CORA BELLE SMITH

Cora Belle Smith, by all accounts a pretty young woman, age 22, bore bullet wounds in her head, above her heart and in her left arm, Her brother, Otis Smith, age 30, suffered a gunshot through the bottom flap of his left ear. One was in an undertaking parlor.  The other behind bars.

At 5:30 p.m., May 6, 1908, four shots rang out in a West Adams Street boarding house where moments later the beat police officer found Belle Smith lying in a pool of blood and Otis Smith standing over her, sloshing in the cooling blood and holding a smoking pistol. A reddish body fluid spouted from his left ear.

When the doctor was called, he determined nothing could save the young woman, not yet dead and moving feebly through the fluid. He dressed her wounds and waited for death to creep in. A later determination declared the shot to the head to be Belle’s fatal injury.

Although her brother held the smoking gun, he denied shooting her. In fact, he denied knowing her. Unable to account for the young woman or her wounds, Otis was arrested and charged with murder. He already possessed a corrupt reputation having been previously arrested for fighting and disorderly conduct. This time he was proudly transported to the local jail on the elevated charges of murder.

Otis Smith finally admitted he knew the unknown woman to be his sister, who enraged by some remark he’d made, had grabbed a pistol from his trunk and shot him. In the struggle for the pistol, because she was short, she wounded only the bottom of his ear. Smith still could not account for his sister’s wounds except to say they occurred during the scuffle. Due to the suspicious meandering pool of blood and Otis’ unfortunate reputation, he was arrested and charged as stated.

Both Smiths worked for printing companies.  Belle was well-liked, morally respected and thought by her boss to be one of his best “girl” employees.  Otis, by contrast, had recently lost his position, blaming his sister for talking shamelessly about him behind his back.

One following the other, witnesses at his murder trial reported Otis’ jealousy of Belle and his accusations of her immorality. They further testified to his beating her and threatening to shoot her in the ear. When he demanded her eight-dollar weekly salary and she refused, her rejection severely hurt him causing the riotous conduct for which he was arrested.       

Belle was compelled to surrender three of her eight dollars to him for repayment of his bailor. Others related that instead of repaying the bailor, he used two of Belle’s three dollars to purchase the gun often referred to as the murder weapon.

The jury found Otis guilty of willful murder (he intended to do it) and sentenced him to death by hanging. During the year the citizens awaited the big event, Smith, awaited while imprisoned. He declared himself a changed man. A true Christian. According to him. 

Otis Smith acquired many followers and spiritual counselors, as well as young women who brought him plentiful, tasty food. His lawyers too believed his innocence and transformation. They not only appealed his case to the Florida Supreme Court, they brought him before the pardoning board proximate to his execution. 

Nonetheless the body of Otis Smith shot through the trap of the scaffold at 10:07 a.m., June 11, 1909, and he was pronounced dead ten minutes later, the second man of his race (white) to be hanged in Jacksonville in 30 years. Smith spent the last night of his life prayerfully gobbling the food offered by his many feminine admirers. Those who watched reported Otis slept calmly throughout the night in sweet thoughts of salvation.

In a brief statement, Smith admitted living a life of vice and evil, but having made peace with God and having lived a Christian life within the jail cell for the previous six months. He felt the latter had been the very best part of his existence. 

In letters printed in the newspapers after his death, he forgave those who had transgressed against him, admonished others to live the sanctified life he was leading and continued by describing the immorality of his sister who had strayed from the path with a man from Atlanta. The newspaper elected not to print the latter libelous material.

Smith wished to be buried next to his sister to watch over and protect her. Instead, he was interred on the other side of the tracks where he couldn’t see a thing. Also, some scalawag placed a pot of delicate pink geraniums on the spot of ground that supposedly covered his eyes.

Some batterers seem generally repentant after a violent episode, but often strike again as their frustrations rekindle. Of course, Cora Belle Smith, a pathetic soul, as much as she desired it, would never know of Otis’ future behavior and felt relatively safe in the circumstances.