100 years ago
Oct. 13, 1921
• RUSSELLVILLE -- The collapse of both floors of the two story building, occupied by the local branch of the Plunkett-Jarrel Wholesale Grocery company, probably will result in the death of an employee caught in the crash. H.E. Darter, aged 27, was so badly injured that it was not expected that he would live through the night. Darter ... with another man, was unloading a car of sugar, which was being stored on the first floor, when the floor suddenly gave way and dropped him into the basement, along with the sugar and other groceries stored on the first floor. The second floor gave way and dumped its contents into the basement. Darter was struck in the head by a heavy timber or crate of goods and was almost decapitated.
50 years ago
Oct. 13, 1971
• BLYTHEVILLE -- Lawyers for the Mississippi County Penal Farm inmates, who have charged that the Farm is being run unconstitutionally, filed additional pleadings Tuesday alleging that Nathan Smith, Jr., 15, an inmate who died August 5, drowned after being ordered into a drainage ditch at gunpoint. The addition to the suit charges that Paul Jones, a captain of the Penal Farm, ordered Smith to jump down into the ditch to recover a tobacco can, which Jones had dropped in the water. When Smith refused, Jones "pulled his pistol out of his pocket, cocked it, and ordered Smith to obey his order; otherwise, Jones threatened to shoot Smith," the suit contends. Smith returned the tobacco can to Jones, and Jones ordered him to remain in the water and push some timber from an old bridge into the water so that it would float downstream, the suit says. ... "While trying to regain the land, young Smith gave out and drowned," the suit charges. ... The water in this drainage canal was very deep and the current swift. His body was not recovered that day.
25 years ago
Oct. 13, 1996
• TEXARKANA -- Police remained on full alert here Saturday after last week's shootings at the Ace of Clubs nightclub that left five people wounded and one Arkansas teen-ager dead. Sgt. Shawn Vaughn, spokesman for the Texarkana Police Department, said the heightened security is needed because of tension in the community over the six shootings at the Arkansas Boulevard nightclub.
10 years ago
Oct. 13, 2011
• HELENA-WEST HELENA -- For 10 years, residents of this Delta town have watched their neighborhoods decay. They've heard late-night knocks on their doors, when drug-seeking thugs mistook their homes for those belonging to dealers. On Tuesday, 700 federal agents swarmed into the city and surrounding areas with warrants for 71 people accused of running large and brazen drug operations. All, including five police officers, face charges related to seven federal indictments handed up that lay out a sophisticated drug-trafficking operation replete with police corruption -- officers escorting cocaine runners, taking bribes and tipping off dealers about search warrants.