Assistant Jailer Hilton Theodore Smith

Hilton Theodore Smith

Assistant Jailer Hilton Smith was shot and killed while escorting a prisoner to the city jail.

Jailer Smith lived with his family in a cottage on the grounds of the jail at 1425 Lincoln Street. On the night of May 17th a woman came to his cottage and reported that she had been beaten by her husband. Jailer Smith accompanied the woman to her home where he arrested the man for assault.

As he escorted the man to a police call box to summon a patrol wagon the man attacked him in the area of Taylor Street, between Gadsden Street and Lincoln Street, and gained control of his service revolver. The man shot him, inflicting a wound from which Jailer Smith died the following day.

The subject was apprehended, convicted of Jailer Smith's murder, and sentenced to life in prison. South Carolina's governor commuted the sentenced to 20 years in January 1915. The man escaped from a Richland County chain gang in 1924 but was recaptured.