On the Coat Tales of a Gambler
Author’s Note: I reconnected with Sailor in December 2023, after I discovered newspaper reports of Scarpone’s life. We exchanged phone calls and text messages into early 2024 which continued into June of 2024. During one of the conversations, Sailor told me that he was going to contact his granddaughter, still living in Robstown, and ask her about Scarpone. Later, in a text message, Sailor indicated that he would contact his granddaughter and out of the blue, mentions that his granddaughter’s aunt, was once a girlfriend to Scarpone.
Sailor called to say he had information from his granddaughter, Alice Canfield. Sailor asked me if it would be okay for him to share my phone number with Alice so that she could be in direct contact with me. Of course, I agreed. I received a text message from Alice. After reading it, I requested her email address so that I could share information and links with her that I found online regarding Scarpone’s arrest and trial. The following is a text message, and an email note are from Alice Canfield.
Text Message from Alice, May 22nd, 2024
Mike Vernon this is Sailor’s granddaughter, Alice Canfield.
He asked me to send you the following links: (Link is withheld as it contained actual names and locations.)
Mike, I also found this link online…
State v. Ladrón :: 1973 :: Alabama Supreme Court Decisions :: Alabama Case Law :: Alabama Law :: US Law :: (Link is withheld as it contained actual names and locations.)
Alice Continues:
I didn’t look any further into the newspaper reports that you shared but I will when I get time. My aunt was in the Dixie Mafia/Dawson Gang. She went into the witness protection program, given a new name, SS #, etc. She recanted her statements about the Dixie Mafia/Dawson Gang because she feared they would put a hit on her daughter or family member. Maybe Scarpone went into the WPP too?
Author’s Note: Alice replied to an email I sent to her with attached documents about Scarpone’s arrest and trial which are in Episode 26 – Bad Trouble.
Alice’s Email Reply: It is definitely fascinating! My aunt was Jaquline (Jackie) Knight. She was in the Federal Witness Protection Program, as I told you before, where her name was changed to Kathrine Elise Mitchell. She was painted as a liar in the press because she later recanted her testimony in a well-publicized murder, involving the Dawson gang and Danny Kamara. My aunt didn’t lie about the events that she originally testified to, she was there, she only recanted the testimony because she was afraid that they had a hit out on her daughter who was only two at the time. After she recanted, they had someone else who was already serving a life sentence come forward to say that he was the one who committed the murder. A lot of it was actually covered in the local newspapers at the time. She didn’t have anything to fear after that, so eventually she came back to Alabama. I still remember her getting letters in the mail from “Little Eagan”, Larry Eagan, when he was in prison.
The stories that I heard are quite different from the “bubble-gum” stories that I have seen about the Dixie Mafia a.k.a. Dawson Gang! From what I have heard they were pure evil and had a lot of crooked cops, judges, lawyers, etc. on their payroll.
I heard a story about them tying a girl up to a telephone pole in a mill village, pistol whipping her and no one in the whole neighborhood would even call the police because they were too afraid! One of my uncle’s, Jackie’s brother, said that he went with them once to Gorgia and they had a trunk full of machine guns. He said that he hid in the closet, and when he got home, he joined the Marines. He didn’t tell anyone until he got to Camp Lejeune when he called his parents and told them that he had to get away from all of that crazy stuff!
There is really no telling what happened to Scarpone Ladrón. Maybe he went into the Witness Protection Program or because of the people that he was running around with at the time, you know, maybe his body was never found!
This has definitely piqued my interest… I will be on the hunt for information! I will share any information that I find.
Thanks, Alice
Author’s Note: According to Sailor’s granddaughter, her aunt, Jackie Knight, was a former girlfriend of Scarpone. In Episode 25, I mentioned discovering a Georgia murder trial with connections to the Dawson Gang, and I mentioned two names, Danny Kamara, and Jackie Knight. I stated both of these people would be explained in later episodes.
Jackie Knight testified at the Georgia murder trial involving Danny Kamara, mentioned in chapter 25. She was in Witness Protection Program because of her testimony against the Dawson Gang. Apparently, Danny Kamara got off the murder charges in the Dawson Gang trial, after someone admitted to the murders. In Alice’s email above, she states that someone else eventually confessed to the murder.
Both Kamara and Knight’s names also appear in the newspaper reports about Scarpone’s murder trial. Jackie testified she was in the Witness Protection Plan as a witness in the Georgia murder trial. She also testified that she was at the B.B.C. Club, with Kamara, the night when Scarpone killed George Blackwell. Kamara and Knight were dating at the time, as she testified at the trial in Episode 26. (Miss Knight testified that she was dating Danny Kamara, who is presently serving a 25-year term in Georgia and awaiting trial there on a murder charge. She said Ladrón, was wounded during the shooting and that Kamara wanted to “finish Ladrón, off.”) Danny Kamara was on trial for the Georgia murders mentioned above, which I discovered after reading about the Dawson Gang having possible connections to the murder of the Robstown Sheriff and his son.
On The Coat Tales of a Gambler continues in
Episode 30 – You Can’t Make This Stuff Up