Governor Mann's Plan

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph Bluefield, W. Va. Friday Morning, March 22, 1912

GOVERNOR MANN AND AUTHORITIES PLANNING COUP

Meanwhile Chase of Carroll County Outlaws Has Not Progressed.

PURSUING POSSES NOT TO QUARTER IN HILLSVILLE

Two Small Forces Operating in and Out of Town Merely Blind to Cover Large Force From Coal Field Camping on Trail of Desperadoes.

NO HOPE FOR RECOVERY OF JUROR HOWLETT ENTERTAINED.

Hillsville, Va., March 21. --Another tragedy was enacted in the old Carroll county court house today. Another troop of mountain outlaws rode in and shot the judge down off the bench and duplicated the gruesome assassination of a week ago but this time it was only for the moving pictures.

Meanwhile the chase of the outlaws has not progressed but Governor Mann and the authorities are planning a coup. A plan is on foot which is expected to materialize the last of this week or the first of next. The governor admitted this today but declined to discuss the plans.

The posse which left here so hurriedly on Tuesday night has not been seen or heard from since. It is now known that the hunters will not quarter in Hillsville but will stay out in the mountains and camp on the trail of the outlaws. The latest move supports the theory that the two small posses which have been operating in and out of town were merely blinds to conceal the movements of a larger posse which was secretly brought over into the mountains from the coalfields.

Andrew P. Howlett, who was shot in the back during the affray, is still very low and no hope of his recovery is entertained.

Clerk Dexter Goad today received word from Judge Staples, in Richmond, to hold a special term of the Carroll county court on Wednesday, March 28. This means that some of the Allens now in jail in Roanoke and any other captured meanwhile will be formally arraigned, though a change of venue may be secured by counsel for the defense.

Sidna Allen and his gang apparently are no nearer capture than a week ago, when they rode into the mountains after the tragedy that blotted out the Carroll county court. Nearly every clue run down by searching detectives and possemen proved false.

Posses have surrounded three different mountain strongholds where the outlaws supposedly were hidden but failed to find the gang. So far no definite idea of the outlaws' whereabouts has been advanced.

The town is excited over a report that the Allens rode to a point within three miles of the town and placed a notice beside the governor's proclamation offering a reward.