The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-03-15
Judge, Prosecuting Attor-
ney and Sheriff are
Assassinated.
JUDGE WAS PRoNouNcING SEN
TENcE ON ONE OF THE OUT
LAWS WHEN HE WAS SHOT
DEAD AND A FUsILADE OF
BULLETS ENDED THE LIVES OF
ALL OTHER COURT OFFICERS
EXCEPTING THE CLERK.
BY Associated Press.


Hillsville, Va, March IA troop
OF mountain outlaws rode down out Of
the Blue Ridge today to Carroll county
court house here and assassinated the
judge upon the bench, the prosecutor
before the bar and the sheriff at the
door, In less time than 1t takes to tell
1T, while sentence was being pronounc-
ed upon Floyd Allen, one of their num-
Der.
When the crack Of rifles had died
away only one member of the human
fabric of the court, Dexter Goad. the
clerk was alive and he was badly
wounded. Jurymen and onlookers
were struck In the fusilade but none
seriously injured. Tonight the out
laws with good days start are in
the mountain and bush. with a citi-
zens posse, little organized, making a
semblance of pursuit.
Governor Mann has offered a reward
OF $4,000 for the capture OF the assis-
sins and holds state troops under arms
for orders at Lynchburg and Roanoke
The shooting has terrorized Hillsville
and there Is not a man to give an or
der or organize a pursuit. Citizens
fed to places of safety and mothers
gathered up their children while the
assassins rode out of town.
WAS PRONOUNciNG SENTENCE.
Judge Thornton L. Massie had risen
from his chair as a bullet struck him
and he fell across his desk a bleeding
corpse. Commonwealth's Attorney w
Foster, with a half dozen bullets in
his brain. crumpled down to the floor
Sheriff Lewis Webb was shot and kill
ed as he reached for his revolver and
sprang forward Bullets grazed Clerk
Gcad, and In the confusion he was re-
ported killed.
Floyd Allen was convicted OF taking
prisoner from deputy sheriff. AL
len had struck the deputy sheriff over
the head with a rife and the prisoner
escaped. Sheriff Webb went to the
\ mountains and took Allen despite the
warnings of what such a venture
might mean.
Foster had prosecuted fearlessly.
The mountaineer jury was gathered
from the inland section, for no man
in Carroll county cared to. sit on the
trial, and had convicted him this
morning. The sentencing of Allen at
tracted a large crowd to the court
house. and as Allen was about to be
called up for sentence his two
brothers, Sidney and Jack. at the
head OF a troop of about twenty
mCuntaineers, rode up to the court
house. The brothers and their COM
panions, carrying revolvers and rifles,
strode to the court room and stood
behind the door. Floyd Allen was in
the dock, and the last words of the
judge, "one year at hard labor" pre-
cipitated the tragedy. Before the last
word was said cold fusilade began.
Allen, with an oath that he never
would go to prison, sprang out of the
prisoners dock as the judge coll
lapsed. Another roar of shots and
Foster was on the floor Then Webb
was killed. The assassins then held
the panic stricken jurors and onlook-
ers at bay and backed slowly out of
1the court house across the green to
PONIES and In a second were galloping
away.
Members of the Allen family have
been feared in the county. Judge
AMassie was a prominent jurist.
QUIET PREVAILS.
At 10 o'clock tonight quiet prevails.
Three OF the jurors, Fowler, Faddis
and Kane. were seriously wounded,
and A. T. Hewlett, Bruse Marshall and
Stuart Worrell bystanders, were more
or less seriously wounded. Floyd Al
len, the prisoner at the bar, was shot
several times, but probably not fa-
tally. Sidney Allen. his brother. who
killed Judge MasSie, was wounded,
but left town with his friends. Floyd
Allen is being guarded by officers. 1t
Is reported friends of Allen will at
tempt to rescue him tonight.
THROWN INTO FERMENT.
The village was thrown into a fer
ment. The murder of the law officers
left affairs In the hands of unframed
citizens, but nearly every man in this
section has Joined in the hunt
The scene of the wholesale murder
was the old-fashioned red brick county
court house, Hillsville being the seat
of Carol county.
There had been reports that an at
Nempt might be made to rescue Floyd
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