Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1922-01-05
Law Gsts Him.
Continued from front page

AA<t tfR1 AAAtNA1 - t-@S H'~---1~ ~ 1r-C T--A
full mental strain having been lifted.
About ten days ago the chief OF
police OF Rockingham received a
letter from the Richmond officers
stating that they had reason TO be
lieve that a colored man giving his
name as George Jenkins had q liv-
ing wife in Richmond county The
letter stated that he had married
Virginia Jones in Richmond in
March, 1921, and was living with
her. The Richmond officers sent a
picture OF Jenkins, end standing
beside him was his Richmond wife
The Rockingham chief turned the
letter over to Deputy Sheriff Rey.
nolds and as Soon as that officer
glanced at the picture he sat bolt
upright for the man was none 9th
er than Lee Covington, who had es-
capped from the penitentiary IN 1920,
The reason Mr.. Reynolds so quickly
recognized the man was because
Covington is the man who shot Mr..
Reynolds several years ago and for
which he was sent to the pen for 20
years.
NJ T. Reynolds at once wrote the
Richmond officers. to arrest Coving-
ton, or Jenkins, and hold him,
Sheriff Mcdonald went there last
Friday and after paying to C. A.
Tinsley the $50 reward, brought the
prisoner back to the pen at Raleigh
and turned him over to the State
authorities to resume serving his
long sentence. And Lee is once
again boarding with the State, and
doubtless is still wondering how he
ever got caught up with. His free
dom of more than a year had no
doubt make him confident Of never
being recognized. But the arm of
the law is long, and it will get ''em
eventually, if not sooner
A history of the mans case is in,
teresting. In April, 1917, Mr. Rey-
nolds as deputy sheriff was given
warrant to serve en- Lee Coving.
ton, the charge being abandonment
of crop. Ca April goth Mr.. Rey-
nolds heard that the man was at
Josh Pickett's house, in Black Jack
township, and going there he met
Josh in the yard. Josh told him
Lee was in the house, and just as
Mr.. Reynolds started through the
door the man opened fire at close
range with a shotgun The load en-
tered Mr.. Reynolds right side of the
face. The man fed, and Mr. Rey-
nolds was carried to Hamlet hos
pital where for days his life was
despaired of The right side OF
face was almost shot off, but by
: careful surgery and a merciful
providence he pulled through,
though with the complete loss of the
use of his right eye; and even now
deeply embedded shot work their
way out of the side of his face,
several shot coming out just before
Christmas. After shooting the off
Ger, the negro ram Bloodhounds
We're put on the trail and for three
days a posse of several hundred men
secured the country for him. Final
~ on Wednesday, May 2nd, the man
was found in a boat on Pee Dee
river He was arrested, and for fear
OF possible lynching was spirited
away to the Lumberton jail, and
from there to the penitentiary for
safe keeping. Finally he was
brought back to Rockingham for
trial at September, 1919, term of
court. Judge Shaw presided. After
hearing the officers statement OF the
shooting, and the negro's admission
that the statement was correct, the
Judge sentenced him to hard labor
IN the State penitentiary for 20
years. He was carried at once to
. Raleigh to begin the sentence. On
July 7, 1920, while squad of con
yicts were working on the prison
farm near Method, he with a 30
year negro made a break for Liberty
and got away. They lay in the
woods during the daytime, and at
night worked their way'towards the
Virginia line, finally landing at
3 Tptnrchil1.o Ana fhay. Ia4a, 49,,