Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-28
ALIENS DIE IN
ELECTRIC CHAIR
EIeetrocuted Shortly After
Dramatic Last-Minute APP
peal for ReprieVe.
econtlpued from First PoeeJ

bv telegraph at Washington. The
4 governor Immediately crossed the Po-
ton1ae river to Virginia soil and tele-
s graphed to Richmond:
II am the governor of Virginia and
81 am in Virginia.
E with that Governor Mann hurried
back to Richmond on the first tram
reaching here about noon. The streets
about the railroad station were packed
guarded by police and detectives
he was whisked off to the state House,
Swhere he issued this statement;
nTfearing at > minutes to this
morning OF the action taken in the
Allen cases after ! had left the city,
7 considered it my duty TO hurry
back. 7 simply desire to repeat that
after the most careful examination
of the evidence in these cases | have
moi The slightest doubt of the guilt
kof Floyd and Claude Alien and l VIII
not interfere. The law must take us
recourse"
claude Allen is said to have col
lapsed in his cell when told that the
plan had failed and his father
whose ntrves have been badly
phaken. showed some effects from the
announcement a gold medal from
svnpathizers. which was to have
been presented 10 Claude for de-
Tending his father was unpresent-
ed and in the warden's safe when
The hoy went to the chair. one OF
the lines of his defense was that he
shot while defending his father
f.fF
Nothing was left undone 10 save
1.-THE Aliens, Claude especially. At
ftempts to have the supreme Court
zreview the case were futile.
The old mountaineer once the ter
fror of whole section of the Blue
Fridge, and his strapping young son
svere electroeuted within ten min
saltes Of one another The old man,
who went to the chair shaken but
Lbrave. was pronounced dead at LIS
No'clock. His son, namesake OF a
eI1nited States senator, was dead at
sr35,
The execution of Floyd and Claude
lAllen disposes Of the last of this
sband of Virginia freebooters. Sidna
Allen. a brother of Floyd; Wesley
: Edwards, nephew, and Sidna Ed
awards, his father together with
EFriel Allen. a son of Sidna, are all
sserving fifteen year sentences IN
the Virginia penitentiary
:. Victor Allen, a son of Floyd. Who
had been admitted TO the bar but
short time before the Hillsville mas
sacre. and who aspired TO the office
sof commonwealth attorney, the IN
,cumbent of which, william NJ. Foster,
was shot at the time of the raid. was
tried and acquitted, there having
been nothing TO show that he had
anvthing to do with the shooting.
Byrd Marion a cousin of Claude
ssAiien, secured his liberation by turn
ing States evidence
Sidna Allen. who was captured with
shls nephew, Wesley Edwards. was the
man accused by Judge Thornton L,
MassIe Of having fired the shot which
resulted In the judges death.
Today marks the passing OF the
Allen clan, which knew no law bur
violence. For years this clan had
dominated the section Of southeast
ern Virginia known as Fancy Gap.
They acquired wealth, according 10
mountain standards. defied their fei-
low men and the courts, and lived
= law unto themselves.
AS among all primitive characters
the clan spirit was uppermost with
the Aliens. One day. a little over
4 year ago, when old Floyd heard
.hat two of his nephews had been
arrested, he bore down on the Of
sfcer who had the boys in custody
brutally assaulted him and set the
prisoners at liberty.
1t was for this contravention of
4he law that Floyd Allen was be-
ing tried at Hillsvilie on March II,
1si2. when his fellow clansmen drew
4heir guns and shot TO death -four
officials of the court and a woman
zpectator