The Breeeze Janruary 2020

And then the most incredible story unfolded, a
story made for TV, a story that goes back to 1941.
The little store at the intersection of Highway 378
and Highway 430, a road that leads to Edgefield,
a road known as Meeting Street, holds deep, dark
secrets.
In 1941 roads were unpaved and in many areas
electrification had yet to arrive. Men still farmed
with mules. Times were tough and people were
rough. Back then it must have been an upsetting
thing to lose say, a calf. Yes to lose a calf was to lose
an investment. A mule wandered from one Edgefield
County farm into the pasture of an adjacent farm and
kicked a calf, killing it.
Someone had to pay for it.
That someone was the granddad of the fellow
standing beside me. “Yep, my granddad was shot in
the back for $500. Right in there,” he said pointing at
the store’s old wooden siding.
Murderpedia, an online encyclopedia devoted to
those who kill others, documents this tale of dead
livestock and lives gone wrong. It quotes a report
that appeared in EdgefieldDaily.com, which I
provide here as the facts have been vetted.
“The story began in September of 1940 when
Davis Timmerman’s mule got into Wallace Logue’s
field and the mule kicked and killed Logue’s calf.
Logue demanded that Timmerman pay him $20 for
the calf and Timmerman agreed. Logue later went
to Timmerman’s rural store and decided he wanted
$40 in restitution instead of $20 and Timmerman
refused to pay.
Logue became infuriated, grabbed an ax handle,
and began beating Timmerman. Timmerman pulled
a gun he kept hidden in a drawer, shot twice, and
killed Logue. Timmerman was said to have locked
the body in the store and, despite being seriously
injured, drove to Edgefield to report the shooting to
then Sheriff L. H. Harling.
Sheriff Harling, Coroner John Hollingsworth,
and Solicitor Jeff Griffith drove back to the store.
Based on their interpretation of the evidence,
Timmerman was held over for trial. After the trial
the jury ruled Timmerman acted in self-defense and
he was acquitted.
Logue’s widow, Sue, and his brother, George,
didn’t agree with the jury’s verdict. They hired Joe
Frank Logue, George and Wallace’s nephew, giving
him $500 to find somebody to kill Timmerman. Joe
Frank was an officer with the Spartanburg Police
Department and he hired Clarence Bagwell, a
plasterer, to do the job. “For $500 I’ll kill everyone in
Spartanburg County,” he said.
A year after Wallace died; Joe Frank and Bagwell
went to Timmerman’s store. Joe Frank waited in the
car while Bagwell went in and asked for a pack of
cigarettes (some say it was a pack of gum). When
Timmerman turned to get the item Bagwell fired five
shots at point-blank range with a .38 caliber revolver,
killing him instantly.
Joe Frank and Bagwell returned to Spartanburg
and carried on as if nothing happened. Unfortunately
for the pair, Bagwell was a heavy drinker and during
one of his binges bragged to a woman that he had
made $500 for killing a man.
The woman went to the police. When Bagwell
was questioned, he learned that he had been seen at
Timmerman’s store on the day of the murder. Other
reports say he was spotted casing the store prior
to the murder as well. Either way, feeling trapped,
Bagwell confessed and fingered Joe Frank as well.
It turned out Joe Frank wasn’t a dutiful nephew
after all. He admitted hiring Bagwell, and also told
the authorities that the money had come from his
aunt and uncle, Sue and George Logue.
On Sunday, Nov. 16, 1941, newly elected Sheriff
Wad Allen and Deputy W. L. “Doc” Clark picked
up the warrants from magistrate A. L. Kemp and
headed for Sue Logue’s home.
Logue and a sharecropper, Fred Dorn, ambushed
the two officers. Sheriff Allen died after being shot in
the head and Deputy Clark was shot in the stomach
and arm. Clark was able to wound both men before
staggering from the house and making his way to
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