Daily Kennebec journal., 1901-12-09
KILLING JUSTIFIED.
Jury Promptly Acquits Hebert
Marx of All Blame
In Killing Two Men and Wounding
Another at Oak Grove, Va.
Returns 10 Brooklyn Counsel Tells the Story
Girl Exonerates Him.

New York, Dec. H.-Iierbert Marx
who, on Tuesday night last. shot ano
killed VIM. TAYLOR ana Wm Hcf!lin
and seriously wounded James @. stiff
IT his fathers plantation house real
Oak Grove. Va. reached his home ia
brooklyn. this evening. He left Oah
Grove Immediately after his exonera-
tion by the coroncrs jury ANA reached
Washington, Thursday. As to hi,
whereabouts since Thursday nothing
Was obtainable.
| Abel r. Elaokmal ot Brooklyn. q.
the law firm Of Baldwin 4 EIackmar,
! Manhattan. gave out the following
I statement Of the affair:
! "Wednesday morning. received Il
/ telegram asking me To come to Virginia
at nee. and stating that Herbert Marx
was in trouble. / started at once. ac-
companied by Herbnrt's brother. Er-
nest. We reached fredericksburg.
| Thursday, and found that Herbert had
| come up on a steamer. We found him
| on board the boat and took him to ;he
! hotel
After hearing his story of the shco.-
| ing we decided that il was best for him
To go to Washington and call on Repre-
sentative Jones Of his home district.
and give him a full account ot the mat
ter. This he did ana placed himself
in the care Of Nj. Jones
Ernest Marx and myself drove to
oak Grove and called upon the COM
monWealth attorney, Col. Robert J.
! Washington. a descendant OF the half
| brother Of George Washington. After
" conference with Col Washington. We
decided to thoroughly inspect the prem
ises where the shooting occurred
| The next day we went over to the
place and found several things not be
| fore noticed. We found that Taylor
evidently had fired two rifle shots
through the house one of these had
| passed through the second story.
When the first shot was fired Her
bert secured his revolver. threw open
the door and confronted a man wearing
Il mask. H. called upon the man To
! speak ana SPY whethcr the affair vas 4
| Joke. Receiving no answer h fired.
! THE man, who afterwards proved to
be Stiff, fell on the porch. Stiff is said
20 have stated that he was shot by one
Of his own party, but Herbert says that
he shot him. He fell and after his
second shot. Herbert started across the
front yard toward Il fence about 80
yards away.
After climbing the fence Returned
and saw another man carrying a rifle.
! Herbert fired and this man also fell.
| The third man afterward proved 70 b.
Taklor. who, apparently. had crossed
he yard and climbed the fence on 4
parallel course with Marx
Herbert ran half mile to Grifith's.
the nearest neighhor. Securing lam
| tern a party fastened back to thr
scene of the shooting and found that
lfeiliin and Stiff had crawled into the
front door. where both lay on the floor.
unconscious. One mysterious feature Of
he affair was that the lamp. which
had been burning in the back room.
had been removed TO the front room.
Marx secured a horse and hurried
away To the home of DR.. Washington,
iivt miles distant. and soon returned
with the physician. Taylor's body was
not fouhd till nearly an hour later.
Upon searching further about the
premises a bag Of straw, a large bun
die of rags and a bottle of kerosene
Were found. together with a large
braided whip. a quarter Of mile
down the road two huggieS We're found.
in which were Il can Of tar. q rope 20
feet long and several rifle cartridges.
a man known as Douglas was found
in one Of The buggies. He ran away
and together with Il man known as
George Thompson, was caught later.
Both declared that they knew nothing
OF the matter. Both had been pressed
into the affair upon the assurance that
there was to he no shooting An eX-
animation Of Taylor'S rifle showed tha
the magazine contained l.? undis-
charged cartridges. The ejector of the
rife was down and a cartridge was
found damned in the breech, prevent
ing further use of the weapon.
Marx remained that night in the
house. in the custody Of Mr.. Griffith. |
who had been deputiZed as special
constable. Next morning. an inquest !
VAS held over Taylors body. Thnmp- !
son testified that he had understood |
the party intended to chastise Marx /
He had heen picked up on the road. I
and he knew nothing else about the 1
matter. Douglas told a similar story /
to the Jury on which We're two rela
tiVes of one of the dead men. Col. |
Washington told Marx he could make !
Il statement to the jury if he desired, I
and Marx did so.
"A verdict of justifiable homicide :
was at once returned. Mary was adj
vised to leave the country in the in
tercsts Of peace. He was taken to
i.eedstown on the Rappahannock and
he boarded boat for Fredericksburg.
whore we met him
''On Monday night, the night pre-
cedinc the shooting. Marx believes
that the first attempt was made to en-
ter the house. He was awakened by
an unknown man rapping on one of
the windows. He opened the window
and the man asked for information as
to the road to Oak Grove. saying he
was travelling salesman. Marx told
him how 10 reach the place. but the
man insisted on being shown Herbert