Brooks - Derrickson
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal 29 Sept 1899
Elva Derrickson alias James Brooks, the negro charged with having attempted to murder old John Churchill, has entered a plea of not guilty and will stand trial. There is a clear case against him and his refusal to plead guilty is simp0ly muleishness that should be made to cost him dear.
Source: Crawfordsville Review 28 Oct 1899 p 1
Elva Brooks, or one of the Derrickson boys, a colored tough who with his brother made such a murderous assault on the aged Harmon Churchill last winter was tried in the circuit court Wednesday for assault and battery with intent to kill. The kind hearted and considerate jury returned a verdict giving him 5 months in jail and assessed a fine of $25. This will feed and shelter the young hyena through the winter at public expense and turn him out in the spring fat and sleek ready to commence anew his career of crime. Yet we wonder at mobs, when such punishment is meted out for pounding an aged and inoffense man into a mass of bloody flesh and bones. Had he killed his man he would probably have been given a suit of clothes and a 48 calibre revolver and turned loose; or had he stolen an old rooster he would have been sent up for five years.