Dick Townsend: The Georgia and Florida Murderer
Background
Dick Townsend, whose name also appeared in nineteenth-century reports as Richard Townsend and Richard “Dick” Townsend, was an American murderer and fugitive whose violent crimes occurred in Florida and southern Georgia during the closing months of 1885. He was approximately 23 years old when he was executed in 1886. Surviving records identify him as a Black man, although relatively little reliable information is available about his childhood, family or life before his criminal activity.
Townsend has been described in later records as a serial killer because contemporary accounts attributed three killings to him in Florida before his flight into Georgia. However, nineteenth-century newspaper coverage was sometimes inconsistent, and spellings of his surname included Townsend, Tonsil and similar variations. The best-documented killings connected to him were the murder of D. C. Cohen in Bradford County, Florida, and the fatal shooting of Bradford County Sheriff George Washington Epperson near Valdosta, Georgia.
The Murder of D. C. Cohen
During the first part of December 1885, Townsend encountered D. C. Cohen while Cohen was traveling through Bradford County, Florida. Contemporary reports described Cohen’s death as an especially brutal murder. Townsend was accused of attacking and killing him before fleeing the county. Some later summaries state that Cohen was beaten or bludgeoned to death during a robbery.
The killing immediately made Townsend a wanted fugitive. Bradford County authorities began searching for him, but Townsend escaped across the state line into Georgia. His movement between Florida and Georgia complicated the pursuit because officers from Florida had to follow him into another jurisdiction.
Accounts published after Townsend’s capture indicated that authorities suspected him of additional killings, robberies and assaults in the region. One later execution record described him as having murdered three people in Florida before fleeing into Georgia. The surviving public record does not consistently preserve the names and exact death dates of all three alleged Florida victims, and some later compilations identify a man named Luke McCormack without providing independently verifiable contemporary documentation.
The Pursuit into Georgia
Sheriff George Washington Epperson of Bradford County organized or joined the effort to locate Townsend. Epperson was an experienced Florida lawman who traveled north in pursuit of the fugitive. By Christmas Day, Townsend had been traced to the area near Valdosta in Lowndes County, Georgia.
On December 25, 1885, Epperson and a Valdosta law-enforcement officer attempted to arrest Townsend. The confrontation became violent. Townsend drew a firearm and shot Epperson, inflicting a fatal wound. The accompanying officer returned fire and wounded Townsend, but the fugitive was still able to escape from the immediate scene.
Epperson’s killing transformed the search into a large interstate manhunt. Officers, local residents and organized search parties combed the countryside around Valdosta. Townsend remained at large for several days despite having been wounded during the encounter.
Capture
Townsend was captured approximately six days after Sheriff Epperson’s murder. Reports indicated that his injury and the expanding search limited his ability to continue fleeing. Once taken into custody, he was confined in Georgia rather than immediately returned to Florida.
Florida officials still wanted Townsend for Cohen’s murder and the other crimes attributed to him. Georgia authorities, however, had jurisdiction over Epperson’s killing because the sheriff had been shot within Georgia. Contemporary reporting stated that Townsend would first be prosecuted in Georgia and suggested that a death sentence there would make extradition to Florida unnecessary.
Trial and Conviction
Townsend was tried in Lowndes County for the murder of Sheriff Epperson. The prosecution presented the shooting as a deliberate killing committed by a fugitive attempting to avoid arrest. The fact that another officer was present during the confrontation provided the state with eyewitness evidence connecting Townsend directly to the crime.
He was convicted of murder associated with robbery and sentenced to death. Available execution records list him as 23 years old. Although later references call him a serial killer, the Georgia conviction and death sentence were specifically based on the murder of Epperson.
Execution
Dick Townsend was hanged in Lowndes County, Georgia, on July 16, 1886. The execution occurred less than seven months after the Christmas night shooting. His death ended the possibility of a separate Florida trial for Cohen’s murder or for the other killings attributed to him.
Some memorial records give a different execution date, but Georgia execution documentation identifies July 16, 1886, as the official date. He was reportedly buried in the Old Lowndes County Poor Farm Cemetery in Lowndes County.
Known and Reported Victims
- D. C. Cohen — Killed during the first part of December 1885 in Bradford County, Florida. Townsend was accused of murdering Cohen while Cohen was traveling through the county. Later accounts describe the killing as a robbery-murder involving a severe beating or bludgeoning.
- George Washington Epperson, 53 — Killed on December 25, 1885, near Valdosta in Lowndes County, Georgia. Epperson, the sheriff of Bradford County, Florida, was shot while attempting to arrest Townsend. Townsend was convicted and executed for this murder.
- Two additional reported Florida victims — Historical execution summaries state that Townsend murdered three people in Florida before fleeing into Georgia. The identities and exact dates of death of the other two reported victims cannot be established with confidence from the surviving records.
Historical Classification
Townsend’s classification as a serial killer rests primarily on historical summaries stating that he committed three separate murders in Florida before killing Sheriff Epperson in Georgia. If those reports are accurate, he was responsible for at least four deaths across two states. Nevertheless, only the Cohen and Epperson murders are described with meaningful detail in accessible contemporary accounts.
The case also illustrates the difficulties of researching nineteenth-century crimes. Names were frequently misspelled, stories were copied between newspapers without correction, and complete court files were not always preserved. Townsend was occasionally identified as Richard Tonsil rather than Richard Townsend, while later databases sometimes supplied victim names or dates that cannot be confirmed through reliable period documentation.
Legacy
Dick Townsend’s crimes caused alarm in the rural communities along the Florida-Georgia border. His murder of a county sheriff demonstrated both his willingness to use deadly force and the dangers faced by officers pursuing fugitives across state lines during the nineteenth century.
Sheriff George Washington Epperson became one of the earliest documented Bradford County law-enforcement officers to die in the line of duty. Townsend’s capture, conviction and execution brought a rapid legal conclusion to Epperson’s murder, but it also prevented Florida authorities from fully prosecuting and documenting the other killings attributed to him. As a result, Townsend remains an obscure historical murderer whose complete victim count may never be known.
