Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-01-29
THOMAS G. BOYD.
EAST TENNESSEE CLAIM SWINRs.E.
The Supposed Dead Claim Agent still
i'm the Flesh.
The Story of his assassination" and How
the Cheat was Discovered.
BOyd'S Arrest in Canada and Return 90
Knoxville.


Fun Details Of His Trial in the u. 8. Court
10 Date.
In view of the interest that attaches to
the prosecution of this notorious individu-
al, the magnitude of whose frauds are
known throughout the United States, and
whose trial is now pending before the Fed
eral Court in this city, and in order
to afford those of our readers who
failed to read the accounts of his
ASSASSINATION" last September and the de-
velopments that followed Immediately af-
ter, we present the following synopsis
compiled from files of the DAILY CHRON-
ICLE from the 10th of September, 1872, up
TO date, our accounts from time to time
having been fuller and moro in detail than
those of any other paper,
BoYD's RUMoRED ASSASSINATION.
Readers unfamiliar with the Boyd case
will need some explanation of his attempt
ed escape and rumored assassination. In
dicted in some eighteen eases for frauds on
the United States in making out and col
Letting fraudulent pension claims he was
bailed by friends i'll the sum of $50, 900.
Finding the evidence against him accu-
mulating and the charges weighing upon
HIM, he grew desperate, as his counsel eN
plain it, and determined to escape. 1t is
charged that his frauds amount to some
$4,000. In order to protect his bondsmen
from paying his bail money he desired it
to appear thas he was "assassinatcdn
On Sunday, the Sth of last September
| information was telegraphed from Sweet
| water to Knoxville that Thos G.. Boyd
had been murdered the Friday previous
| on Laurel Branch, near the North Carolina
State line, by masked kukluX, who after
| threatening his companions with instant
death, shot Boyd in their presence
and mysteriously disappeared, when
! after the lnpse of several hours the men
! with him, Reagan and Henslcy, were re-
! leased from their bonds aud told to leave.
! They told this tale, but people We're slow
! to believe it and rigid investigations were
made, which resulted in the finding Of Il
! body horribly burned, which some few
| accepted ~ the remains of Boyd, who, as
| they prufessed to believe, had been MUIR
dered, and all traces of the crime attempted
to be obliterated by an approved modern
suttec.
! The case was industriOusly worked up
| by Col. Whitney, Il Government detective,
and the charred remains identified a. those
! of
| sANCEL ROwLEs,
! Il colored man who had died short time
previous at Swectwater, and whose corpse
had been packed in charcoal as is alleged
! by Boyd's direction, and taken.tO Eleazar
church for burial, which is II comparatively
/ short distance from where it was found
! Then followed its burial and the open
! ing of the grave of the colored man
which was found empty, succeeded
| by the examination of Reagan and
| Hensley before the officials of the Govern
ment, together with other circumstances,
al of which taken together placed the
mysterious disappeared in very uncnvia-
| BILE light. 1t was supposed that Boyd had
| gone South and conjecture was right, for
he went direct to New Orleans without
hating, intending to go to Mexico, but
| the unsettled condition of affairs in that
| country induced him to change his mind
! and he concluded to brave the rigors of n
! Canadian winter in preference.
HIS RETURN.
Nothing definite was known by the pub
! lie of his whereabouts, until the 10th in
slant, when a dispatch was received from
| l.. w. Lenoir, from Detroit, Michigan,
bearing date the day previous and address
/ ed to his uncle, /. II. LenOr, announcing
the arrest of Boyd in Ontario and that
| they might be expected in few days, to-
gether with one from the fugitive himself
requesting that cell in the Knoxville
. lall be made comfortable IOf MS Occul atlOn'
His whereabouts in Canada was first dis
covered by some letters addressed to friends
in Sweetwater asking for papers with an
account of Boyds assassination. These
letters came in the name of Il man in the
far West who wrote by solicitation Of a
man in Canada, whom the western man at
once suspected as Boyd. With this trail
his final hiding place was discovered and
| his arrest secured,
he arrived on the 18TH inst, an account
of which, together with the adventures of
Mr.. LenOir a. {. detective, was published
the day following in the CHRONICLE,
! which, together with his preeenIment be"
lore the CoGrt AMI failing % give bail are
facts too rec mt occurrence 10 need re-
capitula i'm, IA they we've published in full
at the time.
This condensed stat, ment brings the
reader step 10y step, without link broken,
up to the proceedings Of the Court on
"Wednesday, the 22d inst, when the last
expedicnt of eminent coun 81 having fail
ed 10 delay the cause, the defendant was
placed Oh trial, from which time to date
the proceedings are in full.
! TContinaed or eth, 7th and Sh pages,1