"Floyd Allen Defense Gets Well Into Case", Bluefield, West Virginia: "Defense Continues Efforts To Disprove Conspiracy". B. Earle, 1866-1867. Bowman grew up in Hillsville, VA where the county seat is located, and has nurtured a life-long fascination with this story. Such tampering hindered the ability to link bullets to the guns fire or the direction from which they came. Attorney Howard C. Gilmer, of Pulaski, Virginia, was at Hillsville Courthouse in a room adjoining Judge Massie's courtroom when the shooting broke out. After years of being privately owned, Sidna Allens house was given to the Carroll County Historical Society in 2014 by siblings Stanley Widener and Bonnie Wood, whose mother, Marlene, often opened the house to the public for tours. - To illustrate the volatility of turn-of-the-century mountaineers, when Jeremiah Allen died in 1898, Floyd and Jack Allen got into a ruckus over a barrel of brandy when the estate was being divided. Not only the sheriff and deputies, but Goad and Foster. That verdict, those words uttered by a jury foreman and re-written by Foster, were what prompted the freshly convicted the defiant Allen to stand up and pronounce, Gentlemen, I just aint a-goin, or words to that effect, right before the courtroom filled with smoke and lead. Steep Canyon Rangers, Amythyst Kiah, Sam Bush highlight Blue Ridge Music Center season; more Former Fieldale High School in Henry County is being turned into housing. No autopsies were ever performed and rumors flew of friendly fire casualties. After a fusillade of shots, the Allen clan left the courthouse, armed with pistols and 12-gauge pump shotguns and shooting as they ran. The deputy clerk of Carroll County, Dexter Goad, obtained a new warrant for the brothers' arrest, notifying the sheriff in Surry County, North Carolina, who soon arrested both men. Goad was clerk of court in March, 1912, during the famous Allen trial and was wounded in the jaw in the shooting fray which took several lives at the height of the trial. Hillsville Diner. Movies. The author is honest and at many times in the book admits we wont know for sure what happened. Airy, North Carolina. No autopsies were performed. Court Crime The 1910's Spread the love In 1912 a Carroll County, Virginia, man was sentenced to serve a one year sentence in the state penitentiary. Again, no thorough investigation of the courtroom happened, and the scene was almost immediately compromised by people who dug bullets out of the walls with pocketknives to keep as souvenirs. He proved to be right. The answer would soon become obvious. Being from below the mountain, as Carroll Countians described the community, the Allens and neighbors were cut off from the county seat in Hillsville, which in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a two-day horse ride over the peak through Fancy Gap. It is amazing how nothing changes Today, a story gets retold till its stale, unless something big happens to push it off the headlines. - Carroll law officers did not cross into North Carolina to arrest the Edwards brothers as has long been claimed. Spray bottom of pans with Pam baking spray apply the waxed paper and spray the pan, waxed paper and sides with Pam. The following two tabs change content below. Petty also witnessed a pistol duel between Sidna Allen and Deputy Clerk Dexter Goad. A witness later testified that Floyd Allen had remarked that he "would not let any man talk to me that way."[14]. Victor Allen also asserted that Claud had taken Victor's handgun as the two left their hotel in Hillsville on that morning. A jury found Allen guilty, and on March 14, 1912, Allen went to his sentencing hearing before Judge Thornton L. Massie in the Hillsville courthouse. You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, IHeart Radio or on your favorite podcast app. Maybe the county leaders didnt want to find errant bullets from their own guns in the bodies of the dead, some county residents whispered. Alex Murdaugh listens to Dr. Paul McManigal's testimony during Murdaugh's trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. October 2, 2022. Charges eventually were dropped against Sidna and Barnett before the trial.). I recently learned that our town had a number of hiding spots on the Underground Railroad. Doing so, the opening details could easily be incorporated into the larger narrative. [13], The rumor that the Allens were intimidating witnesses was called to the attention of the court. View Map and Driving Directions Phone: (276) 728-2594 The new system appointed a full-time judge to hold court at scheduled intervals in a circuit of several counties. Find out where you can buy, rent, or subscribe to a streaming service to watch it live or on-demand. He was called Pink because of a birthmark on his cheek. One of these days I would like to sit down and write a book about it but just havent made the time yet. One shot. 2023 TheTVDB.com, A Whip Media Company. Three trials were needed to finally convict Claude. We are the court of record. - William Fosters daughter, Aline, married George Ellison Bud Edwards in 1917. I enjoyed the book even though it took me a while to get into it. Wesley and Sidna were charged with disorderly conduct, assault with a deadly weapon, disturbing a public worship service, and other violations. As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. SHREDDED WHEAT RECIPIES - CIRCA 1933 Booklet~Advertising | Collectibles, Advertising, Food & Beverage | eBay! The bullet came up under the skin of her right breast. The ex On the cold Spring morning of March 14th, 1912 shots rang out inside the tiny mountain courtroom. [36], For their roles in the shooting, Floyd and Claud were sentenced to death by electrocution. The discovered papers do little to shed new light in the darkended corners of the tragedy. It would take another tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic, to remove the focus from Carroll County. The flood of indictments that came just days after the shootout wail with pain, the typewritten words seething on the page while claiming that the Allens unlawfully, feloniously, wickedly and maliciously killed the sheriff and others. Those involved on the Allen side ran away. I was distraught over the recent rush to execute in our country. An Appalachian Feud Blows Up in 1912 Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime In Carroll . Many accounts claim that Allen initiated the confrontation by pulling a gun in court. Interesting story. His brother, Sidna? Another entered the body at the cap of the left hip and passed through the abdomen. Massie refused, saying he was there to prosecute, not persecute.. Massie had been urged by Foster and Goad to disarm the throng before the trail began. Otherwise, he would not have been armed. They, too, were captured by Felts and his men, as Sidna Allen came to believe that Wesleys girlfriend back home had betrayed them. Floyd Allen was born in 1856 and spent much of his life living in Cana, Virginia, located below Fancy Gap Mountain in Carroll County. [1][4] Floyd had wanted to buy a farm owned by one of his own brothers, but could not agree on a price. Floyd, 56, a once proud man now destroyed, was strapped to the electric chair, a leather mask placed over his face and four, 1-minute bursts of 2,000-volt electrical shocks were sent coursing through his body until he was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. Claude, just 24, was electrocuted in the same chair 12 minutes later. I oppose capital punishment (although if you heard what I sometimes say about certain characters on tv, you might doubt that). Late in the day March 13, the jury had not reached a verdict, so Judge Massie sent them to the nearby Thornton Hotel for the night. Allen rose to his feet and calmly said, "Gentlemen, I ain't goin'." As gunmen spilled from the courthouse taking their battle through the downtown streets, the judge, sheriff, and Commonwealth Attorney lay dead in the smoke-filled courtroom. However, no extradition order was issued. The sensational coverage and gripping photos of the characters and events surrounding the courtroom shooting captured America's imagination in 1912 and until the sinking of the Titanic a month later, the "Hillsville Massacre" took up a good deal of front page copy in newspapers . Judge Bolen confirmed his prior testimony that he saw Claud Allen fire the first shot at Judge Massie from the courtroom's northeast corner, whereupon Claud advanced toward the court officers to where Commonwealth's Attorney Foster was standing. Wesley was sentenced to sixty days and his brother thirty, which were served outside jail on work-release. [4] In September 1889, after pleading no contest to the assault, Garland and Sidna were fined $5 each plus court costs, and the prosecutor dropped the weapons charges. Explore the latest videos from hashtags: #truckspottinginthe717 . Sidna Allen was never tried for his part in the altercation, while Barnett Allen was acquitted at trial. Airy? Claude had become a cause celebre in his final days, perhaps for his handsome looks that were regularly featured in newspaper photos and the fact that he was leaving behind a grieving fianc. [4] Sidna was retried and found guilty of perjury in his trial testimony, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Allen once accused Goad of running liquor, which forced the clerk to resign from a prestigious post as federal commissioner. During my term of office Floyd Allen was several times charged with violations of law. As the late Roanoke writer and broadcaster Seth Williamson wrote in The Roanoker magazine in 1982, the Allen men were not a race of mild country squires.. Two were executed and a number went to prison for their part in the tragedy. People were struck, some were wounded, some killed instantly. Foster married Katherine Tipton in 1894 and had 5 children by 1912. As Sadler studied his grandmothers old scrapbooks, he found a copy of a letter that he had written to state legislators nearly 20 years after the shootout. Is Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court (2011) streaming on Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Peacock, or 50+ other streaming services? Perhaps the hardest thing for an outsider to understand is the frequently heard claim that the subject is dead. For example, Betty Ayers, who was killed in the courthouse tragedy, was a 4th cousin to Dexter Goad (clerk of court), 4th cousin, twice removed, from Woodson Quesenberry (deputy clerk), 2nd cousin, twice removed, from Floyd Allens wife and a 3rd cousin to the Edwards brothers, Wesley and Sidna. [5] Floyd's body bore the scars of thirteen bullet wounds, five of them inflicted in quarrels with his own family. The Hillsville Massacre By Seth Williamson Nobody knows who fired the first shot that cold, gray day, but before it was over, four lay dead, one was dying, and Carroll County would never be the same again. In the great Carroll County shootout in Hillsville on March 14, 1912, a judge, a sheriff, a commonwealth's attorney, a juror, and a spectator were all killed by shots fired by Allen and others after Allen was convicted of assault. But the documents do bring humanity to a story often told through tintype pictures, brittle newspaper clippings, hazy memories and fables passed down through generations. However, once the story began, it flowed better. Those documents include indictments, judges instructions, grand jury indictments, trial transcripts, letters and other courtroom exhibits all words left by ghosts. Supposedly, Andy Griffins father would take him up there when he was a boy (it was about 25 miles from Mt. The remaining prisoners received pardons (from a different governor) in the 1920s. 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