THIS WEEK IN ST. JOHNS COUNTY HISTORY: Hastings deputy killed on way to quiet fracas in 1927
Editor's note: The St. Augustine Evening Record published this story Nov. 6, 1927.
Deputy Sheriff P.A. Turlington of the Hastings district, was found dead Friday night, Nov. 4, 1927, at Five Mile Branch, where his Ford car had apparently left the road hurling the speeding law officer through the windshield to his death.
According to Sheriff E.E. Boyce, under whom Turlington was serving, Turlington had brought some prisoners into St. Augustine when a call came from the Hastings district to the effect that three men had beaten and robbed a man near Hastings, and were still in the vicinity. Deputy Turlington jumped into his car and started with all speed for Hastings.
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At the Five Mile Branch, south of St. Augustine, his steering gear apparently became faulty and the car, said to have been traveling at a terrific speed, left the road to catapult into a drainage ditch.
Turlington, judging from the position of the body upon discovery, must have hurtled through the windshield as the car buckled and crashed to the brick pavement.
An examination of the body at the funeral parlors of Sanchez and Craig Saturday morning showed that the deputy had received a skull-crushing blow on the back of the head in addition to fatal lacerations of the neck and chest. His shoulder was badly fractured and his clothing was torn to shreds as though he had slid along the highway after being hurled through the windshield.
Sheriff Boyce, who investigated the accident Friday night, reported yesterday morning that an apparent break in the steering gear of the car had caused the wheels to buckle. The speed at which the deputy was traveling had catapulted the car and driver through the air and ended in a series of somersaults, he said.
The dead deputy was 33 years of age, and had lived in Hastings since 1912. He is survived by his widow Mrs. Nina Turlington, two sons, Cecil and Charles and one daughter, Bertha May; also four brothers, Frank, Emory and Valley Lee, Florida, and Charles, of Mayo, Florida; two sisters, Mrs. Amanda Davis of New Smyrna and Mrs. Mary Blanton of Lake Alfred, Florida.
The body will be removed from the mortuary chapel of Sanchez and Craig this afternoon at 1 o’clock and will be carried to the First Baptist Church of Hastings.
Between 2 and 3 o’clock the body will lie in state and may be viewed by friends. The funeral service will be at 3 o’clock, with the Rev. Johns F. Gable, pastor, conducting the ceremonies. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery, St. Augustine.
As a member of the Palatka Lodge of Elks, the deceased deputy had numberless friends in Palatka as well as in St. Augustine, Hastings, and throughout St. Johns County.
According to tentative plans announced, the Palatka Elks will assist with the conduct of the service this afternoon.
This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: St. Johns County Deputy Sheriff P.A. Turlington died in 1927
