Dead Darrius

Dead Darrius is a name associated with an urban legend connected to the display of a statue outside a house in Birmingham's Enon Ridge neighborhood.

According to a neighbor's account, the statue had been brought home by dentist Ernest Taggart acquired, during one of his out-of-town trips, a life-size statue of a young Black boy posed as if sitting at the edge of a pond with a fishing pole. He kept it in his house at 328 12th Avenue North. When he died in 1968, the statue passed to his brother, Jesse, a cook for ACIPCO. He and his wife, Ethel, who lived at 1122 11th Court North, set the statue up in the southwest corner of their rear courtyard, just visible from the street to the left of their house, past the driveway.

It is popularly recalled that the statue was painted realistically, with bright blue eyes, and dressed in real clothes, which were changed with the seasons. At some point a rumor started that it was not a statue at all, but the mummified remains of a child who had died.

Jesse Taggart's great-nephew, Lee Taggart, related to researcher Traciy Curry-Reyes that the display had become a such a spectacle that there were occasional traffic jams of people trying to get a good look at the statue, and at least once the police department investigated to verify that there were no human remains at the house. The Taggarts had no children. The story was kept alive by children at nearby Tuggle Elementary School and Wilkerson Middle School for decades. The Taggarts endured sightseers and occasional trespassers throughout their lives. Mrs Taggart died in 1989. Before his death in 1996, Jessie Taggart gave the statue to Charles McShan of Huntsville, a relative of Dr Taggart's who had grown up visiting Enon Ridge in the summers.

Only later did the name "Dead Darrius" become associated with it. Others have recalled it being referred to as "Timmy" or "Timothy".

References

• Curry-Reyes, Traciy (April 15, 2021) "Dead Darrius: Birmingham’s Mummified Stuffed Boy–Is It A True Story, True Crime, or An Urban Legends?" [sic] TV Crime Sky - accessed September 2, 2021