Death of a Policeman Birth of a Baby

About the Book

On 17 July 1932, on a highway near Fort Mill, SC, Rural Policeman Elliott Harris was attempting to arrest Beatrice Snipes’ husband Clyde for reckless driving. Mrs. Snipes intervened, snatching Harris’ pistol from its holster and fatally shooting him. After her trial in December, she became the first woman in South Carolina sentenced to die by electrocution. Beatrice, however, was pregnant at the time of the crime and was in her eighth month when she was sentenced to be executed on a date about three months after giving birth.

This sentence generated a firestorm of negative reaction, and the Governor of South Carolina in January commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Beatrice’s daughter Jean was born soon thereafter and spent the first seven months of life with her mother in prison. Jean then was removed from her mother’s custody. A secret adoption was arranged, and neither Beatrice nor Clyde was told by whom Jean had been adopted. This book tells the story of Beatrice’s crime and its aftermath, including the impact on Jean’s life.

About the Author

Felder Dorn is the author of two books published by the University of South Carolina Press: The Guns of Meeting Street: A Southern Tragedy (2001), and Challenges on the Emmaus Road (in press), about the role of Episcopal Bishops in the Civil War era. A native of South Carolina, Dr. Dorn’s professional career included service on the chemistry faculties of The University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and Kean University in Union, NJ, as well as serving as a dean and vice president at Kean.