The Point Pleasant register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, W. Va.) 1909-1939, 1909-12-01
HOODS SHADE
INTERVIEWED
RALEIGH HAN RlYOKES AID OFDRART-
D9RH.

effort made to run down the perpe-
traitors of acerociOus murder of the
Hood family, near Beekley, win be
read with interest:
The detectives and many of the
county officers have exhausted every
resource to discover the supposed
perpetrators of the Hood crime.
Every clue however, unsatisfactory
on its face, has been thoroughly in
vestigated. The offer of a s, 900
reward by the county court served to
redouble the efforts of those gentle
men with Sherlock Homes propen-
sites, but all oftheir time and talents
have been used to no purpose.
These gentlemen have in their fu-
tile search, been looking for tangible
evidence pointing to the guilt of
some one, but it renamed for a lay
man to attack the knotty problem
from totally different viewpoint.
and to invoke the aid of the intangi-
bic and unseen-the powers of the
spirit world. The disclosures with
which this man is said to have been
favored are SO startling in their ma
ture as to have set the whole com
munity in which the calamity occur
red in eommotion equaled only in
interest and excitement by that
caused by the news of the tragic
death of the unfortunate family.
Appointment citizen of that eommu-
nifty, so the story goes, visiting Mrs.
Blake, of HuntingtO, whose reputed
powes toestablish communication be-
tween the living and dead is given
credence by many of the credulous
of this section of the state The in
terview was had on the first of the
week, and this gentleman, whose
Identity We are not at liberty to dis
close, as a result of the occult powers
ascribed to Mrs. Blake, talk to the
departed shade of the senior Hood,
who explained that he and the other
three members of his,' family who
perished on the sIst day of October,
were murdered before their bodies
burned. The foul deed according to
this post-mortem statement, was
planned by a white man and executed
by three masked negroes. The two
girls were killed by stranguIation
after which their heads were chopped
off and placed in a sack, after which
they we're conveyed to the deepest ra-
vine on the Hood place and buried in
the sand. The young man was shot,
while the old man was killed by a
heavy blow administered by one of
the assassinswith the butt of a pistol.
Forty dollars was taken from the old
gentlemen, and the house was ran
sacked.
No motive for the crime was as
cribed other than that which would
naturally be inferred from the state
ment of the taking of the money and
the ransackIng of the house, which
followed.
Upon being asked who it was plan
ned the crime and what were the
names of the three negroes who exc
cuted the deed, the spirit became
noncommunicatiye. The names of
certain of those heretofore suspected
in the crime were mentioned in con-
nection with the matter. In some
instances the statement was made
that those named had nothing to do
with the commission of the deed; IL
other instances and when other
manner were mentioned the spirit re-
fused to discuss the matter, assigning
as reason that trouble would result
therefrom.
Upon the return of the departed
Hoods inquisitOr a search for the
heads of the Hood girls was immedi-
ately instituted which has so far