Deputy Sheriff John M. Box

John M. Box

Deputy Sheriff John Box was shot and killed in Hazlehurst while he and another deputy attempted to arrest a man who had failed to report to the county farm to serve a 90-day sentence on a liquor violation.

He had arrested the man several times before without trouble. When they arrived at the man's home to take him into custody the man opened fire, killing Deputy Box. The man then fled to Chicago, Illinois, where he was arrested by the FBI in February 1944. The following month he was freed by a judge who refused to extradite him to Mississippi for fear that he would be lynched. The subject was still in Chicago in 1955 and it is not known if he was ever tried for Deputy Box's murder.

Deputy Box was survived by his wife and two children.