Queen of the Convict Camp

By Mike Simmons

In 1936, the Innerarity Point community, located in Escambia County, Florida, was the scene for bad news for two guys – Harval Russell Keys and Arthur Smith. Both men lived in the neighborhood, but they had a beef with each other. Actually it was more like war – something worth killing over. On October 28 of that year, things went horribly wrong for Arthur when he was shot with a 12 gauge shotgun. But things were soon worse for the man who pulled the trigger, Harval Keys.

Harval had had enough, and he decided he would finish this off. So he hid in the bushes outside Arthur’s front door. As soon as Arthur came out, Harval unloaded on him, shooting him up and down the front of his body. No witnesses except the victim, so Harval scooted off to his house and no one was the wiser…almost.

Well, it seemed that Arthur was a pretty tough guy. Even though it was birdshot, a close-up load of 12 gauge should kill a man. Not Arthur. The neighbors who heard the shot and came running to his side took Arthur to the hospital. He identified Harval as his attacker. The second piece of bad news for Harval was…Queen.

Queen was considered the pride of the state convict camp bloodhound pack. She and her handler, a trusted inmate named Berry, were summoned from the camp to put her 300 million olfactory sensors (about 40 times that of a human) to work. She wasn’t called “The Queen” for nothing. As soon as Berry got her out of the truck and she put her nose to the ground, and started earning her paycheck (or dog food). She stopped at Harval’s front door.

An hour later, Harval was sitting in his new home at the Escambia County Jail, awaiting trial for “Assault with Intent to Murder.” Arthur was at the hospital having pellets removed from various parts of his body.

Harval stood trial for a felony while Arthur soon recovered and was released.