Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-07-05
COLS0N-BALL FEUD
or BELL COUNTY
VIII Have An Echo Here In DC.
tober When a Participant Is
Tried In Circuit Court

when the next term Of circuit
court begins in October, FOR the
reason that one Of the famous
Bell county feud cases is to be
tried here. 1t was transferred to
Madison on a change of venue,
grounds being that ii was impos-
s;ble for the defendant, Ball, 10
obtain iair trial there, due to
the inhamed condition OF public
sentiment, partisan feeling, etc.
This trial resulted from the Col
son-Ball shooting affray in the
Bell county courthouse at Pine
Vile few weeks ago.
A short time ago the Louis
vile Post sent a special reporter
to Bell county and Frankfort to
investigate the Bell county feud
troubles. His name was J. How-
ard Henderson. He wrote uD"
the troubles in the Post. In
view of the trials to be held here
what he says will be Of interest.
He wrote as follows:
Forty Bell county manslayers
have been pardoned or paroled
during the last SIX years.
Twenty-eight convlcts from
Bell county, serving life .sentenc-
es for murder, left the walls of
the Frankfort penitentiary with
a pardon or parole. The remain
der, serving shorter sentences of
from two to twenty-onc years,
havc been released by paroles
upon the completion of their
minimum terms or gone forever
free with a pardon.
The parole wave which threat
cned to cng1tlf Bell county reach
ed its crest in 1918 when twelve
Bell county men, all convicted of
murder, were released on parole.
The year 1917 came a close sec
end with nine convicted murder
Crs and two men convicted Of
manslaughter released OH par
Cons and paroles.
The pardon-paroIe machinery
1T Frankfort has outdistanced
the law-cnforcing machinery OF
the Bell circuit court. That tri-
bunal has been unable TO obtain
but sixteen convictions for mur-
der and nanslaughtcr, while the
Frankfort authorities have
ground out the releases of forty
who were convicted Of murder or
manslaughter.
Has the wholesale freeing of
murderers had its effect on Bell
county? Does unpunished mur-
der beget murder? Is the law
harder to enforce because of the
"open doors" at Frankfort? Do
released murderers 90 back to
commit more murders? Bell
county wrote. the answer last
week.
The clans of the Balls and Col
sons went to Pinevllle to attend
circuit court. A Colson was to
be tried for killing a Ball. Frank
]. Ball. pardled .hltrAerer. led
the Bail faction. Nj We're arm
cd. V5CDJi5V
In the corridors Of the Bell
courthouse, outside the
doors where the circuit court
was in session, the old quarrel
was renewed. When the fight
was over Riley Ball, son of Frank
7. Ball, lay upon the floor, dead
Frank Ball had received a wound
which may prove fatal. John
Hurst, Of the Colson clan, is ex-
Dected to die of wounds received.
Clay Colson and Flint Mcdaniel
we're both wounded, though not
seriously. The dead and the
wounded stretched on the floor
Df the court house offered silent,
but potent, testimony of their
litter contempt of law
Was it surprising that meh
would invade the seat of govern
nent and in mockery of the laws
y the state shoot to death their
fellowmen? Did they not have
to believe the punishment
would be light? Forty murder
ers in tie county had come back
Turing the last six years. Twen-
weight who had been sentenced
or life, had returned after serv-
ng an average term of seven and
| fraction years.
Human l;fe is held cheaply in
Bell county and this not because
If any dcprayity Of Bell county
people, but because of the laws
allure. indictments are hard to
procure. convictions more diff
,ult. The convicted have little
,ause for worry. The records
show that for six years Kentucky
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