The Kidnapping of Witt Stephens – 1939
Perry Lee Williams of Sheridan robbed eight (8) banks, escaped the electric chair for a murder in prison, was shot to pieces during a jailbreak, and spent nearly fifty (50) years in prison. In 1939 at the age of 17 and armed with a .22 pistol, he walked up Highway 187 north of Sheridan looking for a rich man to rob. After turning down a few rides with “poorer” people, he spotted a new Ford, its driver in a suit and tie. The driver was W.R. “Witt” Stephens, the future utility and investment magnate from Prattsville. Williams pulled his gun and eventually took $63 and the car from Stephens.
A short time later Williams was arrested in Hot Springs for car theft, brought to Sheridan and sent the following day to Cummins Prison. Later when Williams was released from prison, Witt Stephens arranged a job for him at the Gas Company in Pine Bluff and tried to help him out over the years. Williams died in 1995 with memories of his past and Stephens is said to have later told his son, “I really knew I could sell when I talked him out of killing me.”
Source: Grant County Museum.
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