Joseph J “J. J.” King was born in Chattahoochee County, Georgia to William Nathan King and Georgia Ann Dennard in May of 1867. He was a lifelong bachelor but stayed close to his extended family members. His nephew Frank Jones even lived with him for a while.
J. J. co-owned a grocery store with his brother-in-law Benjamin Franklin Barge until Barge retired in September of 1896. J. J.’s brother William Henry King then helped him run the store.
In September of 1909, tragedy struck the King brothers’ store. A fire of unknown origin sent the store and the entirety of their stock up in flames. The store was a complete loss as they had no insurance. A young man sleeping in the store was also badly burned before he could escape and later succumbed to his injuries.
J. J. rebuilt the store and continued to run it until tragedy struck again in 1935, this time in a much darker manner. On the night of January 3, 1935, J. J. was murdered at his place of business. His death certificate listed the cause of death as “murdered by being struck on head with a hickory stick” and cites “violent blows on head with hickory stick” as the manner and nature of injury.
The Butler Herald of January 10, 1935 reports that Columbus detectives had been brought in to help track down the “party or parties” responsible for his murder, and further reports that they tried to cover up their crime by burning the body.
By February 14, the guilty parties had been apprehended and tried for the crime. It came out in the trial that J. J. King had attempted to collect debt owed to him by Willie S. Grimes, and had been slain in revenge. Grimes, D. Brown, Kid Wilbourn, and possibly one other assailant had attacked J. J. King in his own store and beaten him to death.
The Butler Herald of February 21, 1935 reports that all three men had been found guilty and sentenced to execution by electric chair, to occur on the 6th and 7th of March. One additional suspect had been arrested but not yet indicted.
Joseph J. King (May 1867 – 3 January 1935) was buried next to many other members of his family in the Weston Methodist Church Cemetery, Weston, Webster County, Georgia.
