The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-11-08
SECOND TRIAL OF
SNEED IS At HAND
Public Interest Revived ir
Feud Between Sneed and
Boyce Families.
National News Association

(National News Association
FORT WORTH, Tex, Nov. S-With
the approach of the second trial of J.
B. Sneed for the murder of A. G..
Boyce, ST.. which is on the court dock
ct for next week, public interest in the
bloody feud existing between the
Sneed and the Boyce families. both
wealthy and well known throughout
the State of Texas has become re-
vived. Not for many years. If ever.
has there been a case known in this
state which was so full of the most
sensational detail and in which so
many men Of great wealth and social
importance played an active part.
The Sneed and the Boyce families
are among the most prominent in the
Panhandle region of Texas. They have
large property interests in the way OF
banks, ranches and farms and their
wealth is estimated at several mil
lions The heads of the families were
intimately associated with each other
in the earlier days and their children
grew up together. J. B. Sneed, the de-
PENDANT in the coming trial and the
younger of his two victims, A. G.
Boyce, Jr., were students together at
Southwestern university, Georgetown,
Texas, but love for Lena Snyder, the
beautiful daughter of well-to-do
land owner of Central Texas, made the
two young men first rivals, then bit
ter enemies and eventually caused the
feud which, up to the present time, has
cost the lives of six persons.
n6 m "a n
both young men and, not until after
she had married J. Beal Sneed, did
she discover that she was really in
love with Boyce. She did not have
the strength of character to resist the
impulses of her heart and, soon after
her marriage to Sneed she began to
have secret meetings with Boyce,
which became more frequent after the
Sneeds took up their residence at
Amarillo, where AL Boyce, Jr., lived.
On the night of October 10, 1911,
Mrs. Sneed informed her husband that
she loved AL Boyce and would not live
with him any longer. Sneed. who was
devoted to his beautiful wife, became
furious and would have killed his wife
and himself had not one of his little
children came into the room at the
time. On the following day. however.
he had her taken to a private sanitar-
ium for insane persons, at Arlington
Heights, near Fort Worth. A few
weeks later Mrs. Sneed managed to
send letter to AL Boyce, her lover,
begging him to release her from her
prison.
al Boyce drew a large sum Of mon
ey and went to Fort Worth, bribed one
of the attendants of the sanitarium
and through him secured the release
eloped the North, going first to st.
Louis, then to Omaha. At Omaha
Boyce learned that Sneed was in hot
pursuit and without delay he fled with
Mrs. Sneed to Chicago and thence to
Winnipeg, Manit. There they were ar
rested as undesirables on December
26, 1911 and when Sneed reached Win
nipeg having been informed Of the ar
rest, Boyce fled. Sneed took his wife
back to Texas and again placed her in
the same sanitarium from which she
had escaped.
In some manner Sneed learned that
Capt A. c. Boyce, the father Of AL.
Boyce, was in full sympathy with his
son and was plotting to get Mrs. Sneed
out of the sanitarium. Young Boyce
had been indicted on the charge of
abduction, but his father brought
about the dismissal Of the Indictment,
which fact also greatly embittered
Sneed against him. The two men met
in the lobby of hotel in this city
on January Is Of this year and, after
an exchange of a few words, J. Beal
Sneed drew his pistol and fired several
shots at the old man, killing him in
stantly.
Sneed was arrested and tried, but
after being out 112 hours the jury re-
turned and reported that no agree
ment could be reached. A new trial
was ordered and this will come up
next week. Sneed kept himself in re-
tirement after the mistrial and few
persons knew definitely Of his where
abouts. AL Boyce, the lover of Mrs.
Sneed, was supposed to be in British
Columbia and it was reported that he
had purchased a ranch there and in
tended to live there.
On September IA of this year Sneed
and AL Boyce met in one of the prin-
cipal streets of Amarillo. Tex. Sneed,
who according to the statement of
certain witnesses, was disguised as a
tramp, approached the unsuspecting
Boyce and killed him by several shots
from an automatic shotgun. The muir
derer surrendered and was later in
dicted. but the trial has not yet been
set for hearing. Sneed will be rep.