Carl Lee "Don" Hart, City Marshal
City of Bokchito
Late the evening of Sunday, May 21, 1972, Marshal Hart had stopped by Easter’s café for a cup of coffee and a roll before going off duty. It was his last night as acting City Marshal, filling in for Marshal Doc Harris who had been on vacation. Hart had parked his car in front of the café but the business had closed and locked the front door before he finished his coffee so he exited through the back door. After exiting, Hart came back in because he had forgotten to pay for his food. After paying he exited out the back door again at 10:45 P.M. A shot was heard and the café employees ran to the back door and found Hart dead and a white man with a long gun running away. Hart had been shot in the chest with a single barrel 20-gauge shotgun. James Edward Layman, 25, was arrested two days later. Layman confessed that he was intending on robbing the café and was about four yards from the back door when Hart came out and startled him. Layman said he panicked, pulled the trigger and ran. Deputy Hart was survived by his wife Dessie, two sons, a daughter and two step-sons.
Warren N. Smith, City Marshal
City of Bokchito
On the evening of Tuesday, November 13, 1951, Smith was in Easter’s Café having dinner when Thomas Melvin Kernes, 40, walked in with a 12-guage shotgun. Kernes, carrying a grudge over a previous arrest by the marshal, fired one time, striking Smith with over 50 pellets in the lower right side and blowing away part of the officer’s holster. Kernes was arrested at his home seven miles northeast of Bokchito the next day. Marshal Smith died from his wounds five days later on November 18th. Kernes was convicted of the marshal’s murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.