We dont sell ads, or block you with a paywall. Floyd Allen (July 5, 1856 March 28, 1913) was an American landowner and patriarch of the Allen clan of Carroll County, Virginia. [2] His pistol empty, Allen proceeded to beat Jack with the butt of his empty revolver. He was called Pink because of a birthmark on his cheek. The Allens were unreconstructed Democrats, the county fathers were mildly progressive, albeit still conservative, Republicans. In 2015 or so, Sadler also found a .38 caliber bullet among the keepsakes. While the state legislature still appointed circuit judges, the new system reduced the ability of individual delegates to ensure that their preferred judge was selected for their particular county; furthermore, judges could no longer practice law for private clients while on the bench, and as regional judges their susceptibility to local influence and public opinion was reduced. V. Ray Bowman, Self: Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court. Jack Allen denied all responsibility for the allegations of intimidation, which he stated were untrue and insisted neither he nor his brother was guilty of wrongdoing. Then he found the original Floyd Allen indictment that bore William Fosters final written words. There was a massive effort for the governor to commute the sentences of Claude and Floyd, including a petition with over 100,000 signatures. March 14, 1912 - Hillsville Massacre Hillsville's history has a bit of a dark spot within it; the dark spot is known as the 1912 Courthouse Tragedy which was rivaled in the news only by the devastation known as the Titanic. Far from the backward, murderous mob of hillbillies as they would later be portrayed in sensational news accounts, Floyd and his brothers were farmers, business people and even occasional lawmen who sometimes had their own run-ins with the law, usually stemming from their participation in the illegal liquor trade. Seems like everybody from Carroll County has some connection to this story. I like how youre reading books about where you live. [23], Another prosecution witness was Floyd Allen's other attorney, Walter S. Tipton. There are even questions as to what happened here. [10] Rather than face arrest, the two men fled over the state line to North Carolina, where they found jobs in a granite quarry. Two of the participants were executed and the others received lengthy prison sentences. With the death of the Sheriff and so many of the Allens on the loose, the state sent help. [4] Sidna was retried and found guilty of perjury in his trial testimony, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Floyd Allen was going to trial. [1], Governor Mann immediately called on the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to find those responsible for the shootings and arrest them. [13], The rumor that the Allens were intimidating witnesses was called to the attention of the court. In our first story, from Pennsylvania, we tell of a murder with a wizardly twist. That day was March 14, 1912, the day five people were killed in a shootout between members of the Allen family and court officials on the floor of a small-town courtroom, an event forever known as The Courthouse Massacre.. Sadlers research took him to the Wythe County Courthouse, where he befriended Hayden H. Horney, the longtime circuit court clerk. During the initial manhunt, several posses of detectives and local deputies searched the surrounding countryside. Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court Great Video Historical documentary of the 1912 Hillsville, VA courthouse shootout between the Allen family and the officers of the court. Massie sentenced Allen to one year in prison. The answer would soon become obvious. Carroll County Clerk of Circuit Court Gerald Goad opened the formal transfer of the papers from Wythe County in the very room where the shootout occurred - a circle completed some 100 years, nine months and six days since traveling to Wythe County. Spread the loveOne of the first writers to bring the real Appalachia to the world was John Fox Jr., who had come to the coal boom town of Big Stone, Spread the loveWe have a two-fer for you this week! He lived to be the last surviving member of the jury, dying in 1963. Samuels' departure forced Commonwealth's Attorney William M. Foster to rely on testimony from Deputy Easter. No autopsies were ever performed and rumors flew of friendly fire casualties. The jury could not agree on a verdict immediately as the trial ended, and were sequestered in a local hotel overnight. [4] His defense team included former Commonwealth's Attorney Walter Tipton and recent County Court Judge Oglesby. - Almost everyone in Carroll County is related to everyone else. On the cold spring morning of March 14, 1912, shots rang out in the tiny, rural, mountain town of Hillsville, Virginia. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court at Amazon.com. Judge W. R. Staples presided over the courthouse shooting trials, which were prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Samuel W. Williams and involved attorneys Draper, Landreth, Poage and Wysor. Hall himself had asked Horney, who died in 2020, about the whereabouts of the trial exhibits while doing his own research. Family loyalty also played a role as the Allen/Edwards family stuck together to protect the Edward boys and later Floyd. The author also hints there were issues between the Democratic Allens and the Republicans who made up much of the courthouse crowd. If thats the case, those against the Allens saw a way to get back at them. So, in late 1910 when two of Floyd Allens nephews got in a little trouble with the law, the consequences would be deadly. The next morning, the jury quickly returned a guilty verdict and a sentence of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Maybe so, but people just keep coming back to this story. He apparently also hopes that the early hour will serve to dampen the spirits of the Allens. "Saw Claude Allen Fire First At Judge Massie". Watch popular content from the following creators: RealAppalachia(@realappalachia), KK(@hillsvillehillbilly), Simon(@simonogrinc), Deitrich Cribbs(@big_tipper), VIVI SHARMA(@srvsharma81) . To this day, 110 years later, nobody who has studied this notorious event can say with any assurance who fired that catastrophic first shot. He worked for the Edison Lighting Company. On the morning of March 14, 1912, Mr. Floyd Allen stood in the Carroll County courtroom to hear the verdict of his peers. - After his release from prison in 1922, Friel Allen came back to Hillsville and had Attorney John Alderman arrange a meeting with Dexter Goad. "Floyd Allen Defense Gets Well Into Case", Bluefield, W. Va.: "Accuses Dexter Goad Of Shooting Betty Ayers". These mostly came from recent labor disputes in coal country and their mannerism didnt endure them to anyone, it seems. And then, he apparently moved on with life. Airy. Attorney Howard C. Gilmer, of Pulaski, Virginia, was at Hillsville Courthouse in a room adjoining Judge Massie's courtroom when the shooting broke out. We are the court of record. 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 . Ron Hall, a local historian who has written a book about the shootout and is considered one of the best sources for factual information about the story, told Sadler that he was probably the first person to see those documents in 100 years. 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. According to local legend, a headstone placed atop their graves read: Sacred to the memory of Claude S. Allen and his father, who was judicially murdered in the Va. Penitentiary March 28 1913 by order of the Governor of the State over the protest of 100,000 citizens of the state of Va.. Photo by Ralph Berrier Jr. www.ccva.digital/1912-historical-courthouse-tragedy.html, The politics of March pressing assault chargesagainst Williams. Generations of Carroll Countians would grow up and grow old hearing about the shootout, arguing over who the true perpetrators were, creating and dismissing wild theories and resolving nothing. The defense attempted to show that Deputy Clerk Goad shot Elizabeth Ayers in his exchange of fire with the Allens, a charge Goad denied. Barry Lopezs book (above) sounds good. Now, thanks to Gerald Goads interest in this, the return of these documents can be part of a healing process. - Commonwealths Attorney, William McDonald Foster, was a brother-in-law to one of Floyd Allens defense attorneys; Walter Scott Tipton. On 13 March 1912, in the Carroll County Circuit Court, Floyd Allen was tried for attacking two deputies who had arrested two of his nephews for fighting and disturbing a religious meeting. Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court (2011) Plot Showing all 1 items Jump to: Summaries (1) Summaries On the cold Spring morning of March 14th, 1912 shots rang out inside the tiny mountain courtroom. In some ways, the county never recovered from that day. [20] Sidna Edwards had scalded his foot some years before and was partially lame, and limped out of the courthouse, riding his mother's horse back to his home. . Some of the detectives bragged about how many miners theyd killed. For a while, Hillsville was at the top of the nation's newspaper. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. [29] Marshall also testified he had been standing near Sheriff Webb, but did not see any pistol in the Sheriff's hand. The announcement of that sentence set off a gun battle that became one of the worst incidences of violence ever to occur in an American courtroom. Another younger brother, Sidna, was a successful businessman who had prospected for gold in Alaska, operated a store, owned a considerable amount of land and built a lovely Queen Anne-style home in Fancy Gap, and yet he was accused of being a counterfeiter who barely avoided jail time even though one of his associates was sent up the river. The new system appointed a full-time judge to hold court at scheduled intervals in a circuit of several counties. A Journey to and Beyond the Blackboard - Kim Johnson 2021-07-25 Kim Johnson, or 'Sir', has spent his life striving to achieve outstanding He found trial transcripts. . The 1912 documents referred to in this story were scanned and digitally archived by Delilah Brady, a volunteer and director for the Carroll County Historical Society and Museum. The battle of tradition against modernity seemed to be the heart of the rivalries: Would Carroll County be a 20th century civilized bastion of law, order and rules, or would the hidebound rugged frontier individualism of taking law into ones own hands and the bucking of authority prevail? As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. How can you have seven murder trials in Wythe County and not have any exhibits whatsoever? Sadler often asked. In the case of J. Sidna Allen, one of Massies relatives complained that the raw bacon that was seized needed to be sold before it spoiled. On May 18, 1912, the jury found Floyd Allen guilty. Floyd even paid their bail. [8], In 1910, Sidna Allen was tried in the United States court at Greensboro, North Carolina for making twenty-dollar counterfeit coins. B. Earle, 1866-1867. The detectives left at Hillsville have gone to the mountains, headed by Lee Felts. [6] Governor Mann refused a request to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment, and Floyd Allen was electrocuted on March 28, 1913, at 1:20PM. Marshall. He asked her if she was hurt or mashed and her sister-in-law responded that she was just scared. Hillsville, Virginia is part of the Preserve America program. Eleven minutes later, his son, Claud, followed his father to death in the electric chair. Preserve America is a federal initiative that encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy our priceless cultural and natural heritage. The sheriff in Hillsville had the boys arrested there and handed over to his deputies at the state line. 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. After all, he agreed hed have the boys in court? Two were executed and a number went to prison for their part in the tragedy. [21] Two more illegal stills were found at Sidna Edwards' house. Past month; Great transaction. [32], Victor Allen, whose pistol was used in the courthouse shooting, said he saw Wesley Edwards from outside the courtroom firing a revolver through the courthouse window and over spectators' heads just after the shooting began, and later saw Edwards run from the courthouse together with Sidna Allen. - Arresting officer Oscar Monday was the step-brother of the Edwards brothers. At one time, there was another store and a tannery and a number of dairies and some local micro-distilleries (before they became popular or legal). )[12], Foster called upon a grand jury to investigate the escape/pistol-whipping incident. The execution of father and soon occurred in 1913. The Hillsville Courthouse Massacre of 1912. There were, however, nearly 20 Allen men among the spectators in the courtroom. Easter ran to an acquaintance's home, and he telephoned the sheriff at Hillsville. But it turned out that he actually had left behind one document about what he saw and heard on March 14, 1912. When Floyd and Claude Allens bodies were brought back to the familys house in Cana, Frances Allen Floyds wife, Claudes mother entered the room dressed in black and fell across her sons coffin, embracing his body like a child. [18], Seven others were wounded, including Deputy Clerk Goad and Floyd Allen. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. [2] In May 1889, Floyd's brothers, Garland and Sidna Allen, were tried for carrying concealed pistols and assaulting a group of thirteen men. Terribly tragic. The historical society held a symposium that featured several speakers, and a play about the tragedy called Thunder in the Hills, written by Carroll County author/playwright/orchardist Frank Levering, was performed before sold-out audiences in the courtroom of the old courthouse where the shootout happened. Floyd, with a concealed pistol, began to shoot, but only after the mayhem began. Floyd Allen grew up in a large family in southern Carroll County, raised on a farm wedged between the North Carolina border and the front wall of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Please visit their website for more information. B. Marshall testified that when the shooting started he turned to escape the courthouse. He wrote urging that the state should pay a stipend to Judge Massies widow, who had become destitute in the years since her husbands death. - 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. As I always read about where I am living and I spent several summers directing a church camp that was about a dozen miles north of Ketchum. 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. The law provided that everything could be seized with the exception of a few bare essentials necessary for existence, for example, 1 cow, 1 pig, etc. Perhaps the hardest thing for an outsider to understand is the frequently heard claim that the subject is dead. Neither was prosecuted. [27] Years later, an allegation surfaced that Deputy Clerk H.C. Quesinberry had confessed on his deathbed to starting the shooting; two men swore an affidavit to that effect in 1967 (for which each man was reportedly paid $25). 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. Allen once accused Goad of running liquor, which forced the clerk to resign from a prestigious post as federal commissioner. The legend also claims that the marker was removed as a condition of Sidna Allens pardon in 1926 after he served 14 years. He was with his brother when the shooting occurred and was in jail with him when a vigilante mob took his brother into the jail yard and killed him. In March 1912, there was a shooting at the Carroll County, Courthouse in Hillsville, Virginia. . During a second glance Tipton again saw Floyd with his pistol raised and held in both hands; he then saw Floyd Allen fire his pistol. Mt. A second shot entered the back about four inches lower, while a third shot cut the sheriff across the chin. Officers often had a violent past. He never carried a gun as a matter of course, but on his way to court, the first day of Floyd Allens trial, his cousin, Allan Webb, advised him to borrow a pistol. Democratic Governor Elbert Lee Trinkle pardoned Friel Allen and Sidna Edwards in 1922. The jury fixed the penalty at fifteen years in the penitentiary. "Floyd Allen Defense Gets Well Into Case", Bluefield, West Virginia: "Defense Continues Efforts To Disprove Conspiracy". Hillsville Diner. He had them handcuffed and tied up with a rope. Director Rick Bowman Writers Rick Bowman Bill Perrine Stars - Floyd Allen was tried in 1903 for shooting his first cousin, Noah Combs, and was sentenced to spend 1 hour in jail and pay a fine. William Hodges Mann from Hillsvilles one outside line brought the famed Baldwin-Felts detectives to town the next day. 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