A Shootout at the 1956 Persimmon Festival
People Involved
Clyde Burgess: A 40-year-old electrician from Mitchell, Indiana, and the primary individual involved in the incident. He was on parole for a previous crime and had a warrant for child neglect.
Harry Wood: A newly hired Mitchell policeman who was injured during the shootout.
Deputy Sheriff Claude Elkins: The officer who attempted to arrest Burgess initially.
Ernest Beavers: The Chief of Mitchell Police, one of the officers who confronted Burgess.
Ruth Rossman (no link yet for her): A friend of Burgess, held as a material witness after the event.
Author’s note: Every effort has been made to verify that the links clickable on each name above are the right individuals, but sometimes errors do happen. In Clyde Burgess’s case, the obituary I found said he was born in 1908 which would have made him older than 40 at the time of this shootout.
Sequence of Events
On the opening night of the 1956 Persimmon Festival (September 25), a dramatic shootout took place in Mitchell in front of a crowd of 5,000 in attendance. The conflict began when Deputy Sheriff Claude Elkins found wanted man Clyde Burgess in a tavern and attempted to arrest him on a child neglect charge. Burgess requested to finish his beer first, but then drew a gun and forced Elkins to back out of the tavern. Burgess was already on parole from stealing a radio from Circuit Judge Chester A. Davis years earlier.
Burgess, armed with a .32 caliber Italian pistol, made his way down the main street, holding off five officers, including Mitchell Chief Ernest Beavers. Burgess shouted, "You'll not take me this time. I'll shoot it out with you." Ruth Rossman, a friend of Burgess, warned him against going to the tavern as he had expressed a desire for a "showdown" with the police.
The shootout ensued as Burgess ran down the Monon Railroad tracks. The officers fired at him, and a bullet passing through his abdomen eventually stopped him. Harry Wood, one of the officers, sustained a flesh wound in his shoulder during the exchange. Both Burgess and Wood collapsed near a police car and were transported to the Dunn Memorial Hospital in Bedford.
Outcome and Sentencing
Clyde Burgess was placed under armed guard at the hospital due to the severity of his injuries.
In March 1957, Burgess was sentenced for his involvement in the shootout. He received a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years for burglarizing the Putnam Hotel in Mitchell on June 12. A charge of murderous assault, from the festival shootout, was dismissed along with the child neglect charge in a plea deal.
Information Sources
Anderson Herald Bulletin (September 27, 1956 and March 21, 1957)
Brazil Daily Times (September 26, 1956)
Logansport Press (September 27, 1956 and March 20, 1957)
Seymour Daily Tribune (September 26, 1956)
