True Crime Chronicles: Jealous boyfriend's killing of fiancée's father led to 1949 date with the electric chair

In the Carroll County seat of Berryville the evening of April 28, 1947, descended into chaos with a violent act that would reverberate through the community and end in a grim execution.

The perpetrator, 26-year-old James Harold Hyde, a truck driver with a troubled past, was engaged to Margaret Simpson, the daughter of respected local man Frank Simpson.

Hyde’s history of head trauma and excessive drinking set the stage for a tragedy that would unfold with chilling brutality.

Margaret worked at the local movie theater, a routine job that Hyde often facilitated by driving her to work. But on this fateful night, he arrived intoxicated and consumed by jealousy, demanding to know her whereabouts from the previous afternoon.

Margaret calmly explained she had been delivering cosmetics, but Hyde’s drunken rage left him unconvinced.

When she refused to get into his truck, his temper erupted.

A desperate struggle ensued as he attempted to force her inside. Margaret broke free and fled into her home, hiding in a closet to escape his wrath.

Unhinged and fueled by alcohol, Hyde rampaged through the house, vowing to kill anyone who crossed his path. Frank Simpson, alerted by the commotion, stepped in to confront the intruder.

What followed was a scene of unimaginable violence: Hyde drew a gun and shot Simpson, then seized an iron bar, beating his skull into a bloody pulp in a frenzied outburst.

At trial, Hyde’s defense leaned on an insanity plea, pointing to his prior head injury and the erratic behavior triggered by heavy drinking.

He was sent to the Arkansas State Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

The medical team labeled him abnormal and psychopathic, yet deemed him legally sane at the time of the murder. The jury, unmoved by the insanity defense, delivered a guilty verdict.

On February 13, 1948, justice was served with a jolt of electricity at Tucker Prison Farm, where Hyde met his end in the electric chair.

His body was laid to rest in Berryville Memorial Cemetery, a somber marker

just miles from the crime scene, leaving behind a town forever scarred by his fiancé’s fury.