Clyde Arwood

James Clyde Arwood (September 7, 1901 – August 14, 1943) was the only person executed by the United States federal government in Tennessee.

He was sentenced to death after his conviction of murdering William Pugh, a federal agent, during a raid of Arwood's illegal still.

Arwood was executed in the electric chair at age 41 in Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville.

Arwood was the last federal inmate executed under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

James Clyde Arwood was born in Ripley, Tennessee, on September 7, 1901, to James Monroe Arwood and Dora Arwood (née Akin).

According to his death certificate, Arwood was employed as a barber.

He was married to Bessie Arwood, although they divorced sometime before his execution.

On August 2, 1931, Deputy Sheriffs James Wyatt Lunsford and C.A. Borders went to the home of Arwood's brother, Cornelius Arwood, near Ripley, Tennessee, following a report that Clyde Arwood had beaten Cornelius's wife severely enough to break her arm in retaliation for her not giving him a pistol.

At the time, Arwood was heavily intoxicated.

Lunsford and Borders attempted to arrest Arwood, but Arwood resisted arrest.

After some time, Arwood agreed to speak to Lunsford, but as Lunsford approached him, Arwood shot him with a shotgun.

Lunsford remained in the hospital for several days, during which his left arm developed gangrene and had to be amputated.

On Wednesday, August 5, Lunsford died from his injuries.

Arwood was arrested for Lunsford's death and held in the Lauderdale County Jail.

He was charged with Lunsford's murder on Thursday, August 6.

On June 28, 1932, Arwood was convicted of Lunsford's murder and sentenced to 21 years in state prison.

Prior to 1934, only cases involving officers employed with the United States Internal Revenue Service and Customs fell under U.S. federal jurisdiction.

A new federal law after 1934 allowed cases involving all federal employees to fall under federal jurisdiction, meaning Arwood was eligible to be charged with murder in the West Tennessee Federal Courts, rather than in a state court.

On Friday, November 28, a federal grand jury indicted Arwood for the first-degree murder of William Pugh and three counts related to operating his illegal still and making illegal mash.

On August 24, 1938, Governor Gordon Browning commuted Arwood's sentence to 10-20 years in prison, and he was released on parole effective that day.

Arwood violated his parole about a year later, leading to his return to prison on either August 31 or October 31, 1939, but he was paroled again on February 16, 1940.

Around the time of Arwood's execution, Lunsford was repeatedly misidentified in newspapers as "Wyde Lunsford."

Following Arwood's parole, Arwood moved back to Lauderdale County and began operating an illegal still, where he manufactured moonshine.

Approximately one year later, on November 21, 1941, federal agents arrived at Arwood's home in west Lauderdale County, Tennessee, to arrest him for operating an unlicensed still.

Before completing the arrest, Arwood requested to go back inside his house so he could bid farewell to his aged mother.

Authorities allowed him to go back inside.

Arwood reemerged from his house with a shotgun.

He fired at William M. Pugh, a federal alcohol tax unit investigator and former federal prohibition agent from Memphis, Tennessee, and struck Pugh point-blank in the face.

The shotgun wound mortally wounded Pugh, and although emergency medical services were summoned, Pugh died either on the way to the hospital, or within minutes of his arrival.

After the shooting, Arwood fled into the nearby woods, evading detection for hours while a posse searched the woods and swamps for him.

Arwood later returned to his house and barricaded himself inside.

At approximately 9:30 pm, the posse returned to Arwood's house and found the door locked.

Realizing Arwood was inside, the posse opened fire on the house.

Arwood fled to the attic as officers in the posse launched tear gas bombs into the house.

Eventually, officers in the posse ran out of tear gas bombs and had to retrieve more; as their cars returned at approximately 3:30 am with more tear gas bombs, Arwood surrendered.

He had not been injured.

An officer later said, "We fired hundreds and hundreds of bullets into the house from all angles and never hit him. How we missed him is more than I can understand. He's a tough man."

After his arrest, Arwood was interned in a jail in Shelby County.

He was denied bond at a preliminary hearing.

Prior to Arwood's case, Tennessee had never seen a federal murder trial.