O. H. Haynes Jr.

Oscar Henry Haynes Jr., known as O. H. Haynes (October 28, 1920 – December 9, 1996), was from 1964 to 1980 the Democratic sheriff of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. He was also the parish Exxon distributor for some four decades.

Background

Haynes was born in Minden, the parish seat of Webster Parish, to O. H. Haynes Sr., and the former Mary Lynn Burns (1889-1971). Originally from the village of Shongaloo north of Minden, the senior Haynes was the sheriff from 1933 to 1952. Haynes, Jr., graduated in 1939 from Minden High School, having played football on the MHS state championship team in 1938, twenty-five years before his son Fred played on the next MHS state championship team. Thereafter, he married the former Freddie Louise Walker (MHS Class of 1940, born January 20, 1924), originally from the village of Ashland in northern Natchitoches Parish. She was the daughter of Fred Walker (January 10, 1896 — November 19, 1954) and the former Lesca McCain (April 6, 1900 — January 26, 1974). Besides Fred Haynes, the couple had three other sons, O. H. III, Jerry Wayne (1952-2014), and Gary Walker Haynes, all of Minden.^[2]

Prior to his sheriff's tenure, Haynes was the supervisor of all state driver's license offices within North Louisiana.^[3]

Political races

Haynes entered the December 7, 1963, Democratic primary against incumbent Sheriff J. D. Batton, the older brother of later Mayor Jack Batton. Another candidate was Royce L. "Doc" McMahen, a veterinarian and a member of the city council in Springhill in northern Webster Parish, and Lawrence Harold Gilbert (1911-1995), the Minden municipal police chief. On the night before the primary election, Haynes's son, Fred, quarterbacked his Minden High School football team to the state championship in a home game against a team from Lafourche Parish.^[4] Haynes trailed Batton by 722 votes in the primary, 1,993 to 2,719 votes.^[5]

McMahen ran a strong third with 1,484 votes in the primary. In the runoff contest, he endorsed Haynes, who then announced that McMahen would be his chief deputy. In the showdown with Batton, Haynes ran a newspaper advertisement in which he vowed to bring "capable, conscientious, and sober leadership" to the sheriff's department. He claimed that the issue was not any lack of physical equipment or the training of deputies but leadership skills of the individual elected as sheriff.^[6] In the January 11 runoff, Haynes prevailed, 5,190 votes (53.4 percent) to Batton's 4,523 (46.6 percent).^[7][8]

Haynes appointed the African-American deputy Louis Dunbar Sr. (1914–1986), whose son "Sweet" Lou Dunbar became, like Haynes' son, a distinguished athlete. Dunbar played for twenty-seven years for the Harlem Globetrotters.^[9]

In 1967, Haynes scored a second term by again defeating Batton, who stressed his past accomplishments as sheriff, and another primary rival, C. J. "Red" Vaughan, the former city marshal in Springhill and the operator of a gasoline service station. Vaughan challenged Haynes in regard to unsolved crimes, such as the theft of cattle and oilfield equipment and the stripping of tires and accessories from automobiles.^[10] Haynes prevailed with 6,952 ballots (53.3 percent) to Batton's 5,456 (41.8 percent) and Vaughan's 634 (4.9 percent). Haynes actually lost the Minden area by five hundred votes to Batton but more than compensated with his margin in the remainder of the parish.^[11]

In the 1971 Democratic primary, Haynes defeated two opponents, the Minden ward marshal, John T. Kennon Jr. (1928–2005), a nephew of former Governor Robert F. Kennon, and a former sheriff's deputy, H. H. "Boots" Johnston (1923-1990),^[12] who called himself an "independent" but within the Democratic Party. Haynes outpolled his rivals by nearly 2,500 votes parish-wide.^[13] In the general elections of both February 6, 1968, and February 1, 1972, Haynes coasted to reelection with five-to-one margins in defeating the Republican candidate, George Alvin Pipes (1913–1976), a guard at the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant, a pipefitter, and a resident of Dubberly in south Webster Parish. Pipes was unable to gain traction in the campaign.^[14][15] Pipes had also been one of several low-performing Democratic candidate for sheriff in the 1963 primary against Batton and Haynes.^[16]

In his last election in 1975, Haynes defeated Ward Marshal Anthony John "Johnny" Lombardino (1920-2005), recipient of a Bronze Star in the European Theater of Operations in World War II,^[17] who had succeeded John T. Kennon in that position, and a third candidate, Waymon Nealy. Haynes polled 8,344 votes (57.7 percent) to Kennon's 5,905 ballots (40.5 percent), and Nealy's 192 votes (1.8 percent), respectively.^[18]

Running the department

In Louisiana, the sheriff is the collector of property taxes and also enforces criminal laws outside the municipalities.

In 1977, the sheriff's office and the Springhill Police Department were accused of corrupt practices in a series of investigative reports by Craig Flournoy and Bill Keith of the since defunct Shreveport Journal. The newspaper alleged that the two departments had covered up cases of prostitution, ticket-fixing, stolen bond money, and narcotics violations. Investigations by chief criminal sheriff's deputy T. C. Bloxom, Jr., and Mayor M. A. Gleason, Jr., of Springhill uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. Wile hospitalized in Shreveport for bronchitis, Haynes denied all allegations,^[19] and the investigations ultimately cleared Haynes. Attorney General William J. Guste returned no indictment from a grand jury looking into the case.^[20]

Haynes did not seek a fifth term in 1979 but instead supported McMahen as his successor. After four terms, McMahen retired and was succeeded by a former state police officer, Larkin T. Riser.

Lynching and beating case

When he was chief deputy under his father, Haynes and five other men, Samuel Clinton Maddry Sr. (1893-1973), Charles Melvin Edwards, Harry Edward Perry, Willie Drayton Perkins (1903-1949), and Benjamin Garey Gantt (1890-1948), were indicted in connection with the lynching death of John Cecil Jones and the mortal beating of Albert Harris Jr., both African Americans.^[21] The two deaths occurred at Dorcheat Bayou west of Minden.^[22] Though a deputy sheriff, Haynes was effectively acting as sheriff because his father had been injured from a gunshot wound.^[23]

Haynes Jr. took Albert Harris, who was a teenager, into custody over an alleged trespassing charge in the backyard of a white woman. He was released to a mob in Dixie Inn, which took him to a field near Cotton Valley. He was bound upside down to a pipe and severely beaten. Sheriff's deputies picked up the cousin of Harris Jr.'s – John Cecil Jones – at his job.Both men were placed in the parish jail for days without formal charges and beaten. Jones was an honorably-discharged World War II United States Army corporal. On August 8, 1946, Haynes released Jones and Harris, Jr., to a mob at the old parish jail in Minden. This led to the only known post-World War II lynching in Louisiana. Harris and Jones were tortured just south of Minden. Jones was hanged, and Harris was left for dead.^[24] The last legal hanging in Minden had been prior to 1890. Thereafter, convicts being put to death were sent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish.^[25]

The charges against Chief Gantt were dropped by U.S. Attorney Malcolm Lafargue after Gantt cooperaed with officials. The other defendants were found not guilty by a jury of twelve white men in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Shreveport.^[26]

The verdicts came after two hours of deliberations. J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated: "We had clear-cut, incontrovertible evidence of a multiple agency cover-up."^[24] Jones's widow filed a civil suit against Sheriff O. H. Haynes Sr., but obtained no damages.^[24]

Later years

Grave of former Sheriff O. H. Haynes Jr. in Minden Cemetery

Haynes returned to private business in 1980. He was a Southern Baptist. He died at his residence at 628 Pine Street in Minden after a lengthy illness. He is interred in the Haynes-Walker family plot in the Minden Cemetery.^[2] Haynes had two brothers, the late J. Y. Haynes and Delmus Wells Haynes (1918-1919), who died shortly before his second birthday and is interred at Old Shongaloo Cemetery.^[27]

His only sister, the late Cleone Hodges, was a professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.^[28] He was the father of Louisiana State University American football star Fred Haynes, who played for the Tigers in Baton Rouge during the latter 1960s.

O. H. Haynes, III (born November 5, 1943), was employed in various capacities in the sheriff's office from 1973 until his retirement in 2008. His second wife, Debbie Vaughan Haynes, the daughter of Billy Norton Vaughan (1932-2010),^[29] is an administrative assistant to current Sheriff Gary Sexton. Their son, O.H. "Hank" Haynes, IV (born May 4, 1967), is a Louisiana State Police trooper. ^[30] Gary Haynes, the youngest Haynes's son, owns two Minden businesses. He was from 1985 to 1987 a football and baseball coach at his alma mater, Minden High School and from 1989 to 1992 a baseball and basketball coach at Lakeside High School (formerly Sibley High School) in south Webster Parish, at which he started the football program.^[31]

References