In the summer of 1955, a dispute over a city water main in Jacksonville, Alabama, escalated into a fatal encounter for the town's Chief of Police, Dudley Emerson Whiteside. On Tuesday, June 21, 1955, the 50-year-old police chief was shot and killed while attempting to resolve a conflict with a local store owner. The tragic event unfolded after city workers were denied access to unhook a water line connected to a closed mill that supplied water to the store.
Chief Whiteside was called to the scene to speak with the proprietor, Robert E. Lee Dentman. During their conversation, as Chief Whiteside attempted to search him, Dentman drew a. 22 caliber pistol he had concealed in his overall bib and fired a single shot that struck the chief near the heart. Chief Whiteside died instantly at the scene, his own service weapon remaining in its holster.
Following the shooting, Robert E. Lee Dentman was arrested and subsequently stood trial for the murder of Chief Whiteside. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison for his crime. After serving a portion of his sentence, Dentman was granted parole in the 1980s. He passed away a few years after his release from prison. At the time of his death, Chief Whiteside had served with the Jacksonville Police Department for three years and was survived by his wife, five children, his father, and four siblings.
