Evening star., 1922-10-07
HILL FOLK REJOICE
FOR FREE CLAN MEN
Mountain Folks Eagerly
Watch for Pardoned Men,
| bers of Allen Gang.
RECALL RAID ON COURT
Whole Nation Shocked When
Horsemen Shot Judge, Prosecutor
and Sheriff at Trial.
RECALL RAID ON COURT
Sna,ial pispa tch to Tie Star.

Special Dispatch to Tie Star.
HILLSVILLE, Va, October sid
Edwards and Friel are coming home"
The news is darting up the paths that
lead to tiny log cabins on the hillsides.
Youngsters, who were babies when the
tragedy of the Blue Ridge took place,
are throwing chinQuapins at each other
and yelling the news in glee. Mountain
girls are calling the glorious tidings
across the shining creeks. Even the
foliage on the slopes seems to have
celebrated by bursting into brown and
yellow tints of welcome.
Because, while the outside world SIM
ply reads that two men-members or a
noted mountain Clan-have had execu-
1--we clemency extended to them. here in
the wonderful Blue Ridge the message
is very personal one. Sidna Edwards
and Friel Allen once more are to breathe
the air of freedom. They have been
conditionally pardoned by Gov. h. Lee
Trinkle. And they will be back here IN
d day or two to take their place once
more with the friends of a decade ago.
Two Others Remain.
These two are coming, but there is
breath of regret in the rejoicing. They
leave two brother clansmen behind In
the pen. the governor having withheld
his clemency from Sidna Allen and WeS-
ley Allen. His reasons for so doing are
recorded back in Richmond. but up
here, where the men are best known,
the feeling iS expressed that 1t might
have been we'll to have restored free
dom to those more active participants
in a tragedy that more than a decade
ago stirred the entire country.
Because of the splendid prison rec
ord of the two men. because during
their long stay behind prison walls
they have shown that they regretted
their rash Crime-the act of loyalty
to clan leader-the governor has
permitted Sid and Friel to pass out
from behind the grim walls He act
ed on a petition signed by $4,000 Vir-
Einians and on a promise given 10
another Allen. now dead.
believe Justice Served.
To their home town they will come
lost relatives that day in March.
1912. when the rugged mountaineers
rode in from the hills to tear asunder
the human fabric of the Carrol!
county court. always have believed
that the Aliens shot, as they contend
ed. to save the life of the aged vet
eran. Floyd. and even if they did not,
the belief in the hills is that, despite
the grossness of the crime. justice
has been served.
Il
proud to see old Floyd go TO Jail.
said a villager today. Il reckon ten
wears behind the bars at Richmond
has kinda eddicated 'em to a more
amenable attitude. eZ the eddicated
feller SeZ.
Back to Scenes Of BOyhOOd.
In A day or SO the two men Will
be back in the hills again, back in
that part of the Old Dominion
famous for its feuds and Illicit stills.
back in the mountains of the south
west \ few more days and they
will he visiting places in the labS-
rfnth Of laurel and rhododendron.
seek. shortly they will be stroliine
down the road over which theE
travelled that March day when they
hecame parties in the sensational
crime that shocked nation.
.Hillsville does not expect them 10
rAtrlrn crushed and craven. Rather
the people expect to greet the same
nroud spirit of the men who once
we're considered bigger than the law,
yet no longer outlaws
Recall Court Scenes.
Rut the town recalls the crowded
courtroom. hot despite the fact that
winter had not capitulated in the
hills: the Judge. Thornton l.. Massie,
dignifed on his bench; the states
= w
desk; the sheriff. L. F.. Webb, stand
ing calmly at the left of the judge.
and brawny. aged Floyd Allen. hery-
eyed and tense in the prisoner 5
dock.
They recall how suddenl- a band of
armed men gallcped into the court
ward. dismounted. then pressed into
the little courtroom. each choosing a
vantage point.
Then they remember Judge Massie
rising and pronouncing sentence:
Like a. boulder from a catapult old
Floyd burst from his chair. crying:
NO man ever shall take me to the
penitentiary.'
Three Are Slain.
From then on memory's picture is
confused and clouded. Before the
non-combatants in the room realized
what was transpiring the courtroom
was full of smoke. The crack or
many pistols was head. Through the
smoke thev saw first the judge. then
the prosecutor. then the sheriff top
Pile over dead, while others fell
wounded.
And in the bedlam Of the moment
the Allen clan swept out and away
into the Businesses of laurel and pine
and beech in their mountains.
Two Die in Chair.
They remember this with great dis
tlflctneSS- ne pursuit DN county olil-
GERS. state deputies and Baldwin-Felts
How Floyd tried to cut his throat while
How Floyd tried to cut his throat hile
hiding. half starved, from the officers.
only to be saved by the doctors until
his life was taken by the state in the
electric chair. and how his nineteen
year-old son. Claude Swanson Allen.
named for the senior United States
senator from Virginia, followed him to
death with smile on his lips just three
minutes later: how Friel and Sidna Ed
wards stood up under their sentences Of
eighteen and fifteen years. respectively,
and Sidna and Wesley Allen smiled
grimly when apportioned thirty-hve and
twenty-seven years for their part in the
tragedy. this all fills out the memory
picture as the mountaineers today pre-
pare to greet the two that can come
home.
The past cannot be undone. but in
his pardon Gov Trinkle, himself a near
mountaineer. records his belief that
these two men at least have learned
their lesson and will come back to be
real citizens of the community.
Copyright, 1927