The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1913-03-11
FOUR MURDERS soon
TO Ole At PENITEuTIARY
TWO WIFE SLAYERS SENTENCED
TO BE EXECUTED ON APRIL
FOURTH.

| MOUNDSVILLE, W. ", March H.
Four West Virginia murderers will be
put to death shortly at the State peni.
Tertiary. They are:
] John Hicks. white, sentenced to die
Friday, April II. First degree murder
Kit Williams, colored, and john
Marshall. c0lored, sentenced 10 die
Friday, April 4. Both wife murder
Harry Sterling, cOlored. sentenced to
die Friday. May . First degree muir
der.
Tie first double hanging at the State
prison at MoundSviIe in over thirteen
years. IS scheduled for Friday, April 4,
when John Marshall and Kit Williams,
both colored. of Mcdowell county will
swing into eternity at the end Of the
hanglnan's moose for the murder OF
their wives. Williams and Marshall
are two of the four murdercrs upon
|
whom the death penalty was imposed
during the January term OF Crimina:
court in Mcdowell county John
Hicks, white. and Harry Sterling, col
Ored, are the other two. The lust
double execution on the West Virginia
scurfold was in 1900, when Mooney
and Friday. who had been sentenced
by Judge Husus III the Ohio county
circuit court, on April Is, 1900, went to
death together.
Tie crimes the quartet have been
sentenced to atone for with their lives
are all of the most revolving character.
John Hicks, the only white man in the
number. shot and killed Mrs. Molie
Thompson, white, widow to whom
he had been paying attentions and by
whom he had been rejected. TIL"
shooting followed Il bitter quarrel be.
tween the two in which Hicks is said
Ito have shot the woman down in cold
blood. Hicks is but 90 years OF age,
Kit Williams was convicted OF dual
murder. having shot and killed his
wife, Bette Williams and Luclan
Scott, both C0IOred, in a fit OF Jealous
rage. Scott is said to have become
intimate with the Williams woman!
and the double tragedy was the result.
John Marshall. ColOrcd, was also
sentenced for wife murder, having
killed his wife. Minnie Marshall in the
course OF family quarrel.
Harry Sterling, cOIored, killed VII
liam Patterson. coIorGd, without provo
cation. Sterling is said to have been
drinking aud to Rave picked a quarrel
with his victim in which the latter
utterly without means Of defense was
deliberately Slot down.
All four men will be brought in with
the twenty-five others sent up from
Mcdowell for terms ranging from one
year 10 life as a result Of the late term
OF criminal court. Ten Others are tC
be brought in from Mingo county al
the same time. Four guards, an en-
ceptionally heavy detail, will be senI
down Today by Warden Brown tt
bring the prisoners in. They will b.
umrtered in a special car during the
long trip. The group forms one Of TIL
worst lots to be gent up from thE
southern counties IN many years al
included in the number are many o
the most notorious gun men" am
dangerous characters in the mountain
regions Of the State. The unusua
. number of convictions at the recn
term of court is due in a large nlea:
urv 10 the terribleirrime wave wac
swept Mcdowell county during til
u past few months following a reign5o
lpeacs that had covered a period g
inearly q year. .;{.
" f55i "a 40 Y i55fii ill