate in the Arkansas Penitentiary. At the time he killed Deputy Brown he was an escapee from the Texas Penitentiary. He was wanted in Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, for robberies and other crimes.

On September 16, 1921, he shot and killed a fellow inmate when he opened fire on a group of guards with a rifle that had been smuggled into the prison for him. He was convicted of the inmate's murder and sentenced to death.

On December 8, 1921, a revolver was smuggled to him on death row. He escaped along with six other prisoners, four of them death row inmates. That night near Benton, as they rested from dodging posses all day, one of the inmates turned on Slaughter and shot and killed him. After his capture he told prison officials that the only reason he left the prison with Slaughter was to kill him if he got the opportunity. He was returned to prison but did get a $500 reward that had been offered for Slaughter's capture, "Dead or Alive".