Dick Townsend

Serial Killer

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. ...

Confirmed Victims: (3)

D.C. Cohen , Date of Death: November 1885

Suspected Victims:

Mr. Lowry , Date of Death: 1882

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