By Mat Cloak
The Parsons Advocate
We also purchased identical plaques of Brown and Horne for the WVSP that they have displayed at their detachment in Bretz.
October 14 is the 40th anniversary of one of the darker moments in Tucker County history. In 1977, Frederick Dean Hamilton murdered Trooper Bruce T. Brown in the Tucker County Jail.
Hamilton was arrested in Beverly by state police on kidnapping and grand larceny charges. These charges occurred when Hamilton held Robert Kamauff at gunpoint at Chaney Chevrolet in Cumberland Md., where Kamauff was a salesman. Hamilton forced Kamauff to drive to Tucker County, where he was released.
In an article published by Sunday Gazette-Mail on October 16, 1977, Kamauff said, “My ordeal feels like nothing when I think what happened to Trooper Brown.” In the article, Kamauff recalled his interactions with Brown. “He had so much enthusiasm for his job. He was the type of guy you would want patrolling your streets.”
Brown and Cpl. Marshall Davisson were booking Hamilton in the Tucker County Jail when he was temporarily released from his handcuffs for fingerprinting. That is when Hamilton grabbed Davisson’s .357 magnum. Hamilton shot at Davisson first. The bullet hit him in the belt buckle. As Brown charged Hamilton, he received a shot to the chest.
Then, Hamilton shot at Sheriff Darl Pine, only missing him by 3 inches. The bullet is supposedly still lodged in the wall. Pine then shot Hamilton, hitting him in the leg.
Magistrate Mont Miller recalled a later conversation with Davisson. “I said to him, the good Lord wasn’t ready for you, because for a .357 bullet to just hit a belt buckle is a miracle.”
Katherine Pine, wife of the late Darl Pine, lived at the jail at the time of the shooting. “I was on the phone, when I heard the shot, and I didn’t recognize what it was. Then I heard it again,” she recalled. “I opened the big steel door. I saw that Trooper Brown had fell out on the landing, out of the fingerprinting room.” Pine held Brown and prayed with him until the ambulance came.
Dr. Guy Michael was there to receive Brown when he was rushed in to the Tucker County Hospital. “It was a mighty bad one,” Michael remembered. “He was bleeding profusely. We did all we could, but we couldn’t keep him going. We tried to do our best.”
Michael remembered treating Hamilton as well. “He had the law with him the whole time he was with us.” Michael recalls that he was in the hospital for 4 or 5 days with a bullet wound in his left buttocks.
Brown was 25 when he died. Brown had been on the state police force for less than a year. He was originally from Charles Town, Wv. He served on the police force in Charles Town before becoming a state policeman. Brown is buried Edge Hill Cemetery in Charles Town.
Katherine Pine recalled fond memories of Brown. “Him and I used to sit out in the swing and talk. He used to talk a lot about his kids and wife. He was a very nice man.” There are also a number of positive reflections of Brown posted by Brown’s family and friends, as well as Tucker County residents on the Officer Down Memorial Page website.
Hamilton was 19 when he shot Brown. Hamilton was a top scholastic golfer from Ohio. He was recruited to play golf at Davis and Elkins College, but had dropped out. He was living in an apartment in Beverly, and was eventually linked to several other robberies in the area.
A 2006 edition of the Golden Seal publication featured an article written by Tom Felton about the Tucker County jail, and more specifically, the murder of Brown. Felton was Sheriff of Tucker County in 2006. Felton described the murder as, “arguably the most notorious event in the history of the jail.”
Tucker County jail in Parsons opened in 1896. The building still stands adjacent to the Tucker County courthouse.
While in the Tucker County Jail, Hamilton met a prisoner named David Mills. Mills, 19 at the time, was jailed for stealing a car. As jail mates, Hamilton and Mills developed a close relationship. According to the Golden Seal article, “Hamilton urged Mills to kidnap and murder Ida Mae Cooper, the wife of Davis mayor ‘Red Cooper’ in an attempt to win the release of Hamilton.” The Parsons Advocate reported that at Mills’ trial, Mills testified he was ‘mesmerized’ by Hamilton. Mills and Hamilton were both tried and convicted for the kidnap and murder of Cooper.
Both men were sentenced to life in the now closed West Virginia penitentiary in Moundsville. Hamilton and two other convicted murderers escaped in 1992 by tunneling out of the prison.
According to the Golden Seal article, “At the time of Hamilton’s escape, Pine remembers being contacted by the state police and advised to carry a weapon while the convicted killer was loose. Pine recalls that Hamilton had made threatening statements against both him and Marshall Davisson.”
Hamilton was captured in Oklahoma. He is currently serving a life sentence at the Mount Olive Correctional Center in Fayette County.
More on the David Mills case will be printed next week.
Editor’s note – A few Tucker County residents shared their memories:
Tom Felton – “I remember well the Friday night Tpr. Brown has killed. My buddies and I were at Parsons High School for a football game and I saw Kim Davisson crying (I think she was a majorette) and people consoling her. At some point thereabouts we found out what had happened.
I can remember not long before that some of the gang was standing along the parade route for the fireman’s parade (used to be in September.) Tpr. Brown was leading the parade in his cruiser. WVU was playing Maryland that day and I asked him the score and he smiled and told us. He seemed like a really nice guy, although that was the only interaction I ever had with him.”
Sherry Simmons – “I remember that night very well. It was Homecoming and I was riding on a float in the parade. While we were in line up Trooper Brown came up to our float and I gave him some candy. He was a very friendly person. Trooper Brown was one of the officeers leading the parade just before the shoting happened.
The former Tucker County Hospital used to keep a list of all people and their blood types. They called my Dad, J.D. McClain to come donate blood because he had the same type ad Trooper Brown.”
Gary Hott – At that rime I was stationed out of town (Hott was also a WV State Police Trooper). I was just coming into town to attend my son’s football game. When I heard what happened I went to the hospital to see if I could be of any assistance.”
