The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1911-11-23
A Double Tragedy.

bl1t since we learn the difficulty
started between Gar Elrod, a son
of Thomas Elrod and Graham
about some tales concerning wo-
men, the dispute led to hardwood
thelie passed, and the boy was
cursed. so it is claimed, by, Ora
ham. Thomas took the boys
side and about that time Elrod
claims Graham drew a rock and
he shot him.
Soon after the shooting Elrod
and his son Gar departed on foot
to make their escape.
They left their home on the
same afternoon and went across
fields and bottoms and came in
to the public road near Mr..
Williams store. They stopped
at the store and had a $40. bill
changed and went on their way
one had a shot gun and the
other an umbrella.
Sheriff Roark was not mott
fed until Wednesday morning,
and by this time the two had.
at least twelve hours tbe~start
of him. He wenteb| Easley
and Mr.. J1:1E''McKinney and
they>aeaded for the place Of the
killing. After reaching it and
making inquiries they got track
of the men and pushed on after
them. They tracked them by
their tracks in the road and by
iinnqqaaiiring inc aaiiring Of people who had
seen them from the Williams
Store across the Farr bridge,
into the Whitehorse road in
Greenville county, thence to
Marietta and on intc~<North
Caroline. When the Sheriff
reached Cedar Mountain in
No tn Carolina he found the
men were about four or five
hours ahead of him and finding
telephone connection there with
Brevard called up Sheriff Shu-
ford and gave him a description
of Thomas Elrod and asked him
to be on the lookout for him.
Sheriff Roark did not know at
this time that Gar Elrod was
with his father as he had been
told at Marietta that a boy fill
ing the description had boarded
the train there going toward
Greenville, and the surmise was
that the boy had gone with his
father to the foot of the noun
tains and was returning to settle
up and wind up. the home af-
fairs and would meet his father
later. But in this the officers
were mistaken.
AS Soon as Sheriff Shuford re-
.ceived the telephone message he
notified the police of Brevard
and in Company with his deputy
Mr.. Branch Paxon, began to
watch and search for the men
About 4 o'clock that afternoon
"wednesday the train came in
from Hendersonville and the
Sheriff inquired of the Conduc-
tor if he had seen any man fill
ing the description of Thomas
Elrod. The conductor told him
he had about 3 miles up the
track. At this time anotheI
train was leaving for Hender-
sonville and the Sheriff went
out on it and told Mr.. Paxon to
follow on foot, that he would
get off 3 miles above and walk
back to meet him. The Sheriff
passed the men and before he
could get back Deputy Paxon
had met them. He ordered the
old man to hold up his hands,
which he did, and the officer
began to search him for a weap-
on. While searching him the
older Elrod knocked him across
the face, got the deputy's pistol
and engaged him in a terrific
fight. In the melee he called to
the boy to get the gun and shoot
Paxon,
The two men were still fight
ing and the boy grabbed his
fathers gun and shot at the
officer but missed him. About
this time the officer slung the
I'D man loose and recovered his
pistol shot the boy as he was
oading his gunvSo shoot again.
The boy dropped ehe gun and
an back to the officer a.
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