The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Tuesday Morning, September 24, 1912

SIDNA ALLEN MAY SOON WEAKEN UNDER STRAIN

Reputed Leader of Hillsville Assassins Shows Signs of Approaching Breakdown.

CROWDS AT HILLSVILLE TO SEE NOTED PRISONERS

Trials Set for October 28 at Wythe- ville and Jury Will be Composed of Citizens of Carroll county—Meeting Between Sidna Allen and His Wife Said to Have Been Pathetic Scene.

Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards, who were taken to Hillsville Sunday, were returned to Roanoke yesterday afternoon by W. G. Baldwin and eight other guards. The men were taken to Hillsville for arraignment upon the charge of complicity in the murder of the court officers at Hillsville, and their trial has been set for October 28 at Wytheville. The jury will be composed of residents of Carroll county.

Both on the way to Hillsville and on the return the country roads and railway stations were thronged with curious people, who were anxious to obtain a fleeting glimpse of the two desperate criminals who are believed to have inspired the awful court house crime, and who led the officers such a chase before they were finally captured. Allen and Edwards were conveyed through the country for several miles in a hack and at every stop throngs of people crowded around the vehicle to take a look at the prisoners. At Hillsville the interest was even more acute and the entire population of the town and hundreds from the surrounding country were lined up to wait the appearance of the officers with their prisoners.

The meeting between Sidna Allen and his wife was most pathetic. Mrs. Allen was entirely unnerved and took on in a terrible manner and Sidna Allen, hard man that he is said to be, broke down completely and sobbed like a child. The terrific strain under which he has been laboring before and since his arrest has told upon the iron nerves of the man and he has shown visible signs of a complete breakdown on several occasions since his capture. Mrs. Allen is said to be a gentle and refined woman and her suffering since the tragedy has been almost unbearable.

Sidna Allen will be tried for the murder of Judge Massie, who left a dying statement, that, it is believed, will insure Allen’s conviction of murder in the first degree. Both Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards have suffered at the hands of the witnesses for the defense in the former trials. Believing that they had safely escaped the officers of the law, their friends made them the goat in an effort to do something for the other members of the gang.