2007年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-Pip and the Judge: An Unlikely Friendship

Time again for StoryCorps. We have been listening in this oral history project crisscrosses the country.

Today the story of the late Wallie Earl Dow. He was a man who often found himself on the wrong side of the law. Time and time again his exploits landed him in the courtroom of Judge Joe Pigott.

Now judge Pigott served nearly two decades on the bench in Jackson, Mississippi. But he says no defendant 1 confounded him more than the man nicknamed Pip.

Many of the people who came before me were not educated, but they were certainly intelligent. Some of them be dealt with on several times, and the one that comes the man most was Wallie Earl "Pip" Dow. He would take what was not his in order to finance his drinking problem. You didn't have to try him, he always pled a guilty. And he was a likable person. He would write me letters, and he wrote me one time and he said, "Judge, I feel like I have been up here long enough this time, and I would appreciate if you write to parole board and see if they will let me out."

Well, I did it, and they did it, and he had been out maybe six weeks, when he began drinking and took his friend’s watch, and the keys to his friend's car. And his friend called the sheriff and told him he had been robbed by Wallie Earl, but he knew exactly where Willie was. And so the sheriff went there and got him and locked him up. And when he came up before me, of course he pled guilty again, and I got ready to sentence him. "Come around Mr. Dow," I am so disappointed I don’t know what to say, "I've given you another chance, and then you got in trouble again, and I just don't understand you." When he said that:"Well, judge, I am disappointed in you." Everything in the courtroom got deathly quite. He said, "when I was here four years ago, you were sitting in that same chair, wearing that same robe, making that same speech. I figured a man of your caliber 2 ought to at least be on the Supreme 3 Court by now. "Well", I told him, "Mr. Dow, I was gonna sentence you to five years, but since you are so perceptive 4, I think I will just give you three years."-- which I did.

Well, later, when I retired 5 , they had a little ceremony there in the courtroom to hang up my portrait. And in walks Willie Earl "Pip" Dow. And I told him," Mr. Dow, I am so glad to see you." He said:"Well, I heard they were going to hang Judge Piggot at the courtroom, and so, I didn't want to miss that." And I said,"I'm resigning, how long is it going be before you going back to the penitentiary 6. He said," Judge, you're resigning. I am resigning. I am retired just like you." Well, I asked the judge that replaced me and the sheriff of the county to let me know if he got arrested for anything after that. And he did not, he lived about ten more years, and died a couple of years ago, but he was such a likable person. Sometimes you make friends in strange ways.

Judge Joe Piggot talking to his wife Lorraine in a StoryCorps booth in Jackson, Missicipi. All StoryCorps interviews are archived at the Library of Congress, and you can hear some at NPR.org.