- Floyd Allen had a long history of serving the law in Carroll County as a deputy sheriff and was, in fact, a special policeman at the time of the tragedy. Bake . Thats why the discovery of the trial exhibits and documents in Wythe County is significant. [29] He testified that one of the girls pointed out some of the Allens leaving the courthouse, when Sidna Allen came toward him, pointed his pistol at him, and fired. One local historian interviewed by Williamson for The Roanoker magazine in 1982 stated unequivocally that Claude Allen, Floyds son, fired first. The exciting story of the Allen family and the officials who tried to bring them to justice. The documents found their way to Wytheville because that was the site of the ensuing trials that followed the shootout, the venue having been moved from Hillsville where anger against the defendants boiled. In response, the judge told the two men that if the law could not be faithfully enforced in Carroll County by the county's deputized officers he would bring in state troops if necessary to maintain order. Please call to schedule an appointment. Maybe the county leaders didnt want to find errant bullets from their own guns in the bodies of the dead, some county residents whispered. [2] Wesley Edwards tried to grapple with Easter, but Easter got away and fired a shot at Floyd as he did so, wounding Floyd in the finger. No one secured the courthouse as a crime scene. Wesley Edwards drew nine years for each count of murder for the slaying of Foster, Massie, and Webb for a total of 27 years' imprisonment. A few weeks ago, that trove of documents related to the shootout and subsequent trials made its way back to Carroll County, where the whole mess started. Allen and Goad had butted heads before. Sidna was released from prison, but he never set foot in his fine house again. The battle of tradition against modernity seemed to be the heart of the rivalries: Would Carroll County be a 20th century civilized bastion of law, order and rules, or would the hidebound rugged frontier individualism of taking law into ones own hands and the bucking of authority prevail? Director Rick Bowman Writers Rick Bowman Bill Perrine Stars Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court Great Video Historical documentary of the 1912 Hillsville, VA courthouse shootout between the Allen family and the officers of the court. [37] Allen's death sentence was deeply unpopular with Allen supporters in the county, but many other residents were unsympathetic, surprised by the deaths of so many people over Floyd Allen's refusal to serve a year in prison. But the storys roots go further back and involve politics, rivalries, clannishness, thuggery, vengeance and even a little geography. Jack Allen denied all responsibility for the allegations of intimidation, which he stated were untrue and insisted neither he nor his brother was guilty of wrongdoing. I dont know too much historical facts about where I live. Take care, my friend! In some ways, the county never recovered from that day. Contact us: By Mail PO Box 937 - Hillsville, VA 24343 | By Phone (276) 728 4113 | By Email carrollmuseum@yahoo.com | On Facebook https://facebook.com/CarrollMuseum | Or come visit us in the Historic Courthouse at: 515 North Main Street - Hillsville, VA 24343. Now, thanks to Gerald Goads interest in this, the return of these documents can be part of a healing process. Sadler pored over available documents from the murder trials, but he lamented that many original 1912 exhibits were lost. Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court is a 70 minute film that will be presented to The History Channel and PBS, and entered in film festivals across the US. The sensational coverage and gripping photos of the characters and events surrounding the courtroom shooting captured America's imagination in 1912 and until the sinking of the Titanic a month later, the "Hillsville Massacre" took up a good deal of front page copy in newspapers . Floyd? After the Edwards were charged with assault, they fled across the North Carolina border to Mt. He apparently also hopes that the early hour will serve to dampen the spirits of the Allens. Hall thinks that Sheriff Webb, who was carrying a borrowed gun, might have fired accidentally. Other members of the family received long sentences. The legend also claims that the marker was removed as a condition of Sidna Allens pardon in 1926 after he served 14 years. - Nancy Elizabeth Betty Ayers was shot in the back just about the beltline and just to the right of her spine. One bullet entered the back and ranged upward, lodging directly under the collarbone. The police of 1912 were not exactly professional. Two months after the shootout, Floyd Allen was convicted in Wytheville of killing Foster, the commonwealths attorney. After getting down the steps he leaned against the window of his office when two girls, Dora and Elizabeth Ayers, passed him. He defeated the son of Jasper Jack Allen for the position. We dont sell ads, or block you with a paywall. HILLSVILLE, Va. On a cold March morning in 1912, this Blue Ridge Mountain town would change forever when gunfire erupted in the Carroll County Courthouse. 1912 SIDNA ALLEN CRIMINAL HOUSE FANCY GAP HILLSVILLE VA COURT SHOOTING ~ A1 (#185771767538) s***s (604) - Feedback left by buyer s***s (604). There is still question as to what happened and who shot first. Again, no investigation was made at the scene. [20] Sidna Edwards had scalded his foot some years before and was partially lame, and limped out of the courthouse, riding his mother's horse back to his home. [6] Governor Mann refused a request to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment, and Floyd Allen was electrocuted on March 28, 1913, at 1:20PM. Ninety seconds later, 57 bullets had been fired. The discovered papers do little to shed new light in the darkended corners of the tragedy. )[12], Foster called upon a grand jury to investigate the escape/pistol-whipping incident. The courtroom buzzed. Floyd Allen grew up in a large family in southern Carroll County, raised on a farm wedged between the North Carolina border and the front wall of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Floyd, 56, a once proud man now destroyed, was strapped to the electric chair, a leather mask placed over his face and four, 1-minute bursts of 2,000-volt electrical shocks were sent coursing through his body until he was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. Claude, just 24, was electrocuted in the same chair 12 minutes later. - William Sidna Edwards, the nephew of Floyd Allen, was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a result of the Courthouse Tragedy, although he never fired a shot. The next witness was Sidney Towe, who largely corroborated the testimony of Sheriff Edwards. [21] Agent Faddis and four men raided Floyd Allen's property, seizing illegal stills and fifty gallons of moonshine. When all the smoke cleared, there were five dead, seven wounded. WYTHEVILLE, Va., Nov. 22. WALTERBORO, S.C. ( WCSC /Gray News) - Attorneys in the Alex Murdaugh murder trial are expected to deliver their closing arguments beginning Wednesday after jurors visited the scene of the killings . Allen and several members of his family immediately fled the courtroom but were later captured and convicted of murder. They, too, were captured by Felts and his men, as Sidna Allen came to believe that Wesleys girlfriend back home had betrayed them. There are still questions to be answered, but they probably never will be answered. But it turned out that he actually had left behind one document about what he saw and heard on March 14, 1912. That verdict, those words uttered by a jury foreman and re-written by Foster, were what prompted the freshly convicted the defiant Allen to stand up and pronounce, Gentlemen, I just aint a-goin, or words to that effect, right before the courtroom filled with smoke and lead. He was called Pink because of a birthmark on his cheek. Line the bottoms of pan or pans with piece of waxed paper trimmed to fit. Family loyalty also played a role as the Allen/Edwards family stuck together to protect the Edward boys and later Floyd. The men were gunned down during one of the most notorious events in Southwest Virginia history. Roanoke, Va., March 16, --The prisoners from Hillsville are not expected here before 3 o'clock Sunday morning. He wrote a memoir, made beautiful furniture from delicately inlaid wooden pieces and spent the rest of his life telling people that the Allens did not shoot first. Sheriff. [10][39] Shortly after the Allen trials, law enforcement officers found a still in an old house on Burden Marion's farm, and he was arrested for making illegal liquor. The play, which is. After all, he agreed hed have the boys in court? Allen rose to his feet and calmly said, "Gentlemen, I ain't goin'." I was distraught over the recent rush to execute in our country. He teased Horney about Wythe County losing such valuable historical artifacts. [34] He also said he went to Blankenship's Livery Stable after the incident, where he met other family members and left Hillsville with Claud Allen, Wesley Edwards, and Sidna Edwards. [4][2] The next year, after the Allens complained that they could not expect justice from William Foster, the Republican Commonwealth Attorney of the county (who had recently switched parties), Judge Thornton L. Massie appointed both Floyd and H.C. as police officers for the New River section of the county. The flood of indictments that came just days after the shootout wail with pain, the typewritten words seething on the page while claiming that the Allens unlawfully, feloniously, wickedly and maliciously killed the sheriff and others. Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court, is a documentary feature concerning the Carroll County Courthouse shootings that occurred in Hillsville, Virginia. Eventually, Carroll County deputies Thomas Pink Samuels and Peter Easter nabbed the brothers in North Carolina, shackled them and loaded them on a wagon for the long ride up the mountain, passing by Sidna Allens home and store in Fancy Gap where they were met by none other than a hot-tempered Floyd Allen, who was angered that his kinfolk were hog-tied in a wagon like livestock being carted to market. On March 14, 1912, the Floyd Allen Clan carried out one of the most brutal attacks in Appalachian history. As gunmen spilled from the courthouse taking their battle through the downtown streets, the judge, sheriff, and the Commonwealth Attorney lay dead in the smoke-filled courtroom. In a fusillade of shots, Allen hit Jack in the head, which struck a glancing blow on Jack's scalp, while one of Jack's bullets hit Allen in the chest. [11][10][40][41] A dispute arose between McGraw and Jack Allen about the Hillsville tragedy; during the confrontation McGraw drew a gun and shot Allen twice, killing him on the spot. Tipton testified he saw Claud Allen in the courthouse with a pistol raised in both hands as if he had just fired it. - Claude Allen did not take a gun when he went to Hillsville To Floyds trial. The handwritten note, scribbled hastily in pencil on a folded piece of paper, read: We the jury find the defendant Floyd Allen guilty as charged in the within indictment and fix his punishment at confinement in the penitentiary of this state for one year., Sadler knew that William Foster, the chief prosecutor in Carroll County, had written those words at the behest of a judge. Floyd freed his nephews and took them himself to the Hillsville jail two days later. "[26], County Treasurer J. There was a massive effort for the governor to commute the sentences of Claude and Floyd, including a petition with over 100,000 signatures. Massie sentenced Allen to one year in prison. [34] Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards then left Virginia, eventually reaching Des Moines, Iowa. Or the Clerk of Court Dexter Goad, who seems to have first pulled a gun? The historical society has raised thousands of dollars and conducted much-needed remodeling work in order to resume free tours, with the next public opening happening June 4-5. He wept freely as the verdict was read. Recognizing the need for immediate action, assistant clerk S. Floyd Landreth sent a telegram to Democratic Governor William Hodges Mann which read: Send troops to the County of Carroll at once. Allen, who was before the bar for sentencing after being convicted of taking a prisoner from a deputy sheriff, allegedly triggered the shooting at the Carroll County Courthouse in Hillsville on March 14, 1912. Judge Massie, Sheriff Webb, Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, and the jury foreman (Augustus C. Fowler), were all hit and died of their wounds sustained in the crossfire. He worked for the Edison Lighting Company. Ronald W. Hall,The Carroll County Courthouse Tragedy(2013 printing, Hillsville VA: Carroll County Historical Society,1998). I enjoy learning about local history. As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. -- Sidna Allen, leader of the Allen clan, which shot up the Carroll County Court at Hillsville last March, causing the death of five person, was to-day found guilty of . Three trials were needed to finally convict Claude. Check your inbox now to confirm your subscription. [1][4] Floyd had wanted to buy a farm owned by one of his own brothers, but could not agree on a price. This film is currently in development. Those documents can be found at www.ccva.digital/1912-historical-courthouse-tragedy.html. [8] Only a month later, their petition for executive clemency was granted by Governor Claude A. Swanson, restoring their political rights to hold office. [1] Allen, who was before the bar for sentencing after being convicted of taking a prisoner from a deputy sheriff, allegedly triggered the shooting at the Carroll County Courthouse in Hillsville on March 14, 1912. The last two bullets were fired by Floyd and went through two of the steps of one of the courthouse's stairways, where they can still be viewed today. The Allens could be a rough bunch, who fought with and shot at enemies which they had no shortage of, apparently and even each other. During a second glance Tipton again saw Floyd with his pistol raised and held in both hands; he then saw Floyd Allen fire his pistol. Others state that Miss Iroller's father, who had never approved of his daughter's romance with Wesley Edwards, tipped off the detectives that Maude was going to Des Moines to marry him. 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