Ben Fowler

Ben H. Fowler (1892-1928) was a Scott County deputy sheriff who was executed by electric chair in 1928 for the murders of Dr. Wiley Foust and fellow deputy sheriff John Wesley West.

See Also: Deputy sheriff was first from Scott County to ride the lightning (Murders in the Heartland)

Biography

Born Aug. 30, 1892, Ben Fowler was a native Kentuckian, the oldest son of Joshua P. Fowler (1870-1941) and Nancy Jane Sidwell (1864-1936), who called him “Bennie” as a child. The Fowler family lived in Albany, Ky., about 90 minutes (today) northwest of Huntsville, Tenn.

Fowler’s siblings included William Edgar (1895-1941), John Perry (1896-1964), James Allen (1899-1962), Maudie (born about 1902) and Oakley Wright (1904-1962).

Fowler married Armada Brown (1882-1961) in Indiana on May 23, 1916. She was also from Albany, Ky. She had four children with her first husband, Jacob G. Wallen, who died in 1909. She and Ben Fowler had no children.

Murders at Robbins High School

Ben Fowler worked as a deputy sheriff in Scott County. It isn’t clear exactly which year he came to Scott County, but he lived in Indiana when the 1920 census was taken. He moved to Muncie, Ind., sometime prior to his marriage in 1916. He was a veteran of World War I, and fought at the Argonne Forest in France.

There is no conclusive that Fowler ever lived in Scott County. His death certificate in 1928 stated that his residence was “Sevierville, Ky.” He was listed as a resident of Indiana both when he was drafted and in the 1920 census taken just after the war. However, his military file lists his residence as Oneida, Tennessee.

In 1927, Fowler worked for Sheriff Isham Chambers, who had replaced Richard Ellis following Ellis’s assassination in 1925 amid Scott County’s moonshine war. Chambers died in office of influenza in 1929.

As the small-scale moonshine war raged, it grew increasingly violent, claiming the lives of several suspected moonshiners and also several lawmen, including Sheriff Ellis and deputy Johnny Acres. (See Also: Assassination of the Preacher Sheriff – Murders in the Heartland.)

Fowler quickly developed a reputation as a “still-buster.” It was said that he had successfully raided more than 200 moonshine stills. He was reported to have killed at least two men, and some said as many as seven. A newspaper at the time of his death placed the number at four. He wore a homemade bulletproof vest, which he claimed had saved him from death on more than one occasion. He also had a reputation of an alcoholic.

On March 5, 1927, Fowler attended a motion picture in the auditorium of Robbins High School in Robbins. It was said that he was there to serve an arrest warrant. It was also said that he was intoxicated.

As children near the front of the auditorium laughed at the movie, Fowler reportedly threatened to arrest them. That caused Dr. Wiley Foust, a prominent Robbins physician who was in the audience, to scold him. When Fowler demanded that Foust be quiet or face his own arrest, Foust responded, “Ben, you wouldn’t do that.” Fowler responded by striking Foust with his .44 pistol, then shooting him five times at point-blank range. Foust died instantly.

In the melee that followed, another deputy, John Wesley West, was shot in the stomach. He would die two days later in a Knoxville hospital. Reports differed on whether West was in attendance at the movie or showed up after the fact to arrest Fowler. An unnamed bystander was also wounded.

Foust’s wife and at least one of his sons were also present. His son fired five shots at Fowler. One wounded him in the arm, while the other four hit the bulletproof plates that Fowler was wearing.

Fowler did not attempt to flee and was arrested on site. He was indicted by a grand jury on Monday, March 7, 1927, two days after the shooting. He stood trial a week later. His defense was that he was too drunk to know what he was doing, and that the shooting of Deputy West had been an accident. The jury deliberated just two minutes before finding him guilty and recommending a death sentence.

Fowler was sentenced to die in the electric chair in Nashville on April 21. Tennessee Governor Austin Peay granted a stay of execution so that his parents could see their son to pay final respects. Fowler was executed on Jan. 25, 1928. A newspaper reported that he told his father before being led to the execution chamber, “Now you go on, Pap, just like you’re going to the mill. Tell Maw I’m just going on ahead, and I’ll be waiting when she gets there.” Newspapers reported that he was calm as he was prepared for execution, and even offered tips on how to fasten the straps. He was 36 when he died.

Fowler was the first and, to date, only person from Scott County to die by electric chair. He is one of only two people to have been legally executed in Scott County’s history. The other was Mike King, a Winfield man accused of killing a schoolteacher. He was hanged in Huntsville in 1896. (See Also: The Mike King Hanging.)

Aftermath

Fowler was buried at Cartwright Cemetery in Albany, Ky. His parents are buried at the same cemetery — his mother in 1936 and his father in 1941. His siblings are also buried at the cemetery.

Fowler’s death certificate, however, stated that he was buried in Cookeville, Tenn.

Armada, his widow, returned to Indiana and lived with her son, Haywood. She worked as a seamstress at a textile factory. She did not remarry, and died in New Castle, Ind., on April 21, 1961. Two of her sons, Haywood and Edgar, are buried at the same cemetery.