My Dad was born in West Blocton, Alabama in 1897, and he grew up there. He told me several stories about the infamous desperado of that region, Bart Thrasher. The following article about Bart Thrasher was published in "The Atlanta Constitution" on August 27, 1896. It gives you a pretty good idea of what kind of man Bart Thrasher was:


"OFFICERS SHOOT AT THRASHER

Alabama’s Desperado Convict Makes His Escape Again

Birmingham, Ala, August 27, --(special)-- Bart Thrasher, the noted Bibb County desperado and outlaw, was seen and shot at by a posse of men at Coalburg last night about 11 o’clock.

Before midnight Sheriff Morrow was notified of the encounter, and accompanied by Chief Deputy B. A. Thompson and other deputies, with bloodhounds, went to the scene of the shooting. The party followed the tracks of the wanted man to a switch on the railroad, where they were lost.

Thrasher was accompanied by a pal, a desperate man known as “Panther,” and the two managed to catch a freight train passing Coalburg shortly after the shooting and made good their escape.

Members of the posse who came upon Thrasher and his companion say they succeeded in wounding him or his partner.

Upon information received yesterday afternoon that Thrasher and his pal were in the neighborhood of Coalburg, Sheriff Morrow sent out a posse of deputies. They went to the point where they thought Thrasher was and laid in wait. After the deputies arrived at the place it developed that Thrasher and his pal were in the neighborhood of Coalburg, but were at a different point from the one named. Another posse was hastily formed and sent in the direction in which the desperado was reported to be.

The second posse had not been long in the neighborhood when Thrasher and his pals were seen moving through the woods, making for the railroad tracks, evidently bent on catching a train which was heard coming along. Armed with double-barreled shotguns, the officers called to them to halt. Thrasher and his pal did not obey the command and four shots were fired on them. Neither Thrasher nor his pal answered the fire, but moved on swiftly toward the railroad and were finally lost to sight.

The telephone bell at Sheriff Morrow’s residence was kept busy all last night giving information as to the moving of the two desperados and the posses. When the announcement came that the outlaws had been run out of their hole, the bloodhounds were quickly sent for and in a short while the sheriff and another posse were on their way to the scene.

As soon as the new posse arrived the dogs were placed on the trail of the two men at the place where the shooting occurred. The dogs took up the scent and follow it toward the railroad. At the switch just below Coalburg the dogs stopped and the men had disappeared. Here it was that they no doubt boarded the train.

The first posse which went out from the city was within two hundred yards of where the shooting took place. The shots were heard by the first posse and they hastened over to where the second body was, and were surprised to hear that the two men got away.

The men who shot at Thrasher are certain that he or his pal were wounded. One or the other was seen to halt, and it was thought he would drop, but he managed to get away.

“Panther,” who was with Thrasher last night, is the same who was with him in Blocton a couple of weeks back when Griffin Bass was killed. He is a determined sort of a fellow, afraid of nothing. He is desperate and will not submit to be taken alive."