CARROLL COUNTY, VA - NEWSPAPERS - Court Officials Murdered

The Robesonian March 18, 1912

The Robesonian, Lumberton, North Carolina  Monday, March 18, 1912   ~~   COURT 
OFFICIALS MURDERED -- Judge, Prosecuting Attorney and Sheriff Slain by Outlaws 
When one of Their Number is Sentenced -- Assassins Fled to Mountains. 
[Hillsville, Va., Dispatch, March 14.]   ~~   

A troop of mountain outlaws rode down out of the Blue Ridge today to the 
Carroll county courthouse here and assassinated the judge upon the bench, the 
prosecutor before the bar, and the sheriff at the door in less time than it 
takes to tell it, while sentence was being pronounced upon FLOYD ALLEN, one of 
their number.  ~  When the crack of the rifles died away only one member of the 
human fabric of the court -- DEXTER GOAD, the clerk, was alive and he had been 
wounded.  Jurymen and on-lookers were struck in the fusilade but none was 
wounded seriously.  ~  GOVERNOR MANN has offered a $3,000 reward for the 
capture of the assassins and holds State troops under arms for orders at 
Lynchburg and Roanoke.  ~  The shooting terrorized Hillsville to the point of 
paralysis.  There was not a man to give an order or organize a pursuit.  
Citizens fled to places of safety and mothers gathered up their children, while 
the assassins rode out of town.  ~  JUDGE THORNTON L. MASSIE had risen from his 
chair as the bullets struck him and fell across his desk a bleeding corpse.  ~  
COMMONWEALTH ATTORNEY WILLIAM M. FOSTER, with a dozen bullets in his brain, 
crumpled down to the floor.  SHERIFF LEWIS FRANKLIN WEBB was shot and killed as 
he reached for his revolver and sprang forward.  Bullets grazed CLERK GOAD and 
in the confusion he was reported killed.  Jurors who had been slightly wounded 
were reported dead and by that undefinable method of communication which 
prevails in the woods and country, reports of a wholesale slaughter shot out to 
the countryside.  ~  FLOYD ALLEN was before the bar this morning, convicted of 
taking a prisoner from a deputy sheriff.  ALLEN had struck the sheriff over the 
head with the butt of a rifle and the prisoner escaped.  SHERIFF WEBB had gone 
up into the mountains and taken ALLEN, despite dire warnings of what such a 
venture might mean.  ATTORNEY FOSTER had prosecuted him fearlessly and a 
mountaineer jury gathered from the inland section, for no man in Carroll county 
cared to sit on the trial of an ALLEN, had convicted him.  ~  This morning the 
sentence of ALLEN attracted an unusually large gathering to the quaint old red 
brick court house, which stands on a green square, well into the center of the 
village.  Those who could not get in the small room peered through the windows, 
opened to the first days of spring.  ~  Just as ALLEN was about to be called up 
for sentence, his two brothers, SIDNEY and JACK, at the head of a troop of 
about 20 mountaineers, rode up to the court house.  ~  The brothers and their 
companions, some carrying rifles and others armed with revolvers crowded into 
the small court room and stood behind the rail and about the door.  FLOYD 
ALLEN, aged 50, tall and gaunt, much the familiar type of mountaineer, was in 
the dock.  ~  JUDGE MASSIE mounted the bench and PROSECUTOR FOSTER moved 
sentence upon ALLEN, who stood up.  There was a shuffling of feet and a general 
movement among the mountaineers in the back of the room, but no sign to 
foretell the tale of the terrible tragedy, then in the minds of every one of 
them.  ~  The usual legal formalities over JUDGE MASSIE began pronouncing 
sentence.  The last words that fell from his lips precipitated the 
tragedy.  "One year at hard labor."  ~  Before the last word was cold the 
fusilade began.  ALLEN, with an oath that he would never go to prison, sprang 
out of the prisoner's dock as JUDGE MASSIE collapsed upon the bench.  Another 
roar of shots and PROSECUTOR FOSTER was on the floor in a heap.  SHERIFF WEBB 
was springing forward for his prisoner when the lead found him.  ~  Then 
holding the panic-stricken jurors and on-lookers at bay, although that probably 
was not necessary, the assassins slowly backed out of the court house and 
across the green to their troop of ponies.  In a second they were galloping 
like mad men through the aroused village and off to the hills.  With them the 
assassins half carried, half dragged one of their number, wounded, and it was 
said that this was FLOYD ALLEN.  ~  The quiet of Hillsville had never been 
disturbed by such a roar of firing and 300 men, women and children rushed to 
the court house.  WEBB and FOSTER were stone dead.  JUDGE MASSIE died in less 
than an hour.  When a semblance of order came out of the chaos that followed 
some hoursemen hurried down into Beaver Dam valley to spread the news and get 
help.  More intrepid men rode off toward BETTY BAKER, where there is a railroad 
station and a telegraph wire.  ~  Word of the tragedy was slow in getting to 
points from which help could be asked, but the machinery of the law, once 
started, worked quickly.  GOVERNOR MANN ordered the State companies of militia 
at Roanoke and Lynchburg to be ready to go to Hillsville, if their aid should 
be necessary.  Police detectives and volunteers from nearby places took all the 
means of transportation to get to Hillsville.  ~  Late today GOVERNOR MANN 
telegraphed to JUDGE STAPLES, of the Roanoke Corporation Court, to go to 
Hillsville and take charge of judicial proceedings.  ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAMS, 
of the State of Virginia has also been ordered to Hillsville.  He and the new 
judge, STAPLES, will meet at Pulaski tomorrow and proceed together.  ~  The 
town is awkardly situated for such an emergency as this.  It is the county seat 
of Carroll county, and lies in the Beaver Dam valley four miles from the top of 
the Blue Ridge mountains, across the valley, a strip of indigo along the sky on 
a clear day shows the Alleghenies.  The country is rough, the roads are bad and 
at this time of year with spring thaws, nearly impassible.  Illicit stills are 
said to be many.  ~  FLOYD ALLEN lived on one side of the town and his two 
brothers on the other.  All the men of the family have been known as stern 
characters and were feared by many in the county.  The deputy sheriff who would 
serve a warrant or a summons on one of them was accounted a brave man.  ~  
JUDGE MASSIE was one of the most prominent jurists of the State.  He was 
appointed to the bench by GOVERNOR SWANSON in 1908, was 48 years old and is 
survived by a wife, two sons and a daughter.  JUDGE MASSIE had been considered 
recently for promotion to the State Supreme Court bench.  COMMONWEALTH ATTORNEY 
FOSTER had held his office for eight years.  He was 40 years of age and known 
as a fearless prosecutor.  He was a Republican leader in the county.  SHERIFF 
WEBB had been a deputy for 15 or 20 years before being elected sheriff last 
November. 


Additional Comments:
Three officers of the court of Carroll County were murdered the 14th day of 
March 1912 - Judge Thornton L Massie, William M Foster, Esq. and Sheriff Lewis 
Franklin Webb; 

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