6:45 AM....Remembering Coffee County Sheriff Neil Grantham

Matt Boster

Viewed: 6293

Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Mar 01 2019 7:32 AM

COFFEE COUNTY: March 1, 1979 is a day many in Coffee County will never forget, it was the day that beloved Sheriff Neil Grantham was shot and killed right outside the Elba jail.

Sheriff Grantham ran into a former inmate (Billy Joe Magwood) who was waiting outside the jail, parked in the sheriff’s spot.

Magwood shot the sheriff three times, and then sped off to a relative’s home, where he sat on the porch and waited for authorities. The sheriff was taken to the Elba General Hospital where he died of several gunshot wounds to the chest.

Magwood was convicted of the sheriff’s murder and sentenced to death. In May 2007 the death sentence was overturned. The re-sentencing came in result of the federal appeals court, which overturned the death sentence for Magwood.

Sheriff Grantham was one of six people on a hit list created by Magwood. The other five included a judge, an attorney, a banker, car dealer and newspaper editor. 

Sheriff Neil Grantham was a Great Man, Father and Friend... He is Greatly Missed.

 

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