The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-08-15
Hidden Guns May Renew Virginia Feud
as Garrett Boys Face Murder Juries
BY BOB DORMAN

AEA Service stan writer
Is q NJ B E r L A n D CO U r 7
IL lOUSE, Va, Aug. 15.-There
III is melodrama here. And the
tense breathiessness of the noun
tain feud.
For days The murder trials of the
Garrett brothers have been drag
gins on in the little brick court
house. a 10S-year-old relic. They
are being tried separately for the
killing of Rev. E. S. Pierce, circuit
riding pastor of five small Baptist
churches in Cumberland county
First the trial of Larkin Garrett
and then of Robert Garrett. The
one already has been spectacularly
halted, a mistrial; Larkin will be
tried again next month, and mean
while the task of preparing jury
panel occupies the interval before
Robert CARROTS trial Aug. 20.
The brothers were indicted for
murder-for the death of the min
lister in a gun duel that followed
bloody fist fight, while the clergy
mans wife with her six-weeks-old
baby in her arms struggled to save
his life.
Who Fired First?
Who fired first? Larkin or Bob
Garrett-or the pastor. his skull
fractured, nose broken and face
streaming with blood, staggering
into his house and out again with
shotgun in one hand and a pistol in
the other?
Pistols are the fear and dread in
the little courthouse now
Deputy sheriffs. detectives, and po-
licemen borrowed from neighboring
towns, patrol the courthouse. Every
man entering the courtroom Is
searched for weapons.
There is the dread of a sudden
explosion of the feud that has sepa-
rated this countryside into two hos
tile camps-such a sudden tragedy
as the melodramatic scene of few
years ago when bullets flew in a
Virginia courtroom and murder
came swift on the heels of just such
a murder trial.
You must go to fiction to parallel
the scene here now: A sleepy coun-
try village sky; winding roads,
tIower-bordered, leading into dusty
Main St: mules with Topping ears.
Glowing dingy f1ivvers; the general
store where you can buy anything
under the sun, or get into an argp-
ment instanter.
Barefoot urchins and their elders
In overalls perch like birds on the
wooden fence that bars the crowd
from the velvety lawn Of the court
house. The stile is guarded, and
you must nave a pass from Judge
B. D. White or from King Adams,
S0-year-old sheriff.
Many Queer Angles
There are many queer angles to
this me1odrama Of Virginia village.
Bob Garrett Is clerk of the court
trying him for murder, and Larkin
Garrett is chancellor in chancery.
A temporary clerk of courts was
brought from Powhatan County, and
a Judge from Princess Ann County.
Politics and family ties make
tangled skein running through the
machinery of the law. The Carrots
walk about among the deputies and
detectives and policemen. and half
the gathered countryside greets
them with handshalxes and smiles,
and the other half stares at them
silently. with grim lips.
Vigilant officers. tense and watch
full in this strange scene to which
they have been transplanted. slap
pistol pockets Unfortunately at
the courthouse steps. Few guns
have been found. though-or corn
LIQUOR elther-for careful persons
mark both at the little hotel, where
seven rooms bulge with lawyers and
partisan spectators.
There is an arnistice for the mo-