The Detroit times., 1911-04-19
DEADLY KENTUCKY
FEUOS RENEWED
Latest Killing in Bloody Breathitt
County Promises New Align
ment of Killers. w.

JACKSON, KBy.. April 19.-Ken-
tucky's bitterest feuds have been re-
opened by the killing or Jason Dea-
ton and the wounding of Luke Beg
ley on the Perry County line. In
Breathitt county II will mean new
strife between the Hargises and the
Galatians. In Clay county II will
mean new strife between the How
ards and the Bakers.
These feuds may be called the old
est OF the long line that have given
Kentucky so tragic a history. The
former goes back unbrokenly TO the
civil war, with connections leading
IL thirty years behind that period.
The latter sprang from quarrel
over three walnut logs In the fall OF
1897. Together they have cost 125
lives. When Devil Anse" White
shot down Deaton and Begley a week
ago he made the feuds one, and a
new page has been opened In the
roster of casualties.
Devil Anse" White Is not the fig
ure his name would make him seem.
Devil Anse" Is a name to conjure
with In the mountains OF Kentucky,
but that Is because the greatest Hat.
field OF them all bore IL. The Hat
fields belonged along the West Yir-
ginia border; the Whites belong TO
Clay county, long way to the south
west. Between the "Anses" there is
as much difference as there Is be-
tween their home communities.
For all that, howver, White has
had conspicuous parts to play in the
feud tragedies of the last 10 years.
His family has been identified with
the Howard Baker strife since its be-
ginning. Tom" White, his brother.
Is serving life sentence for COM
plicity In the killing OF James B. Mar
cum. John Abner, his brother-in-
law. was killed year ago in Jackson,
the capital of Breathitt county. II
was because Jason Deaton was
brought to trial for this murder that
Deaton lay In walt for Devil Anse,"
and was killed instead of killing.
All His Life a Feudlst.
White has been living among en-
mites of this kind for all the 38
years Of his life. He first came into
fame. however, by telling about feuds
and not by taking part in them. That
was In 1905, when the assassination !
OF DR.. B. d. Cox and James B. Mar
cum reached the courts. The prose- |
cution's first surprise came with the
calling OF Devil Anse" as a witness
for the state. On the stand he told |
how. when Thomas Cockrill was on
trial for the killing of Benjamin Har-
gis, Judge James Hargis, brother
of the murdered man, had called him
to his ONCE and given him 45-cali-
Der revolver. telling him to hold him. !
self ready TO do as instructed" When
the instructions came, White testi-
fed, they called for the shooting down
Of Ave Of the witnesses for the prose
cution, DR.. B. ID. Cox. ]. B. Marcum,
James Cockrill. Mark Cockrill and
William Vaughn.
When White left the courtroom az
ter giving this testimony. his life was
threatened by Hargis adherents. He
was surrounded in the hallway and
only the gathering of the Cockrills
about him, II was said, enabled him
to make his escape. From that time
on he considered himself a marked
man.
AS the trial dragged on the ties that |
bound Whites family to the Hargis-
Callahan affair were frightened. In
1905 Asbury Spicer turned states
evidence to tell how Robert Deaton-I
brother Of Jason Deaton-had told
him Judge Hargis wanted to see him.
Judge Hargis offered Spicer, his
brother Jesse and Ebert Hargis 500
apiece to kill DR.. Cox, Asbury Spicer
testified Finally Jesse Spicer and
Ebert Hargis did kill the physician.
he added.
During a second time on the stand
Asbury Spicer told how Judge Hargis
sent him after Tim" White. while
Sheriff Edward Callahan sent him az
ter Curtis Jett, to whom the killing
OF Marcum was to be intrusted. A
few days later-May 4, 1906-Mar-
cum was killed, as Cox had been on
April Is, 1902. Marcum was shot
down on the steps OF the Breathitt
county courthouse. Cox was shot