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Harlan Enterprise
13 July 1928
3 Alleged Slayers to Face Hearing Friday
Men Charged With Murder of Sheriff Floyd Ball
and Deputy Sheriff John J Hensley
The examining trials of Alex Napier, Alex Kelly and Charles Smith accused of murdering Sheriff Floyd Ball and Deputy Sheriff John Hensley near Molus last Friday night, will be held Friday morning before County Judge W J R Howard. The trio of alleged killers were arraigned before Judge Howard Tuesday morning and the charges read to them. They declared that they had obtained an attorney and that he was expected to arrive in Harlan immediately to arrange for their defense. They refused to divulge the name of the attorney.
After a short hearing they agreed to Friday as the date of the examining trial and the Commonwealth’s Attorneys announced that they were ready any time the court desired. Just before the three were brought into the court room, Judge Howard ordered the room cleared and deputy sheriffs stations at the doors searched everyone as they re-entered the room.
The men are accused of murdering Sheriff Ball and Mr. Hensley, after the officers had attempted to stop them from driving a car over the newly poured concrete of the Harlan Pineville road near Molus.
There were no eye -witnesses to the shooting although people living at the home of David Long, near where the tragedy occured are said to have seen a man wearing a pair of khaki trousers walk around the car and shoot Deputy Hensley, after he had already fallen to the ground. When other officers reached the scene they found Sheriff Ball lying over the running board of the car, with a bullet hole in his right side and two in his back. Mr. Hensley was lying about twenty five feet up the road from where the car was parked with a bullet hole in the back of his head and three holes in his back.
The car of the alleged murderers had been wrecked and was turned over the embankment. Sheriff Ball’s pistol was found in the wrecked car. Charles Smith, who claimed Middlesboro as his home was arrested Saturday morning by Judge Howard. He at first refused to talk,
but later implicated Kelly and Napier in the shooting.
Napier and Kelly were captured on Straight Creek, in Harlan County, by Deputy Sheriff Andrew Howard, Chester Wilson, Ben Howard and Lee Ward.
Gussie Rice, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Rice and Denver Howard, nephew of Judge Howard, were at the home of Elhannon Wilson and noticed that the two men ate dinner there. The Rice boy told his father on returning to Harlan, furnishing a clue that proved of assistance in capturing the fugitives.
A bloodhound in charge of Herb Williams and Russ Richardson of LaFollette, Tenn., were close behind the pair when they were captured.
The fugitives were brought into Harlan Saturday afternoon where they were slipped quietly into jail, few persons knowing of their arrival until they were within a block of the jail. A rush was made for them when their presence was discovered but the men were hustled into the jail under the protection of Roscoe Ball, brother of the slain Sheriff. The Coroner’s jury, impaneled Saturday morning returned a verdict accusing
the trio of the murder of the sheriff and his deputy.
A mob was reported to have formed Saturday night for the purpose of hanging the trio. The office had been left in charge of Deputies Thos. Holmes and Frank Cawood and Mr. Holmes got word that the mob was forming, learning the name of the leader of the mob. This man was sent for and Mr Holmes talked with him, saying that an attack on the men would be an attack on him personally. That each man killed was his close personal friend and relative, but that he had the law to uphold, and that they had been killed in an unlawful manner and any attempt to take out the prisoners would be an unlawful act. His argument prevailed and nothing more occured until about eleven o’clock when an automobile drove around the court house.
Mr. Homes went to the car and plead with the men to go home and let the law take it’s course, and that an attack on the jail would be an attack on the good citizenship of Harlan County. The men left and about two o’clock Mr. Holmes accompanied by Railroad Detective David Smith, went to the place of the assemblage of the mob and the men were all gone.
Submitted by: Anita Ball Brewer
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