On Friday, July 30, 1971, 24-year-old D. Raleigh Clarke, Millry, Alabama’s chief of police, was ambushed and shot while entering a local pool hall. Clarke, who had served two years as chief, was investigating reports of illegal gambling and liquor sales when he suffered a single gunshot wound to the head that proved fatal.

Investigators identified a 20-year-old suspect who was arrested, charged with murder, and later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Three other people were reported to have been present and involved in the events leading to Clarke’s death; charges against them were dropped in exchange for their testimony against the man who fired the fatal shot. The convicted man escaped Washington County Jail in November 1973 and was arrested by FBI agents in Miami in July 1974. In 1980 he received an additional two-year sentence for receiving smuggled drugs while incarcerated. Clarke was survived by his expectant wife.

Does anyone have memories of Chief Clarke, the pool hall, or the case that could add context to what happened that night?