The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Saturday Morning, November 16, 1912

TRIAL OF ALLENS DRAGS EARILY ON

Former Juror Eye Witness to Battle Was Principal Witness of Yesterday.

Wytheville, Nov. 15. --The commonwealth continued today to produce additional eye witnesses to the Hillsville tragedy, in its effort to prove the charge that Sidna Allen, now on trial for this life, was the slayer of Judge Massie.

Allen sits and listens to the evidence which may send him to the electric chair, unmoved, and often turns to prompt his counsel when evidence is offered against him by the witnesses of the commonwealth.

The first witness of the day was Ed? Puckett, 48 years old, a farmer and a member of the jury that convicted Floyd Allen in the case which caused the trouble.

He said he heard Allen say he was not going when the sheriff was ordered to take charge of him, and he began to unbutton his sweater. The witness then left the court room, going into the judge's room. Several shots were fired over his head. He laid down on the floor and saw Sidna Allen running towards the door. He heard some cartridges fall on the floor but did not see who let them fall. When he got up he saw Judge Massie lying on the desk and Juror Fowler on the floor.

Cross examined he said he did not see Sidna Allen shoot. He saw Sheriff Webb lying on his back dead, with a pistol in his right hand. This was the only pistol he saw.

In answer to additional questions he said he saw Claude Allen go into the bar and hold a conversation with his father.

The next witness was W. T. Quesenberry, deputy clerk of the Carroll court, under Dexter Goad. He is twenty-five years old and said when he went into the court room on the morning of the tragedy that he noticed the Allens occupied about the same positions they had occupied the evening before. Wesley Edwards and Victor Allen were near the door. The others occupied the positions which have been generally assigned them by other witnesses. He said he saw Wesley Edwards shoot and he saw Floyd Allen fire his pistol. He also saw Friel Allen shoot at Commonwealth's Attorney Foster.

The witness then identified a piece cut from the court house door in which was embedded a bullet fired from the pistol of Friel Allen.

The witness went to the door of the court house and saw Goad and his daughter on the steps and saw a number of shots fired between Goad and Sidna Allen.

Cross examined the witness admitted that he was armed on the morning of the tragedy and fired several shots until his pistol hung up and would not shoot. His pistol was an automatic. He denied that he had been notified by Goad to be there and to be ready for trouble. He saw the Allens early in the morning. He said he did not anticipate any trouble, and just happened to have his pistol on that day, although he was not in the habit of …?

On cross examination Deputy Clerk Quesenberry said he is a relative of carrying it, although as a court officer he had the right to go armed. After seeing the shooting at the door he went back to the court room and saw Sheriff Webb lying on the floor dead, with the pistol at his right side. He denied telling anyone that he had been preparing for the trouble for months. He also said he did not tell Wiley Worrell that if everything was known that Floyd Allen would not be hurt.

The questioning of the witness by Mr. Buxton indicates that witnesses will be introduced to contradict him and to show that the court officers were expecting trouble and had prepared for it. In other words, it looks as if the foundation is being laid to show that a probable conspiracy prevailed on the part of the court officers and that they took no precaution to prevent the trouble.

….?Mrs. Dexter Goad.

W. E. Nestor, fifty-two years old and a juror in the Floyd Allen case, sat near the northwest corner of the jury box. He saw Floyd Allen open his sweater and draw his revolver and shoot Commonwealth's Attorney Foster. He testified that Floyd shot a number of times, but he did not see any other shooting, although it was going on all around him. He then went out of the northwest door and saw some shooting in the street. The witness got to a place of safety as quickly as he could.

F. A. Seigle, an undertaker of Pulaski, testified that he prepared the body of Judge Massie for burial. There were three wounds on the body, one on top of the right shoulder, one on right fore arm, near the ribs, and a third on the left leg about five inches above the knee. He pumped more than half a gallon of blood out of one of the lungs of the dead man, indicating that the lung had also been pierced by a bullet.

Cashier Wilkenson of the Citizens Bank of Hillsville was called. He described the bank building and its location in relation to the court house and said he heard the first shots and went to the window when he saw Floyd and Sidna Allen come out of the court house. Both had pistols. He saw a man wearing a black overcoat come up to Floyd Allen and hand him a pistol, saw the Allens shoot toward the court house when they left and went towards Blankinship's stable, where the Allens and Edwardses got on their horses and left.

L. W. Tompkins, an attorney at Hillsville, who occupies offices opposite the court house, heard the first shot. He knew his brother was in the court room and he started to investigate. He saw his brother come out and cross the street, going to the office, where he got a double barrel shot gun and stood at the window. He could have shot Floyd Allen, but did not do so.

He saw Floyd and Sidna both shoot and saw Sidna stoop down and reload his revolver. As the two men started down the street he saw Floyd shoot at a man who was running, and whom he took to be James Early, one of the jurors. Floyd and Sidna Allen then went to the stable where their horses were, and where the Allen and Edwards boys had already gone. He heard Sidna say to Floyd; "Can't you go?" They then got on their horses and rode away in the direction of Mr. Steele's.