Witness Interview: Harold Bowlan

Harold Bowlan, owner of Bowlan Glove Factory near Oxford, layed off 153 of his employees on April 11, 1958, the day after a failed union vote. The 153 were rumored to be those most sympathetic to union formation at the Bowlan factory. Harold Bowlan was interviewed at his home on Saturday, April 12, 1958.

M = Detective Jack McPhail
B = Harold Bowlan

M: Mr. Bowlan, sir, please state your name, age, address and occupation for the record.
B: Harold Bowlan. 60. Rural Route 5, Box 12, Oxford, Mississippi 38655. Factory owner. What else?

M: Tell me where you were on the day of the murders, Harold.
B: That's "Mr. Bowlan," to you, McPhail. I was at work until about 10 a.m., when I left for a trip to Memphis with my family. Richard was still in one piece then. Ask anybody at the factory. Don't know about his wife, she didn't work for me. My family and I drove directly to the Peabody Hotel, where we checked into our rooms, took naps and later dined in one of the restaurants downstairs. The food was none too good for the prices, either. I have the receipts from the hotel and the restaurant. That'll prove where I was. I spoke to the maitre d' and the concierge, that's the restaurant boss and the hotel boss, if you don't know, and they can vouch for me. I want those receipts back, too. I always save them for taxes.

M: Were you taking a trip to avoid the heat from your laid-off employees?
B: I don't see that it's any of your damned business, McPhail. But no. We had been looking forward to a quiet family vacation for some time. My grown children even came with us. It was just a family get together.

M: I don't remember you being such a family man, Mr. Bowlan.
B: You can remember whatever you please, but I don't give a tinker's dam. What else do you want to know?

M: When did you first learn of the murders?
B: When your fool deputy called me up Friday night, woke me and my wife up, too. I'd guess it was about 10:30 p.m. I asked him if this couldn't wait until we got back in town on Tuesday, but no, he wouldn't have it. So here I am back in Oxford, a ruined family vacation behind me, and who's going to pay for the hotel stay and gasoline I wasted? That's what I want to know.

M: I'm sure I don't know either, Mr. Bowlan. Could you tell me what are your thoughts on what happened to the Izards?
B: I don't speculate, McPhail. I deal in facts. They were murdered, plain and simple. That's all there is to it. It's your job to find out why.

M: That's what I'm trying to do, Bowlan. Do you think their deaths might be related to the factory's layoffs?
B: Could be. Might not, too. I had a lot of damn fools who worked for me. Some of 'em are hotheads. The Izards weren't saints, though. Richard gambled. His wife had that crazy-fool ex-boyfriend, one of the Danahy boys, kept raising hell when they first got married. And who knows what else? They had all those poor jerks who lived just down the road from them. Maybe one of them tried to rob Richard and the fool fought back. It's your job to figure all that out, not mine.

M: How did the other employees regard Mr. Izard as their foreman?
B: Regard? What do their feelings have to do with work, for God's sake? I guess they liked him. Richard was always too soft, too quick to listen to their sob-sister stories and give shirkers "one more chance." Many's the time I fired someone after finding out secondhand that Richard had tried to give them special chances to take off too long for funerals, for sick kids or for other personal stuff. "Personal is personal, and work is work," I always say, and the two should be kept separate. But Richard was different. He couldn't stop being friends with the folks he worked with. I didn't keep up with who all it was, so there's no use in your asking me that. I just know he was too chummy with them sometimes. Fraternizing on weekends. Fishing and that kind of thing. I don't hold with it. And he always felt like he owed them an explanation at work when he told them what to do, it wasn't enough for their foreman to just say, "Snap to it!" I told him time and again, "Don't complain, and don't explain." But he never listened. What else?

M: I've got the list of laid-off employees. Do any of those names spring to mind for you as people who might have committed these murders? Maybe the workers or their families or friends?
B: Do I look like someone who keeps up with who wants to go kill who? Next question.

M: Now, what about this union activity at the factory, this here agitator, Perch. He have any run ins with Izard?
B: Durn commie, you mean. That man is dangerous and those like him. Coming around for no good reason than to undermine the very foundation on which business was built in this country. Unionizers are nothing more than commies in disguise, rabble rousers. You oughta check him out good. Advocating for less work and more money, easy street for the workers by gouging out the lining of the businessman's pockets. Come to think of it, Izard might've been a good target for that union bunch. A martyr to the cause so to speak. Not a one of those organizers that doesn't have blood on his hands, McPhail.

M: Any specific encounters between Perch and Izard?
B: Not that I know of, if there was it wasn't at the factory. I know there were fights, a few bloody noses, that was Richard's job to take care of. You might be onto something there, McPhail. I'll also tell you that Elbert Warren and his crew were at the top of the troublemakers list in my book, came too darn close to getting that union vote through. Warren had Perch living out at his place for a time I heard, but you'd have to ask others about the specifics. Don't know what else I can tell you on that angle, but I think you got the right idea there. Best grab that fella before he skips town.

M: Anything else you can think of that might give us some further idea of who to interview?
B: No. And I certainly hope you won't interfere with my factory's work next week, trying to talk to folks while they're working. I've got a business to run. Interview them as suspects if you want, but do it on their own time. I'm not paying them to talk to you.

M: We'll keep that in mind as much as we can, Mr. Bowlan. Thanks for your time.
B: Now go do your job. It's my money helping to pay your salary, and don't forget it.