The Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, W. Va.
Thursday Morning, May 23, 1912

CLAUDE KILLED JUDGE MASSEY SAYS WITNESS

Direct Charge Made By Judge Bolen First Witness For State.

TAKING TESTIMONY BEGAN IN AFTERNOON

Jury Secured After Nearly Two Hun- dred Talesmen Had Been Tested. Claude Allen Sits in Court Hand- Cuffed and Guarded.

SHOWS GREAT INTEREST IN ALL OF COURT'S PROCEEDINGS.

Wytheville, Va., May 22. --The direct charge that a bullet from the revolver of Claude Allen killed Judge Massie, was made on the witness stand by Judge D. W. Bolen. Judge Bolen was the first witness sworn by the prosecution in the trial of Claude Allen. Byrd Marion, one of the six arrested after the shooting, was released today in $1,000 bail.

After spending two and one-half days and examining 184 ventremen, a jury of twelve men was secured in the case of Claude Allen, charged with the murder of Judge Thornton L. Massie, at Hillsville, on March 14, and the prosecution began the taking of evidence at 2:30 this afternoon, with Judge D. W. Bolen, on the stand. It will be remembered that Judge Bolen defended Floyd Allen in the case on which he was being tried and sentenced to serve a year in the penitentiary on the morning of the Hillsville tragedy.

The jury in whose hands rests the fate of Claude Swanson Allen is as follows:

W. H. Dix, aged 45, miller.
G. B. Williams, 48, farmer.
Charles C. Neff, 40, farmer.
M. F. Litz, 55, farmer.
R. C. Huddle, 35, merchant.
A. Y. Dixon, 59, farmer.
C. C. Crockett, 38, farmer.
E. G. Vaught, 40, saw mill man.
W. L. Lindsey, 42, farmer and undertaker.
W. O. Neff, 28, farmer.
John T. Bough, 45, farmer.
W. W. Eastwood, 35, laborer.

Claude Allen was arraigned at Hillsville on the charge of murder and for that reason was not again arraigned this morning. He entered a plea of "not guilty" at Hillsville.

After the jury had been sworn shortly after 10:20 this morning, Attorney Joseph C. Wysor, for the prosecution, made the opening statement in which he stated that the commonwealth would prove that the prisoner at the bar fired the shot that killed Judge Massie. His speech was much along the line of the opening statement in the case of Floyd Allen. Mr. Wysor occupied about three-quarters of an hour in making the statement to the jury.

He was followed by Mr. Willis, for the defense, who spoke for half an hour. His address was practically the same as that delivered at the trial of Claude Allen's father. The cases and charges against all the defendants are so closely allied, and the testimony in each case so nearly the same that no new features were brought in the opening statements today by either side.

The commonwealth has fifty witnesses summoned and the defense will have almost as many more. The prisoner, Claude Allen, is kept handcuffed, and is surrounded by Baldwin detectives as guards. He seems deeply interested in the court proceedings, which may result in the electric chair for him. He is neatly dressed and is a handsome young man of powerful physique. He doesn't have the appearance of a hardened criminal or a desperado.

Mrs. Victor Allen, wife of the accused brother of Claude Allen, now on trial, and who will be tried next on the charge of murder, arrived in Wytheville today to visit her husband. It is the first time she has seen him since his arrest at Hillsville on the morning of March 15.

But very few people are attending the trial of Claude Allen, and interest seems to be much abated. Had it not been for the court officers, the attorneys and the large number of veniremen about the court house, one would hardly realize that a sensational murder trial was on.