The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-01-30

/ Hillsville tragedy, together with a
statement of the happenings at that
I time, and subsequent events, from the
sta udpoint of the Aliens themselves.
Much has been said and written on
the subject, but we do not know that
the public has been given any such
consecutive statement by person
who has studied the matter at first
hand.
The friction between the Aliens and
the county officials, led by Dexter
Goad. grew out OF political differ
ences. For more than forty years,
while Captain w. H. Sutherland, a
Democrat and a Confederate veteran
and president of the bank at Hills
Vile. had been clerk of the county,
no one ever doubted that when man
was indicted the indictment had been
found by a grand jury in the discharge
of it's oath ito indict none through
malice. and to leave none unindieted
through fear or favor" nor that he
would get a trial by a jury fairly
drawn from the box
Then Goad and his faction came
into power. and whether ii was true
or not, certain it is that the belief re-
came very prevalent throughout the
county that supporters of Goads were
exempt from prosecution, while his
opponents were not only extremely
liable to be prosecuted for slight in
fractions of the law, but that the most
oppressive OF powers which the viz
GINA laws give to Commemorative
attorneys would be used against them
viz the right to split up single in
cident or occurrence into several Of
lenses and prosecute for each one of
them For instance. If Smith gets
into a fight with several men at the
same time, he may be indicted and
tried for the whole affair, or he may
be indicted as many times as there
were men in the fight. This latter
course was adopted against the AL
lens during the trials last summer, by
which means Claude Allen was tried
three times for the same transaction,
and the attorneys for the Common
wealth announced that they proposed
to continue to try him until they con-
victed him of murder In the first de-
gree.
Matters went on thus until they
reached a rather acute stage during
the last gubernatorial election on ac-
count of the activity of Floyd Alien
at the polls Sometime in 1910 two
nephews of Floyd Allen, Sidna and
Wesley Edwards. became involved in
a slight difficulty with quite a crowd
of young men, the sons of two Re-
publcans While some slight punish
ment was inflicted upon one or two
of the others, Foster proceeded to
have instituted some twelve or four
teen prosecutions, mostly charging
felonies against the two Edwards
boys They were each tried and con-
victed once or twice They both
served long terms in Jail for this
offense. for which a fine of twenty
five dollars would have been heavy
penalty. An examination of these in
dictments shows that large bills of
officers costs were taxed against each
defendant upon each conviction.
Finally there seemed to be no end
to the successive penalties that were
to be inflicted for this one transaction.
and Judge Bolen, their counsel. APP
pealed to Judge Massie and Massie in
strueted Foster to dismiss all the
prosecutions except one. In the mean
time these boys had gone to North
Carolina to work and Floyd Allen had
an arrangement with the officials by
which they were to return, when
wanted. In vacation of court, how
ever, when they could not have been
tried, a deputy sheriff named I. f.
Samuels was sent to North Carolina
TO bring them back to Virginia.
Samuels was known to be bitter
enemy of the Aliens, who had threat
ened TO kill Floyd Allen. and was
himself a renegade and fugitive from
justice from North Carolina. He.
with Peter Easter, another bitter en-
envy of Floyd Allen, proceeded to go
into North Carolina, without a requi-
sition, arrest those two boys with
out any authority. and bring them
back into Virginia handcuffed and
tied. though they had not at the
worst been engaged in anything but
a fight, and had already been pun
ished for ii and had always been pres
ent when called to court On the way
back they met Floyd Allen. who was
coming from Hillsville. where he had
been to make arrangements for the
appearance of these boys He re-
uuested that the handouts be taken
off these boys and asked Samuels
where his requisition was. Samuels
Immediately drew pistol and covered
| Floyd Allen, who took the pistol away
! from him and broke II up. TIE then
required Samuels to take the hand
cuffs off the boys, but insisted that he
should take them on to town. Samuels
refused to do this and. as Floyd Allen
left and started to get on his horse.
Peter Easter. the same man who
handed Goad a pistol in the Hillsville
! courtroom, shot at him. For this act
of Faster no action was ever taken
| by the authorities. This occurred in
! front of Sidna Aliens store. Sidna
| and Barnette Allen, his clerk, watched
this at distance. but took no part
/ therein. AS a result of this occur
renee. the commemorative attorney
| split up the transaction into seven or
| more charges of felonies. He had
! Floyd Allen indicted separately for
| the rescue of each of the Edwards
/ boys and for assaulting the officer, He
| then proceeded to have felony indict-
ments found against both Sidna and
! Barnette Allen, charging them in sep
I arate indictments with aiding and
! abetting in the rescue of each of the
/ Edwards boys Thus he, ffist himself
] ina position to try each of them Il
/ second time or more, This system
I of splitting up crimes was used with
| the cruelest effort by the Carpet-bag
! gers during the reconstruction, and
/ the fact that the laws of this State
4 have not been changed Is perhaps due
/ TO the fact that 1t has never occurred
| to our legislators that any prosecuting
attorney elected In this State would
resort to this measure either through
/ private malice or desire for additional
fees.
While these indictments were pend
ing the fall (191l1 election came on,
and Goad sent word to Floyd Allen
that If he would support him (Goad)
/ in the election that jury would be
drawn to acquit him. On the trials
tnx he