Questions surrounded the 1915 death of former Louisiana Mayor Alten Walker at the hands of Fred Wilkins.

The biggest was if it was accidental or deliberate.

The case drew widespread attention because the victim was on the staff of Missouri Gov. Elliott Major, a Pike County native.

“This little city is torn with excitement,” The Quincy Whig said. Reporter Perry C. Ellis treated readers to a poetic aside, saying there “are circumstances and facts surrounding the deed itself, whether it was involuntary or not, that draws closely about it the tapestries of tragic mystery.”

Local newspapers tried to quell suspicions.

“True, there is a mystery about the shooting, which has not been satisfactorily explained, and the public…imagines and talks the worst for it,” the Pike County News wrote. “But there have been many wild, unfounded and untrue rumors spread about the case that are quite unfortunate and do no one nor the community any good.”

Alten Mudd Walker was born in Pike County on Sept. 8, 1868. He taught school and worked at the post office before becoming a real estate and insurance agent. In 1890, the Democrat was elected clerk of the Louisiana court of pleas. The following year, he married Lillie Jackson. The couple’s home was on Tennessee Street.

In 1893, Walker bought the Mitchell & Matson abstract business at the corner of Third and Georgia and set up an office. John Welburne Matson called him “thoroughly honest and untiring.”

Some began to wonder after an investigation in 1894 found that Walker had not forwarded to the county a little over $254 in court fees – more than $11,500 today.

Walker, one of at least five elected officials named in the query, paid back the money immediately and was not charged. However, there would be more legal trouble in the years ahead.

As the new century dawned, Walker was elected mayor and served until 1909. He was shot on Tuesday, March 2, 1915.

Accounts vary, but it happened sometime after 9 p.m. Walker and Wilkins each swore it was an accident that took place at Walker’s office. The testimony of others indicated Walker might have been wounded before the two men got there.

Fred Daniel Wilkins was a Louisiana native and a fellow real estate agent who had once worked in Walker’s office before setting out on his own.

“So far as is known, the business separation was amicable, and so far as anyone knows there has never been any trouble between the two men,” The Whig said.

Wilkins had returned to Louisiana in late 1914 after living in Hannibal, and was occupying a home on North Third Street owned by Walker’s mother-in-law, Eliza Jackson.

Dr. James William Crewdson told investigators he was at the Elks Lodge when he got a call from Walker at 9:10 p.m. saying he had shot himself. Conveniently, the doctor’s office was next door to Walker’s.

“The bullet had entered the left side about one inch above the navel and six inches to the side of it,” the News reported. “There was only one bullet wound, but it made eight lacerations.”

Walker said he and Wilkins were examining the .38-caliber revolver when it inexplicably fired. Soon, others who heard about the incident gathered. One of them was Erasmus “Ras” Pearson, a Louisiana attorney who had previously represented both men. He told Wilkins, who owned the gun, to keep his mouth shut.

Despite being in pain, Walker had no qualms about talking. He “called a number of those who were there to him and said that if the worst comes, I want all of you fellows to understand that this is an accident and no one is to blame,” the News paraphrased.

Walker was taken home and his wife was summoned from St. Louis, where she had been visiting. Wilkins spent the night and offered “whatever service he could render,” The Whig reported. Crewdson said there was “very little” hope of recovery. Walker died at 3:20 p.m. March 4 and was buried in Riverview Cemetery on March 7.

Wilkins attended the funeral and was “greatly distressed,” according to The Louisiana Press-Journal. It may not have just been sorrow. The Quincy Daily Herald reported “the web which is being woven around his liberty is growing tighter.”

Pike County Coroner James Hendrix called an inquest for 10:30 a.m. March 8 at city hall. The Whig said the six-man panel hoped “to clear the mysterious circumstances that surround the killing.”

It wouldn’t be that simple.

Next time: The last five hours.

CUTLINE FOR PHOTO:

A newspaper image of Alten Walker.