Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-03-19

BIG CROWD SEES THE TRAGEDY
Judge Had Just Passed Sentence
on Brother of the
Leaders.

Hillsville, Va, March 15.-A
troop of mountain outlaws rode
down out of the Blue Ridge noun
tains yesterday to the Carroll county
court house here and assassinatet
the Judge upon the bench, the pros
ecutor before the bar and the
sheriff at the door in less time thar
it takes to tell it, while sentence
was being pronounced upon Floyt
Allen, one of their number.
When the crack of the rifles dice
away only one member of the hui.
man fabric of the court-DeXtel
Goad, the clerk--was alive, and he
was wounded. Jurymen and on.
lockers were struck by the fusil1ade
but none was wounded seriously.
The outlaws, with a good days
start, are UP in the mountain bush
with citizen posse, little organized,
making a semblance of a pursuit.
Sheriffs and deputies from neigh
boring counties can not reach here
before today. A special train from
Roanoke last night brought twenty
detectives to GalaX, the nearest rail-
road station, nineteen miles away.
A reward of $1,000 for the cap
ture of the band, made yesterday by
Governor Mann was increased today
to $4,000. The governors procla-
nation states that $4,000 will be
paid for individual members of the
band, taken dead or alive.
Capt. F. w. Devant of the Second
Virginia regiment has been ordered
to come here with twenty men,
twenty rifles and ammunition. The
troops already at Roanoke and at
Lynchburg probably may not be
called for.
The shooting terrorized Hillsville
to the point of paralysis. There was
not a man to give an order or or
ganize a pursuit. Citizens fled to
places of safety and mothers gather
ed up their children while the as
sassins rode out, of town.
Judge Thornton l.. Massie rose
from his chair as the bullets struck
him and fell across his desk. Com
Attorney William Fos-
ter, with half dozen bullets in his
brain, crumpled down to the floor.
Sheriff Lewis Webb was shot and
killed as he reached for his revolver.
Bullets grazed Clerk Goad and in
the confusion he was reported kill
ed Jurors who had been wounded
slightly were reported dead and by
that indefination method of COM
which prevails in the
woodland country reports Of a
wholesale slaughter went out to the
country side.
Floyd Allen was before the bar
morning, convicted of
taking prisoner from a deputy
sheriff. Allen had struck the sheriff |
over the head with the butt of a
rife and the prisoner escaped.
Sheriff Webb had gone up into the
and taken Allen despite
dire warnings of what such a VEN
ture might mean. Attorney Foster
had prosecuted him fearlessly and
jury gathered from the
inland section, for no man in Car
roll county cared to sit ON the trial
of an Allen" had convicted him.
Yesterday morning his sentence
attracted an unusually large gather
ing to the quaint old red brick court
house, which stands on green
square, we'll in the center OF the
village. Those who could not get
In the small room peered through
the windows opened to the first days
Of spring.
Just as Allen was about to be
called up for sentence, his two
brothers, Sidney and Jack, rode UP
10 the court house. Their hardy
ponies, splashed with mud, testified
20 long ride from the hills.
The two brothers and their COM
,anions some carrying rifles and
,thers armed with revolyers crowd
ID into the small court room and {
TODD behind the rail and about the {
loor. Floyd Allen, tall and gaunt.
much the familiar type of mountain /
er, was in the dock. In his youth {
le was a fine figure of strength and |
ven now, when his reddish brown i
vhiskers are turning to grey, he is
o weakling. c
Judge Massie mounted the bench ]
nd Prosecutor Foster moved SEN e
ence upon Allen, who stood up.
here was shutting of feet and a a