Tire Track in Dirt – Vernon Dahmer Murder Trial (1966)

At first glance, the top-down black-and-white image above seems like a meaningless photograph of dirt. Looking at it more closely, however, we can see that the right one-third portion of the image is populated with gravel while the left half is occupied with dry grass. The region of interest in the photo is what lies in the middle: a column of relatively uniform dirt. More importantly, toward the bottom edge of the frame, there are three parallel interrupted vertical lines that seem to be impressed by a patterned item. Indeed, the photograph portrays one side of an unpaved driveway with a visible tire track impression, and it was taken to closely document the particular tire track impression that was left near Vernon Dahmer's residence after the January 10th incident in 1966.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the late Vernon Dahmer was a wealthy black businessman in south Mississippi in the 1960s. He was respected by both African Americans and whites alike as he not only provided jobs but also supplied agricultural products to the community. He was elected as the president of his local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter and strongly encouraged the black community to register themselves to vote. On January 9th, 1966, he made an initiative to collect poll taxes for his neighbors and even pay the taxes for those who could not afford it. Yet, tragically, that night, his house was violently firebombed and attacked, and he died shortly after due to lung damage.

To handle this arson murder case, local and federal law enforcement agencies collaborated in processing the crime scene. The associated case number is JN44-1512, and the case was often referred to as "DABURN." SA (Special Agent) Loren C. Brooks reported that at 3:15 a.m. on January 10th, 1966, Mrs. Robert Beech, an acquaintance of Vernon Dahmer's sister, called the FBI to report the burning of his residence along with sounds of a gunfight ("Crime Scene" Notebook 1 5–8). The FBI first responded by contacting local agencies but SA Brooks, SA J.L. Martin, and T. A. Woodward — the Deputy Sheriff of the Forrest County Sheriff's Office — eventually arrived at the scene and began to search the area for evidence shortly after 6:00 a.m. (17). SA Thompson Berry Webb, another FBI personnel who examined the crime scene, reported that Lieutenant Arlon Moulds of the Hattiesburg Police Department took photographs of the area and conducted a crime scene search (23). He may have been the person who took the photograph of the tire tracks, but it is difficult to tell exactly who captured the image above since there were many other officers who processed the crime scene.

What can be inferred from the documents, however, is the exact location of the tire tracks in the picture. In the "DABURN" case documents, an evidence inventory sheet specifies that Mississippi Highway Patrol Investigator H. T. Richardson and Officer Moulds created three plaster casts in the driveway of the victim's home (71). Dahmer's residence, which was located in north Forrest County, near the Monroe Street exit of I-59, consisted of his house and grocery store. Based on the crime scene sketch drawn by SA James W. Awe, the three plaster casts of tire tracks were found between the two structures, "approximately 30 feet west in front of the carport of the DAHMER house" (16–18). The casts were ultimately submitted to the FBI laboratory via railway on January 14th, 1966, to be compared to the tire tread patterns from the suspects' car (35–38). Yet, unfortunately, on February 1st, 1966, Roy K. Moore from the FBI laboratory sent a response letter, saying that the three casts were of no value (38).

The photograph along with all other documents mentioned in this article belonged to Robert B. Helfrich, a former District Attorney of the 12th Circuit Court of Mississippi, and was used to prosecute the Vernon Dahmer case. His collection was eventually donated to Special Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi as the  Robert B. Helfrich Papers.

To learn more about the collection, visit the finding aid for the Robert B. Helfrich Papers. If you have questions about materials in the collection, contact Lorraine Stuart at or 601.266.4117. Materials from the Helfrich Papers can be viewed in Special Collections located in McCain Library and Archives room 305. The library is open Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Text by Jason Ang, Forensic Science major

**Items of the Month featured in 2023 and part of 2024 will be the work of Southern Miss students who took HON 303, a seminar held in Fall 2022 focusing on archives and special collections.

WORKS CITED

"Crime Scene" Notebook 1 (1966), Robert B. Helfrich Papers (M410), McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi, box 39, folder 4.

M410-25 Tire track in dirt 3 ½ X 5 B&W 1966 Photograph of a tire track found on the Dahmer property after the burning, Robert B. Helfrich Papers (M410), McCain Library and Archives, The University of Southern Mississippi, box 24, folder 13.

"The Twelfth Circuit Court District of the State of Mississippi." https://www.12thcircuitcourt.com/. Accessed 23 September 2022.

"Vernon Dahmer." Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.splcenter.org/vernon-dahmer. Accessed 23 September 2022.