On October 31, 1912 — 112 years ago today — murder was committed inside the Alabama Capitol Building after a Bibb County man named Will Oakley confronted his stepfather, P.A. Woods of Odenville, in a dispute over some family land.
The two men met in the office of Will’s uncle, J.G. Oakley, who served as head of the State Convict Board, a precursor to today’s Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The office is located just off of the first floor rotunda of the Capitol near the Lurleen Wallace bust and currently houses the suite of the governor’s appointments secretary.
Unable to come to satisfactory terms over the land dispute, Will Oakley pulled two pistols from his jacket and challenged his stepfather to a duel, even though dueling had been outlawed in the state since 1825.
J.G. Oakley bolted from the office to get help while Woods begged his stepson not to kill him.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of four shots rang through the marble-floored corridors of the Alabama Capitol.
A coroner’s report later surmised that the first bullet fired by Oakley struck Woods in the jugular and proved lethal while three additional shots in his abdomen occurred after he fell immobile to the floor.
Oakley fled the Capitol, ran down Washington Avenue to the county courthouse, and immediately surrendered to authorities. A search of his pockets discovered two 41-caliber pistols and a large knife.
Oakley refused the counsel of an attorney and told authorities, “I shot a man, and I was justified in doing so.”
He was indicted for First Degree Murder the first week of November, and, following trial, was sentenced to life in prison on July 20, 1913 at age 36.
In October of 1913, Oakley was paroled by the governor to Bryce Asylum in Tuscaloosa, but he escaped in July of 1914 and was never heard from again.
A photo of Will Oakley and newspaper headlines of the incident accompany this article. Legend claims that the Alabama Capitol is haunted by the ghost of Will Oakley as evidenced by restroom faucets that allegedly turn on by themselves and continue running until someone turns them off.
It is said by believers that Oakley is trying to wash the blood of his stepfather from his hands.
I worked in the Capitol for several years and never once heard reports of self-operating faucets … but, hey, who am I to stand in the way of a good ghost story?
This story originally appeared in The Art of Alabama Politics, an outlet dedicated to the the wild, weird, and wonderful history of Alabama politics.
