In a case that still remains unsolved more than nine decades later, in 1932 the body of 24-year-old Hattiesburg American reporter Hansel Batten was discovered on the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad tracks near downtown Hattiesburg – just a short time after he broke a story on illegal bootlegging in the area during Prohibition.
In the hopes of shedding light and bringing attention to that incident, local writer William Browning recently released a six-part podcast titled “Reckless on the Rails,” which tells the story of Batten’s life, the investigation into his death, the trials and the aftermath, as well as the possibility that the authorities overlooked a suspect in the case. The podcast, which was released this past weekend, can be found at www.wtbrowning.com/reckless-on-the-rails.
“I guess about two years ago, I came across an old article in The Hattiesburg American from when one of the trials was happening, and just the headlines and the stories were just crazy about this reporter who had been found on the railroad tracks,” said Browning, who grew up in the Eatonville community and now lives in Ellisville. “Then law enforcement decided that it was a murder … and then bootleggers are involved, allegedly, and then there’s this political angle where maybe there was an argument over the sales tax, which was then being debated at the state legislature.
“I didn’t have time right then to devote on it, so I just kind of put it in my notes, and I guess about a year ago I came back to it. I’m a reporter, and I grew up outside of Hattiesburg, and I was interested in it because this was a young reporter who was killed probably because he was just doing his job.”
The six episodes of the podcast, each of which are approximately 25 minutes long, are as follows:
- Episode 1: A Body on the Tracks
- Episode 2: The Reporter
- Episode 3: The Bootleggers
- Episode 4: The Trials Begin
- Episode 5: The Temple of Justice
- Episode 6: A New View of the Mystery.
“I went and I found old copies of The Hattiesburg American, and I spent a couple of weeks combing those things,” Browning said. “Then I went to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, and I actually found a trial transcript … and I just thought it’d make a fun podcast.
“(Batten) was a well-known guy, but I’d never heard of him, and when I talked to people around town, nobody had heard of him and his story.”
Batten, whose father had served as postmaster for the local community, was team captain when Hattiesburg High School’s football team won the state championship in 1924. He then played at the University of Mississippi before becoming a newspaper reporter, and in 1931, he helped run Mike Conner’s successful campaign for governor of Mississippi.
In February 1932, while he was serving as sports editor of The Hattiesburg American, Battens body – which was riddled with gunshot wounds – was found on the tracks approximately a mile and a half from his parent’s house in Hattiesburg, where he had been run over by an oncoming train.
The presence of the gunshot wounds indicated that Batten had been murdered and placed on the tracks afterward.
A local couple, Tom and Venie Jones, was eventually connected to the murder and tried for Batten’s death.
“There were three trials – at the first trial, the prosecutor said that (Batten) was killed with an axe,” Browning said. “It was interesting that, by the last trial, the prosecutor said ‘no, he was shot in the chest twice and left on the tracks.’
“So there’s a little bit of discrepancy as to how he was actually murdered, but I’m pretty sure he was shot and killed.”
Tom and Venie Jones were indicted for murder but were eventually acquitted after the three trials, and the case went unsolved.
“The defense attorney at the time – who I guess who could say won the case, because he got acquittals for his clients – argued that it was all an accident, that Hansel Batten had been at a dance that night and maybe had too much to drink and laid down in a bad spot on the railroad tracks,” Batten said. “I don’t know about that, but that’s what the jury thought happened, I guess.”
Witnesses told officials that they had seen Batten at the Jones residence the night of his death. Batten had recently written a series of stories regarding the couple’s arrest for bootlegging.
“It’s kind of weird – Tom was put on trial first and he was convicted,” Browning said. “Then his wife went on trial and she was acquitted; then the state’s supreme court vacated Tom’s conviction for a couple of different reasons.
“They kicked (Tom’s case) back, and so they tried him again and he was acquitted.”
Browning said as a journalist, he couldn’t pass up the story and hopes that listeners become educated about the matter after listening to the podcast.
“It’s just a hell of a story – it’s got state politics, local politics, a little bit of football stuff from the ‘20s, bootlegging and that criminal underworld, there’s an Al Capone connection in there,” Browning said. “I just think it’s entertaining, it’s a true crime story, I enjoy true crime stories, and in my opinion it’s just like a hidden history that happened in Hattiesburg that I think too many people are aware of.
“But at the time, it was really big news in Hattiesburg, and I think a lot of people were keeping up with it and trying to figure out what happened. So I would just hope that folks enjoy the story and maybe learn a little of Hattiesburg history.”
