The next witness was Sidney Towe, who largely corroborated the testimony of Sheriff Edwards. The spotlight returned to the story of the shootout when the centennial of the tragedy was marked in 2012. The Stories podcast uses the following music as its opening and closing themes: I Have Often Told You Stories (guitar instrumental) by Ivan Chew (c) copyright 2013 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. 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. Find out where you can buy, rent, or subscribe to a streaming service to watch it live or on-demand. There it was, the script of a doomed man, written in the final minutes of his life. Was Clerk of Carroll County Circuit Court During the Famous Allen Trial. Floyd called home to have his son, Victor, bring him to court on Wednesday, March 13th. Their trials took place in Wytheville. 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. But it turned out that he actually had left behind one document about what he saw and heard on March 14, 1912. [20], Sidna Allen denied that he shot Judge Massie, or that he fired at Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, Sheriff Webb, or at Juror Fowler. [34] He stated that he fired back at Goad on the courthouse steps, but denied shooting at Treasurer J. The following two tabs change content below. - After the shootout ended, people in Hillsville were afraid the Allen family would come back into town and kill everyone in sight. V. Ray Bowman, Self: Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court. Its small enough for that to be possible I suspect. Floyd once got in a tangle over a business deal with his younger brother Jasper Jack Allen, who might have been the toughest Allen of them all, and the two men shot and wounded each other. The Commonwealth of Virginia posted rewards ($1000 for Sidna Allen, $1000 for Sidna Edwards, $800 for Claud Allen, $500 for Friel Allen, and $500 for Wesley Edwards) - dead or alive. [18], Seven others were wounded, including Deputy Clerk Goad and Floyd Allen. A witness later testified that Floyd Allen had remarked that he "would not let any man talk to me that way."[14]. We must have similar tendencies as I like to pick up a few books about the history of any area I spend some time in. After several months' chase, Baldwin-Felts detectives located them in Iowa after an informant's tip. There are even questions as to what happened here. [23], Another prosecution witness was Floyd Allen's other attorney, Walter S. Tipton. Sadler, who said he spent more than 1,700 hours researching the story, spoke to a gathering in March that commemorated the 110th anniversary of the tragedy. Alex Murdaugh listens to Dr. Paul McManigal's testimony during Murdaugh's trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, February 28, 2023. After getting down the steps he leaned against the window of his office when two girls, Dora and Elizabeth Ayers, passed him. This sort of isolation probably meant that Floyd and his siblings grew up independent, resourceful and perhaps overly prideful and defiant. Floyd Allen's son, Victor, bought his father's house so his mother would not have to move. The detectives left at Hillsville have gone to the mountains, headed by Lee Felts. Check your inbox now to confirm your subscription. It would take another tragedy, the sinking of the Titanic, to remove the focus from Carroll County. How can you have seven murder trials in Wythe County and not have any exhibits whatsoever? Sadler often asked. The prosecutor's case was based on the formation of a conspiracy by the Allens to kill the trial judge, local law enforcement, and others who had wronged them in the event of a guilty verdict. There were also five others wounded, including Floyd Allen. Massie had been urged by Foster and Goad to disarm the throng before the trail began. A ghoulish spectacle occurred when the bodies of the two men were placed in public view at a Richmond funeral home, where as many as 5,000 people lined up to gawk at the mountain outlaws they had read about. You do have some interesting local history. 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. Democratic Governor Elbert Lee Trinkle pardoned Friel Allen and Sidna Edwards in 1922. I like how youre reading books about where you live. - Old timers said that when Wesley kissed the McCraw girl at the cornshucking, it wasnt out of affection for her, it was to irritate her boyfriend, John William Thomas. As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. [36], For their roles in the shooting, Floyd and Claud were sentenced to death by electrocution. - Floyd Allen was tried in 1903 for shooting his first cousin, Noah Combs, and was sentenced to spend 1 hour in jail and pay a fine. [29] Marshall also testified he had been standing near Sheriff Webb, but did not see any pistol in the Sheriff's hand. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Now, thanks to Gerald Goads interest in this, the return of these documents can be part of a healing process. Both, Walter Scott Tipton and David Winton Bolen, were retired Carroll County judges. Another of those events that have passed into history. Sadler said that his grandfathers reputation was that of an attorney who possessed a great gift of gab and was a prolific letter writer, but he never left behind any record of what he saw or heard that day in the Hillsville courtroom. [1], In his testimony at his murder trial, Floyd Allen admitted he had fired at Deputy Clerk Quesinberry and again twice more at other unknown persons once he had left the courthouse.[28]. Allen once accused Goad of running liquor, which forced the clerk to resign from a prestigious post as federal commissioner. The judge refused. Wesley and Sidna were charged with disorderly conduct, assault with a deadly weapon, disturbing a public worship service, and other violations. Mt. [34] They returned to their homes by traveling cross-country through the farm fields rather than public roads. [6], Sidna Allen pleaded guilty and received a total of 35 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, and for second-degree murder of Judge Massie. When the jury returned a guilty verdict against with a sentence of one year in the penitentiary, Floyd Allen is reported to have said to Judge Massie: "If you sentence me on that verdict, I will kill you. (Interesting Southwest Virginia side note: Initially, Floyds nephew Barnett Allen, the grandfather of legendary Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, was charged along with his uncles Floyd and Sidna for taking the Edwards boys from the deputies. Brothers Wesley and Sidna Edwards (not to be confused with their uncle, Sidna Allen, Floyds brother), attended a corn-shucking party, a country frolic where folks played music, drank liquor on the side and, yes, shucked corn. However, Sidna Allen and his nephew, Wesley Edwards, fled Virginia. Interesting, the real Mayberry is along the Blue Ridge, in Patrick County, but just east of Carroll County. As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. During the initial manhunt, several posses of detectives and local deputies searched the surrounding countryside. In 2015 or so, Sadler also found a .38 caliber bullet among the keepsakes. PARROW'S TRIAL POSTPONED Chicago Lawyer Will Not Appear Be fore Jan. 6. Please visit their website for more information. - 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. "Claude Allen First To Fire At Hillsville". He was shot dead in the courtroom.. He teased Horney about Wythe County losing such valuable historical artifacts. Mann asking either that the Allens be given clemency or be executed swiftly. Many accounts claim that Allen initiated the confrontation by pulling a gun in court. [30], At Claud Allen's trial for the murder of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, Judge David W. Bolen was again the prosecution's star witness. [4][2] Sidna promptly appealed and won a new trial on the perjury charge. Many of Allen clan members were spectators in the courtroom, most of them armed with pistols. [4] At the next term of court, Allen produced an order of clemency from Governor Andrew J. Montague suspending the jail sentence. No one secured the courthouse as a crime scene. More leniency was given to the other Allens and their family members. Petty also witnessed a pistol duel between Sidna Allen and Deputy Clerk Dexter Goad. As Sadler studied his grandmothers old scrapbooks, he found a copy of a letter that he had written to state legislators nearly 20 years after the shootout. According to Floyd Allen's defense attorney, David Winton Bolen, "[Floyd] hesitated a moment, and then he aroseHe looked to me like a man who was about to say something, and had hardly made up his mind what he was going to say, but as he got straight, he moved off to my left, I would say five or six feet, and he seemed to gain his speech, and he said something like this, 'I just tell you, I ain't a'going. He found trial transcripts. In April 1926, Governor Harry Flood Byrd pardoned Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards. The exciting story of the Allen family and the officials who tried to bring them to justice. This is the actual foundation of all of the story, said Goad, whose own great-great-uncle, Dexter Goad, was a Carroll clerk of court who traded bullets with the Allens on that tragic day. To this day, 110 years later, nobody who has studied this notorious event can say with any assurance who fired that catastrophic first shot. Menu. - Sidna Edwards presence at Floyd Allens trial was requested by Floyds lawyers. actually, theres a lot to read and learn even in a rural place. Allen and several members of his family immediately fled the courtroom but were later captured and convicted of murder. According to Wesley, Thomas and three friends assaulted him, and he defended himself with the help of his brother Sidna, who rushed to join the fight. (When Floyd fell, wounded, he landed on top of his lawyer David Bolen, who had ducked to the ground as soon as the shooting started, and who is reported to have said, "Floyd, they are going to kill me shooting at you! Katherine survived until 1960. A jury foremans handwritten verdict in blotchy ink condemns Claude Allen to death. Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court, is a documentary feature concerning the Carroll County Courthouse shootings that occurred in Hillsville, Virginia. The end result was three people deadthe judge, the Commonwealth Attorney and the sheriff. Generations of Carroll Countians would grow up and grow old hearing about the shootout, arguing over who the true perpetrators were, creating and dismissing wild theories and resolving nothing. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For a while, Hillsville was at the top of the nations newspaper. These mostly came from recent labor disputes in coal country and their mannerism didnt endure them to anyone, it seems. "Claude Allen Convicted: He Is Found Guilty of Murdering Commonwealth's Attorney Foster", Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Allen Clan Hillsville Courthouse Shootout", The Wheeling Intelligencer March 15, 1912 p.15, Transcriptions of contemporary newspaper articles, "Mug Shot Monday Special Edition: Floyd and Claude Allen", The UncommonWealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia at the Library of Virginia, The UncommonWealth: Voices from the Library of Virginia, "Hillsville Massacre - The UncommonWealth", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Floyd_Allen&oldid=1137936144, People executed by Virginia by electric chair, 20th-century executions of American people, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Articles needing additional references from October 2020, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from October 2020, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from December 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Lewis Franklin Webb, Carroll County sheriff, William McDonald Foster, Commonwealth's Attorney, Augustus Cezar Fowler, juror (died of wounds), This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 04:22. 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