Murder Book: 06. Suspects and Persons of Interest

Newspaper obituary for Jack Parker, age 62, a retired Birmingham Police Department officer. The notice records his funeral at Elmwood Chapel and burial at Elmwood Cemetery and identifies surviving family members, including his wife, three daughters, and mother. Preserved in the Johnnie Robinson case file, the clipping provides biographical and family background concerning Parker, the officer involved in Robinson’s fatal shooting. The surviving clipping does not identify the newspaper or publication date.

Veterans Administration application for a government-furnished headstone or marker for Jack Parker. The form identifies Parker as a World War II veteran who served in the United States Naval Reserve, records his burial at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama, and lists Mrs. Jack Parker as the applicant and wife of the deceased. The application also includes Parker’s birth and death information, the requested marker type and religious emblem, and Veterans Administration processing information.

Cross-Reference Note: See 09. Digital and Documentary Evidence for The Birmingham Post Letter to the Editor, “Wants Sunday Amusements to Help Birmingham,” published April 22, 1932. The letter includes Weeks contribution to civic life in Birmingham, Alabama.

Map of Lamar County, Alabama, preserved as biographical materials concerning Mody Andrew Weeks. The accompanying biographical memorandum identifies Weeks as having been born in Pharos, Alabama, in Lamar County. The map depicts Pharos and surrounding communities, including Sulligent, Vernon, Millport, and other locations, and appears to have been retained to provide geographic context for Weeks’s birthplace and family background.

Cross-Reference Note: See 09. Digital and Documentary Evidence for The Birmingham News article, “Three Negro Men Hurt in Altercation With Streetcar Man,” published November 21, 1949. The article includes Mody A. Weeks’s contemporaneous account of the confrontation and shooting, including his claim that he acted in self-defense.

Mody Andrew Weeks DD Form 1130, March 5, 1964

Biographical Memoranda In Reference To Mody Andrew Weeks, September 9th, 1921

Statement of Mody Andrew Weeks, Nov. 28, 1949; formal Birmingham Police Department interrogation concerning the confrontation with Williams and shooting.