BONNIE & CLYDE-Part II

The True Story of Joe Frank Logue

The Logue-Timmerman feud started just about the time that World War II was ended—and for the people of Edgefield County it was as big in the news, and almost as bloody and deadly.

Davis W. Timmerman owned an old bony, long eared, loose hided, sore headed mule of which no one could be proud. His neighbor, Wallace Logue owned a white-faced Hereford calf of which any farmer might be proud. These two animals, so diverse in appearance, nature and habit, grazed peacefully in their separate pastures until the mule and the calf found themselves facing each other as they ate grass on opposite sides of the fence that divided the two farms. the calf surely meant the mule no harm, but who can predict the behavior of an old mule. Suddenly this irritable mule kicked the Hereford calf, and the calf died.

Sue Logue, who was the dominant character in her home, ordered her husband, Wallace, to go to the Timmerman farm, demand payment in cash for the loss of the calf. Wallace Logue went dutifully to his neighbor, and accepted a settlement of fourteen dollars in cash for the death of the calf. But when he brought the money home, Sue Logue said that it was not enough. She insisted that he return to Mr. Timmerman, and collect another three dollars.

His second visit to the Timmerman farm ended in a fight.

Mr. Timmerman shot Logue to death, and claimed that he did it in self defense. I time he was legally acquitted, and went home, free. This turn of events angered Sue Logue, and she vowed that if the legal officials of the county did not punish Timmerman for killing her husband, she would take matters into her own hands and secure vengeance. Because of these reported events it was generally believed that Sue Logue was the mastermind behind the murder plot that soon ended in the death of Davis Timmerman, and as a result brought about the death of three people in the electric chair (including Sue Logue) and almost the death of a fourth person, her nephew Joe Frank Logue.

A HIRED KILLER

While these events were occurring in Edgefield County, Sue Logue’s nephew, Frank Logue, was a policeman in Spartanburg,

S. C., and he was a very highly respected man. He had won several citations for being the most courteous policeman of the force. Many believed that in time this young officer, in his early thirties, would rise to become chief of police. Joe Frank Logue was young, tall, handsome, courteous, and was respected as a good, moral young officer. He had even done some studies at the North Greenville Baptist Academy.

Sue Logue went to her nephew, Frank Logue, and told him that he had to kill Davis Timmerman because Timmerman had killed her husband, Wallace, who was Frank’s uncle. Frank tried to explain to his aunt Sue that he could not murder a man because he was a policeman, and it was his duty to uphold the law, not to break the law. It was afterwards reported by Chaplain C. M. Kelly, who was at the penitentiary in Columbia while Frank was held there, that Aunt Sue had threatened Frank that if he did not take vengeance on David Timmerman, or get someone to do it for them, that she would see that some great harm came to his wife and mother. This caused even this young policeman to fear. He knew his aunt Sue and her brother-in-law George Logue. If they wanted to buy a man’s dog, and he refused to sell—in a few weeks something would happen to the dog, and the dog would be dead. If they wanted to buy a horse and the owner would not sell—soon something would happen to that horse.

And Aunt Sue had warned Frank that unless he killed Davis Timmerman or hired someone to do it, within two weeks something terrible would happen to his wife and to his mother. However, Sue was willing to do her part. She had $250 in cash for the murder fund, and her brother George would put up another $250 so that the person who would do the killing could count on receiving five hundred dollars.

Near Spartanburg, in a night club called, “Green Gables” there was a part time bartender, and a sometimes itinerant plasterer named Clarence Bagwell, a young man about the age of Joe Frank Logue. One day while he was drinking heavily he made the statement that he would kill anyone or everyone in Spartanburg for five hundred dollars. Joe Frank Logue heard about it, and he went to him, and asked, “Is it true that you said you would kill anyone in Spartanburg for five hundred dollars?” The young bartender replied, “Yes, I said it, but I really did not mean it.” When Frank told the young man he could earn five hundred dollars just for one killing, the young man was interested enough to go with Frank to see his aunt Sue and Uncle George. They assured him that Davis Timmerman deserved to die, and they plied him with free whiskey until he agreed to do the killing.

THE KILLING AT THE COUNTRY STORE

Joe Frank Logue got another officer to take his place on the day shift on the Spartanburg police force. Then he started drinking to dull his conscience and to bolster his courage. With the bartender, Clarence Bagwell, driving the car, Frank hid in the back seat, covered up by a coat, and they drove out into the country in Edgefield County heard Davis Timmerman owned and operated the crossroads store and service station.

Clarence parked outside, and went into the store. Mrs. Timmerman was there, but her husband was gone. So, Bagwell just asked directions to Edgefield, and left, but she noticed that he drove in another direction. Soon her husband returned to mind the store and Mrs. Timmerman went out to work in the nearby field. Soon Bagwell, returned. he entered the store, and a customer was there, so he waited until the customers left. Then he ordered a package of cigarettes. When Timmerman turned to the shelf to reach for the package of cigarettes, Bagwell pulled out his gun, and said, “Turn around. I don’t want to shoot a man in the back.” He fired six shots in rapid order. Five bullets entered the body of Davis Timmerman. His wife heard the shots, and rant to the store. The killer was driving off in a cloud of dust, and her husband was dying.

Because there were no witnesses to the crime, it appeared for several weeks that the mystery killing would not be solved. But soon Clarence Bagwell was drinking again, and talking to one of the waitresses in the night club. it was reported that he had eyes for her, and wanting to impress her with his wealth he showed her the five hundred dollars, and told her that he earned it one day by just shooting a man. This waitress had a friend on the police force. She also had reason to fear that if she concealed her knowledge of the crime she might become involved, so she told the police what she knew of the killing. When the police arrested Bagwell he confessed to his part in the crime, and he told them that Frank Logue had paid him five hundred dollars. On November 10, 1949 the Edgefield County Coroner’s Jury recommended that Clarence Bagwell and Joe Frank Logue be held on a murder charge in connection wit the September 17^th shooting of Davis W. Timmerman.

Frank was arrested and taken to the State Penitentiary in Columbia on a Governor’s Safekeeping order #343, and held for Edgefield County authorities. Frank was placed in the Old Cuba Cellblock for safe keeping, with the other prison bad boys who were at times put on a bread and water diet until they submitted to prison regulation. Here in his cell Frank Logue got down on his knees in prayer. He remembered what he had heard of God’s mercy, and God’s love of the truth, and that God hates a lie. He promised God that he would tell the truth, the whole truth, and throw himself on God’s mercy and on the mercy of the court. On his knees in prayer in his prison cell, Frank asked God for mercy, confessed his sins, and reaffirmed his faith in Jesus Christ. he told God that he would tell the truth about the crime even if it meant his death in the electric chair, and when he made this commitment to God he had little if any reason to believe that there was any hope whatsoever that he could escape the death chair for his part in this cold blooded killing of David Timmerman.