Detectives Say they can't Escape

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va. Tuesday Morning, March 26, 1912

DETECTIVES SAY ALLEN OUTLAWS CAN'T ESCAPE

Final Assault on Gang, How- Ever, May be Delayed for Several Days.

FEASIBLE EXITS FROM MOUNTAINS GUARDED

Another Day of Hide and Seek Up and Down the South Side of the Blue Ridge, During Which Posses Were Often Near Fugitives.

INDICTMENTS FOR COMPLICITY IN ASSASSINATIONS EXPECTED TODAY

Hillsville, Va. March 25. --"They can keep us guessing for several days, but no longer. They can't get food enough to live."

This was the statement tonight of the leaders of the posses which are hunting the Allen outlaws for the court house murders of March 14.

After another day's hide and seek up and down the south side of the Blue Ridge, in which the posses often were near the Allens and even found initials from Sidna's saddle head, part of a horse's bridle and the remains of a meal hastily eaten by the outlaws on their retreat, the detectives declared the final assault upon the gang might be delayed for several days.

"The posses cannot move at night," said one of the leaders. "The blackness might mean a fall over a precipice, and to use lanterns would betray us. All we can do is dash for a hiding place early in the day, make sure that the Allens spent the night there and then follow the trail. All feasible exits from the mountains are guarded and the Allens cannot get away."

A posse of fourteen men spent last night in Floyd Allen's barn.

Court convenes here tomorrow and some indictments for complicity in the court house assassination are expected. The present indictments for murder against members of the Allen gang probably will be dismissed to an order impaneling a jury. Judge Staples, who arrived today, will impanel a jury which will return substitute indictments, more complete than those drawn in the excitement two days after the tragedy.

Claude Swanson Allen, the twenty-two-year-old son of Floyd Allen, and one of those indicted for the courthouse murders has cleverly eluded all pursuers, but his uncle, Sidna Allen, and cousins, Wesley Edwards and Friel Allen, are closely pressed on the south side of the Blue Ridge. Claude Allen, who once attended a military school at Raleigh, N. C., and knows more of the outside world than the average mountaineer, it was learned, took a pocketful of gold from the family cash drawer on the night of the tragedy, put on his best clothing and vanished on horseback beyond the North Carolina line. Hope of finding him in the mountain region has now been abandoned.

No so, however, with the three other outlaws who are dodging about in the crevices of the Blue Ridge between here and Mount Airy, N. C. They have been seen at a distance. Detectives have been within thirty minutes of them.

WORK UNDER DIFFICULTIES

Detectives Handicapped by Roughness of County In Which Outlaws Are Hiding.

T. L. Felts, general manager of the Baldwin-Felts detectives, was in the city yesterday disposing of the accumulation of business at his local office. A Daily Telegraph reporter talked to him about the Hillsville occurrence. Mr. Felts said he could not give out the details of the work but he talked for a half hour about the country his men are working and the obstacles which are thrown in their way.

The public can have but little conception of the country. There is a plateau, abounding in fine farms and beautiful country but to the south, in North Carolina, the country is rough, rugged, full of ravines treaded by creeks, branches and dry creek beds. These wend their way through all kinds of ground and drain the plateau. The sheer side of the mountain is dotted with shelf rocks, caves, homes, cabins and every conceivable kind of a place where men can hide. The fugitives, who it is believed have not all left the mountains as yet, are well acquainted with the territory.

Schooled in evasion of the law and its officers these men when boys often sat on a ledge for hours; stood sentinel over a rock in the distance, where people were accustomed to place a jug or bottle and money and then leave. On their return -- their money had disappeared and in its place was the jug filled with moonshine liquor. Seldom if ever did the stranger see what hand had wrought the transformation and in only rare cases did the closest friends know who made the change.

Because of the presence of so many shelf rocks, beneath which caves extend into the ground for many feet, it is impossible to scout from above as during the day time the men crawl beneath the shelves and wrapped in blankets or covered with leaves, can sleep and rest until night falls, when they can be up and away with but little danger of being seen because they know every byway and path. Following these paths they had nearly two weeks in which to leave the country or make their way to some safe spot where they can hide and evade the officers until a more opportune time does come to leave. The officers are obliged to approach the outlaws from the foot of the mountain on the southern side. On this account the men are exposed at all times during the daylight.

One instance of how many obstacles are thrown in the way of the officers is the fact that when the officers, on the day following the killing, went to the homes of the Allens there was not a single photograph of any one of them to be found. They had completely disappeared, although it is known that the Allens and the Edwards boys had had their pictures taken and that there were pictures of them. Finally one man was found who had a picture of one of them. He turned it over to the officers and told them it was a perfect likeness of one of the men. The photograph was copied, but it was found shortly afterwards that the picture was one of a member of the family who is not in the section and who has been away for some time.

Acting on a clue which was three days old, posses rode towards Mt. Airy from which point a story had been circulated that the men were near. Mr. Felts, himself, was completely taken in by this report which had been so carefully manufactured that it appeared to have the earmarks of truth. In order to make capture certain he sent his men into the hills and he rode away, going to his home, where he remained until night, when he saddled his horse and rode twenty-five miles to join the posse which, he met about three o'clock in the morning. The clue proved to be worthless and his twenty-five mile ride through roundabout paths was useless.

The newspaper men at Hillsville, and there are still a half dozen of them, hired wagons and drove towards Mt. Airy as fast as possible. They had a fine descriptive tale for their troubles. The Associated Press man, who was at Barren Springs, met Mr. Felts and Mr. Felts told him he might as well remain at Barren Springs for all the news he could get on the trip.

The mountain side, on its southern extreme, is dotted with cabins and all kinds of huts, while a few good homes stand out by reason of their size. Mr. Felts went to one of the men who lives in one of these houses and asked him to aid him. They know he will follow them long after the public has forgotten about the case, if they are not captured now. He told this mountaineer that he would give him $3,000 in cash, if he would tell him where the outlaws were. The money looked big no doubt, but he simply bent his head a little towards Mr. Felts and whispered that the $3,000 wouldn't be any good to him as the Allens would get him sooner or later. This is the sentiment expressed by the people.

Mr. Felts said it is possible that Claude Allen has escaped from the officers who are in the mountain. This belief is based on the fact that no trace of him has been found lately. He thinks, however, that the other outlaws are still in the mountains and will be captured but admits that it may take time. That all will be eventually captured he is certain, as he does not believe the men can get away for all time.

Mr. Felts said he wishes he had the time to spare on the case, as he would then cut his force down to himself and two other men and trail and hunt for the outlaws as he would foxes.

That no sympathizers know where the outlaws are, Mr. Felts is certain. His men found one place where a basked of food had been placed, by request, for the outlaws, but fear that the officers were watching the rock on which it was placed prevented the men calling for it. Another time Jack Edwards' wife rode to a section of the country where there are a number of relatives of the Allens and Edwards boys. She also sent her son to the same section in the hope of learning something of their whereabouts, but she failed, and it was learned on reliable authority that even the people in that section had not seen any of the crowd.

Mr. Felts was considerably amused by a report which appeared in Sunday's Washington Post concerning him, and which charged him with having killed eighteen men in his time, and which recklessly told of the eighteen notches on his gun. He said the story was on a par with others which have been published. He purchased a cop of the Post so as to see what other unpleasant things had been said about him. He said that he has been so busy in the Hillsville country that he has not had time to look over any of the press dispatches, and has only seen the Mt. Airy papers, a number of copies of which he brought here with him.