J.P. Rowdy

Since I've talked a bit about justices of the peace, I was amused to come across this remark by Judge Will Sparks while presiding over D.C. Stephenson's 1925 murder trial — after a four-way shouting match among the attorneys for both sides, a witness and the judge himself, the judge said, "Now, gentlemen, I want you to understand right now this is not a justice of the peace court. This is a place where you are going to have to conduct yourselves properly…."

So I gather that justice-of-the-peace courts had a reputation for being a bit rowdy.


Source: Lutholtz, M. William. Grand Dragon: D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1991.