The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-25
Elder Leighton Fired Rifle
at Gibson and Sons
Welded Club
DISPUTE OVER LOGS
CAUSE OF MURDER
Two Transfers with Leighton at Bay
Under Threat of Being Fired Upon
Three Men Arrested and Lodged
in Woodstock Jail.

SHARON, Vt. Feb 25.-An investi-
cation into the killing of Albert C.I
Gibson, announced in q special des-
patch to The Reformer yesterday,
shows that he was first shot by Charles
Leighton and then dubbed to death bv
his sons, Walter and Newell Leighton.
about two miles north of this village
yesterday, in a timber lot near j. L.
Congdon s farm, where Gibson and his
men had gone to draw logs
1t is stated that trouble had been
brewing between Leighton and Gibson
as the result of boundary dispute.
The Leighton and Congdon farms adj
join. 1t is said that Congdon sold
some standing timber to Mr. Gibson
Unknown to Gibson, Leighton is said
to have cut the timber and rolled it on
to his own land.
Yesterday when Gibson and his
men went to the lot to haul out the
logs, Leighton and his two sons fol
lowed. The logs We're loaded, when
Leighton interfered William Morse,
one of the men in the employ of Glib
son and an eyewitness to the affair,
says that he with the other three
teamsters were ready to start out of
the woods when Leighton said to Glib
son; "Unload those logs
| Gibson said to his men: Go ahead =
whereupon Leighton, who was carving
rife, fired, the bullet going between
Morse and Fred SpauIding, who were
standing near.
Leighton fired again and the second
| bullet struck Gibson in the leg and he
fell to the ground. Leighton then
pointed the rifle at the teamsters, say.
ing: ''You move out of your tracks
and l IL shoot you
! While he held the men at bay,
Morse 5 story is that each of the boys
picked up sled stake and struck Glib.
son over the head, knocking him sense.
! less. The father turned and walked
away and the two boys stood by while
Morse and spaulding rolled the logs
from their sled and, laying Mr.. Glib
son on some blankets, started for the
Congdon farm, one-half mile away
The man died before they reached the
house.
Shortly after the shooting constable
F. 0. Billings arrested Leighton anc
his two sons, and they were held here
until late this afternoon, when HigI
Sheriff James H. Kinary of Windsor
and States Atty. B. f. Cole took then
to Woodstock Jail.
Leighton is newcomer to this sec
ton, having moved here from Haver
hill, Mass, last May. He is As years
old and has a wife and six children
Newell, who Is implicated in the muir
der, is 10 and Walter is 81 The thre
men are apparently exceptionally III
tellgent and seem to realize the seri
business Of the affair While the eide
Leighton talked with his attorney
Raymond J. Trainor, ex-state's attoT
ney of Windsor county, the tears roll
ed down his cheeks and he held hi
hand to his head most of the time
The boys appeared somewhat daze,
and at the time of their arrest remark
ed to William Morse that they wer
sorry they did it, but said, s'The,
can t do anything to us.
Gibson. the murdered man, was ;
years old and was born here. He i
survived by wife and five children
He was highly respected and owned
large farm a short distance from thi
village
State Medical Examiner Dr. B. +
Stone of Burlington, came here an,
performed an autopsy.
The preliminary hearing in the cas-
will probably be held Saturday a
Woodstock.
United States in 1914 sold to New