Sidna Edwards First Catch

Saturday Morning, March 23, 1912 The Bluefield Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.

SIDNA EDWARDS FIRST CATCH OF ALLEN GANG

Rugged Young Mountaineer Protests Innocence of Mur- der Charge Against Him.

POSSES NOW HOPEFUL OF TAKING ALL OUTLAWS

Rumor That Member of Band Still at Large Offered to Surrender if Al- Lowed to Please Guilty to Second Degree Murder Not Verified.

YOUNG DESPERADO ASLEEP IN EMPTY HUT WHEN TAKEN

Hillsville, Va., March 22. --Sidna Edwards, a tall, rugged mountaineer of twenty-two, sat calmly in the darkness of the little brick jail here tonight, the first catch of the posses who have been scouring the mountains for those of the Allen gang who got away after the court house assassination of March 14.

Tonight young Edwards, emaciated and worn from a week's wandering in the thicket, protests his innocence of the indictment of murder against him, and the hunters, spurred on by the day's success up in the Blue Ridge, are hunting for the remainder of the gang.

Detectives Legrande Felts, of Thurmond, and W. W. Phaup, of Northfork, heading a posse, came upon Edwards at 4 o'clock this morning, asleep in an empty hut a mile from his home. He was unarmed and when he awoke the detectives were at his side. He made no resistance and went to a farmhouse near Lamsburg, Va., and started for Hillsville with his captors.

A rumor flew persistently about the countryside today that those of the Allen gang still at large, discouraged by the taking of Edwards and probably impressed with the ultimate futility of flight, had sent a proposition to Governor Mann, offering to surrender if they were permitted to plead guilty to murder in the second degree. The rumor could not be verified.

Sidna Edwards, nephew of Sidna Allen, and one of the Allen gang, which took to the mountains after the courthouse assassinations here, was arrested today at Lambsburg, Va., without resistance, by a posse of detectives. His capture leads to the belief that others of the mountaineers soon will be in custody.

Young Edwards was arrested by Detectives Lee Felts and W. W. Phaup, who had been in the mountains since Tuesday. They found him wandering about aimlessly and hungry. His sore foot troubled him greatly. It is believed he was unable to keep up with swift changes of base made by other fugitives.

Edwards reached Hillsville in the custody of the detectives this afternoon and was placed in jail. He would make no statement.

Officers said he made no attempt to resist arrest when discovered last night near Mount Airy. Jasper Allen, known as Jack, brother of Sidna Allen, joined young Edwards and the detectives on the road and came into town with them.

Edwards was not handcuffed and appeared very docile upon his arrival here.

Out of the hills and mountains along the Virginia-North Carolina border are all the sheriffs, detectives and possemen, enlisted for taking the Allen outlaws. They are prepared to stay in the field until they run down something beside false clues.

This community awoke today in a state of excited expectancy over Gov. Mann's announcement that steps were being taken which he believed would result in the outlaws' capture by the end of this week or the first of next.

It is said that the outlaws are constantly watching their pursuers through field glasses and have used a rifle shot code system successfully.

Edwards' arrest led to the conclusion here that other members of the Allen gang are near Lamsburg. This section is several miles west of where the outlaws were supposed to have been two days ago.

Sidna Edwards is the younger of the two Edwards brothers and the more venturesome. It was reported several days ago that he made a sortie from the hiding place of the outlaws and was seen by several persons.

Lamsburg, the point near which Edwards was caught, is almost directly south of Hillsville, perhaps twenty or twenty-five miles away, in the midst of mountains and a wild section

Edwards Captors Well Known Here

Lee Felts and W. W. Phaup, the two West Virginians, who captured Sidna Edwards, are well known in the city. For several years Mr. Felts worked out of the local office of the Baldwin-Felts detectives and following the promotion of his brother, Albert, to the offices of T. L. Felts at Denver, Colo., where he is in charge of another branch of the Baldwin-Felts detective agency, Lee Felts was placed in charge of the offices at Thurmond which embrace the Chesapeake and Ohio territory. Mr. Felts is known as a daring and brave officer and thoroughly conversant with the habits of the mountaineers.

W. W. Phaup, whose headquarters are at Northfork, is considered one of the best men in the service. He has carried out many delicate missions for the agency and has proven to be an unusually resourceful______. It was Mr. Phaup who arrested Cashier Sutherland, of Clintwood, after he had been at large for months and after he had disguised himself as a common laborer and secured work with the Rinehart & Dennis Contracting Company, which was building the railroad tunnel at Kimball. Both he and Mr. Felts have made some very important arrests and have been charged with delicate missions. Altogether there never was a better working force gathered together on a man hunt than the force with which T. L. Felts and W. G. Baldwin have surrounded themselves and detailed on duty at Hillsville. Both Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Felts are residents of Bluefield and make their homes here.