Frank Butler
Frank Commodore “Jap” Butler (1897-1972) was a Scott County lawman who served as sheriff on three different occasions.
See Also: Sheriffs of Scott County
Preceded By: Esau Laxton • Succeeded By: Dorsey Rosser
Preceded By: Dorsey Rosser • Succeeded By: Dorsey Rosser
Preceded By: Dorsey Rosser • Succeeded By: Dorsey Rosser
Early Life
Born May 13, 1897, Butler was the son of Richard “Mack” Butler (1855-1947) and Isabell Vann (1848-1920). He was the eighth of 11 children. He was born and raised in the Norma community.
Butler married Pearl Pemberton in 1917. They had five daughters: Juanita Inez (1918-1999), Vivian Charlene (1920-1989), Frankie June (1922-2005), Marrah Kate (1924-2002) and Helen Rose (1929-1987).
Before he began his career in law enforcement, Butler worked for New River Lumber Company and the Tennessee Railroad.
A standout baseball pitcher, Butler played for teams in both Cincinnati and Chattanooga, and had an offer to try out for the New York Yankees, which he declined due to his wife’s poor health.
Sheriff of Scott County
Butler was elected to the office of Scott County Sheriff on three separate occasions, serving a total of 14 years in office.
His first election came in 1938, when he replaced Esau Laxton. He was re-elected in 1940 and 1942. He could not run in 1944 due to term limits. Dorsey Rosser won the 1944 election. Butler won again in 1946.
Butler did not run in the 1948 election, which Rosser won. He was recovering from a gunshot wound that had left him hospitalized after a raid in Winfield. However, he returned to office by winning the 1950 election and was re-elected in 1952 and 1954 before leaving office for a second time due to term limits. Rosser won again in 1956. Butler served a total of 30 years as a lawman — 14 of those as sheriff.
News Coverage
The following article appeared on Page A-16 of the July 13, 1947 edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
Scott County Sheriff Enjoys Remarkable Recovery; Will Soon Be Chasing Backwoods Moonshiners Again
By Carson Brewer
According to present indications, it won’t be long until Scott Countians again see their big, long-striding sheriff, Frank Butler, back in action against the mountain moonshiners and other law violators.
Two weeks ago last night, five men ambushed the sheriff as he started to make an arrest near the Kentucky line, not far from Oneida. At least 50 buckshot peppered his back; countless others struck him in the arms and chest. A pistol bullet ripped through a lung, his liver and his kidney.
Now, thanks to his remarkable courage and stamina, the black-haired, six-feet-one-inch officer is able to sit up in a wheel chair at Fort Sanders Hospital. A phone is in his room, and he talks often to persons in Huntsville, the county seat.
With him almost constantly is his slender, diminutive daughter, Frankie. (She and the sheriff grin about the name. He and Mrs. Butler have five daughters, but no sons. He had to be content with a daughter named after him.) She’s the unofficial receptionist for the countless Scott Countians and friends from other counties who have all but worn a path in the marble floor to the sheriff’s bedside.
So numerous have the visitors been that one of Sheriff Butler’s nurses had to put a sign on his bed:
“Please limit your visit to 10 minutes.”
“We don’t want people to talk to dad about his party,” Frankie said.
WORRIES ABOUT ‘PARTY’
That’s how they refer to the ambushing — just “the party.” But, back of the apparent lightness, there’s strong feeling. The daughter’s gray-green eyes snap when she discusses it. The big, soft-spoken wounded man looks grim when “the party” is mentioned. He has worried a lot about it. Once, his daughter said, he stayed awake almost all night thinking about it.
Frank Butler is no ordinary sheriff. You realize that when you talk with him and his family, you realize it more when you talk with other law enforcement officers who have worked with him.
“He’s one of the most outstanding state officers I’ve ever seen,” said Grover C. Trumbo, Federal Alcohol Tax Unit investigator.
GOOD OFFICER QUALITIES
Mr. Trumbo and other ATU men have raided the moonshine still country with Sheriff Butler time and again, day and night.
“He has all the qualities that make a perfect officer,” the ATU man continued. “He’s absolutely fearless; he never gives up. Once I was on a raid with him that lasted three days before we finally arrested three men at a still in a cave under a bluff.”
“He really stands for law enforcement,” was the comment of George Burdette, chief of the East Tennessee Division of the State Highway Patrol. “He’s always been willing to co-operate in every way with my department,” the chief added.
Those who know Sheriff Butler say he is the best woodsman they have ever seen. Credit for this skill may be due a full-blooded Cherokee Indian great-grandmother, they say.
“When a leaf has been turned over or when a rock has been moved by a man’s foot, he’ll notice it,” Mr. Trumbo said. “He starts a search by traveling in a wide circle. Then he walks in smaller circles until he picks up a trail, and once he picks up a trail, he’ll never leave or lose it.”
The FBI is another agency that has high respect for the mountain sheriff. Agents in the Bureau at Knoxville sent him three dozen roses soon after he entered the hospital.
‘FEARLESS AND UPRIGHT’
“I’ve known Frank ever since 1937,” said R.T. (Bud) Mann, former assistant in charge of the FBI office here. “I’ve found him to be a fearless and upright officer—one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
Sheriff Butler has been walking the laurel-crested Scott County mountains in search of law breakers for almost 14 years. He’s on his eighth year as sheriff; two years were spent as chief deputy, two more as a district deputy, and the two others as chief of police at Oneida.
Although a Republican, he’s known as a man who doesn’t dabble in politics. Since the county is solidly Republican, his opposition for the sheriff’s post is usually another Republican. But Mr. Butler doesn’t cater to any faction of the party; he simply runs on a “Frank Butler” ticket, and the county’s 13,000 population elects him by a large majority.
ONE-MAN RAIDER
Many times he has been a one-man raiding party. With two pistols strapped around him and with a rifle across his shoulder, he walks the mountains alone. Much of his raiding has to be done on foot because the section is wooded and mountainous, and roads are scarce.
But, although he goes so heavily armed, the sheriff has never shot a man, he says.
“In all of dad’s years of sheriffing, he’s never used a blackjack nor shot a man,” Frankie says.
The sheriff says he has fired only two shots when really intending to hit a person. That time, he added, he was fired upon first.
WIFE ACTS AS SHERIFF
While he is in the hospital, blonde, capable-looking Mrs. Butler is handling the sheriffing for the county. He says he’s not worried about her handling the job. For years, she has acted as jailer and unofficial chief deputy.
The big man — he weighed 230 pounds before he was wounded — is well enough now to think about hunting and fishing and baseball. In his younger years, he was well known as an amateur baseball player. A powerful slugger, he was considered so good that the New York Yankees once offered him a tryout, which he declined.
Since he has been sheriff, his time has been too filled with official duties for much hunting and fishing. But, now and then, when he is returning through the hills from a still raid, he takes time to bag a mess of squirrels, his daughter said.
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This story was preceded by a Knoxville News-Sentinel report on June 30, 1947:
ONEIDA, Tenn., June 30 — Three officers today lie wounded in hospitals, three men accused of firing on the officers remain in Morgan County jail at Wartburg, and officers continued a search for two more men.
Sheriff Frank Butler, 47, of Scott County, was reported in serious condition at Fort Sanders Hospital, Knoxville, where he was taken late Saturday, following the shooting at a roadhouse near the Kentucky line.
BLOODHOUNDS USED
Searchers, with bloodhounds, yesterday found Scott County Deputy Leon Jeffers lying wounded in woods a mile from the scene of the shooting. Jeffers, 35, suffered a bullet wound in the hip. He was taken to Thompson’s Clinic in Oneida, where his condition was later reported improved.
Deputy Willie Duncan, struck in the shoulder by a bullet, was improving today. He was brought here after the shooting. Deputy Duncan had thought Sheriff Butler was dead. The deputy’s ammunition exhausted, he had to run into the woods and then to a highway. Deputy Duncan’s right arm was paralyzed.
3 IN MORGAN JAIL
Three of the men believed to have fired on the officers were taken to the Morgan County jail for safekeeping. Oneida Police Chief Rosser reported the three men were George Roark, Marshall King and Howard Sexton, charged wtih felonious assault with intent to commit murder.
The Scott County jail today said that possemen from Huntsville and Oneida, with help of bloodhounds from the state prison at Petros, were continuing to search for Harry Sexton and Foster King. Feeling was reported still high.
Sheriff Butler’s version of the shooting was that he, Duncan and Jeffers entered the roadhouse for a “checkup” and were ordered by the operators to “hit the door.” However, the officers completed their inspection, went outside, arrested a “drunk” and prepared to leave in their car when a shot was fired, the sheriff said.
DEPUTY ‘PLAYED POSSUM’
Sheriff Butler said that Deputy Duncan returned the fire, then four shots were fired from the roadhouse. The three officers were wounded. Deputy Duncan sank to the ground and “played possum.” He saved his last shot to fire after four men in the roadhouse came out and ran toward the woods, he said. Duncan had then run into the woods and become lost. Sheriff Butler, bleeding, walked to a nearby house for help. It was not known what had become of Deputy Jeffers until the searchers found him, exhausted, lost, and wounded, in a ravine near the Kentucky line yesterday noon.
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On Aug. 3, 1947, the following story appeared on the front page of the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
JURY CAN’T AGREE IN SCOTT SHOOTING
By Warner Ogden
HUNTSVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 2 — The jury late today reported it couldn’t agree on a verdict in the trial of four Scott County young men charged with shooting Sheriff Frank Butler on June 28. A mistrial was entered on order of Judge Jesse L. Rogers and the case will be reset for the November term.
The defendants, George Roark, Harry Sexton, Howard Sexton and Marshall King had denied firing at the sheriff and two of his deputies near the Tennessee-Kentucky line.
However, Sheriff Butler testified positively that he had seen the four defendants fire the shots which wounded him, “I was hit five times before I fired a shot,” the sheriff said.
FACE MORE CHARGES
The trial was on charges of felonious assault with intent to commit first degree murder of the sheriff. The four face similar charges of shooting at the deputies, Leon Jeffers and Willie Duncan.
This morning the defense called more witnesses in an attempt to prove that the defendants did not fire any shots. Witnesses included several who said they were in Howard’s Place at the time of the shooting.
The case went to the jury at 4:10 p.m. and 50 minutes later the jury walked back into the jammed high school auditorium, where the trial was held, to report that they could not possibly agree. They said they were split, eight to 4, but did not say how.
AT SCENE OF SHOOTING
Arlan Winchester, 27, McCreary County, Ky., was the first witness called by the defense today. He said he was at Howard Sexton’s place when the sheriff came there. Howard Sexton and Roark were there, he said.
“Did anyone try to insult the sheriff?” Atty. H.K. Pemberton of defense counsel asked.
“No sir,” replied Winchester.
“Anything said about it being arranged so the sheriff wouldn’t be back?”
“No sir.”
When the shooting started, Winchester said he went to the back of the place. He asserted that Sexton and Roark also went to the back and that they did not fire any shots or leave the building during the shooting.
“Did you notice anyone take any firearms of any character?” he was asked.
“No sir.”
‘NO SHOTS FROM INSIDE’
On cross-examination by Atty. Gen. Baker, he was asked, “Do you swear that not a single shot was fired from the inside?”
“Yes sir,” he replied.
“Did you hear Howard Sexton say to the sheriff, ‘If this place is too rough you can leave?'” he was asked.
“No.”
Glen Winchester, 30, a cousin of Arlen, testified much along the same line. He too saw Howard Sexton and Roark there, said they went to the back room when the shooting began and that all “piled up in there.”
Asked how long the shooting lasted, he replied, “not long.” He asserted no shots were fired from inside the building.
‘DIDN’T LEAVE THE ROOM’
Luther Newport, 19, was another witness who was in the place at the time of the shooting, but insisted Howard Sexton and Roark did not fire any shots. Newport testified he was in the presence of those two defendants until the shooting was over and that they did not leave the room or fire shots. He said he did not see two other defendants, Harry Sexton and King around the grounds.
Delmas Laxton, 34, of Oneida, told of going to a place of Harry Sexton (not the shooting scene) and seeing Harry there. Laxton was asked if he saw Sheriff Butler’s car going north, to Howard Sexton’s place and said he did not. He said he heard later of the shooting.
Howard Laxton of Oneida testified to going to see Harry Sexton regarding some building blocks. He left Harry standing in the basement at the building site, he said. Laxton was asked when he heard of the shooting and said it was 45 minutes to an hour afterward.
SAW CROWD
Bill Pennycuff, 43, a Tennessee Railroad employee, had gone to the Tin Tavern and saw Harry Sexton “working where he had a basement dug.” He said he had left Sexton there and went up to the state line. When he said he went to the shooting scene he saw “a crowd” there. He was asked if he saw bullet holes in a screen and replied “I don’t know whether they were bullet holes or not.”
He didn’t know how many empty shells he saw, but “saw a fellow picking up shells.”
Coronor Phillips, who also has a taxycab, testified to taking Pennycuff to the Tin Tavern, but didn’t stop there. Phillips later saw the Oneida chief going north toward Howard Sexton’s place. Phillips said he found Howard Sexton behind the counter and was handed a loaded pistol. The coronor said he had not stayed long at the shooting scene and had not asked the names of others he saw there. He said he saw bullet holes.
SAW HOLES IN SCREEN
“Did you see bullet holes in the screen?” Phillips was asked and replied, “No sir, not then, but I did when I went back Sunday.” He was asked if he had seen any shells beside a lumber stack and said he had not.
He was asked if he is chairman of the Scott County beer commission which issues permits and said that he had been chairman.
Wilburn Sexton, 27, testified to seeing Harry Sexton working near the Tin Top Tavern. He said Harry came in for ice water and “went back to work.” Wilburn testified he could look out the window and see Harry.
Wilburn said he was working there when he “heard there had been trouble … heard there had been a shooting up at the state line.”
TELLS OF KENTUCKY TRIP
Luther Helton, who formerly owned a restaurant in McCreary County, Ky., testified to having gone to Harry’s Place. He said he saw Marshall King walking away and saying that Roark was “working in my place.” Helton testified King had accompanied him back to Kentucky, with stops at the Helton home, Hall’s service station, and on to Cumberland Falls. Helton said King could not have been in Tennessee at the time of the shooting.
Edgar Stephens, 25, testified to seeing King with Helton going north. He did not see them coming back. His store is about three and a half miles north of the shooting scene and he was sitting on the porch.
Lester Hall, service station operator corroborated Helton’s testimony on the car stopping there. King was with Helton, Hall said. Hall’s place is about 13 miles from the scene of the shooting. He said he saw the car going north between 1 and 2 o’clock, but “did not look up at any clock.”
ONEIDA CHIEF CALLED
Police Chief Dorsey Rosser of Oneida told of hearing that Sheriff Butler had been shot and of going there. He said he had passed Tin Tavern on the way.
“See any cars when you pass?” he was asked.
“I didn’t notice it,” he replied.
At Howard Sexton’s place, the chief went in and arrested Howard Sexton.
“See any bullet holes?”
“On a screen,” he replied. “They appeared to be fresh.”
‘HOLES FROM INSIDE’
The bullet holes were from the inside, the chief said, “because the wire was pushed out.” Two holes were five or six inches apart.
Henry Brown, member of the Oneida police force, also told of going there, but said he had not stayed in the place to make an inspection.
Russell Byrd, about 65, told of going to Dick Powell’s between 12 and 1. He told of seeing Harry Sexton at the wheel of a car going north.
Herbert Chitwood, a timber cutter in Winfield, also told of seeing Harry Sexton at the wheel of a car going north around 1 p.m.
Ed L. Simpson, 29, said he was at Crawford King’s, near Howard Sexton’s place. He heard shooting and “heard someone holler.”
DEFENDANT ON STAND
Marshall King, one of the defendants, testified he had been arrested by Chief Rosser while about to enter a movie at Oneida.
“Did you tell Rosser ‘they couldn’t have seen me?’ (meaning see King),” the defendant was asked by Atty. Gen. Baker.
“Yes, sir,” replied King, “but I said I wasn’t there.”
“Did you say you didn’t hear about the shooting?”
“No, I did say I was not there.”
Chief Rosser, called back to the stand, said that King had “said he wasn’t there.”
Ted Wilson, clerk of the court, said when he heard of the shooting he went to the place. He said he saw Howard Sexton closing the Windows. Wilson “didn’t examine the screen.”
SHERIFF BYRGE TESTIFIES
Sheriff H.E. Byrge of adjoining Morgan County testified to going to the Scott County shooting scene and making an inspection the day after (on Sunday). He examined the screen and saw two holes in it.
“There were two holes facing out,” Sheriff Byrge testified. “I’ll show you how they were.” He took a piece of paper and punched two holes in them with a pencil. The defense objected to the demonstration.
“They seemed to be fresh holes,” the sheriff said. “They looked bright.”
He told of going back to a lumber pile and to trees and examining them for bullet marks. He saw “two scalps across the top and one in the oak tree.” The Morgan sheriff said he made “a thorough investigation.” The defense asked him if he didn’t see “three or four dogwoods shot,” and the officer said he did not. He was the last witness. Argument began in the afternoon.
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The following story appeared on Page 2 of the Aug. 2, 1947 edition of The Knoxville Journal:
ROARK HID DURING FIGHT, HE TESTIFIES
By Vic Weals
HUNTSVILLE, Aug. 1—All was friendliness and joviality at Howard’s Place, scene of the ambush shooting of three Scott County officers, a few seconds before the pistol battle, according to two of the four men on trial here for assault with intent to commit murder in connection with the affray.
George Roark, the first of the defendants to testify, denied yesterday’s version of the shooting given by Sheriff Frank Butler, who spent 17 days in a Knoxville hospital for treatment of multiple bullet wounds after the alleged ambush.
No angry words preceded the shooting, according to Roark.
ALL JOKING
“We were all joking and laughing while the sheriff was there,” Roark said. In reply to cross-examination, he denied he had participated in the shooting, and said he and Howard Sexton, another of the defendants, were the first to duck into the back room of the roadhouse after the first shot was fired.
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The following story appeared on Page 8 of the Nov. 18, 1948 edition of the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL IN SCOTT COURT CASE OVERRULED
HUNTSVILLE, Nov. 18—A motion for a new trial has been overruled for George Roark, Harry Sexton, Howard Sexton and Marshall King, given 10 years on charges of firing on Scott County Sheriff Frank Butler and Deputies Willie Duncan and Lem Jeffers as they left a roadhouse on June 28, 1947. They were found guilty by a jury last Friday.
Motion for a new trial was made on grounds that the jurors became separated on two occasions while deliberating. On one occasion, it was admitted, one juror went to the first floor of the jail to get a Bible—to settle an argument on what the Bible “said about lawyers.”
The case may be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Aftermath
On Dec. 27, 1948, Herbert Sexton — a brother to Howard and Harry Sexton — died of what appeared to be an accidental gunshot wound at the same tavern where Sheriff Butler was shot.
Marshall King, one of the four men convicted in the shooting of Sheriff Butler, was arrested on July 15, 1949 by Sheriff Dorsey Rosser and accused of killing Nobel Strunk, 30, of Winfield, at a beer tavern near the state line. He claimed self-defense after shooting Strunk five times with a .45-caliber handgun. Strunk was one of the witnesses who testified on the defendants’ behalf at the Butler trial.
Death
Butler died at his Huntsville home of a heart attack on July 8, 1972. He was 75. A funeral was held at West Funeral Home on July 11, 1972 with Rev. Virgil Cecil officiating. Butler was buried at Carson Memorial Gardens in Oneida.
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