The Washington times., 1923-05-02
FEUD
STILL CARRIES
DEATH
One County Gives Up Seven
Lives in Forty-eight Hours
In Gun Battles.
BY International News Service.

HARLAN, KY, May 2.-The
flash Of gunfire, with it's inevitable
aftermath of tragic death, sweeps
the Kentucky foothills today with
regularity only duplicated in the
popular vein of fiction which re-
counts her most famous blood
feuds.
In this one county, high in the
Blue Ridge mountains, seven lives
were taken recently within forty.
eight hours, in trio Of gun bat.
ties. The dead were Kell Walker,
Bell county deputy sheriff; Ike
Strong, a mountaineer; Mrs. Strong.
his wife; George Strong, his brother;
Constable Alex Little, Constable
Claude Short, both pioneers OF the
hills, and Ernest Gillian, boy.
Four Of the seven. including Mrs.
Strong, were slain in a fierce bat
tie waged at the Strong home be.
tween the family and q posse OF
federal and county officers. The
posse was raiding in search of q
still and had surrounded the house
before calling on the family to sur
render.
Woman Was Crack Shot.
Mrs. Strong, powerfully built
woman, opened the front door ana
blazed away with a rifle. Her first
shot was believed to have struck
Deputy Sheriff Walker, a member
of the posse. His body later was
found, riddled with shot, in front
Of the home.
The answering fire of the raiders
crashed time and again through the
house until all signs Of life had
ceased. For a long time, though,
the Strongs maintained a constant
counter-attack on the posse, but
when silence reigned again the
possemen broke into the house to
find Strong, his wife and his broth
er lifeless on the floor.
Children Left Orphaned.
Five little children Of the family
were found huddled under a bed.
where they stared, terrified, at the
dfeless bodies Of their father and
mother. The posse took the chill.
dren away to place them later in a
State institution.
Search OF the dwelling also re.
Vealed two monster stills, 600 gal
Ions OF mash and seyenty.five gal
Ions OF whiskey.
Three persons were killed in the
second battle. A trio of town con-
stables-Claude Short, Alex Little
and G. II. Gilliam-participat in
It, at the town Of kits, near here.
Their quarrel was said to have
started over nothing" when the
mountain spirit suddenly flared.
At any rate, all three pulled"
their guns, and when the fire end
ed Little was dead in his tracks,
and Short was fatally wounded.
Gillian escaped unscathed, but his
young son, Ernest, had been struck
by a stray bullet. The youth and
Short died within an hour.
"DeadshOts" Tangle Up.
The third battle was between
'deadshots," and the two gunner
who participated were both badly
but probably will recover.
George Belcher and Jesse Pace,
feared by all the mountainside for
their straight shooting, met and
quarreled. Belcher fired first, and
Pace fell drilled through the chest.
Lying on the street, desperately
Pace drew his gun and
Dlazed away. Five times his gun
spat lead at Belcher, and when
the latter fell the five shots were
seen to have struck within a cir
cle Of eight inches. Both men
we're rushed to a hospital and
operated on Immediately. There
Is some hope they may live.
Calm observers declared all three
battles were caused by the "moun-
ain spirit" born in the days of
'euds, when lives were held in
contempt and only the 'honor of
he family" counted. Even with
modern schools invading every
nook Of the backwoods this spirit
II sudden warfare, with recourse
% rifles and guns, is not ex-
oected to die. 1t il an integral
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