New Years Day, 1938, finds Charlton jailer, Pratt Mizell, murdered.

1928 Photo shows popular Charlton Jailer, Pratt Mizell who was murdered on January 1, 1938 by jail escapee. Sheriff Sikes and posse capture murderer. Other photo is of long-time Sheriffs W. H. Mizell (1910 until 1933) and J. O. Sikes (1933 until 1965)

Saturday, January 1, 1938: Nearly 10 million Americans are out of work as the Great Depression continues.  In Charlton County football fans are looking toward the afternoon radio broadcast of the Rose Bowl football game in Pasadena, California between California and Alabama.

On Folkston's Main Street, few businesses are closed for the New Years' holiday. Inside the Charlton County jail a 28-year-old prisoner, Walter Melton, waits his chance to escape. There are only four prisoners in the jail and Sheriff Jim Sikes is deer hunting. Fifty-eight year-old part-time jailer Pratt Grooms Mizell had promised Sikes he would serve the prisoners their lunch after it was prepared by Mrs. Sikes at the jail.

Mizell, a prominent Charlton County farmer, had begun a $25 dollars-a-month part-time job as custodian at the county courthouse, a position he had taken only 3 months earlier. Dutifully, Mizell tells visitors at the courthouse that it is time for him to feed the four prisoners, as he had promised Sheriff Sikes.

What Mizell does not know however, is Melton, although in jail for stealing $40 dollars and a shotgun from a home in Moniac, has a long history of prison sentences, and is desperate for freedom. Mizell serves three of the prisoners their meals in one part of the jail, and enters another cellblock, separated from the first three prisoners, to feed Melton. Melton feigns problems with a toilet, and asks Mizell to help him fix it. Mizell goes into the cellblock to help, and is jumped by the prisoner, who knocks Mizell to the jail floor, and ties his hands behind his back.

The prisoner stuffs rags into Mizell's mouth, and ties a blanket tightly over his head and dashes from the jail.

Mrs. Sikes, downstairs in the jail, hears the cries of the other three prisoners and telephones a brother-in-law, J. O. Hannaford, Sr. who is working two blocks away at Gowen Brothers Store, for help. Hannaford runs to the jail and finds the lifeless body of Pratt Mizell in the escaped prisoner's cell, the cell door is wide open, and the prisoner is gone.

Sheriff Sikes, whom Mrs. Sikes has sent for in his hunting party, comes quickly and organizes a search posse for the escaped Melton. One of the largest manhunts in the history of the county follows.

On the following day, a Moniac resident, named Privett, becomes suspicious when a man he meets walking near Hopkins Bridge, asks directions to Moniac, and then turns and walks in the opposite direction. Privett goes to Walter Hopkins with the information.

Hopkins gets the information quickly to Folkston to Sheriff Sikes. The large posse converges on the area near Hopkins Bridge. Sikes, along with Brantley Sheriff Raulerson and Folkston Police Chief, Troy Jones, form themselves into a separate three-man posse with two bloodhounds.

On Monday, the bloodhounds lead Sikes, Jones and Raulerson to Boulogne, Florida, where they spot Melton sleeping by a fire near the railroad tracks.  The barking of the bloodhounds awakens Melton who, without his shoes, flees into nearby woods. The three officers soon catch up with the fleeing Melton and take him into custody, returning him to the Folkston jail, the site of Melton's murderous act just two days earlier.

Melton, after months of legal maneuvering, was sentenced to death for the murder of Pratt Mizell.

The tragic death of Pratt Mizell enrages all of Charlton County. Mizell was a unanimously popular farmer. The capture of his killer brings on relief from residents of Charlton County, many whom had gone without sleep for two nights while Mizell's killer was on the loose.

Charlton County at that time had seen only two sheriffs since 1910. Sheriff W. H. Mizell served from 1910 until unseated by J. O. Sikes in the same election that saw Franklin Roosevelt elected to the White House over Herbert Hoover. Sikes began his duties as Sheriff on January 1, 1933, and served until dying in office thirty years later. Never in the history of the county had a Sheriff or his deputy been killed in the line of duty until the death of Pratt Mizell on January 1, 1938.

The now-closed Charlton County jail holds the history of those tragic moments of that fateful Saturday morning when America was looking forward to a great new year, 1938. For the Pratt Mizell family the promise of a great new year was marred by the untimely death of one of the county's most popular residents.