In the early hours of May 3, 1932, Jackson County Sheriff Matthew L. Wann, a 55-year-old male, was killed while attempting to serve a warrant. The incident occurred between Scottsboro and Larkinsville, Alabama. Sheriff Wann was in the process of arresting Arthur Hambrick on what were later claimed to be fabricated warrants for non-support and army desertion when the situation turned fatal.
As Sheriff Wann was placing handcuffs on Arthur, his brother, Harry Hambrick, emerged with a
shotgun. Harry fired a single shot over his brother's shoulder, striking the sheriff directly in the heart and killing him instantly. In the immediate aftermath, an officer at the scene shouted at Harry to come out of the house, at which point he reportedly dropped the shotgun and fled into the 'bottoms,' never to be seen again. A manhunt for the 20-year-old suspect, described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with light hair and freckles, was launched, but he ultimately evaded capture.
The official account of Sheriff Wann's death has been met with skepticism and allegations of a wider conspiracy, largely connected to his role in protecting the 'Scottsboro Boys' a year prior. In March 1931, Sheriff Wann had stood against a lynch mob of over 100 people, including Ku Klux Klan members, who sought to take nine young black men accused of raping two white women from the jail. By calling in the National Guard, he ensured the safety of the defendants. It is widely believed by many in the community that his murder was an act of retaliation orchestrated by the Ku Klux Klan and potentially involved other law enforcement officials. This belief is fueled by discoveries made in 2010 that the grand jury records for 1931 and 1932 were missing, and no arrest warrant was ever officially issued for Harry Hambrick. Despite four deputies witnessing the murder, the search for the suspect was described as minimal at best, and the case remains an unsolved mystery.
