The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-10-07
TWO VIRGINIA
MOUNTA|NEERS
GET FREEDOM
Continued from First Pase1

regretted their rash crime, the act
of loyalty to a clan leader, the gov
ernor has permitted Sid and FTiel
to pass out from behind the grim
prison walls. He acted on petit
ton signed by $4,000 Virginians and
on a promise given to an Allen, now
dead.
Come Home to Friends.
To their home town they will
come to meet friends. Even these
who lost relatives that day in
March, 1912, when the rugged
mountaineers rode in from the hills
to tear <asunder the human fabric
of the Carol county court, always
have believed that the ALIENS shot,
as they commended, to /ave the life
Of the aged veteran, Floyd, and
even if they did not the belief in
the hills is that despite the gross
ness of crime justice has been
served.
In a day or so the two. men will
be back in the hills again, back in
that part of the Old Dominion ia
! nous for it's feuds and its Illicit
stills, back in the mountains of the
southwest. A few more days and
they will be visiting places in the
labyrinth of laurel and rhododen-
dron, where as boys they played
/ hide and seek. Shortly they will
be strolling down the road over
which they travelled that March
day when they became parties, ir
the sensational crime that shocked
a nation.
Glimpse of the Past
Hillsville does not expect them
to return crushed and craven
Rather the people expect to greet
the same proud spirit of the men
who once were considered bigger
than the law, yet no longer out
laws. But the town recalls the
crowded court room, hot despite
the fact that winter had not capt.
Mated in the hills; the judge
Thornton L. Massie, dignified on hi:
bench; the states attorney, W. M
Foster, busy at his desk; the sher
if. L. F. Webb, standing calmly a
, the lett of the judge and thu
brawny, aged, Floyd Allen, fiery
eyed and tense in the prisoners
dock.
: They recall how suddenly bant
of armed men gallOped into tn
, courtyard. dismounted. then press
| .rfr o1rI
choosing vantage point
Then they remember Judg'
Massie rising and pronouncing sen
| tense. Like a boulder from a scata
putt old Floyd burst from his char
crying: mo man ever shall TAX
me to the penitentiary."
Three Men Killed.
From then ON memory's pictur
is confused and clOuded. Befor
the non-combatants in the room
> realized what was transpiring tn
court room was full Of smoke. TIL
, crack Of many pistols was heard
Through the smoke they saw frs
the Judge, then the prosecutor, thel
the sheriff topple over dead. Will
others fell wounded.
And in the bedlam of the momen
the Allen. clan swept out and ava
into the Businesses of laurel an
: pine and beech in their mountains
Theyrremember this with grea
distinctness. The pursuit by coun
ty officers, state deputies and Bald
win Felts detectives is still a vivi
: picture here. How Floyd tried t
cut his throat while hiding hal
starved from the officers only t
be saved by the doctors until hi
life was taken by the state in tn
electric chair and how his 19-yeaI
cid son. Claude Swanson Allel
' named for the senior United State
. senator from Virginia. followed hiI
4 to death with a smile on his Lip
l Just three minutes later, how Erie
and Sidna Edwaa1s stood up undo
\ their sentences of Is and Is year
respectively and Sidna Allen an
Wesley Allen smiled grimly whe
apportioned IS and 81 years ft
their part in the tragedy, this a
fills out the memory picture q
the mountaineers today prepare
greet the two that can come HON
Il The past cannot be undone b,
in his pardon Governor Trinkl
3 himself a near mountaineer, record
! his belief that these two men !,
\ Ifleast have learned their lesson al
J will come hack to be real citi1el
4 Of the community.