Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court 7,494 views Jan 8, 2011 42 Dislike Share Save Bill Perrine 320 subscribers A brief trailer for the upcoming documentary about the 1912 Hillsville. For a while, Hillsville was at the top of the nation's newspaper. The Allens were a notorious family from Carroll County, Virginia, who . He was the patriarch of the county's most prominent family, which, in addition to owning large tracts of farmland and a prosperous general store, were also active in local politics as proud Southern Democrats. In the confusion there was a lot of shooting. 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. [3] He had a history of violent altercations, including shooting a black man in North Carolina, beating a police officer in Mount Airy and later shooting his own cousin. When the men were buried, it was beneath one final statement of defiance. View Map and Driving Directions Phone: (276) 728-2594 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. The play was still occasionally performed before the pandemic. 23 school districts remove challenged books from library shelves; more . The goals of the program include a greater shared knowledge about the nation's past, strengthened regional identities and local pride, increased local participation in preserving the country's cultural and natural heritage assets, and support for the economic vitality of our communities. [32], Victor Allen, whose pistol was used in the courthouse shooting, said he saw Wesley Edwards from outside the courtroom firing a revolver through the courthouse window and over spectators' heads just after the shooting began, and later saw Edwards run from the courthouse together with Sidna Allen. [1] Combs wanted the land badly enough to pay the asking price and bought it despite Floyd Allen's warnings not to "butt in. As the smoke cleared the sheriff, judge, and the common wealth attorney all lay dead. ")[1] Floyd Allen stated that only then did he draw his own revolver and begin shooting. 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. The Historical Society has gathered significant materials, published over the years, that attempt to interpret this event in our local history. The grand posse, as Sidna Allen would mockingly call them in his memoirs, rode horses, carried shotguns and rifles and posed for pictures even though they spent a lot of time flailing through the woods in search of the Allens. The jury found Allen guilty of assault on 14 March and sentenced him to one year in the penitentiary. However, Sidna Allen and his nephew, Wesley Edwards, fled Virginia. He teased Horney about Wythe County losing such valuable historical artifacts. Its small enough for that to be possible I suspect. Look after this now. Floyd had been seriously wounded. These mostly came from recent labor disputes in coal country and their mannerism didnt endure them to anyone, it seems. 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 . One local historian interviewed by Williamson for The Roanoker magazine in 1982 stated unequivocally that Claude Allen, Floyds son, fired first. On the cold spring morning of March 14, 1912, shots rang out in the tiny, rural, mountain town of Hillsville, Virginia. In the space of 90 seconds, 57 bullets were fired into the Hillsville courthouse, killing five men and wounding three more. 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. The Holstein Dilemma Trailer; The Holstein Dilemma Preview; The Holstein Dilemma Director's Cut DVD; Screening Dates and Locations; Electronic Press Kit; agriCulture Podcast; About Us. Neither was prosecuted. Two months after the shootout, Floyd Allen was convicted in Wytheville of killing Foster, the commonwealths attorney. With the entry of the United States into World. "There were five people murdered. A large collection of portrait photos, newspaper accounts, and a marvelous diorama of the 1912 courtroom scene are on display in the historic courthouse, as is the collection of folk marquetry furniture made by J. Sidna Allen. A nation-wide manhunt was called for by the Governor of Virginia which lasted six months. - After his release from prison in 1922, Friel Allen came back to Hillsville and had Attorney John Alderman arrange a meeting with Dexter Goad. Its cool you found such an interesting tale based in your area. Did Floyd force their release or were they released into his custody? He asked her if she was hurt or mashed and her sister-in-law responded that she was just scared. The exhibits were discovered in 2016 in Wythe County's courthouse. The end result was three people deadthe judge, the Commonwealth Attorney and the sheriff. - After the shootout ended, people in Hillsville were afraid the Allen family would come back into town and kill everyone in sight. The town's name was changed to Hillsville in the late 1820s to honor a local family. 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. Gerald Goad, Carroll County Clerk of the Circuit Court, engineered the transfer of the documents from Wytheville to Hillsville. The pop of a single revolver. Bolen, asked for bail and for Allen to be freed as they appealed the case. In some ways, the county never recovered from that day. That said, I am glad to have read the book and Ive learned more about this area. Accounts differ as to who actually fired the first shot. Follow Us. No one secured the courthouse as a crime scene. The police of 1912 were not exactly professional. ( Historic Resource | DHR | Carroll County) [2] His pistol empty, Allen proceeded to beat Jack with the butt of his empty revolver. "Floyd Allen Defense Gets Well Into Case", Bluefield, W. Va.: "Accuses Dexter Goad Of Shooting Betty Ayers". Both, Walter Scott Tipton and David Winton Bolen, were retired Carroll County judges. "You have no idea how much it means to me for you to be here today. It is amazing how nothing changes Today, a story gets retold till its stale, unless something big happens to push it off the headlines. And then, he apparently moved on with life. More leniency was given to the other Allens and their family members. [4] His defense team included former Commonwealth's Attorney Walter Tipton and recent County Court Judge Oglesby. I recently learned that our town had a number of hiding spots on the Underground Railroad. [citation needed], On the following Monday, Wesley and Sidna Edwards were turned over to the court by Floyd Allen, and the two Edwards brothers were soon tried and convicted of their crimes. Floyd shot Jack in the head and then began to beat him in the head with a rock while he was out cold. As historian Ron Hall wrote in his book: And for a moment, the world stopped.. Sidna was released from prison, but he never set foot in his fine house again. When all the smoke cleared, there were five dead, seven wounded. Massie sentenced Allen to one year in prison. Far from the backward, murderous mob of hillbillies as they would later be portrayed in sensational news accounts, Floyd and his brothers were farmers, business people and even occasional lawmen who sometimes had their own run-ins with the law, usually stemming from their participation in the illegal liquor trade. Sadlers research took him to the Wythe County Courthouse, where he befriended Hayden H. Horney, the longtime circuit court clerk. [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. Elbert Lee Trinkle and Gov. There are still questions to be answered, but they probably never will be answered. This story could have been written in a Creative Non-Fiction genre. Another younger brother, Sidna, was a successful businessman who had prospected for gold in Alaska, operated a store, owned a considerable amount of land and built a lovely Queen Anne-style home in Fancy Gap, and yet he was accused of being a counterfeiter who barely avoided jail time even though one of his associates was sent up the river. Easter ran to an acquaintance's home, and he telephoned the sheriff at Hillsville. Menu. Those documents include indictments, judges instructions, grand jury indictments, trial transcripts, letters and other courtroom exhibits all words left by ghosts. Was Clerk of Carroll County Circuit Court During the Famous Allen Trial. 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. 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. [22], The prosecution attempted to show that Floyd and Claud Allen prompted the gun battle by standing and pulling their pistols and opening fire. No autopsies were ever performed and rumors flew of friendly fire casualties. Floyd said he did it peacefully and lawfully, claiming that the deputies did not have proper warrants for arrest. Everybody was packing weapons, it seemed. [2] Samuels again pulled his gun on Floyd. 10994 Hillsville Masscre Sidna Allen, No. Floyd said that Commonwealth's Attorney Foster would not give him a show;[clarification needed] but that if he did not there would be a "big hole put in the court house." Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. In 1921, however, Victor moved his family to Tabernacle Township, New Jersey. On May 18, 1912, the jury found Floyd Allen guilty. 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. Allen was noted for his generosity, but also his quick temper and easily injured pride. The phone hasn't stopped ringing in the. Barry Lopezs book (above) sounds good. The book begins with character sketches of the various parties involved. Interesting story. 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. 11218 The Roanoker - Hillsville Massacre Industrial Survey - Carroll County (NOTE a 1929 publication) Media The Carroll News 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. October 2, 2022. He never wrote a damn word about the most significant event in his life, Sadler said. V. Ray Bowman is known for Hillsville 1912: A Shooting in the Court (2011). (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! One final statement of defiance hillsville 1912: a shooting in the court was given to the Wythe County losing such valuable artifacts! 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