Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-03-17
: - 81 s,LalEROF COL. PARSONS
Conductor Goodman, Declared to be
Not Guilty Of Murder,
By a Jury Of the Citizens Of Albemarls
County, Virginia.
Goodman's Defense Was That Par
sons Reached for a Revolver and
He Believed His Life Depended
Upon Killing Parsons Before He
Could Shoot-A Brief History Of
an Interesting Case.

Charlottesville, Va, March 16.-The
jury in the trial of Conductor Good
man, charged with the murder of Col
onel Parsons, of Natural Bridge, Va,
brought in a verdict of not guilty this
morning.
Friday, June 90, 1894, the startling
intelligence was received in this city
that Colonel H. C. Parsons, builder of
the Richmond and Allegheny railroad,
and owner of the Natural Bridge prop
erty, and a man of national reputation,
had been shot and instantly killed by
T. A. Goodman. a conductor on the
James River division of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railway, in the lobby
of Gladys Inn, at Clifton Forge, Va.
Goodman and Parsons had been on
bad terms for years, Parsons claiming
that Goodman had been rude and cruel
in his treatment of Miss Parsons, a
daughter of the Colonel. The Par
sons family had pass over the road,
and on a certain occasion, Miss Par
sons boarded GOodmans train
WITHOUT HAVING THE PASS
in her pocket. Goodman demanded
fare, and, it is said, threatened TO put
the young lady off the train if she
failed to pay. She had in her possess
sion no money and was forced to bor-
row from a passenger. Parsons re-
sented this and a coolness sprang up
between Goodman and the Parsons
family. Parsons finally wrote to the
Chesapeake and Ohio authorities COM
planning Of Goodman's conduct and
disclosed that the conductors manner
was so offensive that members of his
family would not ride on Goodman's
train.
He also said that he had heard that
Goodman was a man of bad morals,
who had carried women on his train
for improper and immoral purposes
and had made improper overtures to-
wards a Mrs Staples. He asked the
officials to Investigate these rumors.
Steps were taken Oy the Chesapeake
and Ohio people to investigate, but in
the meantime
PARSONS AND GOODMAN
met at Gladys Inn. The fatal letter
of Parsons was unsigned, but the alb
sence Of the signature was conceded
TO have been an intentional omission,
as there was every indication in the
letter that it was from Parsons.
Goodman called Parsons out of the
lobby, showed him a copy of the let
ter, asked if he was the author, to
which Parsons replied in the affirma-
tive. Goodman demanded a retrac-
tion, which Parsons declined to make,
and Goodman then shot him down and
killed him.
Goodman was tried in the county
court of Allegheny in August follow
ing. The jury found him guilty of
murder in the second degree and fixed
his punishment at IS years. An ap-
peal was taken to the circuit court and
Judge Mclaughlin granted a new trial.
The case was removed to the county
court of Albemarle and the second
trial began at Charlottesville on Tues
day, March 5th.
GOODMAN'S DEFENSE WAS.
as he testified on the stand, that when
he showed Parsons the letter, Parsons
threw it down contemptuously and
said:
Il do not consider either you or
your family" or words to that effect.
That he then demanded a retraction,
and Parsons drew his hand to his hip
pocket as though he would draw a
pistol, and believing that Parsons
was going to kill him, he drew his pis-
tol and fired to prevent his own de-
Struction