The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Thursday Morning, December 12, 1912

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN
PENITENTIARY FOR SIDNA ALLEN

Wesley Edwards Will Serve Twenty-Seven
for His Part in Hillsville Tragedy.

COMPROMISE FOLLOWS
MANSLAUGHTER VERDICT

Famous Cases Now Ended so Far as the Courts Are Concerned—Gover- nor Mann Grunts a Respite to Janu- ary 17 to Floyd Allen and His Son Claude.

Wytheville, Va., Dec.11.—Thirty-five ears in the penitentiary is the penalty Sidna Allen will pay for the part he played in the shooting up of the county court of Hillsville on March 14 last, when five persons, including the presiding judge, the sheriff and the commonwealth’s attorney were killed by members of the Allen clan, and a number of others wounded. Allen’s nephew, Wesley Edwards, will spend twenty-seven years in the penitentiary.

These two sentences were the result of a compromise, this afternoon, following a verdict of voluntary manslaughter in the case of Sidna Allen for the murder of Commonwealth’s attorney William M. Foster, the jury fixing the penalty in that case at five years imprisonment. Allen already had been found guilty of second degree murder at a former trial, for the killing of Judge Massie, for which he had been sentenced to fifteen years in the penitentiary, and the other indictment pending against him, for the murder of Sheriff Webb, was compromised, by allowing him to plead guilty to second degree murder. The combined sentences make a total of thirty-five years imprisonment. Three indictments against Wesley Edwards also were compromised, he taking a sentence of nine years imprisonment on each.

In the second trial of Sidna Allen, which ended today; nine of the jurors, on the first ballot, stood for acquittal and the other three for murder in the second degree. Following their discharge, the jurors in interview, declared that not one of them thought the evidence presented by the state was sufficiently strong to sustain the charge of conspiracy.

It was a compromise verdict, reached after nearly twenty-four hours of deliberation on the part of the jury.

The first poll of the jury stood nine for acquittal and three for murder in the second degree. Not a single man voted at any time for murder in the first degree. After being called back last night at seven o’clock and considering the case until after 9 o’clock, the jury reported that they were unable to agree and a request was made that they be discharged. Judge Staples held that they had not been together long enough, and ordered them locked up in their rooms at the hotel, and adjourned court until 9 o’clock this morning.

At one time special instructions were asked for by the jury, and they expressed a desire to be given the evidence of Judge Bolen for further consideration. They filed into court this morning at an early hour and again reported that they were hopelessly divided. Judge Staples issued additional instructions and sent them back to the jury room with the instruction to get together if possible. No one suspected that any verdict less than second degree murder was being considered and most people in Wytheville and about the court house believed that a majority of the jury favored a verdict of murder in the first degree.

Shortly after 1 o’clock when the jury filed into the court room and announced that a verdict had been reached, there was a hush of expectancy, but when a verdict of voluntary manslaughter was pronounced, fixing his punishment at five years in the penitentiary, surprise was depicted on the faces of many especially the court officers and the attorneys for the prosecution.

It is said that the attorneys for the defense at first confidently expected a verdict of acquittal, but as the hours passed their confidence waned. After rending the verdict the jurors were discharged.

This ends, in so far as the courts are concerned, a tragedy, which was without parallel and which stirred the country from one end to the other. On the 14th of last March, following the conviction of Floyd Allen of an offense which would have sent him to the penitentiary for one ear, members of the Allen family, clannish mountaineers, opened fire on the court officials. At the first volley Judge Thornton L. Massie fell mortally wounded, and when the smoke had cleared away, Sheriff Webb and Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster also were found dead. On the following day one of the three jurors, who were shot, died of his wounds, as did also Miss Beckie Ayers, who had been a witness against Floyd Allen.

Floyd Allen was arrested on the day following the tragedy, being too badly wounded to escape. The arrest of others implicated in the shooting, followed at various intervals. The two men, whose fate was decided today, were the last to be captured.

Of the six men, who were convicted of complicity in the shooting, two—Floyd Allen and his son, Claude, are under sentence of death, while four others—Sidney and Friel Allen and Wesley and Sidna Edwards, have each been given long terms in prison. Victor Allen was acquitted and Byrd Marion was discharged because of lack of evidence against him.

Richmond, Dec. 11. —On the statement of attorneys for Floyd and Claude Swanson Allen that newly discovered evidence is sufficient to make the granting of a new trial by the supreme court probable, Governor Mann today granted a respite to the two men until January 17. They were to have been electrocuted Friday of this week for their part in the Hillsville murders of March 14.

The governor did not express an opinion as to the new evidence, but required the attorneys to sign a paper stating they that believed it to be material. An application will now be made to the supreme court for a rehearing on the petition for a writ of error.