A Crime Unfit To Be Named: The Prosecution of John William Campbell

Obscure laws often become weapons used selectively against people who offend prevailing social sensibilities. Such was the case examined in A Crime Unfit To Be Named. In 1949, a local man in this small Bible belt town became the target of extraordinary police scrutiny. Despite his advanced age and the private nature of his activities, if found guilty John William Campbell would face hard time. Swept up in this vendetta, two younger women would also become entangled in the notorious Arkansas criminal justice system. John Campbell’s grown children and their families, well known and respected around town, struggled to cope with the humiliating fallout of his arrest. His sons hired the best attorneys money could buy in hopes of mounting a successful defense. Given the precedent established twenty years earlier in an Arkansas Supreme Court appeal, only one tenuous avenue of defense could be mounted: that John William Campbell was insane. Portions of the actual court transcript reveal the shocking extent of police actions in this case as well as the outrageous nature of laws that attempt to control private, consensual sexual behavior. During the sixty ensuing years, important reforms have been made. This story serves as a cautionary tale about what can happen when government holds the power to regulate the intimate details of its citizens’ personal lives.