Bitter was the feud in the all-Negro town of Mound Bayou, Miss., between Eugene P. Booze, Republican boss, and his sister-in-law Estelle Montgomery. Cause: both claimed ownership of the house in which Booze and his family lived. Eugene Booze apparently won the argument last month: in an altercation over a court order forbidding her to enter the house, Estelle attacked Booze and two white State policemen with a butcher knife, was shot dead.
To Eugene Booze, Mound Bayou's richest citizen, owner of thousands of acres of cotton and timber land, the end of all arguments came last week. After his sister-in-law's shooting, he was looked on askance by many a citizen of Mound Bayou. One night last week somebody shot him from ambush. John Thomas, Mound Bayou's marshal, declared the shooting was done by persons unknown. All he knew was that Old Man Booze was dead.