The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Friday Morning, November 15, 1912

BULLET FOUND IN JUDGE'S CHAIR

Location Shows That it Could Not Have Been Fired by Allens--Goad Relates Same Old Story.

Wytheville, Nov. 14. --All doubt as to whether or not a certain hole in the chair occupied by Judge Thornton L. Massie at the time he was slain, was made by a bullet, was removed today in the trial of Sidna Allen, when the excelsior padding upon the back of the chair was removed, In the presence of the jury, and the bullet which made the hole, found.

In this the defense sees the substantiation of their claim that Judge Massie was killed by one of the court officers and not by one of the Allens, as it is claimed that the location of the bullet was such that it must have been fired from that corner of the room in which the court officers were standing.

Clerk Dexter Goad, upon whose head the defense tried to place the blame for the tragedy, was a witness today and related the incidents of the tragedy in much the same manner that he did in former trials. He was unshaken upon cross-examination. Other witnesses testified as to the alleged threats made against the court by Sidna Allen and his brother, Floyd Allen.

James Earls, a member of the jury which convicted Floyd Allen, and which was the prime cause of the tragedy, who was on the witness stand yesterday, was recalled this morning. According to his story he was a prominent figure in the tragedy and is regarded as a star witness for the commonwealth. He repeated the story of how five persons were killed in the fusillade in the Hillsville courtroom.

Clerk Dexter Goad told his story in about the same manner as he related it on several different occasions before at the trials of the other alleged clansmen. He told of the troubles that led up to the difficulties of the Allens during the past several years and coming down to the time when Floyd Allen released the two Edwards boys who were under arrest by Deputy Sheriff Samuels, and of the prosecution of Allen for this crime and his final conviction on the morning of March 14, when the trouble began which ended in a tragedy that shook the whole civilized world, the total destruction of a court of justice by the kinsmen of the man who had been convicted and sentenced to a year in the penitentiary.

Two other witnesses were called today who have never appeared before. One of them testified to threats that Floyd Allen had made against the courts. He said that Floyd had shown him a sugar sack with cartridges in it and if he was convicted that by the time he got through using them and more that he had, the court would be glad to set the verdict aside.

The other man's testimony was directed again Sidna Allen. He said that Sidna Allen had had a man indicted with the view of collecting a debt off him, and when the court realized Allen's intention, the case was thrown out and Allen put in for the costs. The witness stated that Allen said that if it was not for his wife and children that he would kill all the court officers, using several oaths and applying several epithets at the time to the officers.