Georgia: Coweta County: T. N. Burdett Acquitted in Death of L. W. Couch 1 July 1887 ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access. This file was contributed by: Judy Campbell judyc@mindspring.com ==================================================================== T. N. Burdett acquitted in death of L. W. Couch Submitted by Judy Campbell judyc@mindspring.com "Carroll Free Press" Carroll Co., Georgia July 1, 1887 "The Newnan Herald says that no true bill was found at the late term of Coweta Superior court against T. N. Burdett for the killing of L. W. Couch not long since at Senoia. The grand jury thought it a case of justifiable homicide." ------------------------------------ This was posted to the "Couch Family Archives," myfamily.com site by Joseph Moore [e-mail: hitemore@aol.com] on 4 Oct 2002 in response to the posting of the above news account. Does anyone have the items from the "Newnan Herald" concerning this altercation? L.W. Couch was killed in Senoia on 11 May 1887, age 31. His daughter was my grandmother. She had just turned age 11 on 9 May, two days before the killing. Her memory was that her father and Mr. Burdett had had a disagreement about one or the other's chickens getting into the other's vegetable garden, but I suspect the difficulty between them ran deeper than that. On the day of the killing, they had words over the back fence that divided their lots. Mr. Couch had a pistol in his pocket and his hand was in his pocket. Mr. Burdett picked up an axe and threw it at Mr. Couch, striking him in the neck with the blade. Grandmother said her father had not drawn the pistol, but had his hand in the pocket where the pistol was, thus the case was ruled self-defense on Mr. Burdett's part. Does this match the newspaper accounts? Does anyone have the account of Mr. Burdett's death some years later? I have never known anything of this matter except what my grandmother told me on one occasion, the subject being considered too painful to her for it to be discuss.