J. R. S. (James Robert Soda) Pitts

Born in 1832 and dying in 1920, J. R. S. Pitts was a Mississippi doctor who also served as sheriff in Augusta, the town where the outlaw James Copeland was executed. Modern editions and publisher notes describe him as both a country physician and the sheriff closely involved in Copeland's final days.

Pitts is best known for Life and Confession of the Noted Outlaw James Copeland, first published in the late 1850s and later reprinted many times. The book grew out of the sensational case that made Copeland one of the South's most notorious criminals, and Pitts's firsthand connection to the events gave the narrative much of its lasting appeal.

Today, he is remembered less as a literary figure than as an eyewitness recorder of local history. His work survives because it blends crime story, frontier-era reportage, and regional memory in a way that still feels immediate.