Robeson County NcArchives News.....Three Held for Unusual Death of G. W. Parnell October 8, 1931T ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Steven Hinson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00032.html#0007748 September 24, 2013, 3:12 pm The Robesonian, October 8, 1931 October 8, 1931T Thursday, October 8, 1931 The Robesonian, Lumberton, NC THREE HELD FOR UNUSUAL DEATH OF G.W. PARNELL – CORONER’S INQUEST TO BE RESUMED THIS AFTERNOON – ED BASS OF LUMBERTON, ELERY PARNELL AND THOMAS ALLEN OF HOWELLSVILLE IN JAIL PARNELL AND BASS ENGAGED IN FIGHT UNCONSCIOUS, PARNELL THROWN IN BACK SEAT OF CAR AND LEFT THERE ALL NIGHT Ed Bass of Lumberton, Elery Parnell and Thomas Allen of Howellsville township are held in the Robeson county jail here pending the outcome of an inquest to be completed this afternoon inquiring into the death in a Lumberton hospital Tuesday morning under unusual circumstances of Parnell’s father, George Washington Parnell, aged 19. ----------------------------- WOUND ON HEAD Evidence at a hearing begun by Coroner D.W. Biggs Tuesday shows the man entered Thompson Memorial hospital in Lumberton Monday morning, his family insisting that he was suffering from drunkenness. Hospital attaches found that he was suffering from a serious wound on his head at a spot at which a piece of skull about the size of a dollar had been removed in an operation last February. An operation was performed that afternoon, revealing a blood clot on his brain. No hope was held out for his recovery, and death came Tuesday about 9 a.m. Following his death, Dr. R.S. Beam of Lumberton, who had been treating him, performed an autopsy and found that he had a hemorrhage of the brain. In the operation Monday Dr. Beam removed a pint of blood that had clotted. ------------------------------ FIGHT OVER PARNELL’S WIFE Evidence shows that Parnell had a fight in the back yard of the home of Leonard and Ruby Locklear at Pates Sunday night with Ed Bass about Parnell’s wife. Mr. and Mrs. Parnell, their small daughter, Annie Neal, with Lena Bell Hunt, Indian, as nurse, Elery Parnell, Bass and Allen, all the men said to be drinking, drove up to the Locklear home at Pates late Sunday afternoon. There they remained, according to testimony of one witness until 10 or 10:30 that night. Soon after their arrival the women and Elery went off to H.B. Revels’ filling station to get barbecue. The men took another drink while they were gone. They played the graphophone and had a jolly time together following return of these. ----------------------- STRUCK AT ELERY Time came for the carload of folks to start home and a quarrel ensued. George Parnell wanted to drive the car, his wife wanted to drive and so did Elery. George cussed Elery and picked up a bottle as if to strike Elery, witnesses stated, but Elery warded off the blow. Mrs. Parnell started off through a field toward the highway, stating she was going to walk home. Her small child and the Hunt girl were with her. The Locklear woman followed and told her she would take her home if Mrs. Parnell did not want to go in her own car. ------------------------- “FINISHED HIM UP” When Mrs. Parnell started off Bass followed, according to the Hunt woman. Parnell followed Bass. Parnell said his wife had to go home in the car. Bass said she didn’t. Parnell declared she was his wife and she must do as he said. Bass, according to the Locklear woman, replied that she was as much his wife as Parnell’s. A fight ensued. Together they fought on the ground. Then Bass arose, leaving Parnell on the found, and calling to Elery to come and get his father for his head, using Ruby Locklear’s words, “finished him up”. ------------------------- MRS. PARNELL’S TESTIMONY Elery came and got the elder Parnell, Leonard Locklear and Allen, helping him place him in the back seat of the car. Hearing the noise, Mrs. Parnell said she returned, but her husband had been placed in the car. She said she did not know he was injured. Mrs. Parnell drove the car home, Bass and Allen occupying the rear seat with George Parnell. Bass got out in the edge of Lumberton, said Mrs. Parnell. Thinking her husband and Allen only drinking, she drove the car under the shelter and left them in it. Next morning Allen got up, went in the Parnell house and got his coat, then went home to his wife and 2 children. Mrs. Parnell said she cooked breakfast, afterwards trying to awake her husband. She failed, nor could Elery awake himi. They decided something was wrong with him and brought him to the hospital. Leaving him there, she and Elery picked up Bass down street and went off up to the Locklears at Pembroke to find out, she said, what was the trouble. She said she did not at any time see the wound on her husband’s forehead. She made no examination when she found she could not awake him in the car, and she did not see it in the hospital. Questioned about how the party got together, Mrs. Parnell testified she, her husband, Elery and Allen, who came to their house early Sunday morning, came to Lumberton about noon for ice to cool off their liquor and picked up Bass on the streets. Bass and Allen ate dinner with them. She stated she had been to the Locklears before but she didn’t know for what reason other than to be with her family. Questioned about the injury to Parnell’s head in February, she said Parnell was away with Bass and Murphy Bennett at the time and that Parnell had told her he believed Bass hit him. Witnesses examined include Dr. Beam, Mrs. Parnell, Leonard and Ruby Locklear, Allen and Lena Bell Hunt. Mr. W.S. Britt assisted Solicitor T.A. McNeill in examining the witnesses, while Mr. F. Ertel Carlyle represented Bass. The coroner’s jury is composed of Roland Collins, John Floyd, Sr., Leighton Williamson, Purdy Britt, L.H. Carter, H.A. Oliver. In addition to his widow, the dead man is survived by 2 children – Elery and Annie Neal; 4 sisters – Mrs. M.C. Britt of R. 4, Lumberton, Mesdames Lincoln McLean, Emory Kinlaw and Charlie Talton of R. 5, Lumberton; 2 brothers – Henry and Hoke M. Parnell, both of R. 5, Lumberton. Funeral services were conducted by Rev. J.M. Fleming at Singletary crossroads Wednesday at 2:30 and interment was made there. ------------------------------- INTENSE THRONG AT FUNERAL WEDNESDAY – BY J.M. FLEMING The funeral of Mr. George W. Parnell was held from Singletarys Cross Roads church yesterday at 2:30 p.m., conducted by the writer in the presence of one of the largest crowds he quite remembers to have ever seen attendant upon a like occasion. Standing room was at a premium in the house and many were on the outside. Mrs. George Sessoms presided at the piano, while the choir sang “Does Jesus Care” and “There’ll Be No Night There” and “Abide With Me”. Interment was made in the church cemetery. Pallbearers were Messrs. Curly and Henry Pevatto, Hob Roberts, Hughie Wilkins, C.S. McIntyre, J.B. McArthur. The floral offerings were profuse and beautiful, being placed by Madams R.L. Collins, George Hargraves, Rufus Goodyear, Miss Ruth Prevatte, Miss Evans. He leaves a wife, a son and small daughter, 2 brothers, Henry and Hoke; 4 sisters, Madams M.C. Britt, Lincoln McLean, Emory Kinlaw, Charlie Talton. He was the eldest son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Will Henry Parnell of Rt. 5 from Lumberton, Howellsville township. The bereaved have the tenderest sympathies of all our hearts, as do also Mr. and Mrs. L.P. Carter of Lumberton in the loss of their precious daughter.   File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/robeson/newspapers/threehel751gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 8.0 Kb