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

stance. as the fact that Dexter Goad
ordered a new 3S-caliber,. and that
Webb. on the day the court began,
borrowed a Colts automatic; that
Goad two nights before the shooting
was exhibiting a pair of pistols that
he was carrying, to a gentleman in
Hillsville. the fact that Goad had in
his office an extra supply of ammu-
milton. and great mass of other SINH
lar evidence; whereas so far as | can
recall, not one word of evidence was
ever produced to show that any of
the Aliens had made any preparation
whatever for this trouble. but on the
contrary, If Floyd Allen was expect
ing any, such trouble/A~ this his con-
duct was most peep1iar, (as every wit
ness stated that when \he arose he
fumbled with his sweatefor vest and
either had his pistol buttoned up in
side of sweater or did not know
where 1t was at all. The pistol that
he did have with him, instead of be-
ing heavy weapon, as one would
naturally expect him to have for such
an occasion. was a short Smith &
Wesson. with only four chambers
loaded, and he had no extra cart
ridges. So far as we know. none of
the Aliens had any extra cartridges,
except Sidna. who happened to have
few in his rocket, and none of them
had more than one pistol.
1t was always contended that
Claude and his father had talked of
this when they whispered together in
the bar Judge Bolen called Claude
and says that after he finished talk
ing TO him. Claude and Floyd talked
for moment about what horse
Claude should ride. Bolen did not
hear all the conversation, but such as
nc heard was about the horse. Floyd
made the same statement before ] had
ever seen Judge Bolen, and Claude
made identically the same statement
before he had ever talked to either
of them.
That they were not expecting any
thing of this sort is perfectly appar-
ent from the fact that Claude and
Victor Allen had their horses locked
up in the back of Ayers stable, where
they could only get to them by going
and finding Mr.. Ayers and getting a
key to unlock the gate in addition
to that Sidna Allen had I'm the bank
OF Hillsville some six or seven hum
dred dollars that he had Just recently
placed there and was continuing to
order goods, and had. in fact, order
ed very extensive bills of goods during
that term of court. Most conclusive Of
ALL at the moment the trouble start
ed, Mrs. Edwards, the mother of the
two Edwards boys and sister of Floyd
and Sidna Allen. was standing in the
court room right behind her brother,
Floyd. 1t Is almost incredible to sup
pose that if such thing had been
contemplated that she would have
been permitted to remain in there
Add to this some alleged wild talk
ing that Floyd Allen had been doing.
and we have the Commonwealth s
evidence of a conspiracy. The fact
Is most noticeable in the case of what
they called Floyd Aliens threats
that in none of them did he ever con-
meet anyone else, or make any state
ment. except as to what he, himself
proposed to do. These so-calied
threats wer largely. IL not. entirely
testified to by henchmen, and political
supporters of Goads Goad denied
absolutely any i'll feeling on his part
against Floyd Allen and yet il was
proven that Floyd Allen had brought
charges against him of misconduct in
office. For instance, it was charged
that while Goad was United States
commissioner. that he ran an Illicit
still in partnership with another man,
and that as a result of these charges
he resigned without permitting them
to be investigated. Since the trial
was concluded, we have found the ad-
dress of this partner of Goad's That
Is Mr.. j. W. Johnson. who lives at
Affinity, w. Va. This party states
that he ran a still in partnership with
Goad and that Goad furnished the
corn and he ran the still. and they
divided the proceeds. That the bust
ness was conducted on this basis by
them until the still was reported and
broken up. That upon affidavits of
himself and nthaFS (1npd
without an investigation
Another most singular circumstance
is the fact that the officers utterly de-
MED preparation for this trouble, and
yet at every hand 1t was proven that
they had been preparing 1t is diff
ficult to understand why. if the Al
lens were the people they were pre-
tended TO be. that they should not
have frankly stated that they expect
ed trouble and were prepared for IT,
In each of the cases of FLOYD and
Claude Allen there is one great uues-
ton: In Floyd's case he claimed to
have been shot before he ever fired
and to have shot in seif-defense As
case after case has been tried this
theory has been proven true. From
the very first, Judge Bolen stated that
Floyd Allen fell to the floor apparent
! y killed or as he EXPRESSED IL shot
padlE enough to satisfy anybody, "
Goad and others continued to fire at
him, however, and when it became an
parent to Judge Bolen that he would
be killed by this fire at Floyd. He
called repeatedly to him to move
away, and to the officers TO stop fir.
ing at him Floyd then arose. and in
the language of Judge Bolen took
shot or two at the people who were
shooting at him" and then went out
This was the first shooting he saw
Floyd do. Again the strangest wit
ness to the effect that Floyd shot be-
fore he was shot down, was Preston
Fowler. In the later trials this man
was thoroughly impeached and shown
TO be unworthy of credit and was not
again used as witness.
The physical facts support Flovd's s
statement, as the spindles in the ban
histers around the bar are filled with
bullets down near the floor, evidently
flred at him where he lay on the floor.
AND he was shot in the side before he
lett the courtroom. just as he said.
I'm Ciaude's case the question was
whether ne shot Judge Massie. Judge
Bolen stated that he saw Claude Allen
standing in the northeast corner; that
claude fired first and Immediately
thereafter he saw Sidna Allen FIRE
from the same point. And yet he un-
dertakes to say that he saw the first
shot take effect in the Judges shout