COLUMBIA — More than 90 years after he was killed in the line of duty, Fairfield County Sheriff Raymond A. Feaster was posthumously inducted into the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
Feaster, who served as sheriff for less than a year before he was murdered in 1933, was honored during a ceremony in Columbia. His induction was initiated after current Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery brought the historical details of Feaster’s sacrifice to the attention of the Hall of Fame.
“Sheriff Raymond A. Feaster was inducted into the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame on May 6, 2026, never to be forgotten,” officials with the SC Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame said.
Feaster’s life was cut short on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 3, 1933. According to the Hall of Fame, the sheriff had arrested John Watkins in connection with a store break-in and theft. Feaster was driving the suspect to a location where stolen property had been hidden.
After recovering the goods, the two were returning to Winnsboro on Chester Road when a struggle ensued. Watkins seized Feaster’s service revolver and shot him. The sheriff died instantly, and his car veered off the road near Adger.
The killing sparked a massive manhunt involving more than 100 armed citizens, state constables and highway patrolmen dispatched by Gov. Ibra Charles Blackwood. Watkins surrendered four days later at a home 14 miles west of Winnsboro, where deputies recovered Feaster’s stolen .38-caliber revolver.
Watkins was indicted on Feb. 19, 1934. Following a trial the next day, a jury deliberated for just five minutes before returning a guilty verdict. Watkins was sentenced to death and was executed in the electric chair on Friday, April 13, 1934.
Hours before his death, Watkins recounted the shooting, noting that Feaster had treated him “very kindly” and had not searched him before the fatal ride.
“I wasn’t aiming to kill him, just to hold him up so’s I could get away,” Watkins reportedly said before his execution. “I am sorry I killed him.”
Born in Shelton on Dec. 27, 1888, Feaster was a lifelong resident of Fairfield County. He was elected sheriff on Sept. 13, 1932, and took office in January 1933. His tenure followed a period of family tragedy; just a year prior, Feaster had witnessed the execution of two men convicted of murdering his cousin during a robbery.
Feaster was buried with Masonic Rites at Cool Branch Baptist Church. He was survived by his wife, Mary Belle Boulware Feaster, and three young children. Following his death, his brother, J. Melvin Feaster, was appointed as a deputy sheriff to continue the family’s service to the county.
