Samuel Dashiell "Red Finger" Clyde (1 June 1844-1 June 1868) was an American murderer from White County, Illinois.
Biography[]
Samuel Dashiell Clyde was born in Carmi, White County, Illinois in 1844, the illegitimate son of Mariah Clyde. Clyde worked as a farmer, and he suffered from severe mental illness, potentially caused by his mother's drinking during her pregnancy. Clyde enlisted in the 87th Illinois Infantry Regiment in 1864 at the end of the American Civil War, but he was dishonorably discharged for his unruly behavior. Clyde's commanding officer accused alcohol of having addled Clyde's brains, and, on returning home, Clyde became a staunch advocate of temperance and the immediate closure of all drinking establishments. While shunned by the majority of Carmi's residents, Clyde acquired a handful of followers who were willing to utilize his passion to shut down the town's few saloons, and Clyde deluded himself into thinking that he could be elected Mayor. Just three days into his 1867 mayoral campaign, Clyde murdered a drinker outside of a saloon to demonstrate his hardline anti-drinking stance, naively believing that he would escape responsibility due to his confidence in the morality of the act. However, he was arrested and nicknamed "red finger" for the bloodstain he refused to wash from his hand during his trial, as he wore it as a badge of honor. He was hanged on 1 June 1868.