Jailer J. C. Landrum

J. C. Landrum

Jailer J.C. Landrum was mortally wounded when a death row inmate smashed his skull with an iron chair leg as he and another death row inmate escaped from the Hinds County Jail in Jackson. Five days later both suspects were captured in a wooded area 40 miles away. Jailer Landrum died from his injuries within minutes of their capture.

Both suspects, on death row at Parchman Penitentiary, had been returned to the Hinds County Jail pending their appeals of their death sentences. The man who murdered Jailer Landrum was under a sentence of death for the murder of Sergeant Ernest F. Beaugez, of the Ocean Springs Police Department, on May 27, 1954. On March 3, 1955, he was the first death row inmate to be executed in Mississippi's new gas chamber.

Jailer Landrum had served with the Hinds County Sheriff's Office for 14 years. He was survived by his wife, three children, brother, and grandson.