Facts Around Johnson’s Poisoning – Killers Revealed
Read how Robert Johnson died that fateful night – including causes, names, locations and more.
Robert Johnson
Using the research of Barry Lee Parson, Bill McCullack, Mack McCormick, Gayle Dean Wardlow, and Steve LaVere, coupled with testimony from Luther Wade, Rosie Eskridge, and several other eye witnesses, combined with facts from Cencus records, city directories, case studies, and other professional testimonies, we have finally pieced together what happened that fateful night in August, 1938.
Read more to learn the timeline of events, including names, places, locations, and more. Find out how Robert Was poisoned, who did it, why it was done, and the events before and after the murder. Much of this will contradict Honeyboy Edwards various testimonies, but no more than he has already contradicted himself.
This has been a long time coming.
It all started when Robert Johnson began seeing the wife of Ralph Davis, a 39 year old sawmill worker employed at the Bledsoe Plantation in Greenwood, Mississippi. Robert began visiting the young woman in Baptist Town, located in Greenwood, at her sister’s house late in July of 1938. For several weeks, every Monday, Robert and the young woman would meet, and spend the entire day together.
Later, Robert would seek out the Star of the West Plantation, where he could stay unnoticed as well as play several gigs in the area (and still be close to his mistress). Robert, through the Star of the West Plantation laborers, was notified and offered to play a country dance at a juke joint located behind Schaeffer’s Store, located where Route 49 currently intersects with Route 82, just north east of Greenwood. This is where Robert would play his final show, NOT at the Three Forks as previously reported. This store was destroyed in a large storm in the early 1940’s, and no longer exists.
Arriving at the country dance, around 9pm on August 13th, 1938, Robert began to settle in and begin to play for the crowd that had gathered. After about a 2 hour set, Robert took a break. Standing next to the bar, Robert was handed a jar of corn whiskey (Contrary to popular tales and stories, this was not an “opened” bottle of Whiskey, nor was it ever slapped out of his hand by Rice Miller. In 1938, Mississippi was a dry state, and only bootleg whiskey was available – and boot leg whiskey was rarely – if ever – sold sealed).
Map of the Plantation, Juke Joint, and Grave - click for a larger image
He was handed the jar of poisoned whiskey by the barmaid, a woman known as “Craphouse Bea”. Bea was indeed the woman Robert had been seeing in Greenwood, and was also the wife of Ralph “Snake” Davis (Ralph Davis was known as “Snake” for the cane he often carried, which had a large carved out snake’s head on its top) who ran the juke behind Schaeffer’s. Moments before Bea handed the jar of whiskey to Johnson (Bea did not know of the poison), Davis had poisoned the bottle by dissolving moth balls in the liquid – a remedy often used to rid juke joint owners of musicians (read the effects here). It turns out that Davis had been fully aware of the affair between his wife and Johnson, but had played the part of the fool. This was to be his revenge.
After consuming the whiskey close to 11:30pm, Johnson would soon return to the stage. He played on, beginning to feel ill and apologizing to the crowd for his illness at around 1am. By 2am, he could no longer play. He left the juke to go out back, where he was violently ill. A resident of the Star of the West Plantation, known as “Tush Hog” (a common name given to men who were rather large, and enjoyed a good fight) escorted Johnson back to his own shack located on the Start of the West Plantation. From there, Tush notified Luther Wade, the owner of the plantation, of the man’s ailments. Luther, who was aware of the musician’s presence on the plantation, did not deem it necessary to provide a doctor for the man. Luther did indeed have a doctor on staff, but that doctor was provided primarily to his field hands in times of need. Luther of course did not know the man was dying, only that he was severely ill.
Though the moth ball solution was not enough to kill Johnson, it was enough to weaken his immune system, and allow him to promptly catch pneumonia (it is also possible he had Marfan’s Syndrome, which would also have killed him after the moth ball cocktail). Since there was no cure for this disease in 1938, Johnson would succumb to the illness days later, and die on August 16th, 1938. Though it is plausible that Rice Miller may have visited Johnson while sick, it is likely the only one present for Johnson’s death was Tush.
Tush would later notify Luther Wade of the death. Luther would in turn, ask a nearby field hand named Tom Eskridge to head over to the Zion Baptist Church on money road and begin digging the grave. His wife, Rosie, would later bring him water to the gravesite. As she recalls ”Mr. Wade come up to my house that morning and instructed my husband Tom”, ”Go get your shovel and dig this man a grave for a Christian burial up there in Little Zion”, Eskridge remembers. Johnson was buried in a home made pine coffin provided by LeFlore County, purchased from a nearby supply barn at plantation owner Wade’s request. A church member recited ‘words’ over the body before the burial. His grave has remained untouched.
So who killed Robert Johnson? Well, Ralph Davis poisoned the whiskey, Craphouse Bea gave it to him, and Luther Wade neglected a doctor (though did make all burial arrangements).
I will not get into the death certificate, Jim Moore, or any other facts surrounding the documentation of Johnson’s death, though I am working on a follow up story on just that…
Stay Tuned.
awsome research!