Roll of Honor
Joseph F. Wilkerson
Incident
The Texas Prison System operated a railroad between an iron ore bed and the furnace at the prison in Rusk in Cherokee County. The train left the prison with 24 guards and 149 convicts at about 6:30 a.m. Shortly after leaving the prison one of the convicts uncoupled the two rear railroad cars which quickly started dropping behind the rest of the train. The engineer was ordered to stop the train. Two convicts jumped from the train and ran towards the woods. Fifteen to twenty guards opened fire on them. When the smoke cleared they discovered that Officer Joe Wilkerson, was killed and another officer, Will Lloyd, was slightly wounded. One convict was killed and one wounded. The officers were accidentally shot in the confusion.
Justice T. H. Findley conducted an inquest. The judge concluded that: “I find from the evidence that deceased, Joe Wilkerson, came to his death from a pistol shot wound from a pistol in the hands of Jim Bell, a guard at the prison, while trying to prevent the escape of a State convict, and that the killing was purely accidental.” Guard Bell was discharged by the prison system.
Wilkerson was survived by his wife and four small children. He is buried in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Rusk, Texas
Survivors
Wilkerson was survived by his wife and four small children.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-TX-AA2D55B6- Stewardship
- Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
- Added to badge.nw
- August 2, 2026
- Last updated
- August 2, 2026
Honored here by 1 tribute.
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Tributes
I never knew you. I am standing here anyway.
Correction Officer Wilkerson served with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Thank you for your service to the Huntsville community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Correction Officer Wilkerson.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Correction Officer Joseph F. Wilkerson is one of 1 officers lost to accidents in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 0% of all 97,772 officers honored here.
In TX, 657 of 2,422 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 27.1% of this state's fallen. That is 27.1 percentage points above the national rate of 0%.
At Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division, 32 of 124 officers on record were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 25.8% of this agency's fallen.
National Cause Distribution
How Accident compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. Joseph F. Wilkerson's cause is highlighted.
How Joseph F. Wilkerson Compares
When Accident Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Accident deaths across the full memorial record. Joseph F. Wilkerson is highlighted in Apr.
Others Who Wore This Badge
123 officers from Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division are honored on badge.nw. Showing the 16 most recent.
