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 BALOWIN.FELTS DETECTIVES, Inc. 
 
 Roanoke, Va., or Bluefteld. W. Va.) 
 WATCH ALL TRAINS, ESPECIALLY WEST AND SOOTH 
 WATCH OOTOOmO VESSELS AT ALL 'SEAPORT CITIES 
 
 Wtrth «, ISIS 
 
 Sidney Edward* was tiraited liU«a 
 
 FACSIMILE OF REWARD CIRCULAR ISSUED BV 
 GOVERNOR MANN. 
 
ALLEN 
 
 OUTLAWS 
 
 A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THEIR LIVES 
 AND EXPLOITS 
 
 CONCLUDING WITH THE HILLSVILLE 
 COURTHOUSE TRAGEDY 
 
 EDGAR JAMES 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 PHOENIX PUBLISHING CO., 
 Baltimore, Md, 
 
% 
 
 Copyright 1912, by 
 PHOENIX PUBLISHING CO., 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
•V- 
 
 ■# 
 
 indbx 
 
 CHAPTER I. ^ 
 
 The Tragedy in the Courtroom at Hillsvllle. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 List of the Dead and Wounded. 20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Governor Mann Takes Quick Action....... 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Burial of the Victims... 28 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Pursuit of the Daring Outlaws. 30 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Man Hunt and Its Desperate Details. 35 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Perils of Mountain Pursuit... 40 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the Trail of the Outlaws. 46 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Over the Border Line the Allens Flee for Safety.. 48 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Capture of Claude Allen... 56 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Claude Allen’s Story of the Massacre. 62 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Friel Allen, the Youngest of the Outlaws, Arrested. 70 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Capture of Sidney Edwards. 74 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Jack Allen Visits Hillsville and Attracts Attention. 79 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 On the Trail of Sidna Allen.. 84 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Capture of Bill Allen, Son of Floyd Allen. 89 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Story of an Eye-Witness to the Crime... 92 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Sidna Allen’s Farewell to His Wife. 96 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Some Traits of the Mountaineers that are Interesting.... 99 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Allens Are Not Common Criminals.102 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The Character and Vows of the Allens.105 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 State’s Attorney Foster Paid for Devotion to Duty.107 
 
 ^Ill- 
 
 Judge Boyd Tells How He Outwitted the Allens.110 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Floyd Allen’s Own Story.. 
 
 5 
 
1 N D E X.^‘^Continued 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. ' ' 
 
 Varied Pacts and Incidents About the Allens.iis 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Some Distorted Stories of the Mountain Region.124 
 
 , CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 In the Heart of the Outlaws’ Country .127 
 
 , CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Edgar James to the Scene of the Outbreak ... 133 
 
 „ . ^ , CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Pursuit of the Last of the Allen Outlaws .138 
 
 „ CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Nearing the End of a Desperate Chase . 141 
 
 ^ 1 i CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Taking the Prisoners to Roanoke Prison . 144 
 
 mu T ^ CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The Law of the Mountains the Code of the Allens__147 
 
 mu A,. T, CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 The Allen Pursuit Most Remarkable of Modern Times.151 
 
 ^ , CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Planned to Starve Out the Two Fugitives Still at Large.. .165 
 mu r. : , , X, CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 The Criminal Records of the Allens .. , . leo 
 
 ^ ■ CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 The Allen Gang Bid Deflance to Governor Mann.. 164 
 
 ^ CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Local Views on the Allen Gang. 166 
 
 T ^ X, CHAPTER XXXVIII. ' ' ’ ' 
 
 me Loyalty of the Mountain Women and Their Bravery. .170 
 . CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Allen Clan Members Still Evading Arrest . 174 
 
 Qoo u , CHAPTER XXXX. 
 
 bearchers Growing Weary of the Long Vigil. .. 179 
 
 Ttrn, X. CHAPTER XXXXI. 
 
 Outlaws Will Be Tried When Public Opinion Subsides... .184 
 
 Narrow * CHAI^ER XXXXII. 
 
 .Narrow Escape from Death of a Mountaineer .187 
 
PREFACE 
 
 When Patrick Henry, of Revolutionary days, 
 arose in an impassioned speech and exclaimed with 
 bated breath, “Give me liberty or give me death!” 
 he perhaps voiced the sentiments of the Allen gang 
 of mountains outlaws, although in a far more holy 
 cause—but still the love of liberty prevailed su¬ 
 preme to which curtailment of freedom, death was 
 preferable. ' 
 
 That same spirit of liberty has been carried down 
 through the years to the Virginia mountaineer of 
 today, and whether right or wrong in his life and 
 its precepts, there is one thing he holds dearest and 
 best among it all and that is freedom. Captured 
 and imprisoned, like the mountain eagle, he soon 
 lanquishes and dies, a victim of captivity.^ 
 
 Reared in an atmosphere of freedom, raised in an 
 altitude where the people live in the open air and 
 ar.e imbued with the idea that no matter what a 
 mountaineer may do, his freedom is still his own. 
 The legality of the government collecting tax on 
 whiskey, they are unable to comprehend, hence the 
 “moonshine still,” which, while it has been largely 
 diminished by the vigilance of the United States 
 revenue officers, many of whom have lost their 
 
 9 
 
 
8 
 
 TSE ALLBN OUTLAWS 
 
 lives in the struggle, is still by no means extinct 
 and never will be until the last freedom-loving 
 mountaineer has been laid beneath the sod. 
 
 In his little cave in the rocks or tiny shack, well 
 hidden in the mountain fastnesses, he will continue 
 to distill the “mountain dew” until some wily rev¬ 
 enue officer nabs him unawares or a bullet from a 
 government rifle ends his existence. The moun¬ 
 taineer will die, but he is seldom known to sur¬ 
 render. He believes that God made the mountains and 
 placed him among them. He feels they ate his own, 
 and with deadly earnestness he resents the slightest 
 intrusion or interference. He has a creed of his 
 own which does not coincide with that of the pow¬ 
 ers that be, and that creed is the same which actu¬ 
 ated American independence. 
 
 The same doctrine that actuated Patrick Henry 
 when he spoke those immortal words, “Give me lib¬ 
 erty or give me death!” 
 
 But despite the valor of the bold mountaineers 
 and their doctrines of sweet liberty, the fact re¬ 
 mains that they are at variance with the law, and 
 that their foul deed of murder in the Hillsville, Va.., 
 courtroom was one which can and will only be 
 atoned for with blood. Much blood has been shed 
 in consequence of it, and much more will be shed 
 until the last of the Allen gang has been wiped out 
 and the deadly deed avenged. There has never 
 been in the history -of the country a more murder¬ 
 ous, desperate act than that of the Allen gang. The 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 9 
 
 Blue Ridge mountaineers have committed many 
 deeds of lawlessness and desperation, of bloodshed 
 and tragedy, but this eclipsed them all. 
 
 Resistance of the law and open defiance of its 
 officers have been frequent, but rarely if ever has 
 their defiance gone to such a limit as to convert the 
 courtroom of Carroll county into a shambles and 
 battle ground, where every feature of the majesty 
 of the law was set at naught, where a fierce pistol 
 and rifle battle raged and where the presiding judge 
 and his officers were ruthlessly shot down in cold 
 blood, simply because they had prosecuted and 
 convicted a mountain outlaw, who had some time 
 before attacked an ofiicer who had one of their 
 gang under arrest, and who had, after felling the 
 officer with a blow of his rifle butt, had taken the 
 prisoner from him. 
 
 It is a tragedy of appalling atrocity, one that 
 sends a flame of indignation over the whole coun¬ 
 try, one that tells of a savagery and barbarism be¬ 
 longing to another age, to an era when might made 
 right and when desperate deeds were applauded, 
 when resistance to authority was approved and 
 when human life was rated as of little value. 
 
 Mountain feuds have not been uncommon in far 
 Southwest Virginia, and like those- of Tennessee 
 and Kentucky, have been marked by frequent as¬ 
 sassinations and bloody battles. Women and chil¬ 
 dren have been victims as well-as men, and not in¬ 
 frequently have whole families been wiped oui be- 
 
10 
 
 THE AI-EEN OUTLAWS 
 
 fore vengeance was satisfied. These have been car' 
 ried on with utter contempt for the law. In fact, it 
 would be counted a disgrace for any involved in 
 them.to appeal to the law. 
 
 He would be branded a coward even by those 
 upon whose side he had been fighting and would be 
 cast out from among them. These feuds are open 
 warfare, with the rule to shoot on sight and to 
 show no mercy. For a time they have not been 
 frequent, but this cannot be accounted for through 
 any greater respect for the law, but it may be that 
 the men and women of a newer generation ha\e be¬ 
 gun to see the folly of them and prefer to live Jn 
 peace rather than in constant danger from a bullet 
 shot from ambush. 
 
 This and many other murderous deeds in this 
 wild region are directly or indirectly accountable to 
 the moon shine industry and the otherwise' wide¬ 
 spread illicit distilling of whiskey. Time and time 
 again the government has sent its officers at the 
 peril of their lives into this wild and dangerous 
 part of our country to suppress this species of 
 crime, and many is the time they have never^ been 
 heard fro;n since. 
 
 The extraordinary measures have been 
 
 taken to crush out this illegal manufacture of whis¬ 
 key, but they have all of them ignominously failed, 
 and moonshining still flourishes in spite of Uncle 
 Sam and all his officers and detectives. 
 
 Farmers who are counted fairly well-to-do en- 
 
tHE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 gage in it, hiding their stills in the thick under¬ 
 brush, sometimes in caves, the approach to which 
 is known only to the mountaineers and is constant¬ 
 ly guarded by armed men. A ready sale is found 
 for the fiery liquor thus made and the profit is suf¬ 
 ficient to encourage them to keep up the business 
 and to risk- chances of discovery. Even when 
 caught in a government raid, the chances of convic¬ 
 tion before a sympathetic jury and with witnesses 
 who are probably engaged in the same business are 
 very slim, and when such conviction does occur the 
 penalties are not severe enough to prevent others 
 from taking a chance. 
 
 ■ Sometimes the counterfeiting of coin is also car¬ 
 ried on by these mountaineers, who seem to count 
 it their inherent right to make money any way they 
 can, law or no law. 
 
 Governor Mann acted promptly and in a manner 
 so vigorous as to convince the country he would 
 not rest until every outlaw who took a hand in the 
 massacre at Hillsville is brought to punishment. 
 Such a policy is the only one he can pursue and it 
 must go to the limit. 'There can be, there must be, 
 no mercy shown to any member of the Allen gang. 
 They went into that little mountain courtroom fully 
 armed and prepared for the bloody deed. They 
 acted with murderous premeditation and did not 
 hesitate until their work was done. Then they rode 
 back to their mountain hiding places and prepared 
 to add more murders to their list by shooting down 
 
12 ' THE, ALLEN >OUTLAWS 
 
 * t 
 
 any who might seek to takq them alive. To captur^ 
 them all will be no easy task, but it had to be done 
 if it takes the whole police and military force of 
 Virginia to do it. ^ 
 
THE ALI.E^ .{^Jf'LAWS I3 
 
 The Allen Outlaws 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Tragedy in the Courtroom at Hillsville, Carroll 
 County, Virginia—The Mountain Court Wiped 
 Out by Outlaws—Pistol Battle in the Halls of 
 ^ Justice — Judge, Sheriff and State’s Attorney 
 •* Killed and Many Wounded—Sensational Story 
 of the Desperate Affair. 
 
 It was a grim 14th of March, 1912, in the little 
 ' courthouse of Carroll county, Virginia, in the little 
 village of Hillsville, when Judge Thornton L. 
 Massie and his brother officials gathered to try one 
 Floyd Allen, a Blue Ridge mountaineer, who was 
 charged with assaulting a deputy sheriff of the 
 county by striking him over the head with a rifle 
 and taking from him a prisoner who was charged 
 with the old familiar offense of “moonshiningor, 
 in other words, making illicit whiskey in a moun¬ 
 tain still. The sheriff was left for dead by the road¬ 
 side while Floyd Allen and the captive whom he 
 had rescued made good their escape to the fast¬ 
 nesses of the mountains and were for a time safe. 
 
14 
 
 THE ALLt.v OUTLAWS^-w'.- 
 
 But justice is relentless and never sleeps. "ISiowly 
 but surely the net of the law closed its meshes about 
 them both, and they were delivered into the hands 
 of justice. The moonshiner was sentenced to a long 
 term, and then Allen was convicted of the charges 
 against him, and on that fateful day came up for 
 sentence. He was clearly guilty, had been given 
 every advantage to which the law entitled him, and 
 after short parley Judge Massie gave him a year in 
 the State prison in which to atone for his crime. 
 No sooner had the words of the sentence fallen from 
 the lips of the Judge than a pistol shot rang out in 
 the courtroom and the Judge crumpled over his 
 desk, while his lifeblood poured out in a stream be¬ 
 hind it. A second of deathlike silence followed, and 
 then the battle broke out in all its deadly venom. Pis¬ 
 tol and rifle shots mingled with the cries of the dead 
 and dying. The smoke of the powder almost pre¬ 
 vented the outlaws and officers seeing each other. 
 
 From every quarter of the room shots rang out in 
 quick succession. It was a general all-around battle, 
 and officers as well as outlaws were firing as rapidly 
 as they could sight and discharge their weapons. A 
 perfect fusilade of shots aroused the entire locality. 
 In one corner of the courtroom the outlaws were 
 gathered together, with their rifles and revolvers. A 
 second after Judge Massie had fallen over his <lesk, 
 an outlaw blazed away with his Winchester and Com¬ 
 monwealth Attorney William Foster threw up his 
 hands and tottered backwards a corpse. Sheriff Louis 
 
' THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 15 
 
 Webb saw the shot and the man who fired it. Raising 
 his revolver, he drew a bead on the outlaw, but before 
 he could pull the trigger a shot from across the room 
 struck him in the head, the revolver, still undis¬ 
 charged, flew out of his hand, and he sank dying to 
 the floor. The wounded also lay about the floor with 
 the dead and the place resembled a shambles, in strik¬ 
 ing contrast with its usual orderliness and decorum. 
 If ever the majesty of the law was trammeled into the 
 dust, it was then. Blood was everywhere, and even 
 the Code of the Laws of the State, which the dead 
 Judge had just but a few moments before been perus¬ 
 ing, was stained and wet with the jurist’s blood. 
 While the shooting was in progress the spectators, 
 with whom the courtroom was well filled, were mak¬ 
 ing panic-stricken efforts to escape. A number of 
 them had been hit by stray bullets and lay gasping on 
 the floor. Those who escaped the leaden hail had 
 scattered in all directions and were fleeing for their 
 lives. 
 
 Within less than a minute 75 shots were fired. Not 
 a shot could have been fired horizontally without hit¬ 
 ting a human target. The reason more were not inno¬ 
 cent victims was because the gang had planned in 
 advance and picked its men. Members of the gang 
 had disposed themselves in different part^ of the room, 
 so that they could fire from several angles and still 
 not hit each other. Sidna Allen was on the side of 
 the room to the right, and a little to the front of Judge 
 Massif: Claude Allen, a son of Floyd, occupied a cor 
 
j5 the ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 responding* position on the opposite side of the room 
 and close to Clerk of the Court Dexter Goad, whose 
 box was just to the left of the bench. The jurors oc¬ 
 cupied chairs directly in front of and against the 
 bench. 
 
 While the Judge had pronounced sentence on Floyd 
 Allen, who stood within the railed inclosure in the 
 corner diagonally opposite the Commonwealth’s At¬ 
 torney and the box of the clerk, one of the despera¬ 
 does’ attorneys made a motion to release his client 
 pending application for a new trial. The Judge re¬ 
 fused and ordered Sheriff Lewis F. Webb to execute 
 the order of the Court. Then Floyd Allen pressed 
 himself closer into the angle of the railing, threw back 
 his coat, revealing his two revolvers, and exclaimed, 
 ‘‘Gentlemen, I ain’t goin’.” 
 
 The Sheriff was almost leaping for him as he drew 
 his guns. At the same instant Sidna Allen rushed for¬ 
 ward and fired the first shot and five more in quick 
 succession at Judge Massie. The duel between Sher¬ 
 iff Webb and Floyd Allen was fought at quarters so 
 close that shots carried powder burns as well as bul¬ 
 lets. Floyd Allen killed the Commonwealth’s Attor¬ 
 ney as well as the Sheriff; Friel Allen, a son of Jack 
 Allen, is supposed to have shot Foster in the back as 
 he lay dying on the floor. 
 
 It was all over in a minute. Sidna Allen came 
 plunging down the short flight of various steps lead¬ 
 ing to the courtroom and behind him, firing as he ran, 
 was Dexter Goad, the clerk. Allen ran in a s^’mi- 
 
17 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 circle and half-backward, holding’ one arm in front of 
 his face and resting his guns across it as he fired at 
 his pursuer, already wounded and with eight bullet 
 holes in his clothes. 
 
 The terror of it all had almost paralzed the little 
 peaceful town, and scarcely a hand was raised when 
 the outlaws, with the rescued prisoner, came running 
 out of the courthouse, mounted their horses and 
 dashed away to freedom in the mountains. It was 
 some minutes before even the court officers who had 
 survived recovered from the shock and attempted to 
 p-ive aid to the wounded. The dead were removed to 
 
 o 
 
 an ante room and doctors hastily sent for to attend 
 the wounded. They had a busy time, as many 
 of those who had been attracted to the court¬ 
 room merely through curiosity had been severly 
 wounded and were fast bleeding to death. As quickly 
 as possible the surgeons worked to save these lives. 
 Several of the wounded were taken to the hotel, which 
 was turned into a sort of emergency hospital. 
 
 Miss Isabelle Goad, daughter of Clerk of Court 
 Dexter Goad, who was wounded, is a heroine of the 
 tragedy. She was in the clerk’s office when the shoot¬ 
 ing began. Running to the courtroom door, she pulled 
 from its casing one of the Allen gang who was firing 
 as fast as he could pull the trigger straight at the court 
 officers. First she attempted to wrest the revolver 
 from the outlaw’s hand, and, failing in this, she caught 
 the man by the coat and jerked him out upon the porch. 
 
 Narrow escapes were many. Coun^ Treasurer J. B, 
 
i8 
 
 THE AL.-EN OUTLAWS 
 
 Marshall walked fiom the room and down the steps 
 before the fusilade commenced. He had started around 
 the building, but hearing the shots he rushed to the 
 foot of the steps and met Sidna Allen backing down, 
 firing at Clerk Goad as he retreated. Mr. Marshall 
 blocked the mountaineers path and Allen whirled 
 toward the Treasurer and fired a bullet point blank at 
 his face. It missed its mark and lodged in a window 
 shutter two inches above Mr. Marshall’s head. 
 
 Turning again to Clerk Goad, who continued firing, 
 Allen got behind a column and whipped out a second 
 pistol, with which he shot the Clerk in the leg. His 
 bullets exhausted, he rushed across the street to buy 
 more cartridges. The store he tried to go' to was 
 locked, so Allen dashed behind the building, mounted 
 his horse and fled. 
 
 Meanwhile shooting in the courtroom continued and 
 the crowd stampeded. 
 
Floyd Allen.—His arrest caused the murdering 
 in the Hillsville (Va.) Oourthouse. 
 
 
 19 
 
 
20 
 
 TME ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 List of the Dead and Wounded, Together With-^ 
 Further Particulars of the Courtroom Tragedy 
 —The Flight of the Outlaws and Close Pur¬ 
 suit by the Officers of the Law. 
 
 The shooting terrorized Hillsville to the point of 
 paralysis, There was not a man to give an order or 
 organize a pursuit. Citizens fled to place of safety, 
 and mothers gathered up their children while the 
 assassins rode out of town 
 
 Sheriff Lewis Webb was shot and killed as he 
 reached for his revolver. Bullets grazed Clerk Goad 
 and in the confusion he was reported killed. Jurors 
 who had been slightly wounded were reported dead, 
 and by that indefinable m-ethod of communication 
 which prevails inn the woodland country reports of a 
 wholesale slaughter went out to the countryside. 
 
 The list of the dead and wounded is as follows: 
 
 The dead; 
 
 Judge Thornton L. Massie. 
 
 Commonwealth Attorney William Foster. 
 
 Sheriff Louis Webb. 
 
THE AELEN OUTLAWS 
 
 21 
 
 Elizabeth Ayres, a witnets for AUie. 
 
 The wounded: 
 
 Dexter Good, Clerk of the Court. 
 
 C. C. Fowler, Juror. 
 
 A. C. Kane, Juror. 
 
 -Faddis, Juror. 
 
 A. T. Howlett, spectator. 
 
 Bruce Marshall, spectator. 
 
 Stuart Worrell, spectator. 
 
 Sidney Allen, outlaw. 
 
 Floyd Allen, the prisoner. 
 
 The outlaws, together with the prisoner, ecaped to 
 the mountains and made safe retreat into the depths 
 of the mountain forests, where pursuit is both difficult 
 and capture almost impossible. 
 
 A special train from Roanoke brought twenty de¬ 
 tectives to Galax, the nearest railroad station, nine 
 miles away. It was midnight before they could get 
 over the mountain roads, hub deep in spring mud. 
 
 A reward of $i,ooo for the capture of the band by 
 Governor Mann was increased to $ 3 , 000 . 
 
 Captain F. W. Devant, of the Second Virginia 
 Regiment, was ordered to go to Hillsville with two 
 men, twenty rifles and ammunition. 
 
 Sheriff Webb had gone up into the mountains and 
 taken Allen, despite dire warnings of what such a 
 venture might mean. Attorney Foster had prosecuted 
 him fearlessly, and a mountaineer jury, gathered from 
 the inland section, for no man in Carroll County cared 
 to sit on the trial of an Allen, had convicted him. 
 
72 
 
 THE ALLE:'i OUTLAWS 
 
 That fateful morning his sentence attracted an un¬ 
 usually large gathering to the quaint old red brick 
 Courthouse, which stands on a green square, well in 
 the center of the village. Those who could not get in 
 the small room peered through the windows opened 
 to the first days of spring. 
 
 Just as Allen was about to be called up for sen¬ 
 tence his two brothers, Sidna and Jack, at the head 
 of a troop of twenty mountaineers, rode up to the 
 Courthouse. Their hardy ponies, splashed with mud, 
 testified to a long ride through the hills. The two 
 brothers and their companions, some carried rifles and 
 others armed with revolvers, crowded Into the small 
 court room and stood behind the rail and about the 
 door. 
 
 Floyd Allen, tall and gaunt, much the familiar type 
 of mountaineer, was in the dock. In his youth he was 
 a fine figure of strength, and even at fifty now, when 
 his reddish brown whiskers are turning to grSy, he is 
 no weakling. 
 
 Judge Massie mounted the bench and Prosecutor 
 Foster moved sentence upon Allen, who stood up. 
 There was a shuffling of feet and a general movement 
 among tlie mountaineers in the back of the room, but 
 no sign to foretell the terrible tragedy then in the 
 minds of every one of them. 
 
 The usual legal formalities over, Judge Massie be¬ 
 gan pronouncing sentence. The last words that fell 
 from his lips precipitated the tragedy. 
 
 ‘'One — yean—at hard —labor-” 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 23 
 
 . Before the last word was cold the fusilade began. 
 Allen, with an oath that he would never go to prison, 
 sprang out of the prisoner’s dock as Judge Massie 
 collapsed upon the bench. Another roar of shots and 
 Prosecutor Foster was du the floor in a heap. Sheriff 
 Webb was springing forward for his prisoner when 
 the lead found him. 
 
 Then holding the panic-stricken jurofs and onlook¬ 
 ers at bay the assassins backed out of the Courthouse 
 and across the green to the troop of ponies. In a 
 second they were galloping like mad through the 
 aroused village and off to the hills. 
 
 With them the assassins half carried, half dragged 
 one of their number, wounded, and it was said that 
 this was Sidney Allen, one of the brothers. Three 
 jurors, Fowler, Faddis and Kane, and A. T. Howlett, 
 Bruce Marshall and Stuart Worrell, bystanders, were 
 wounded. 
 
 Floyd Allen, the prisoner at the bar, was shot sev¬ 
 eral times, but not fatally; Sheriff Webb’s deputy, 
 with county folk, is guarding Allen. 
 
 The quiet of Hillsville had never been disturbed by 
 such a roar of firing and 300 men, women and chil¬ 
 dren rushed to the Courthouse. Webb and Foster 
 were stone dead. Judge Massie died in less than an 
 hour. 
 
 When some semblance of organization came out of 
 the chaos some horsemen hurried down into Beaver 
 Dam Valley to spread the news and get help. More 
 
intrepid ones rode off toward Betty Baker, where there 
 is a railroad station and a telegraph wire. Word of 
 the tragedy was slow in getting to points from which 
 help could be asked, but the machinery of the law 
 once started, worked quickly. 
 
 4 
 
AbivJiN QMTLAWi 
 
 25 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Governor Mann Takes Quick Action in the Matter 
 of the Pursuit of the Outlaws, and Many Brave 
 Men Are Soon Quickly on the Trail — Some 
 Remarkable Facts in Connection With the Des¬ 
 perate Affair. 
 
 Governor Mann ordered the State companies of 
 militia at Roanoke and Lynchburg ready to move to 
 Hillsville if their aid should be necessary. Police, de¬ 
 tectives and volunteers from nearby places took all 
 possible means of transportation to get to Hillsville. 
 
 Governor Mann also telegraphed to Judge W. R. 
 Staples, of the Roanoke Corporation Court, to come 
 to Hillsville and take charge of judicial proceedings. 
 Attorney General Williams, of the State of Virginia, 
 was also ordered to Hillsville. 
 
 The place is awkwardly situated for such an emer¬ 
 gency. It is the seat of Carroll County and lies in the 
 Beaver Dam Valley, four miles from the top of the 
 Blue Ridge Mountains. Across the valley a strip of 
 indigo along the sky on a clear day shows the Alle- 
 ghanies. The country is rough, the roads are bad 
 
26 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 and, with spring thaws, nearly impassible. Illicit stills 
 are said to be many. 
 
 Floyd Allen lived on one side of the town and his 
 two brothers on the other. All the men of the family 
 have been known as stern characters and were feared 
 by many in the county. The deputy Sheriff who 
 would serve a warrant or a summons on one of them 
 was accounted a brave man. 
 
 Floyd Allen’s familiar boast was that he had thir¬ 
 teen bullet holes in his body and that five of them had 
 been put there by his brother. 
 
 Sidna Allen, who took part in the shooting, is 
 under sentence of two-and-a-half years in the federal 
 penitentiary at Atlanta for perjury and was out on an 
 appeal. Allen was tried with Preston Dickens for 
 counterfeiting. Dickens was convicted and Allen was 
 acquitted, but was convicted of perjury for his testi¬ 
 mony in the case. 
 
 The Allens are regarded as well-to-do people. Some 
 are farmers and some were merchants. 
 
 The cause of the assassinations dates back to last 
 fall when a Deputy Sheriff arrested a nephew of 
 Floyd Allen on a charge of illicit distilling. Enroute 
 to jail Allen intercepted the Sheriff and beat him into 
 insensibility with the butt of a rifle and brass knucks. 
 Leaving the officer for dead he spirited the prisoner 
 away and secreted him. Allen was on trial for the 
 assault. 
 
 At the December term of Court Judge Massie was 
 informed that the officers feared to arrest Allen, and 
 
Tlir: ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 27 
 
 the Court then announced that he would have Allen 
 brought to justice if he had to go out of the County 
 to get men to arrest him. Friends of Judge Massie 
 warned him that his words were indiscreet and that 
 his life was in jeopardy. Allen was never arrested, 
 but furnished bond for his appearance at Court. 
 
 Governor Mann said: 
 
 The murder of the Judge, Commonwealth’s Attor¬ 
 ney and Sheriff of Carroll County occurred about 9 
 o’clock in the morning. Hillsville, the County seat 
 of Carroll, is about five miles from any railroad, but 
 by 9.45 I had arranged for a force of picked men to 
 go by special train to Hillsville, arrest the murderers 
 and preserve the peace. I offered a reward for the 
 arrest of the murderers, and as Carroll is on the North 
 Carolina line, wired the Governor of that State to 
 have his officers look out for and arrest the guilty 
 parties, and also telegraphed the Sheriff of the County 
 in North Carolina adjoining Carroll informing him 
 of the reward. 
 
 I have designated a Judge to hold the remainder 
 of the term of the Circuit Court of Carroll, and to¬ 
 morrow morning the Attorney General of the State 
 will be on the ground. Everything possible will be 
 done to secure the arrest and conviction of the mur¬ 
 derers, and the laws of this Commonwealth will be 
 faithfully and fearlessly executed.” 
 
28 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Burial of the Victims—Sad Scenes at the Homes of 
 the Murdered Officials and Sad Tribute Paid 
 by Loving Relatives and Friends-—Last Rites 
 and Ceremonies Over the Lamented and Vows 
 of Vengeance Against Their Slayers. 
 
 The funeral of Judge Massie, a^inst whom the 
 whole venom of spite of the Allen gang seemed to 
 have been specially diverted, although he was in the 
 act of giving Floyd Allen a merciful sentence in view 
 of his offense and the verdict of the jury, was sad and 
 impressive. The entire population of the City of 
 Lynchburg turned out to do him homage and such 
 deference as was shown has seldom been equalled, 
 even in that town of big-hearted people. There were 
 more than fifty close friends and relatives of the slain 
 jurist in attendance, to say nothing of the vast out¬ 
 pouring of citizens to attest their sympathy and re¬ 
 gard. 
 
 Soon after arrival the body was convayad to the 
 Fraab3rterian Cemetery, where it was interred in tbe 
 plot belonging to the Massie family. Services ware 
 conducted by Bishop Tucker, of the Episcopal Church. 
 The pallbearers were residents of Pulaski, and they 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 29 
 
 accompanied the remains. Delegations from the 
 Roanoke and the Lynchburg Bar Associations and of 
 the Lynchburg Elks attended, and the floral designs 
 were numerous. 
 
 Mrs. Massie, the widow, and her daughter, who are 
 prostrated by shock, were unable to come to Lynch¬ 
 burg, and the two sons of the deceased were the only 
 members of the immediate family at the funeral. 
 
 Judge Massie carried $16,000 insurance on his life, 
 one policy for $4,000 having been written within the 
 past month. 
 
 Sheriff Lew Webb was laid to rest in Snaky Creek 
 Cemetery. Commonwealth Attorney Foster’s body 
 was interred in a little family ptot on the outskirts of 
 the town. The day after Elizabeth Ayres was buried. 
 
 Dexter Goad, Clerk of the Court, who was wounded 
 in the head during the fusilade which resulted in the 
 death of Judge Massie, Commonwealth Attorney Fos¬ 
 ter and Sheriff Lewis Webb, had sufficiently recovered 
 to go about his duties, his head swathed in bandages. 
 
 Great crowds of the people of the vicinity attended 
 the funerals of the slain men, and in many ways evi¬ 
 denced their sympathy and regrets. 
 
30 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 / 
 
 Pursuit of the Daring Outlaws Which Led to Their 
 Mountain Dens—A Hard Chase Which is 
 Joined In by Law Officers, Detectives, Soldiers 
 and Citizens, But Which Was Unavailing— 
 Desperate Character of the Pursued Awed the 
 Pursuers—A Chase for Life Over the Blue 
 Ridge. 
 
 After shocked and stricken Hillsville had settled 
 down to at least a semi-normal state after the battle 
 in the Court room, Governor Mann’s vigorous action 
 and hasty orders brought forth many pursuers, actu¬ 
 ated to greater efforts by the promised rewards for 
 the Allens, dead or alive, and next day there were 
 many parties in pursuit, consisting of the State law 
 officers, detectives, both police and private, several 
 companies of the militia and numerous posses of 
 heavily armed citizens, who took a chance for the 
 reward with the others. 
 
 All realized it was to be a fight to the death, and 
 only those who were known to be of dauntless cour¬ 
 age and dead shots were allowed to participate. Floyd 
 Allen, the prisoner of the Court of the day before, 
 about whose sentence it all came about, was the first 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 3J 
 
 to be captured, together with his son, Victor Allen, 
 who was standing nobly by him in his hour of direct 
 need. 
 
 The former’s life was slowly ebbing away as the 
 result of the wounds received in the Courthouse fray 
 and from a slashed throat, self-inflicted with a pen¬ 
 knife. 
 
 The detectives arrived in Hillsville early in the day 
 and were sworn in as special constables of the county. 
 They immediately went to the hotel room where Vic¬ 
 tor Allen was guarding his father, Floyd Allen, and 
 both were placed under arrest without afty semblance 
 of figlit. Immediately upon his arrest Floyd Allen 
 drew a penknife and slashed his throat, but the offi¬ 
 cers prevented the carrying out of his intentions. 
 
 Although helpless and faint from loss of blood and 
 suffering, Floyd Allen was still defiant. Glaring in 
 fierce hatred at the officers he said; 
 
 “Ole Floyd Allen ain’t never been sent to no prison 
 yet,” declared the would-be suicide and murderer, as 
 the surgeon dressed the wound in his throat, “and 
 there ain’t no judge or sheriff what’s a-goin’ to send 
 him thar now. The boys fit like hell and I hope they’ll 
 git away. One o’ them hounds got me, but I’ll never 
 go to no prison. The Allens is all fighters. I reckon 
 as how Tve been purty free with my gun, and whe" I 
 gits away I’ll be free with it again. The boys is 
 a-comin’ back for me. But if they don’t come Fit 
 never go to no prison alive.” 
 
 His eyes, peering out from under the bushed eye- 
 
TKX ALLBN OUTLAWS 
 
 brows, arc cold as chilled steel and as steady as the 
 hand with which he wielded the heavy 44 revolver in 
 the courtroom despite the fact that he is suffering 
 agony from the self-inflicted wound in his throat and 
 the -wounds he received in the fray. 
 
 Judge Walter R. Staples, of Roanoke, who ascended 
 the bench of the Circuit Court to hold the re¬ 
 mainder of the March term, summoned a special 
 Grand Jury, which was convened to indict the mur¬ 
 derers of Judge Massie, Commonwealth’s Attorney 
 W. M. Foster and Sheriff Lee F. Webb. Judge 
 Staples, accompanied by Attorney General Samuel W. 
 Williams, arrived in Hillsville next afternoon. A large 
 crowd gathered in the courtroom, but there was the 
 best of order. 
 
 Judge Staples appointed S. Floyd Landreth, of 
 Galax, as special attorney for the Commonwealth. 
 
 The surprise of the day was the announcement of 
 the death of Miss Nancy Elizabeth Ayres, a nineteen- 
 year-old girl, who -was in the Courtroom that day as 
 a witness. No one in Hillsville knew she had been 
 wounded until her death was announced. When she 
 left town for her home she did not know 
 she had been shot, but complained of bruises which 
 she thought she had received in the mad rush from 
 the Courtroom. Without a doubt Miss Ayres was 
 shot accidentally. 
 
 Detective W. G. Baldwin was advised next day that 
 the hardware store of J. W. Creed, in Mount Airy, 
 N. C., just across the County and State line, had been 
 
THE ALLSN OUTLAWS 
 
 33 
 
 entered at night and all his stock of rifles, pistols and 
 ammunition stolen. This work is presumed to have 
 been done by the members of the Allen gang or their 
 sympathizers, and it indicated that the remainder of 
 the gang mean to fight to the last ditch before sub 
 mitting to the mandates of the law. 
 
 Attorney General Williams advised Governor Mann 
 that the reconvening of the Court, with Judge Staples 
 on the bench, had reassured the terror-stricken people, 
 and that Hillsville had relaxed somewhat from the ter¬ 
 rible strain through which it passed. 
 
 Six men, mounted on foam-flecked horses, rode 
 into Mount Airy, just over the North Carolina border, 
 early next day. They were not Allens by name, but 
 they were Allens by clan. They drew up in front of the 
 town’s only hardware store and three of them dis¬ 
 mounted. The other three drew their Winchesters 
 from the saddle sockets and laid them quietly across 
 the withers of their panting steeds. 
 
 ” In fifteen minutes, while a swiftly increasing crowd 
 was gathering about the riders, the three men who had 
 gone into ihe store, came out in a leisurely way. They 
 were carrying guns, pistols and boxes of ammunition. 
 They distributed the “hardware” among the other 
 three and then all six galloped out of town toward the 
 more isolated mountains. 
 
 The people of the town went in and found the store¬ 
 keeper senseless behind a counter. 
 
 The outlaws could not have picked a better time to 
 make a stand against their pursuers. Every moun- 
 
34 
 
 TKE outlaws 
 
 tain brook was a little creek, every creek a small river. 
 The heavy rains of the last few weeks had melted the 
 mountain snows, washed out the roads, carried off the 
 bridges and made mud knee deep. The hardiest ponies 
 flounder up the grades with great effort. With day¬ 
 light the pursuit was renewed with reinforcements 
 that are still coming from the countryside. Features 
 of the tragedy have been so many that all probably 
 never will be told. 
 
 Walter Tipton, a lawyer, who was defending Floyd 
 Allen in Court was a brother-in-law of Common¬ 
 wealth’s Attorney Foster who was killed. Tipton 
 stood beside his relative when Allen, poking his gun 
 under Tipton’s arm, shot down Foster. Who killed 
 Sheriff Webb is not definitely known. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Man Hunt and Its Desperate Details—Storm¬ 
 ing the House of Sidna Allen a Part of the 
 Fighting Program—Stern Detectives and Fear¬ 
 less Officers on the Trail of Death. 
 
 Never, perhaps, in the history of the United States 
 was there a more desperate and deadly pursuit of a 
 band of outlaws than that made up of the loyal offi¬ 
 cials of the State of Virginia, the famous Baldwin 
 detectives and the militiamen, who went in pursuit of 
 the Allens. It was fully understood to be a pursuit to 
 the death, where no mercy would be expected or 
 shown. Dead or alive the Allens must be taken, and 
 they have declared they will die to the last man before 
 they will submit to capture and, most likely, the gal¬ 
 lows. They prefer death by the bullet, and their pref¬ 
 erence will not doubt be satisfied, although how many 
 of the pursuers will fall before their certain aim is 
 unknown. A remarkable feature of the pursuits and 
 fights have been that the women have helped their men 
 in every possible manner, and it is believed will take 
 a part in the actual fighting also if it comes to a show¬ 
 down and their aid is needed. Soon after the posses 
 took the trail they proceeded to the mansion of Sidna 
 Allen, where it was suspected he was in hiding. 
 
36 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 The Storming of Sidna Allen’s house was the next 
 thing to a bombardment. The posse trailed through 
 the brush-four miles up the ridge and surrounded his 
 house. 
 
 The fight was a stubborn one and it began the 
 instant the detectives appeared at the edge of the clear¬ 
 ing, in the centre of which the Allen house stands. 
 
 The place appeared to be deserted, and the detec¬ 
 tives were debating what course to pursue when from 
 a window facing them a puff of smoke, followed by 
 a loud report, attracted their attention. The men ran 
 to cover, about thirty feet distant, and hid behind trees 
 and bushes. As they ran several bullets from a Win¬ 
 chester rifle scattered the dirt at the heels of the run¬ 
 ning men, and the detectives realized they had a fight 
 on their hands. 
 
 In the house were Allen and his wife, a woman of 
 middle age, who was loiown to be in entire sympathy 
 with the acts of her husband and his relatives, how¬ 
 ever subject to criticism they might be. She was tall, 
 a rough rider; she knew how to shoot and she knew 
 no fear. She was a typical mountaineer’s mate, and 
 between Allen and herself existed that bond of friend¬ 
 ship and fealty which death alone could sever. 
 
 When news reached their vicinity that the detective 
 posse was on its way to arrest Sidna Allen, the woman 
 locked up the house, fastened the windows and then 
 gathered all the arms within reach and with her hus¬ 
 band prepared to receive their visitors, who were at 
 that time only two miles away. The Allen house 
 

 Judge Thornton L. Massie. who was shot to dea<'’' on the 
 bench by the Allen outlaws. 37 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 ■ 38 
 
 stands on an eminence and commands a good view of 
 the surrounding country. Long before the detectives, 
 who were commanded by T. L. Feltz, appeared in the 
 turn of the road, forty rods below, their position was 
 known to the Allens in the house above. 
 
 To fight to the death long has been the battle cry 
 of the Allens, and this intrepid man and woman, fight¬ 
 ing for a principle sacred to them as Holy Writ, were 
 resolved to kill all who approached even though the 
 effort cost them their lives. When Feltz ordered his 
 men to approach the house, they were unaware that 
 the Allens, fully armed and ready for the emergency, 
 were watching them from behind the custains of the 
 windows. 
 
 “Look sharp, boys!” was Feltz’s warning, as the 
 men moved in an irregular line up the slope. Be ready 
 to give them a volley should anyone be in the house.” 
 
 Even as he spoke Mrs. Allen opened fire from the 
 western window. Her shot fell short, and as the de¬ 
 tectives turned and ran to get out of the line of fire 
 and to make plans for storming the house, there came 
 other shots in quick succession. Two men were wound¬ 
 ed, and they are believed by Feltz to be Sam Martin 
 and Harry Lennox, both of the southern part of the 
 County. They were carried to a barn near the house 
 and rendered as comfortable as circumstances would 
 permit. 
 
 Meanwhile Feltz, after consulting with his men, 
 decided to attack the house from the rear with twelve 
 men and with twelve others to storm the house from 
 
THi: iftiLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 39 
 
 the front. The remainder of the force was scattered 
 on each side of the house, with orders to fire into win¬ 
 dows repeatedly. 
 
 Within five minutes the house looked as if it had 
 been splintered with hatchets. During this terrible 
 fusilade shot after shot came in defiant answer from 
 windows here and there, showing that the besieged 
 were still capable of giving an account of themselves, 
 though hopelessly outnumbered. Every window was 
 shattered and the doors, the locks of which had been 
 shot away, opened repeatedly and were as often closed 
 by the occupants of the place. 
 
 For thirty minutes the battle raged, and then it was 
 observed that there was no answering fire. What had 
 happened? Feltz led ten men to the rear porch and, 
 crawling toward the doors under the protection of the 
 rifles of their comrades, who had orders to kill any¬ 
 body who appeared at the door, it was thrust open and 
 the men entered. 
 
 Sidna Allen the outlaw had escaped and his faithful 
 wife was not arrested, as no one had been killed in 
 the fusillade. 
 
40 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Perils of Mountain Pursuit, Where Every Tree 
 May Hide a Deadly Enemy and Every Rock a 
 Dangerous Foe—^The Mountaineers Are Crafty 
 Woodsmen and Could Dodge an Army in Guer¬ 
 rilla Fighting—This Section of the Old Domin¬ 
 ion as Wild as the Rockies. 
 
 Incredible as it may seem, the Carroll County sec¬ 
 tion of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is as 
 wild as the heart of the Rockies, and it seems almost 
 impossible that such a wild region and desperate men 
 could exist in a locality so close to the very center of 
 civilization. That almost unexplored regions of vast 
 woods and wilderness should be situated within a few 
 hours’ railroad ride of the Capitol of the Old Dominion 
 State is on the verge of unbelief, but the fact remains 
 that as great forests and as bad men as ever flourished 
 in the days of Jesse James and his gang in the wilds of 
 Missouri are today still in existence so close to even 
 the Capital of the State and Nation. 
 
 While there are many who may have condemned 
 the official forces in pursuit of the Allen gang for not 
 sooner rounding them up and bringing them back cap¬ 
 tives, those same critics have no idea of the vast tangle 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 41 
 
 of difficulties which beset the pursuers. In the first 
 place they were pursuing men of the most desperate 
 character, who are absolutely fearless and who will 
 face death as cheerfully as a child plays with its toys. 
 They have been born in an atmosphere of danger and 
 reared in a clime of bloodshed. When almost tod¬ 
 dling infants their parents taught them to handle and 
 discharge firearms and later to become the deadly 
 marksmen that they are today. In the hunting of 
 animal or human game they are dead shots, and, as 
 they proudly boast, ‘Vhen they pull the trigger some¬ 
 thing always drops.” They live in a creed of crude 
 belief. Their ideas are that God put them here to do 
 as they please and that they are going to do it as long 
 as they live—and in the hereafter also, if there is one. 
 They recognize no man’s right to dictate law or rea¬ 
 son. Born and bred in the wilds of nature, they rec¬ 
 ognize no living man as their master, and although 
 many of them live in abject poverty and mere log 
 shacks, subsisting on the roughest food and wearing 
 the most primitive attire, yet withal they bear the pride 
 of the forest and spirit of American independence, 
 which would have won worlds for the nation had it 
 not been misapplied. 
 
 Their rights, as they consider them, are inalienable, 
 and they will fight unto the last drop of blood in their 
 bodies to maintain these God-given rights. Making 
 moonshine whiskey is one of them. '‘Moonshine” is 
 the term applied to those who manufacture crpde 
 spirits in primtive ways, in mountain caves and fast- 
 
42 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 nesses and dispose of same without paying the gov¬ 
 ernment tax which is exacted by the United States. 
 They make it of corn, rye, wheat or most any gram, 
 and when the Revenue Officers discover their still and 
 attempt their arrest, there is usually a desperate battle, 
 in which the dead are left lying on both sides of the 
 rugged battlefield. 
 
 These mountaineers know the mountains like the 
 pilot does the seas, and while the unlettered in the lore 
 of mountain warfare may be stumbling blindly among 
 the rocks and trees, the deft mountaineers will be glid¬ 
 ing along the winding pathways picking off his pur¬ 
 suers with his unerring Winchester every time one 
 of them appears in sight. And so expert marksmen 
 are these same rough men of the mountain that they 
 can hit a man as far as they can see him, many of their 
 rifles carrying a deadly missile over half a mile. Know¬ 
 ing every crag and rock, every path and fastness, it is 
 practically impossible for anyone not equally well 
 versed in this craft of mountain trailing to pursue them 
 and perhaps fatal if they persist in their efforts to 
 do so. There are caves and underground caverns in 
 the Blue Ridge, as in the instance of Luray, where 
 living man could not but sacrifice his life in an at¬ 
 tempt to pursue these outlaws. 
 
 Carroll County lies in the Southwestern part of the 
 State, bordering on North Carolina, and is one of the 
 richest agricultural and mineral sections of Virginia. 
 Its people have been noted for their disregard of both 
 Federal and State laws for years, the making of moon^ 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 43 
 
 shine whiskey being one of the occupations of many 
 residents. 
 
 The railroad facilities of the County are inadequate, 
 only one train a day going as far as “Betty Baker.” 
 This terminus is about five miles from Hillsville, the 
 County seat, where the outbreak occurred. 
 
 Hillsville is about 6o miles from Blacksburg, 75 
 miles from Roanoke and 130 miles from Lynchburg. 
 The shortest route from Washington is by way of the 
 Southern Railroad to Lynchburg, thence over the Nor¬ 
 folk and Western Railroad. 
 
 The inhabitants of Carroll County are members of 
 some of the oldest American stocks, similar to the 
 people who live in Western North Carolina, Eastern 
 Tennessee, about 60 miles away, and Eastern Ken¬ 
 tucky, just a little farther off. They have always kept 
 much to themselves, and unless approached in diplo¬ 
 matic fashion, resent the encroachments or improve¬ 
 ments offered by persons from more progressive com¬ 
 munities. 
 
 Toward the Carolina*, border the County is nearly 
 all mountainous, but this comprises only a small por¬ 
 tion of its area of -^45 square miles. The rugged coun¬ 
 try is, of course, the part in which most of the lawless¬ 
 ness has existed. The roads are bad and it is difficult 
 for the county police and the United States Internal 
 Revenue Officers to gain access to the “still” operated 
 by the old “residenters,” many of whom honestly be¬ 
 lieve that the Government has no right to interfere 
 with their methods of trade. 
 
44 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 The poulation, acoordmg to the census of 1900, was 
 59^303, while in Hillsville today there are about 600 
 persons. More than three-fourths of the people are 
 engaged in farming and stock raising, and, while the 
 land is exceptionally productive, rairoad facilities are 
 meagre and the county comparatively poor. 
 
TKE ALLEN OWTLAWS 
 
 45 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 On the Trail of the Outlaws—Safely Ensconced 
 Amid the Rocks of “Devil’s Den,” They Defy 
 Their Pursuers—The Place Somewhat Similar 
 to That of Gettysburg. 
 
 One of the most deadly and terrible places of 
 slaughter at the great battle of Gettysburg nearly a 
 half century ago was known as the “Devil’s Den.” It 
 was and still is an intricate maze of rocks, among 
 which the fighting soldiers of the Union forces took 
 refuge as a stronghold and fought with fiendish des¬ 
 peration for the whole three days of the battle. At 
 its conclusion hundreds of dead men were found lying 
 in the rocky recesses, where they had been shot by 
 Confederate sharpshooters. In much a similar retreat 
 of the same name the outlaws sought refuge and bade 
 defiance to their purusuers. Two thousand feet above 
 sea level among the crags and caves of the Blue Ridge 
 Mountains the Allen gang fortified themselves. 
 
 Those who know the paths and passes of the high¬ 
 land and the points of vantage from which outlaws 
 could ward off an attacking force with least hurt to 
 themselves say that the Allens unquestionably were 
 concealed behind the overhanging precipices of Devil’s 
 
46 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 Den, half-way between Hillsville and Mount Airy, N, 
 C. There, with provisions and ammunition, of which 
 it said they have plenty, an attacking force would'find 
 the aim of the Allens deadly. Spme think it may be 
 necessary to dynamite the mountain citadels. 
 
 Quiet prevailed in Hillsville Sunday after. The vil¬ 
 lage pastor preached in favor of capital punishment at 
 all times, and there was no mistaking who he meant. 
 From the countryside came the curious on horseback, 
 muleback, by ox carts and rigs of every description, 
 .fording the high water of the creek and climbing the 
 steep hills to the summit where reposes the hamlet of 
 Hillsville. 
 
 Dexter Goad, Clerk of the Court, with a bullet in 
 his left cheek and a bandage across his face, showed 
 the folks just how it happened. He rehearsed the 
 scene with vivid detail, even to placing the bullet- 
 scarred chairs which were occupied by Judge Massie, 
 Sheriff Webb and Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster, 
 A row of bullet holes, low on the right liand wall, were 
 added evidence of the tragedy. 
 
 A shattered rail in front of the Judge’s bench also 
 showed the effect of the fusilade and upon the floor 
 was the discoloration of blood. Goad showed how At¬ 
 torney Foster, after being fatally shot, staggered and 
 dropped his head upon a sheepskin volume of the law. 
 A dark clot of blood on the book was mute evidence. 
 
 1 ndrew Howlet and Stuart Worrell, both bystand- 
 cds, wounded at the assassination, rested easily. One 
 has a bullet in the lung and the other was shot in his 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 47 
 
 side. Juror Columbus Kane, who was shot in the 
 abdomen and is most seriously injured of all, may die. 
 
 Over the rain-channeled mountainside the posse 
 skulked to no avail. They conducted their movements 
 in the broad glare of a hot sun, which, however, helped 
 to dry the muddy roads. 
 
 Jasper Allen, known as Jack, who is a brother of 
 Sidna and Floyd, but who is said not to have been in¬ 
 volved in the tragedy, made a statement tonight on 
 behalf of the Allens. At his home, seven miles from 
 Hillsville, he said: 
 
 “I am greatly surprised and shocked at what has 
 happened. I do not think my brothers had made any 
 plot or plan. When I saw Sidna the night of the 
 shooting he told me he knew nothing of any trouble 
 beforehand and was surprised himself when the shoot¬ 
 ing began in the Courtroom. 
 
 ‘T do not believe my relatives will give themselves 
 up, for I am not sure that they would get a fair trial 
 in Carroll County.' My brother Sidna was wounded 
 when he passed my house Thursday night and was 
 alone. I do not know where he has gone and have 
 received no word from him since. I shall not try to 
 advise them about giving themselves up. They must 
 do as they think best.” 
 
48 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Over the Border Line, the Allens Flee for Safety— 
 The Outlaws Flit Across Into North Carolina 
 in Search of Safety and Freedom. 
 
 After spending several days among the rocky peaks 
 of Devil’s Den, that natural fortress grew too hot for 
 them and the Allens crossed the State line not far dis¬ 
 tant from their refuge and spent some time in North 
 Carolina. 
 
 The mountain country which the Allens entered is 
 the roughest in the Blue Ridge range, and aiforded 
 them greater protection even'than they enjoyed in the 
 Devil’s Den on the Virginia side. In addition they 
 have complicated the work of their pursuers by in¬ 
 volving a question of State jurisdiction, but steps 
 were immediately taken to empower the Virginia posse 
 to continue the hunt on the North Carolina side. 
 
 In fact, the mountain detectives and deputy sheriffs 
 started without any special authority to beat through 
 the North Carolina cover. 
 
 Information reached the Baldwin-Feltz detectives, 
 that the Allens have finally awakened to a realization 
 of the fact that the laws of the State of Virginia are 
 stronger than they are. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 49 
 
 The young-er members of the clan, so the detectives 
 learned, have finally persuaded the older heads that 
 it is useless to remain the Fancy Gap country and fight 
 for it; that if one band of detectives is picked off an¬ 
 other will surely appear. 
 
 The younger Allens, so friends of the family have 
 informed the government’s forces, were preparing to 
 strike for the West and they were going to take old 
 Sid with them. The only thing holding therii now is 
 Sid’s condition. He was wounded twice in the Court¬ 
 house shooting, once in the arm and again the shoul¬ 
 der, The old man was able to stick to his horse after 
 the tragedy, but his wounds are regarded as serious. 
 
 This information in regard to the plans of the Allens 
 is likely to lead to more prompt and drastic action on 
 the part of the Virginia forces in pushing the pursuit. 
 The impression here is that the Allens have arranged 
 to leave their property in the hands of Jack, a brother 
 of Floyd and Sid, and then drop back gradually to the 
 Fancy Gap country after the talk of the Courthouse 
 shooting has died down. 
 
 Detective Feltz took a posse off into the hills early 
 in the mornin, up the road that goes over Barbett Knob 
 and Elk Spur, and past Fancy Gap, near Devil’s Den, 
 where the outlaws wene reported to be barricaded in 
 almost impregnable fortress of mountain rock. 
 
 The posse saw none of the gang and no evidence of 
 their presence, but kept on over Garaner Creek and 
 the lone Qedar Fork, to the Carolina line and brought 
 up at Mount Airy. At least a dozen houses, the homes 
 
50 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 of members of the Allen clan or their sympathizers, 
 were searched on the way, but not a trace of the out¬ 
 laws was found. 
 
 One great disadvantage under which the posse work 
 is the lack of communication and commissary facili¬ 
 ties. Hillsville is the base from which they are oper¬ 
 ating. A few post roads—fif roads they might be 
 called*—^wind through the passes between the “knobs” 
 and “spurs,” with which the geography of this country 
 abounds. The territory is sparsely settled, and it is 
 next to impossible to stay out much more than a day. 
 Men so equipped are not much of a match for such 
 woodsmen as the Allens and their followers, who could 
 live bountifully while a posse was being starved. 
 
 The chances for a getaway to Tennessee of Carolina 
 look good when one views the topography. Up the 
 slope from Hillsville the roads twist and turn through 
 a bush. Pike Knob, which overlooks Reed Island 
 Creek, is 3,200 feet above sea level. A little farther on 
 the tip of Beamer Knob is 3,400. Fancy Gap, the 
 location of the Devil’s Den, is the apex of the climb, 
 and at this point the country takes on a character that 
 almost defies description. All that is visible is Piper 
 Gap, on the west, a stretch of bush and tangle of 
 laurel, and then comes Volunteer Gap, on the east. 
 
 Down at the bottom the Piper Gap road winds along 
 to Aaron, Flower Gap and back to Hillsville. On the 
 other side the Chambers Valley road fights its way 
 through a rocky way, fords a few creeks, makes a few 
 junctions with a few roads that lead nowhere almost 
 
TME ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 5.T 
 
 and finally .brings up at a continuation of Piper Gap. 
 In the space bounded by these roads there is nothing, 
 but wilderness, with a creek or two, swollen to three 
 times its capacity at the bottom. Somewhere in this 
 vast area the Allens may be hidden and a posse search¬ 
 ing it foot by foot might never find them. 
 
 Sidna Edwards, with a price of $i,ooo on his head, 
 is supposed to be somewhere with an injured foot. He 
 has had time to join the Allens if he knew where they 
 are. Meanwhile the indictments for the murders of 
 Judge Massie, Prosecutor Foster, Sheriff Webb and 
 the two bystanders wait to be served. Some folks in 
 this country declare that no Allen was every arrested 
 while he could fight, and that none will be. The posse 
 believe that. 
 
 Floyd Allen the outlaw, whose sentence by the Court 
 prcciptated the massacre, laid in the Roanoke jail with 
 wounds and a broken leg to fret him, and moaned that 
 he wished he had followed his wife’s advice. 
 
 ‘T’ve got a good wife,” said the outlaw. “If Fd 
 done as she told me, I wouldn’t be here now.” 
 
 The men who found Mrs. Allen at her home say 
 she was distracted. The Rev. T. Claggett Skinner 
 saw Allen and later issued a statement in which he de¬ 
 clared that Mr, Allen was a much better looking man 
 than his published photographs indicated. 
 
 Feltz and his men were having a pitched battle with 
 Edwards, who had been surrounded Feltz denied 
 that on his return. 
 
 The pursuers hope soon for some action. The 
 
52 
 
 TKE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 posses will get out again, while the North Carolina 
 officers are working over to meet them. They hope to 
 drive the gang to cover between them. 
 
 The State authorities continued to pile rifles an^^ 
 ammunition up in the troubled County today. Two 
 shipments of rifles and bullets were made from Ro¬ 
 anoke. They were unloaded at Galax and brought 
 here in wagons. The posses are well armed with State 
 militia equipment. 
 
 Discovery of moonshine operations of Floyd Allen 
 and his nephews, the Edwards boys, w'as one of the 
 most important discoveries. Jack Allen was the only 
 member of the gang whose name had been connected 
 with illicit trafficking in liquor, and n,obody had ever 
 accused him of moonshining. 
 
 The most that was ever charged against Jack was 
 that he was a “blockader,’ a man who handled and sold 
 the “white lightning” turned out by the moonshine 
 stills. It was supposed that the Allens were too clever 
 to risk themselves in the actual manufacture of the 
 moonshine, that they had made their money for sup¬ 
 plying the funds for others to operate. 
 
 The uncovering of these stills put a new light on 
 the motives of the Allen gang in shooting up the Car- 
 roll County Court. They realized that the sentencing 
 of old Floyd Allen to jail foreshadowed the cleaning 
 of the Fancy Gap section by Sheriff Webb and the en¬ 
 forcement of the law by Judge Massie. It meant the 
 end of an industry that had made the Allens powerful 
 and possible prosecutions by the Federal Government. 
 
Dexter Goad. Clerk of the Court, who was badly wounded by the 
 Allen outlaws. Goad was the man who wounded Floyd Allen 
 
 and brought about his capture. S3 
 
54 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 This threatened invasion of the mountaineers' “right 
 to moonshine,” together with the pride of the Allens, 
 and their boast that not one of the clan would ever go 
 to jail, helps to explain the cowardly murders in the 
 Court. 
 
 The right of the moonshiner to make whiskey from 
 his corn was just as valid in the code of the Allens as 
 was the right of the farmer to make meal from the. 
 'same product. 
 
 The still which the mountain detectives found in the 
 ^basement of Floyd Allen’s house was a fine one, with 
 a large capacity, Floyd’s house, like those of the other 
 Allens, is up to date and comfortable. This still in the 
 basement might easily have been mistaken for a laun¬ 
 dry-room in a modern New York city home. Floyd 
 stored the “white lightning” in his cellar as it came 
 from the still. The detectives took possession of 90 
 gallons and also carried the still away with them as evi¬ 
 dence. The two stills discovered at the home of the 
 Edwards boys were operated in as barefaced manner as 
 the one of old Floyd Allen. This is one of the first in¬ 
 stances on record in this moonshining country where a 
 still has been found in the home of moonshiners. 
 
 The circumstance is further evidence of the crafti¬ 
 ness of the Allen gang. Federal revenue officers ac¬ 
 knowledged that Floyd Allen’s cellar would have been 
 the last place they would have looked for a “plant.” To 
 make moonshine it is necessary to have smoke, and the 
 smoke more often than anything else leads to detection. 
 Floyd Allen piped the smoke from his still to the chim- 
 
f 
 
 THE AlLEN OUTLAWS 55 
 
 I 
 
 ney, and let it go up with the cloud rising from the 
 kitchen cook stove. 
 
 The finding of the stills is important in that it will 
 draw the federal authorities into the hunt for the Al¬ 
 lens. 
 
56 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 The Capture o£ Claude Allen — Put Through the 
 “Third Degree” by the Detectives, But Dis¬ 
 closes Little—Weaving the Net of Evidence. 
 
 .The arrest of Claude Allen, another of the gang, 
 was without bloodshed or violence. He quietly sur¬ 
 rendered when ordered to do so. He was the fifth of 
 the gang to be captured and soon after his arrest faced 
 a searching inquisition at the hands of Thomas L. 
 Felts, the field chief of detectives,' who made the 
 capture. 
 
 Toward the close of that ordeal, which the youth 
 had sustained unflinchingly, his inquisitor forced a 
 dramatic climax. Gazing searchingly ■ into the clear 
 blue eyes of the mountaineer, Mr. Felts inquired: 
 
 “Are you glad you are caught, or sorry?” 
 
 The young giant’s face relaxed into a boyish grin 
 as he answered: 
 
 “Well, I think I am tolerably well satisfied.” Then 
 the smile vanished, as he added more seriously: “Of 
 course, a man can’t very well tell about that.” 
 
 “Claude, what are you expecting? What do you 
 now believe is ahead of you?” 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 57 
 
 * In the tone of a man who has deMberately consid- 
 ered'his prospects, Allen replied: 
 
 “Well, I’m expecting the penitentiary.” 
 
 “Are you expecting the chair?” asked the detective 
 chief. 
 
 “No, sir, I am not.” 
 
 “Because I don’t think I killed anybody, and, if I 
 did, I did it accidentally, while aiming at someone 
 else.” y 
 
 “How many of the jurymen did you shoot at?” 
 
 “Nary one. I didn’t take particular aim at anybody 
 except Mr, Goad. The smoke in the room was so thiclc 
 I could not see the others. There had been a whole lot 
 of shots fired before I began to shoot.” 
 
 Claude Allen has been fairly well taught. He has 
 had more than a country schoolhouse education, for he 
 topped that off with a course in a Raleigh commercial 
 college, and he writes an excellent letter in a good, 
 clerky hand. He is intelligent and naturally shrewd, 
 but his ideas of the criminal law are rudimentary. He 
 was evidently basing his hope of escaping the chair 
 on the contention that the bullets he fired did not ac¬ 
 tually kill. As a matter of fact, it probably will be 
 shown that Claude’s weapon killed the juror, Augus¬ 
 tus Fowler, but this handsome, overgrown boy does 
 not know that the law must hold him equally guilty, 
 even though no ball from his revolver actually in¬ 
 flicted death. He did not know that the naive admis¬ 
 sion, “If I did kill anybody I did it accidentally, while 
 
5® 
 
 T*E ALLE>: OUTLAWS 
 
 aiming at somebody else,” is alone enough to seal his 
 fate. ^ 
 
 Allen resisted efforts to force from him the names 
 of those who had befriended him since he took to the 
 woods, bringing him food, water and blankets. The 
 prisoner admitted he received fresh rations almost 
 every night from persons who brought them to his 
 mountain lair after dark. Mr. Felts plied him hard, 
 but he refused to involve members of his family or 
 friends. 
 
 “I don’t think it is necessary for me to tell you that,’’ 
 he replied several times with a good-natured laugh, 
 and once he varied that formula by answering, “Let’s 
 not talk about that part of it any more.” 
 
 Finally, after strong pressure, Allen admitted that 
 two of the men who had seen and conversed with him 
 since a price was placed upon his head were Henry 
 Easter and Daniel Tolbert. Both men are farmers in 
 the Fancy Gap district, neighbors of the Allens, and 
 Daniel Tolbert is a cousin of Claude Allen. 
 
 The capture of Claude Allen alone was really a sur¬ 
 prise. He was the one man of the band whose escape 
 to a distant State the detectives had admitted as likely. 
 Claude had often talked of trying his fortunes in the 
 West. 
 
 Mr. Felts conducted his inquisition in the room of 
 the Texas Hotel, which has served as headquartesr for 
 the armed rangers and raiders. Messrs. Lucas and 
 Payne took the prisoner from his cell at 9 o’clock and 
 brought him manacled to the hotel. There his wrists 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 59 
 
 were freed and he w’as seated where the light of a ker¬ 
 osene lamp fell upon his rugged young features. 
 
 About the room stood repeating rifles, cartridge belts 
 hung from the nails in the wall and in the corners of 
 the apartments were piled boxes of ammunition. The 
 place looked like a miniature arsenal. 
 
 Mr. Felts occupied a rocking chair facing the priso¬ 
 ner. The chief had removed one boot and legging 
 and was nursing a bruised foot. His horse had stepped 
 on it as he slipped in the rain and mud while dismount¬ 
 ing here when he came galloping in from the 'Tront.” 
 Seated on chairs, beds and boxes, lolling in easy atti¬ 
 tudes, were the other men w^ho had been invited to this 
 strange interviewL 
 
 These included, in addition to Mr. Felts and the dep¬ 
 uties, Messrs. Lucas, Payne and Braham, the w'ounded 
 Court Clerk, Dexter Goad, Albert Baldwin, one of the 
 detective agency chiefs; Walter Belk, of the same or¬ 
 ganization; Commonwealth Attorney S. Floyd Lan- 
 dreth; Captain Davant and Sergeant White, of the 
 Second Virginia Infantry, and the writer. 
 
 During the examination the prisoner volunteered no 
 information, but he answered readily enough such 
 questions as he desired to reply to at all. To others he 
 either refused an answer, never in a surly or defiant 
 way, but alw^ay-s with a laugh, or else he looked 
 thoughtful a moment and then took refuge in the for¬ 
 mula, ‘T don't just remember.” 
 
 Allen lighted one cigarette after another and 
 smoked them steadily during his ordeal. He never be-. 
 
6o 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 trayed either a trace of nervousness or of bravado. The 
 sinewy hand that repeatedly held a lighted match to 
 his cigarette and then tossed it into the fireplace did 
 not tremble. Once when a cigar was offered to him 
 he declined it with polite thanks. 
 
 Under the inquisition x\llen said he had never heard 
 of any concerted intention to shoot the court officers 
 and thus free his father. He did not begin firing until 
 many shots had been discharged. His weapon was a 
 38-caliber .revolver, from which he admitted he had 
 fired four shots inside the courtroom, all directed at 
 Mr. Goad, who was apparently shooting at Floyd Al¬ 
 len, the prisoner who had just been convicted and had 
 refused to go to jail. As he came out of the court¬ 
 room, Claude Allen said, he found his weapon had 
 jammed after firing the fourth shot. He got it freed, 
 and after that aimed one more shot after he had 
 reached the street. It also was directed at the court 
 clerk, who, despite his wound, was following the out¬ 
 laws in their retreat, and,blazing away at them from 
 his automatic pistol. 
 
 The prisoner persistently parried all attempts to 
 make him admit that me of his bullets might have hit 
 Judge Massie or Mr. b'owler, the juror who was killed. 
 
 Allen said he had only one revolver in court. The 
 other weapon which he had when captured was the 38- 
 caliber hammerless revolver which his wounded father 
 had given to him when the older man tried in vain to 
 remount his horse, and was unable to do so because of 
 his wounded leg. The latter revolver is the weapon 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 6i 
 
 for which Sheriff Edwards and Mr. Belk afterwards 
 made a search in the room of the Elliott Hotel in 
 which Floyd Allen lay wounded before going to jail. 
 Claude said he did not see his older brother ffo any 
 shooting, and did not know whether or not Victor was 
 armed, although the latter, he thought, owned a 32- 
 caliber revolver. He was sure neither Victor nor him¬ 
 self had an automatic pistol. 
 
 The prisoner admitted that when the shooting began 
 'he was standing directly beside his uncle, Sidna Allen, 
 on one of the benches to the right of the Judge’s chair. 
 Fie said he saw his uncle shooting, but did not know 
 who he hit, at whom he was aiming nor how often he 
 fired. His uncle’s weapon, he thought, was a 38-cal¬ 
 ibre revolver, and if Sidna Allen had an automatic 
 pistol, the prisoner said, he did not know it. The pris¬ 
 oner was equally uncertain concerning the direction in 
 which his father was shooting. He refused to admit 
 that Floyd Allen was shooting at Sheriff Webb and 
 Mr. Foster, both of whom were killed. 
 
62 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Claude Allen’s Story of the Massacre Continued— 
 Captured Outlaw Smokes Cigarettes and Gives 
 Further Graphic Account of the Courthouse 
 Tragedy. 
 
 “Did not your brother Victor tell you as you ran out 
 of the courtroom, ‘For God’s sake, Claude, stop this’? 
 
 “I think he did ask me to quit.” 
 
 “And did you not reply, ‘I’m in this thing deep now, 
 and I might as well get in deeper’?” 
 
 “No, I never said that; I think I made no reply, but 
 I can’t exactly remember.” 
 
 Fie frankly admitted it was he to whom his father 
 had beckoned to come to the bar for a whispered con¬ 
 versation just before the imposition of sentence. He 
 said, however, that he had no intimation of what was 
 coming. His father only wanted him to carry a mes¬ 
 sage to a Mr. Dawson, which he thought might affect 
 the appeal of his case Some persons have said it was 
 A’ictor who was thus summoned by the father. Claude’s 
 admission is expected to strengthen the possibility of 
 the acquittal of Victor, against whom the prosecution 
 admits that its case is by no means strong. 
 
 Immediately after the rush from the courthouse, 
 
TMK ALLEN OUTLAWS 63 
 
 Alien said, he went to his home. “I got a man to 
 crjry my mail route,'’ he saia, "and an old woman to 
 stay with my mother. Then I went across the moun¬ 
 tain, avoiding the roads, to my Uncle Jasper’s (Jack 
 Allen). I saw one of his little boys, but Uncle Jasper 
 was not there. I don’t know where he was.” 
 
 ‘‘You went to your Uncle Jack’s to get a little ad¬ 
 vice, didn’t you?” 
 
 “No,” replied the young man, with a boyish laugh; 
 “I didn’t think I needed any advice. I just went there 
 to try to see what all the boys were doing. While I 
 was in the woodshed a man named Bolt, who runs a 
 mill down there, came and talked with me. I had only 
 a few words with him, and have not seen him since. 
 
 “I went back home that same evening, and before 
 midnight I struck right out for the woods. I passed 
 the first night after the shooting in an old building 
 once used as a schoolhouse. One other night later— 
 the night when it was bitter cold, with rain and sleet 
 falling—I slept in an old tobacco barn. All the rest of 
 the time I have slept in the woods on the ground. On 
 the second day—that was Friday, March 15—I struck 
 further into the woods. Just by chance I fell in with 
 Sidna Edwards, my cousin, a few days later—^it might 
 have been Sunday<—and he and I were together until 
 just before he gave himself up and was brought in.” 
 
 “Who was it that fed you and gave you blankets ?” 
 
 “I just don’t care to say,” replied Allen, with a 
 laugh. “I don’t intend to get anybody into trouble 
 who has tried to befriend me.” 
 
64 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 “Well, how did you fare while you were in the 
 woods?” 
 
 Allen laughed again. This time it was almost the 
 merry laugh of a big boy as he answered. 
 
 “Not quite so well as I usually fared at home, but I 
 don’t think I had to go over one meal time without 
 food.” 
 
 He refused to say who brought his food, but frankly 
 admitted that he got not only sustenance, but also 
 news, regularly after dark, though he had seen neither 
 a newspaper nor a copy of the Governor’s circular of¬ 
 fering the reward. 
 
 Deputy Sheriff Payne at this point interpolated the 
 information that when Claude was captured he had in 
 his retreat in the laurel thicket two days’ rations and 
 half a gallon of spring water in a fruit jar. 
 
 “I had been in that place three or four days,” the 
 prisoner went on. “I was getting tired of it and was 
 just thinking of giving up and coming in, when T saw 
 that gentleman there.” 
 
 Allen pointed toward H. H. Lucas as he resumed: 
 
 “I saw him crouching about fifteen feet away from 
 me in the brush and I saw the muzzle of his rifle. They 
 were right on me before I spotted them, but I could 
 have shot Mr. Lucas. I had plenty of cartridges. One 
 gun was in my pocket and the other in my holster, and 
 there was time enough to get them out. But I had no 
 intention of fighting, so I put up my hands when he 
 ordered me to do so.” 
 
 Deputy Sheriff Payne’s version cf the arrest differs 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 65 
 
 slightly from Allen’s. As the two scouts started up 
 the hillside toward the laurel thicket they became sep¬ 
 arated from each other and had hidden in the under¬ 
 brush. For several moments Mr. Payne’s rifle was 
 bearing upon Mr. Lucas, whose stealthy movements 
 Mr. Payne mistook for those of their common enemy, 
 
 “Just then,” said Mr. Payne, “Lucas stepped on a 
 twig and it snapped. I saw Allen jump up quickly at 
 the sound. Lucas was right up to him and had the 
 drop on him the instant Allen stood erect. 
 
 “ Tut up your hands,’ said Lucas, and I want to add 
 that he said it in a mighty conversational tone of voice. 
 The man obeyed, but Lucas could see only one hand 
 up. 
 
 “ Tut up the other one!’ he cried. 
 
 “They are both up,” said Claude, and then we saw 
 that they were. 
 
 “That’s right,” said Lucas, still in a conversational 
 tone. “Now, that’s what I call a man.” 
 
 “Haven’t you been writing letters to your girl, 
 Claude, since you went away ?” Felts asked. 
 
 Allen persisted that he had not done so, but this line 
 of questioning brought out an admission that he is en¬ 
 gaged to marry Miss Nellie Wisler, of Pulaski, the at¬ 
 tractive daughter of Walter Wisler, formerly a school¬ 
 teacher and justice of the peace, who is now in the 
 railway mail service. Mr. Wisler’s sister is the wife 
 of Victor Allen, the elder son of Floyd Allen. 
 
 Claude insisted that he had not expected trouble in 
 court until he saw his father reaching for a v^eapon 
 
66 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 under his sweater. He hau nwer heard of his father 
 wearing over his body any kind of a breastplate or 
 bullet-proof coat. 
 
 After the stampede to the street he did not know 
 what person had been killed in the courtroom, but as 
 the fugitives were mounting their horses near the jail 
 and preparing to leave he heard somebody say they had 
 killed Lewis Webb, the Sheriff, Mr. Foster and the 
 Judge. 
 
 “And you knew those were the men to be shot, did 
 you not?” asked Mr. Felts, with his most placating 
 smile. 
 
 “No, I did not. I didn’t know anybody was to be 
 shot,” Allen replied. 
 
 “Now, Claude, isn’t it a fact that in case of trouble 
 there Mr. Goad was to be your target and Judge Mas- 
 sie was to be your Uncle Sidna’s target?” 
 
 “No; I never heard any talk at all on that subject.” 
 
 “Well, didn’t you know you had hit Mr, Goad?” 
 
 “I couldn’t see Svhere I had hit him, but I knew I 
 had not killed him, for he kept right on coming at us 
 and shooting, pretty good clear down to the street,” 
 
 Claude was asked if he had seen any members of the 
 Sheriff’s posse before the day of his arrest. 
 
 “Oh, yes!” said he. “I was sitting back in the 
 woods one day watching the road when I saw five or 
 six of them ride past, carrying rifles. I knew they 
 were a lot of armed men looking for me, and I had 
 heard that they had all been at our house once or 
 twice.” 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 67 
 
 Mr. Felts tried to elicit an admission that a rescue 
 of the wounded Floyd Allen would have been at- 
 tempted had not a report been heard on the telephone 
 the night of the tragedy that troops were coming to 
 Hillsville. Claude Allen denied this, and coolly said 
 that the idea of coming back to the aid of his wounded 
 and captured father had never been entertained by him 
 for a moment. The inquisitor contrasted this attitude 
 with that of the older brother, Victor, who refused to 
 leave his father and shared his arrest. 
 
 “Don’t you think you were rather heartless for a 
 son?” the detective asked. 
 
 “No, I don’t think so. If I thought anything at all 
 about it, I thought father would get along as well 
 without me as with me.” 
 
 Since he took to the woods, Claude said, he had con¬ 
 ferred with at least eight or ten persons, but he refused 
 to name any of them except the Tolberts and Henry 
 Easter. Mr. Felts tried to force an admission that 
 Daniel Tolbert was the person with whom the fugitive 
 had talked most often, but Claude, refused to say so. 
 
 The prisoner was asked if he was not a pretty good 
 shot with a revolver. 
 
 “Oh, most anybody could shoot better than me,” he 
 said. But he finally admitted that he had often killed 
 rabbits at fifteen paces. At the same distance, he said, 
 he could generally place a shot within two inches of a 
 bull’s-eye. As to the skill of his relatives, he said he 
 had beaten his brother Victor at target practice, but 
 that Freel, the young son of “Jack” Allen, captured 
 
68 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 yesterday, had beaten him when they had shot together 
 last Christmas. He had never seen his father, his 
 Uncle Sidna Allen or his Uncle Jack Allen shoot at a 
 target, he said, but he thought they Were pretty good 
 shots, 
 
 “What would you call a pretty good shot with a big 
 revolver?’’ was asked. 
 
 The big mountaineer studied for a moment like a 
 medical expert deliberating in court, then he replied: 
 
 “Well, I think to hit a silver dollar at twenty-five 
 paces is pretty good shooting.” 
 
 Among the deputy sheriffs were several crack 
 marksmen and Sergeant White, who is a star per¬ 
 former. They all nodded approval and said they 
 thought so, too. 
 
 At the close of the conference E. C. Payne snapped 
 the manacles upon Claude’s wrists, which he held out, 
 docile as a child. , Then the prisoner went back to the 
 stone-floored cell, colder than the bleak: mountain 
 coverts in which he had lurked for two weeks. 
 
District Attorney Wm. M. Foster, who 
 
 Allen outlaws. 
 
 was 
 
 killed by the 
 
 6g 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Friel Allen, the Youngest o£ the Outlaws, Arrested 
 Without Trouble—A Mere Boy in Appearance, 
 Yet a Desperate Man in Action—Rounding Up 
 the Last of the Famous Gang. 
 
 Friel Allen, a blue-eyed stripling of seventeen, 
 youngest of the eight of the Allen gang, each indicted 
 for the five murders in the Carroll County Courthouse, 
 was taken March 29th in a carriage shed at the home 
 of his father. Jack Allen, eight miles from Hillsville. 
 He cheerfully submitted to arrest and now occupies a 
 cell in the Hillsville jail with his cousin, Claude Swan¬ 
 son Allen, who had. previously surrendered without 
 resistance to the detectives. 
 
 Only Sidna Allen, a man of middle age, and his 
 young nephew, Wesley Edwards, both bold moun¬ 
 taineers of reckless daring, are now fugitives. They 
 are the last of the outlaw band whose fusilade killed 
 a judge, sheriff, prosecutor, juror and bystander or, 
 March 14. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 71 
 
 Friel Allen a few days ago deserted the two men 
 still at large, and brought back tonight their ultima¬ 
 tum of defiance. Both are prepared to resist until 
 death. 
 
 A father’s anxiety to have his youngest son spared 
 a terrible death in the mountains is assumed to be the 
 cause of Friel Allen’s capture. Jack Allen was not 
 involved in the Courthouse shooting, but it is known 
 that since his son Friel joined the outlaws he has been 
 endeavoring to advise him to submit to the mercy of 
 the law. Just how the parent communicated with the 
 boy has not been disclosed. 
 
 Hillsville had hardly digested the excitement incident 
 to Claude Allen’s bloodless capture yesterday, when 
 Friel Allen galloped into town, the prisoner of Detec¬ 
 tive Thomas L. Feltz and Detective E. C. Payne, who 
 made the arrest. 
 
 The young mountaineer of slender build and boyish 
 face was unhandcufTed and cantered into town with 
 smiles and nodded to those who recognized him. He 
 showed, however, the ill effects of two weeks with 
 little food or shelter. The young prisoner talked glibly 
 of his conversations with Sidna Allen and Wesley 
 Edwards. The former, he says, admitted killing Judge 
 Thornton L. Massie, while the latter acknowledged 
 shooting Commonwealth’Attorney William M. Foster. 
 His own part in the tragedy he discreetly evaded dis¬ 
 cussing. He brought, however, first hand informa¬ 
 tion of the desperate straights of Sidna Allen, leader of 
 the band, and his consciousness of guilt. 
 
72 
 
 ALLSN OUTLAWS 
 
 In the dialect of the mountain lie told his story, 
 heeding interruptions and answering all queries. 
 
 “Uncle Sidna told me/’ related the boy with unre¬ 
 strained frankness, “that he never expected to see his 
 family again. He hopes.the detectives will get dis¬ 
 couraged so that he can get away, but if they keep 
 after him, I think he will be sho^ killing them. He 
 will never surrender. He didn’t like it when I left 
 him. He told me I was making a mistake, but I was 
 tired and hungry. 
 
 “Sidna said he shot his pistol empty three times. He 
 always was angry with Judge Massie. He said he 
 shot Judge Massie and that Wesley shot Mr. Foster. 
 Uncle Sidna said he intended to get as many of the 
 Court officers as he could. When he was shooting the 
 people in the street he really did not know he was 
 firing at any of the jury. He said he saw men run¬ 
 ning and thought they needed shooting at. 
 
 “The day after Uncle Sidna and Cousin Wesley and 
 I went to the mountains. Wesley had two pistols and 
 Uncle Sidna had a revolver and a shotgun. We were 
 on the ridge and were hidden under a ledge by leaves. 
 From there we moved to another rock and saw the 
 officers raid my Aunt Alberta’s house. 
 
 “Some of the detectives came within fifteen of 
 twenty yards of us. I wanted to leave but Uncle Sidna 
 said if the detectives came closer he would fire. 
 
 “Uncle Sidna was shot in the arm at the Courthouse 
 and the same bullet went into his side and back. It is 
 still +^ere. Uncle Sidna got some food in a sack. We 
 
THE ALLEN ©UTLAWS 
 
 73 
 
 had plenty of crackers and stayed in the ivy and laurel 
 bushes for ten days, but with nothing else to cat ex¬ 
 cept those crackers. I was just starved out- I left 
 them on the mountain top.” 
 
74 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Sidney Edwards Captured Without Resistance Near 
 His Home—Locked Up in » Hillsville Jail to 
 Await Trial, He Repents of His Complicity in 
 the Courthouse Massacre — Gang’s Terms of 
 Surrender. 
 
 With the capture of Sidney Edwards near his home 
 on March 23rd was disclosed the terms of the sur¬ 
 render of the ^3.ng, which terms the authorities 
 promptly rejected and announced it would be a fight 
 to the death. Edwards is a nephew of the Allens, 
 and submitted to arrest quietly after a rifle had been 
 aimed at his head by a detective and he had been or¬ 
 dered to throw up his hands. He was promptly hand¬ 
 cuffed, disarmed and taken to Hillsville jail and later 
 transferred to prison at Roanoke, where the other 
 outlaws under arrest are confined. 
 
 He was arrested at Lambsburg, near Low Gap, 
 about sixteen miles from Hillsville, by Legrand Feltz ' 
 and W. W. Phaup, of the Sheriff’s armed posse, who 
 had been in the mountains since Tuesday. They came 
 upon him at 4 o’clock in the morning asleep in an 
 empty hut a mile from his home. When he awoke he 
 found the detectives at his side. His sore foot had 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 75 
 
 troubled him greatly and it is believed he was unable 
 to keep up with the swift changes of base made by 
 the other fugitives. 
 
 News of the capture of Sidney Edwards was tele¬ 
 phoned to Hillsville from Galax at about noon and 
 the town was tense with expectation for an hour. 
 
 At 10 minutes past i o’clock watchers saw three 
 horsemen galloping in a cloud of dust from the direc¬ 
 tion of Galax. They wheeled into the main street of 
 Hillsville, dashed past the hotel and Courthouse, and 
 then turned their horses sharply down the alley 
 through which the Allen desperadoes had escaped to 
 their waiting mounts after Courthouse, battle of 
 March 14. 
 
 Directly opposite the shed where the outlaws had 
 mounted their picketed horses and ridden away, leav¬ 
 ing Floyd Allen, whose shattered leg made it impos¬ 
 sible for him to accompany them, stands the little 
 brick jail. There the trio of horsemen reined in their 
 steeds. In the middle of the group rode H. H. Lucas, 
 a member of the Sheriff’s posse, who carried his re¬ 
 peating rifle ready for action. 
 
 The prisoner, who is the elder of the sons of Floyd 
 and Sidna Allen’s only sister, rode a few paces ahead 
 of Lucas. Last of all, the Hillsville folks recognized 
 the sturdy figure of Jack Allen, uncle of the prisoner. 
 “Jack” Allen displayed no visible weapons. His pres¬ 
 ence in the party caused some surprise, especially as 
 Lieutenant Feltz and Deputy Phaup had sent in their 
 prisoner under a single guard. “Jack” Allen said he 
 
76 
 
 TME ALLEN .;^UTLAWS 
 
 had heard of his nephew’s arrest and joined young 
 Edwards and his guard on the road and had accom¬ 
 panied them here with the consent and approval of 
 Deputy Sheriff H. H. Lucas. 
 
 At the jail door, which was speedily opened by T. J. 
 Burnett, the jailer, the party halted long enough to 
 oblige several photographers and two motion-picture 
 operators. Edwards appeared cool and perfectly un¬ 
 concerned. If he realized his present plight, he gave 
 no indication of nervousness. In fact, he smiled as 
 he and his uncle and his armed guard posed for their 
 pictures. When he noticed the motion-picture oper¬ 
 ators grinding the cranks of their machines with a 
 coffee-mill movement, the youth said jocularly; “We 
 are going to have some good coffee here pretty soon.” 
 
 The interior of the jail contains half a dozen small 
 cells, the tiers of which are divided by a small central 
 corridor. When the jailer took his prisoner, Edwards 
 asked to be permitted to remain in the corridor instead 
 o£ being put into one of the cramped cells behind the 
 grated door. The jailer told him he had no authority 
 to grant such a privi^e, and Sidna submitted without 
 further comment. No shackles had been placed upon 
 -- him either during his *rlde to town or after he was 
 placed in jail. 
 
 After being locked up young Edwards presented the 
 terms of surrender as they had been drawn up by the 
 Allen gang to the Sheriff, but they were refused as 
 being ridiculous, even if they did come from the 
 Allens, which a great many seem to doubt, on the 
 
TilE ALLEN -OUTLAWS 
 
 77 
 
 theory that the remainder of the gang will die before 
 surrendering. The alleged terras of surrender are as 
 follows; . 
 
 First T.he members of the gang must be guar¬ 
 anteed every protection under the law. 
 
 Second—The trials must not be held in Carroll 
 County. 
 
 Third That pleas of guilty to second degree mur¬ 
 der be accepted. 
 
 The terms were submitted to Detective W. G. Bald¬ 
 win, who rejected them. That the"band made the 
 proposition to give up at all is regarded as conclusive 
 proof that they are near their last ditch and feel that 
 capture is inevitable, and that, in obedience of the 
 ruling family trait, they would rather appear to be 
 yielding than to be taken by force. On the other hand, 
 the fact that they were willing to make terms also indi¬ 
 cates a disposition to gain some concession, if possible, 
 by playing upon the supposedly popular estimate of 
 their formidableness 
 
 In the presence of Detective Feltz, Edwards talked 
 freely. 
 
 ‘T know nothing of the cause of the Courthouse _ 
 shooting, he said. Vv^hen I walked into the Court¬ 
 room I saw Uncle Floyd jump up and say something. 
 
 I could not hear what, it was. Right away somebody 
 began to shoot from about Clerk Goad’s desk, but I , 
 don’t know who fired the first shot. I saw Uncle Sidna 
 after the shooting began. I did not see my cousins or 
 my brothers. As soon as I could with my lame foot. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 7 ^^ 
 
 I got out of the Courthouse and stood at the bottou- 
 of the steps. I saw Uncle Sidna and Mr. Goad shoot¬ 
 ing at one another. After it was over I got my moth¬ 
 er’s horse and rode home. 
 
 “Before I left I saw Uncle Floyd on a horse and 
 then I saw him lying on the ground. If he had been 
 able to ride we would have taken hirn away with us. I 
 saw my brother Wesley on the road and that after¬ 
 noon I saw Uncle Sidna at his store. I have never 
 seen any of them or heard tell anything about ther 
 since that evening. 
 
 “I stayed at home until Sunday and had started to 
 a neighbor’s when I saw the officers. I was in plain 
 view from the road and they could have taken me then, 
 but I did not go back home because I heard the officers 
 had orders to shoot all of us in sight. I went about 
 and lived the best I could until the officers ran upon 
 me last night. I did not have a pistol at the Court¬ 
 house or while I was trying to keep from being ar¬ 
 rested.” 
 
S'HE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Jack Allen, of the Famous Family, But Not the 
 Gang, Visits Hillsville and Attracts Much At¬ 
 tention—He Regrets the Whole Affair and 
 Sheds Tears of Sorrow—His Version of the 
 Tragic Affair. 
 
 The entry of Jack Allen, one of the Allen clan, into 
 Hillsville created wild excitement, especially among 
 the women. With tears in his eyes he asked the people 
 to tell the world that he had nothing to do with the 
 awful Courthouse tragedy, that he deplores it, and 
 has not aided or abetted the fugitives in making their 
 escape. 
 
 When Jack Allen, astride a horse by the side of Lee 
 Feltz, the detective, came into town women on porches 
 of houses facing the street fled indoors almost panic- 
 stricken. Some of them feared that Jack Allen would 
 shoot up the town. Allen, however, rode calmly along, 
 tipping his hat to the women and waving his hands to 
 the men he knew. A few minutes later Mrs. Sidna 
 Allen and Rev. Garland Allen followed. 
 
 Jack Allen is a thick-set man, strongly built and is 
 about 5 feet lo inches tall. 'He has a cold, gray eye. 
 His mouth and chin arc firm and strong. When smil- 
 
8o 
 
 THE ALLEjN' outlaws 
 
 ing his iace is pleasant. His manner is affable and he 
 does not hesitate to talk’ freely. His speech retains 
 the accent peculiar to the mountain section of Vir¬ 
 ginia. 
 
 “Say for me that I didn’t help my brother, son or 
 nephew get away,” declared “Jack” when pressed for 
 a statement. “I was in Hillsville the day before the 
 shooting, but was home sick in bed when the tragedy 
 occurred,” 
 
 “I am so vSorry this thing happened I don’t know 
 what to do,” continued the mountaineer, as his eyes 
 filled with tears. “Ever since this thing happened I 
 have been half crazy. I haven’t slept much since and 
 haven’t eaten much. I am not the bad man I used to 
 be. I am now trying to do better. I don’t believe 
 that my brothers arranged this shooting before it hap¬ 
 pened. It all occurred right on the jump. I think 
 when Floyd Allen jumped up in, the Courtroom and 
 said he wouldn’t stand for it, some of the Court people 
 started the shooting. Then his relatives in the Court- 
 room^began shooting. I don’t think they intended to 
 shoot Judge Massie.” 
 
 “Jack” says his son Friel and the Edwards boys 
 visited his house after the tragedy Thursday evening^ 
 They told him that the Court officials started to shoot 
 Floyd and that then they began shooting. “Jack” says 
 the fugitives left his house on foot, and he has not 
 seen or heard anything of them since Thursday even¬ 
 ing; that he has not communicated with them and 
 ■does not intend to do so. Then “Jack” spoke of the 
 
THE -allejn; outlaws 8l 
 
 grief of the women members of the Allen family and 
 again his eyes became moist. 
 
 “Jack” says that the Allens were being persecuted 
 by the Court officials because they were political oppo¬ 
 nents of the present Carroll County officers and tried 
 to beat them in the election. 
 
 “I have never killed a man,” said “Jack.” “The 
 only Allen who had before this Court tragedy occurred 
 was Floyd, who shot a nigger. All the crimes which 
 have been committed in this section have been charged 
 to us.” 
 
 “Jack” went to the Thornton Hotel, where Juror 
 Kane lies seriously wounded. The two men shook 
 hands and then conversed for ten minutes. 
 
 “You don’t know how sorry I am about all- this 
 business,” “Jack” told the wounded man. “Had I been 
 there I might have been able to hold down my brothers, 
 my nephew and the others. They didn’t mean to shoot 
 you; of that I am sure.” 
 
 Followed by a number of the curious, “Jack” en¬ 
 tered the Courtroom. He put his fingers in holes 
 from which curio hunters had cut the bullets. He 
 gazed at the walls, punctured in many places, and ex¬ 
 amined the blood-stained chair in which Judge Massie 
 sat. An eyewitness explained to him how bullet holes 
 cam.e to be in one of the columns in front of the 
 Courthouse, behind which Sidna Allen stood when he 
 emptied a pistol at Clerk Dexter Goad. 
 
 Reluctant at first to pose, because he was wearing 
 his “everyday” clothes, “Jack” finally consented to 
 
82 
 
 THE AIXEN OUTLAW^* 
 
 Stand in front of the Courthouse while a moving-pic¬ 
 ture operator wound off several yards of films. Like 
 everybody else in Hillsville, he was registered in the 
 camera and stood an attentive listener while the oper- 
 ator told the crowd how the machine was worked. 
 
Sheriff Lewis F. Webb, one of the victims 
 of the outlaw gang. 
 
 83 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 % 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 On the Trail of Sidna Allen—Detective Feltz Tells 
 of the Chase After the Fleeing Outlaw—Held 
 Up by a Mountaineer, But Allov^ed to Escape. 
 
 Near Mount Airy, N. C., March' 31, Sidna Allen, 
 one of the ringleaders of the outlaw gang, was sighted 
 by a mountaineer named Lafayette Ayres. Allen cov¬ 
 ered Ayres with a shotgun and declared that he would 
 shoot him. Then Ayres begged for his life and denied 
 any participation in the hunt. Allen lowered his gun 
 and pursued his w^ay into the mountains^ 
 
 The hold-up occurred near the Buzzard’s Rock sec¬ 
 tion wLere, under a sheltered rock, Allen is supposed 
 to have slept that night. Ayres has been furnishing 
 information to the detectives who are searching for 
 the outlaws. 
 
 Having pressed Sidna Allen so hard that he was 
 driven from his latest refuge and fled precipitately 
 down the mountainside, his pursuers are now prepar¬ 
 ing to follow his trail with bloodhounds. Allen and 
 his nephew, Wesley Edwards, were the only two mem¬ 
 bers of the gang still at large March 31. 
 
 The leader of the Allen clan of desperadoes nar- 
 
TKE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 85 
 
 rowly escaped^ capture. As stated, members of the 
 posse found his abandoned blankets and remnants of 
 his dinner. 
 
 f W hen Captain Feltz rode out from here at midnig’ht, 
 accompanied by Albert Baldwin, E. C. Payne and 
 John Faddis, they were on what looked like a hot trail. 
 An hour eailier Fred Weddell, a farmer living' about 
 thirteen miles southeast of here, near the mountain 
 top, on the Snake Creek road, came riding into Hills- 
 ville, having telephoned his approach to Spencer 
 Fulcher, a Hillsville Jriend. Weddell reported that at 
 dusk Friday he had seen tw'O men whom he had rec¬ 
 ognized as Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards, running 
 out of his barn. They had plunged into the timber 
 and laurel thicket, heading for a great cliff of granite 
 known as Buzzards Roost,” high on the mountain 
 side. This is in the Ward’s Gap country. 
 
 Captain Feltz told the story of the hunt on his t-e- 
 turn. 
 
 We hoped to find Allen and Edwards near the 
 home of Wilbur Easter, who is the husband of SMna 
 Allen’s niece, a sister of Mrs. Edward’s,” said Captain 
 Feltz. Easter s house is about half way between the 
 Fancy Gap and Piper’s Gap. We went there first, be¬ 
 fore going on to test the report brought in by Waddell. 
 
 On arrival there we threw a picket line extending 
 several miles around what is called the flatwoods coun¬ 
 try. It is a section dense with laurel, mountain ivy and 
 green briar. At daybreak yesterday a party of six of 
 UP went in to raid and search several houses including 
 
86 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 those of the Easters, crawling stealthily on our hands 
 and knees through the undergrowth, 
 
 “About 300 or 400 yards from Easter’s house we 
 came upon the imprint of the blankets where Sidna 
 and Wesley had slept Thursday night. We saw also 
 the footprints and the trail made by Easter in going to 
 and from his house, carrying food to them. It was 
 clear that Easter had made at least three different trips 
 from his house to their lair. We brought diim out and 
 fitted his boots to the footprints in the softened soil. 
 They matched perfectly, even to a patch on one sole. 
 Easter admitted they were his marks, but he stoutly 
 denied all knowledge of the fugitives. He said he 
 reckoned'he must have been just walking about in the 
 woods. 
 
 “Close by the imprint of Sidna’s bedding lay a leaf 
 torn from a pocket notebook. On this was the receipt 
 to Edward’s written in lead pencil. 
 
 Mr. Feltz here produced a paper which had been 
 folded twice and which had evidently been exposed to 
 the moisture of the mountain dew. But on it this writ¬ 
 ing was clearly legible; 
 
 “Received of W. W. Easter $70, to be credited to 
 his note which I hold against him. Paid away from 
 home. Sidna Allen.” 
 
 In two places, one above and the other below the re¬ 
 ceipt, as though to emphasize it, had been written the 
 date “February, 1912.” Mr. Feltz has no doubt Sidna 
 dated the receipt thus as a blind, in the event of it be¬ 
 ing picked up by persons other than Easter. Hi? the- 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 87 
 
 ory is that Sidna, on receiving the cash, promised to 
 write a receipt and leave it at his abandoned camp. 
 Easter had made several trips there trying to find it, 
 but it happened that the pursuers found it first. 
 
 Resuming his narrative,. Captain Feltz said: 
 
 “We would have arrested Easter, but his young 
 wife’s health is in a precarious condition and he had 
 nobody to leave with her. We can get him when we 
 want him.” 
 
 “We searched and raided about this vicinity until 
 about noon. Then we struck out on the other clew, 
 doubling back across the Fancy Gap road and along the 
 foot of the mountain to the Ward’s Gap road. We 
 followed it along to a point between Ward’s and Wills’ 
 Gap, not far from the Weddell place and the cliff called 
 Buzzards’ Roost. 
 
 “Sending our horses to the top of the mountain in 
 charge of part of the posse, a detail of six of us walked 
 to the mountain top and approached Buzzards’ Roost, 
 raiding and searching several houses on our way. 
 
 “At Buzzards’ Roost, beneath one of the shelving 
 rocks, we found the warm nest which Sidna Allen, 
 from unmistakable signs, had occupied on Friday night, 
 and which he had abandoned not two hours before our 
 arrival. He had evidently gone away in a hurry, leav¬ 
 ing his quilts stretched upon the bed of dry leaves un¬ 
 der the shelf rock. There, too, we found a lot of re- 
 cnetly baked bread and biscuits wrapped in pieces of 
 newspaper. Until then we think Edwards was with 
 him. 
 
THE ALL»N OUTLAWS 
 
 88 
 
 “It looked as though <)ur approach had frightened 
 our men out We traced Sidna’s tracks as he plunged 
 right down the mountainside, taking the steep inclines 
 in long leaps like a deer. The footprints were clearly 
 Sidna Allen’s, for we have shoes of his with which to 
 compare them. There were no visible evidences of the 
 ecape here of more than one man, and it looks as 
 though Wesley Edwards may have separated from his 
 Uncle Sidna yesterday when we flushed their covert. 
 
 “I have left an able posse of men right in that neigh¬ 
 borhood, divided into two main Squads. These are 
 commanded by W. W. Phaup and E. C. Payne, two 
 of our most competent men. They were to resume, 
 beating through the woods at dawn today. With them 
 are Deputies Lucas, Braham, Mundy, Cunningham, 
 Franklin and others.” 
 
 After a few hours’ sleep here Captain Feltz, at¬ 
 tended by John Faddis, his brother-in-law, started to 
 visit his home at Belair. He intended to be back in the 
 mountains with his men, however, at night. 
 
 In their scouring of the mountains the detectives 
 from time to time came ' across tracks which 
 at first bewildered them. They would be pur¬ 
 suing the two clansmen in one direction and would 
 frequently come across footprints leading in^-another 
 direction. They have come to the conclusion now that 
 the second tracks were made by tw’o men who have- 
 been known to have-been dodging in the wilderness for 
 several months. One is a moonshiner and the other 
 a murderer. Both are from North Carolina. 
 
Tail ALLEiS OUTLAWS 
 
 8^ 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Capture of Bill Allen, Son of Floyd Allen, Near 
 His Home—Did Not Put Up Expected Resist¬ 
 ance and Quietly Surrendered. 
 
 On Thursday, March 28th, after long and patient 
 waiting on the part of the posse, Bill Allen, another 
 of the Allen gang, was captured in his mountain 
 retreat near his home. H. H. Lucas and Edward 
 Payne, members of the Sheriff’s posse, were patroling 
 at about 2.30 o’clock this afternoon the Mount Airy 
 road which leads through Fancy Gap. They v/ere at 
 a point some three, miles soiffheast from ,Floyd Allen’s 
 home. The two deputies had picketed their horses on 
 the road and after dismounting Tiad started up the 
 mountain slope toward a dense thicket of laurel. 
 
 Lucas and Payne at the moment were advancing 
 slowly through the thick underbrush and were about 
 thirty yards apart when Lucas saw, in the edge of the 
 laurel patch, a movement and the flash of something 
 white. Crouching on one knee, he brought his Wni- 
 chester to his shoulder and shouted ‘‘hands up!” 
 
 The worn and haggard figure of a man stepped back 
 from the covering of the laurel. He had instantly 
 obeyed the command and was rigid as a statue. In 
 each of his uplifted hands he clutched a heavy rc:- 
 
90 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 volver, but he held the weapons above his head ia 
 token of surrender. 
 
 Lucas advanced up the slope toward. him, holding 
 his rifle ready for action. At the first cry, Payne had 
 come to his comrade’s aid. The fugitive’s first word 
 was: ,, ■ 
 
 ‘T give in and I’m glad to quit,” 
 
 The scouts had immediately recognized their pris¬ 
 oner and after they had disarmed him he showed them 
 his mountain retreat, where he had been lurking for 
 several days. He was well supplied with bread and 
 also had a cask of water, partly filled, neatly concealed 
 in the heart of a laurel patch. 
 
 As the fugitive had no horse, one of his captor: 
 rode to his father’s home to procure one, while the 
 other scout kept guard over the prisoner. Bill 
 mounted easily despite his evident fatigue and exhaus¬ 
 tion from two weeks’ vigilance in the mountains. With 
 his guard on either side, their rifles resting across the 
 pommel of their saddle, the little party began its march 
 toward Bill Allen’s captivity and probable death. 
 
 The most pathetic scene in that tragic journey 
 occurred as he neared his own home. The road to 
 prison led directly past his mother’s door. The heart¬ 
 broken woman was there wringing her hands and 
 ready to fall upon the neck of her captive son. 
 
 He was permitted to dismount for a few mo¬ 
 ments and the meeting between mother and son, to 
 end only a few moments later in bitter parting, was 
 heart r<^"iding. The youth’s mother wept and sobbed 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 91 
 
 and fo_ndly called him her baby boy. The lad bore up 
 bravely and did what little he might to try to comfort 
 her. 
 
 In reply to questions young Allen said; 
 
 ‘T have been in the mountains alone for several days 
 and during that time have not seen or heard from any 
 of the others: I was in my. hiding place today and was 
 watching the road. I saw Mr. Lucas before he saw 
 me, and I could easily have shot him. But I was ex¬ 
 cited, worn out, and tired of the game. I hesitated as 
 I was about to raise one of my guns, and then the 
 thought came to me that I did not want to hurt any¬ 
 body else. I started to crawl stealthily back into the 
 laurel when I saw that Mr. Lucas had seen or heard 
 me. He had his rifle leveled at me like a flash and I 
 saw it "would be foolish to resist. 
 
 “I am really glad to have a chance to come in. I 
 have not slept on a bed for two weeks. I have been 
 soaked to the skin and half frozen by rain and sleet, 
 and have not known a shelter.” 
 
I 
 
 ■f 
 
 P2 THE ALLEN OUTLAV/I 
 
 -s. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 Story of an Eye-Witness to the Crime, Who barely 
 Escaped With His Life When the Battle Com¬ 
 menced—Believes Each Bandit Had His Man 
 Picked Out and Shot at a Preconcerted Signal. 
 Thrilling Story of the Outrage. 
 
 Perhaps the clearest and most connected, also the 
 most positive account of the assassinations in the 
 courtroom at Hillsville, was given by Attorney B. 
 F. Calaway, who witnessed the shooting. He said : 
 
 “Court met at 8 o’clock and the courtroom was 
 rapidly filling. The jury was in the anteroom for¬ 
 mulating a verdict against Floyd Allen, charged 
 with interfering with an officer who had under ar¬ 
 rest the two Edwards boys, his nephews, when Al¬ 
 len and several of his kinsmen came in. The jury 
 came out and Clerk of the Court Goad announced 
 that a verdict of guilty with a recommendation for 
 a year in prison had been signed by the jury. W. S. 
 Tipton, attorney for Allen, made a motion to set 
 aside the verdict. He announced that he woul^ 
 argue the point the following morning and file affi¬ 
 davit in addition. He asked that the defendant big 
 permitted to give bond until morning. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 93 
 
 Jiidg’c Massie S3.id he had no right to accept bond 
 after a defendant had been convicted, and ordered 
 the Sheriff to take charge of Allen. Allen rose from 
 his seat near his attorney, at the back railing of the 
 bar, and announced that he would not submit to 
 being in prison. ‘I swear that I will not go to iail ’ 
 he said. : 
 
 “Allen was then out on bond. He had never been 
 taken in custody to avoid trouble with him. The 
 officers had permitted him to go and come at will, 
 his word having been his bond. He had boasted 
 again and again that he would not go to prison or 
 see any other member of his family go if he could 
 prevent it. 
 
 “1 saw Allen’s face when he said he would not go 
 with the Sheriff, and I backed out of the co .rtroom, 
 for I realized that something was going to happen. 
 The declaration of Floyd Allen seems to have been 
 the signal for the Allen kinsmen and friends to start 
 the fight. 
 
 “Nobody knows for certain, but the supposition 
 is that Sidna Allen, a brother of Floyd, fired the 
 first shot, and it struck Judge Massie, who sat 
 facing the attorneys, the defendant and the hun¬ 
 dreds of spectators, among them being associates of 
 Floyd Allen. Judge Massie, just before he died, 
 said that Sidna Allen had shot him. 
 
 “Floyd Allen shot Sheriff Webb and Claude Al¬ 
 len Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster. Sidney Ed¬ 
 wards, a nephew of Floyd Allen, shot Clerk of 
 
94 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 Court Goad. Between 75 and 100 shots were fired. 
 Massie, Webb and Foster fell to the floor and died 
 there; Mr. Goad was shot through the face and 
 neck. He followed the Allens to the courtyard, 
 shooting as he went. Two of his shots struck Sidna 
 Allen. 
 
 “The Allens fired a volley after leaving the build¬ 
 ing. Each member of the party had evidently 
 picked his man, and, at the signal to fire, shot. The 
 Allens used automatic guns, loaded with steel-jack¬ 
 eted bullets. Sheriff Webb, Mr. Foster and Mr. 
 Goad had guns. Judge Massie'was shot twice, 
 Sheriff Webb- several times and Mr. Foster six 
 times. Mr. Goad was shot three times, but will re¬ 
 cover. 
 
 . “After the Allens had killed or wounded the court 
 officers they turned on the jurors, who by this time 
 were scrambling to get away. Cain and Fowler 
 were the only ones who did not escape. They are 
 dangerously wounded. Two onlookers were slightly 
 wounded. 
 
 “The Allens went to a nearby livery stable for 
 their horses. Floyd Allen, who had been shot twice, 
 fell as he entered the stable. His brother and son 
 tried to put him on a horse, but he was too weak to 
 ride, and they left him. The other three desperadoes 
 started for the country. Floyd was carried to Hall’s 
 Hotel, where he remained until arrested and taken 
 Co Tail. Later in the day Jack Allen, another broth- 
 
tlTE ALLEN 0¥TLAWS 9^ 
 
 er of Floyd, came to town, saw his brother for a 
 moment and went back to the mountains. 
 
 There were two or three women in the court¬ 
 house when the shooting occurred. Mrs. Alverta 
 Edwards, mother of Sidney Edwards, was one of 
 them. As she passed out of the building she picked 
 up a rock and said: T will kill some of the rascals.’ 
 
 “The Allens belong to an old Carroll county fam¬ 
 ily. Floyd Allen owns property worth about $10,- 
 000. Sidna Allen is worth not less than $20,000.” 
 
T*S ALLlijS OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Sidna Allen’s Farewell to His Wife—Will Never 
 Come Back Alive, He Predicts—She Bids Him 
 a Tearful Good-Bye, and Says He Was a Good 
 and Loving Husband, His Only Fault Being 
 an Ungovernable Temper. 
 
 Sidna Allen, the mountain desperado, bade his 
 wife a pathetic farewell. When taking leave of his 
 wife, when the latter left her own home for that, of 
 a neighbor, Sidna Allen, pointing to a hill overlooking 
 his hpme, is quoted as having said: 
 
 “Bury me there. I am as good as dead now. If I 
 am caught I will be executed; if, I resist they will 
 shoot me. I shall not see you again. Good-bye.” 
 
 Mrs. Allen tearfully confirmed this version of her 
 husband’s farewell. Sidna, she said, had told her to 
 take good care of their two young daughters and do 
 everything she could for them. 
 
 Mrs. Allen blames Floyd Allen for all ol - their 
 troubles, and hat-es him accordingly. 
 
 • ‘T have no idea where Sidna went when he left 
 me. I wish .there never had been a gun made. I 
 left our home the night this awful thing happened 
 and my husband ,was>Jstill, there.’ As I kissed him 
 
Floyd Allen, who is supposed to have killed Judge Massie after' he sentenced him. Allen is wounded 
 and is o« a cot in Jail, guarded by Detectives Baldwin and Feltz. 
 
TBLS ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 good-bye he told me to do everything I could for 
 our two little children and be kind to his dog and 
 cat. 
 
 “I do not know if he is lying exposed with his 
 wounds, perhaps starving to death. Regardless of 
 what he did in the County Court, I want to say that 
 there never was a kinder or more loving husband 
 and father. He has an awful temper. That was re¬ 
 sponsible for whatever he did.” 
 
 The Allens have two. pretty children, both girls. 
 Marguerite, aged 10, and Pauline, aged 5. 
 
 ‘T do not believe Sid plotted to shoot the courlS 
 officers,” continued Mrs. Allen. ‘Tf I knew where he 
 was I would go to him and nurse him. He is a good 
 man, with many virtues, and one fault, his ungov¬ 
 ernable temper, which makes him a wild man when 
 he is aroused.” 
 
 Mrs. Allen inquired about the condition of Floyd 
 Allen, now in jail at Roanoke. When told he was 
 improving, she remarked: 
 
 “Too bad he didn’t die, don’t you think?” 
 
TliS ALLBN OUTLAWS 
 
 99 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Some Traits of the Mountaineers That Are Inter¬ 
 esting—Many of Them Profess Religion and 
 Distil Illicit Whiskey at the Same Time—Bible 
 and the Rifle Go Together, as in the Old Puri¬ 
 tan Days—Queer Mixtures of Vice and Virtue. 
 
 To be an outlaw and to defy the laws of man is 
 as natural to a Virginia mountaineer as is water to 
 a young duck, yet to revile the Almighty or do any¬ 
 thing pertaining to unbelief or’ blasphemy is as 
 something unheard of among the mountaineers, 
 who are nearly all church members and members 
 of some Christian denornination. They believe in ■ 
 God and another world, but they hate the govern¬ 
 ment, which they consider oppresses them with rev¬ 
 enue laws, and they believ'e that God-given freedom 
 is theirs now and forever. 
 
 When the Federal officers start into the moun- 
 ^tains on the search for illicit stills the factional hos¬ 
 tilities are suspended for the time being, either for 
 the purpose of concealment or active opposition. 
 
 Regardless of feud fights, wars against the “rev¬ 
 enues” and the distilling of moonshine whiskey, re¬ 
 ligion flourishes in the mountains—religion of the 
 
lOO 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 shouting, mourner’s-bench sort, that appeals to the 
 primitive minds of the congregations. And, incon¬ 
 gruous as it may seem, the pillars in the church, lay¬ 
 men, deacons, preachers eyen, are directly and per¬ 
 sonally interested in the traffic in liquor. To run a 
 blockade still is the proper and accepted thing to 
 do, and the only social and religious outcast is the 
 weakling who is so craven as to pay his tax when 
 he should smuggle his goods to market. 
 
 The mountaineers are almost entirely Methodists 
 or Baptists, and the only Baptists in the mountain 
 section are of the “hard-shell’ or “foot-washing” 
 sort. This sect has almost disappeared from all 
 other parts of the country except from among the 
 negroes. The ceremony of “foot-washing” is ob¬ 
 served regularly, and often in conjunction with the 
 other rites of the church. The deacons wash the feet 
 of the preacher, who in turn washes the feet of the 
 deacons. The lay members are allowed to minister 
 to each other, the men and women sitting apart on 
 opposite sides of the church edifice during the cere¬ 
 mony. 
 
 Of recent years new causes of trouble are appear¬ 
 ing in the moonshine district. Northern capitalists 
 are buying up timber tracts and seeking to evict the 
 squatters from the trout streams and the hunting 
 grounds that they consider theirs. The forest re¬ 
 serve agitation has aroused the spirit of the moun¬ 
 tain folks for the same reason. The trespassers and 
 interlopers from the outside world are breaking into 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 lO'l 
 
 tne squatter’s paradise, and the fear of the rifle ball 
 fails to stop them, although now and again a lum¬ 
 berman or a surveyor is the victim of a potshot from 
 some hunter who is never found. 
 
 Considering the enduring prejudices of the moun¬ 
 taineers, the talk of educating them is a staggerer. 
 They hated the negroes in slavery days, and that 
 hatred is still so intense that they will drive out anv 
 blacks who attempt to settle among them. They 
 became Republicans in ante-bellum days because 
 the Republican party stood for abolition, and Re¬ 
 publicans the mountaineers remain today, although 
 that party is responsible for the whiskey tax, which 
 they evade. The indications are that there will be 
 more trouble, much of it, ere the moonshine stills 
 cease to smoke in the Blue Ridge and their ope¬ 
 rators are assimilated into the new order of things. 
 
102 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Allens Are Not Common Criminals, and Their 
 
 Homes Would Indicate Them to Be of Higher 
 Intellect Than They Really Are—Refined Sur¬ 
 roundings, Loving Wives and Good Children 
 Seem to Have but Little Effect on Them When 
 They Consider Their Supposed Rights. 
 
 Despite their desperate conduct and handiness 
 with the rifle and revolver, the Allens are by no means 
 commonplace criminals, and it is surprising that, 
 having lived so well and among such refined sur¬ 
 roundings, they have not undergone a great moral 
 improvement. 
 
 The region around Hillsville will be a new one 
 when the Allens and their gang are exterminated 
 and a people who in general are as peaceable as that 
 of any farming community in the land wdll be freed 
 from an odium that should not attach to them. 
 
 The Allens are not ordinary desperadoes. They 
 have not murdered for loot; farmers, most of them, 
 they are among the wealthiest men of the region. 
 They own hundreds of acres of land. They have 
 sent their children to college; one of them is a Prim¬ 
 itive Baptist preacher. All, in fact, are primitive. 
 
T«1 ALLlSf OUTLAWS 
 
 1^3 
 
 or, as others call them, “hard-shell” Baptists. When 
 the meetings known as ‘Baptist associations’ have 
 been held in their neighborhood, bringing together 
 persons from scores of miles around, Mr. Floyd Al¬ 
 len and Mrs. Sidna Allen, as the ‘best livers’ of the 
 section, have taken them into their homes and en¬ 
 tertained them. No stranger overtaken at night at 
 the home of an Allen can pay for his supper, lodging 
 and breakfast. Corn for his beast was as free as the 
 mountain air. 
 
 Sidna Allen has the second finest home in Carroll 
 county. It is a modern house, a trifle garish in its 
 architecture, but of a type more frequently seen in a 
 small and prosperous city than in the rural districts. 
 There is a windmill that constitutes a water plant; 
 there is modern plumbing, with bathrooms, and the 
 telephone (Connects with the outside world of prog¬ 
 ress. 
 
 Floyd Allen’s home across the road also is a preten¬ 
 tious abode, with modern improvements. 
 
 The Allen desperadoism is not of the type which 
 usually is associated with the isolated mountain re¬ 
 gions. Anybody could get along with an Allen all 
 right by treating him on the square. This meant 
 non-interference with the personal prerogative of an 
 Allen to “do as he pleased.” 
 
 If someone gave his word and broke it to Floyd 
 Allen, that someone got what he deserved. If Floyd 
 beat him into insensibility with the butt of his gun, 
 if ?» Government agent became too inquisitive as to 
 
104 TKS ALLaSS «¥TLAW$ 
 
 how Allen acquired his wealth, and if his nosing 
 into the side of life that was not religiously devel¬ 
 oped, secret still or a suspicion of counterfeiting, he 
 was a marked man. If anyone gave testimony 
 against him in a court of justice, he was a meddler 
 and it was up to him to get the drop on an Allen the 
 next time he met one. The result was that it has 
 been next to impossible to get convicting evidence 
 against any of them. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Character and Vows of the Allens, Who Have 
 Agreed to Die Together Rather Than Go to 
 Prison—Death Before Stripes Is Their Un¬ 
 written Creed and Sworn Maxim—They Will 
 Die, but Never Surrender, Is Their Solemn 
 Vow. 
 
 While they are outlaws of the worst cIs .s, men of 
 desperation and of the most crude ideas and principles 
 of justice, defying every law and taking every chance 
 in their happy-go-lucky creed of independence and 
 self-government, without outside interference, the Al¬ 
 lens are men of note in many ways. First of all they 
 are superb specimens of manhood, tall, brawny, strong 
 and brave, possessors of the courage of lions and the 
 strength of those same kings of the forests. Person¬ 
 ally they are good-hearted, generous to a fault and 
 ever ready to give their last dollar to the needy or un¬ 
 fortunate. To their wives and children they are de¬ 
 voted as men could be and support them in most com¬ 
 fortable style and are all kindness and attention to 
 them. Loving their homes, they provided even lavishly 
 for them, even when to do so they had to risk their 
 lives to get the money at the moonshine still. 
 
 Outwardly to their enemies there was nothing of 
 
Io6 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 the kind and gentle about them. They regard every 
 stranger as their enemy, and would no more hesitate 
 to shoot a suspected stranger than would the average 
 country boy refrain from blazing away at the big gray 
 squirrel. They are as hardy as rocks and as deter¬ 
 mined as Satan. They live by an iron-clad creed and 
 they expect others to do the same. They never forget 
 a friend or forgive an enemy, and they live as they 
 hope to die—with their boots on. Family honor is a 
 God-given gift with them, and they respect it beyond 
 all else. Prison stripes are the worst brand of dis¬ 
 grace that could ever be placed upon them, and they 
 swore in their own crude, but nevertheless earnest 
 way, they would never wear them. They pledged 
 each other, brother to brother, that they would die 
 before they would ever exist behind prison bars, and 
 they have always made good the vow, as far as hu¬ 
 man effort could make it good. “Death before sur¬ 
 render,” was the motto they lived by and swore they 
 would die by. 
 
 In their savage minds they had done no real wrong, 
 and they did not propose to suffer for an imaginary 
 one. In this they were determined, and to its prin¬ 
 ciples they adhered most loyally. Despite all the bad 
 they were accused of, and much of it was doubtless 
 well proven, they kept their vows like men, and ac¬ 
 cepted the penalty without a murmur. Supreme cour¬ 
 age was theirs and greater than that no man can pos¬ 
 sess. They were truly men, but of a different type 
 from that which civilized society approves—hence^ 
 their downfall. 
 
T'HE ALLIN ®¥TLAWS 
 
 i ©7 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 State’s Attorney Foster Paid for His Devotion to 
 Duty With His Life—He Was the First Man 
 Who Dared to Openly Expose the Allens and 
 Demand Their Punishment—Some History of 
 the Allen Family—Origin of the Crimes. 
 
 Commonwealth’s Attorney William Foster was the 
 first man who ever stood up in Court and told the 
 whole truth about Floyd Allen and his gang. 
 
 That was one Thursday morning, and two days later 
 they buried the body of the Commonwealth’s Attor¬ 
 ney, drilled in a half dozen places by the steel-jack- 
 eted bullets from the guns of Floyd Allen. 
 
 The father of the present elder generation of Allens 
 was Jeremiah Allen, a Confederate soldier, fearless 
 and with a spirit for fighting that he transmitted to 
 his sons. 
 
 Garland Allen, a brother of Floyd, is the preacher 
 member of the family. He has ‘‘toted” his guns like 
 the rest. Last spring the two Edwards brothers, 
 nephews of Floyd Allen and his brothers, who were 
 indicted recently for their part in the Courthouse kill¬ 
 ing, were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for 
 breaking up a meeting and d^'iving their uncle Garland 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 from the pulpit at the point of revolvers. Their ex¬ 
 cuse was that he was too d-d mean to be preaching 
 
 to the other people. 
 
 Jasper Allen, who is said to have conducted saloons, 
 in addition to blockading whiskey, had a son Walter, 
 who went to the University of Virginia and was grad¬ 
 uated in law. Walter became the Democratic candi¬ 
 date against William Foster for Commonwealth’s At¬ 
 torney, the latter being the Republican candidate. Jas¬ 
 per campaigned with his son, with two revolvers 
 strapped around him and a rifle over his shoulder. 
 The boy was defeated and this fact leads to the suspi¬ 
 cion that there was a tinge of political feeling in the 
 killing of Foster several years later. 
 
 It was in connection with affairs following the 
 church meeting episode referred to above that Floyd 
 Allen was arrested, tried and convicted and sentenced, 
 thus leading to the wiping out of the Court of Carroll 
 county. Members of Garland Allen’s congregation 
 took steps to have the Edwards boys punished. War- 
 ants for their arrest were sworn out and given to 
 Deputy Sheriff “Pink” Samuels to serve. Accom- 
 ' panied by Deputy Foster, Samuels went to the Ed¬ 
 wards’ home, handcuffed them and started with them 
 back to Hillsville. 
 
 Floyd Allen came to Hillsville when he heard the 
 warrents for his sister’s sons had been issued and 
 asked Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster not to lock 
 them up, but to accept his real estate bond for their 
 appearance. Foster did not accept the bond, but he 
 
tMs a: en outlaws 
 
 IS said to have told Floyd the boys would not b® 
 locked up. 
 
 _ On his way back Floyd met the deputies bringing 
 in his nephews. He was enraged at seeing his rela¬ 
 tives handcuffed, leaped from his horse and stuck his 
 revolver m the faces of the officers. While having 
 them covered, he relieved them of their guns, which 
 he broke to pieces over the buggy wheel. Then he 
 released his nephews. 
 
 The statement from the deputies that they merely 
 were carrying out orders , so enraged Allen that he 
 pulled Samuels from his buggy and beat him into 
 insensibility with the butt end of his gun. Samuels 
 in fear, soon left the county, but plucked up courage 
 to return and testify against Floyd Allen, when he was 
 tried for the crime. 
 
no 
 
 TME ALL»J#«; •UTLAWfe . 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Judge Boyd Tells How He Outwitted the Allen 
 Gang Years Ago—Interesting Story by an Em¬ 
 inent Jurist of How He Balked the Despera¬ 
 does in a Federal Court. 
 
 Judge James E. Boyd, an eminent North Carolina 
 jurist, had an experience with a branch of the Allen 
 gang which might have terminated as this one did, but 
 for his wise foresight and clever diplomacy. Here 
 is his. story: 
 
 “Well do I recall the Allen brothers. It was a year 
 and a half ago that Sidna Allen and his companion, 
 Preston Dinkens, were brought into my Court, I was 
 then sitting in the Federal Court at Greensboro, N. C., 
 on a charge of counterfeiting. 
 
 “The day I reached Greensboro rumors were rife 
 that I would never have the satisfaction oif seeing 
 Sidna Allen pay the penalty for his offense. When 
 the clerk opened Court there was a guard of five 
 picked deputy sheriffs sprinkled among the spectators. 
 They were men of iron nerve arid eyes of a hawk; the 
 handling of a gun was chid’s play for them. Needless 
 to say they were armed with six-shooters. 
 
 “Sidna Allen was the first prisoner of the day to 
 
Left to Right—Bud Marion. W. C. Stickland and Victor Allen, 
 
 In Jail at Roanoke, Va. 
 
 Ill 
 
II2 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 confront me. He was the loose-jointed type of moun¬ 
 taineer, shifty of eye and ever with a sneer upon his 
 lips. A blue flannel shirt, rolled back at the neck, 
 exposed a chest worthy of a blacksmith. 
 
 “Hardly had Allen faced me when I chanced to 
 glance through the windows of the little red brick 
 Courthouse and remarked a score of roughly clad men, 
 mounted on shaggy mountain ponies, bearing toward 
 me at a furious pace. Quickly they dismounted, teth¬ 
 ered their ponies and in single file tramped into the 
 Courtroom. They were there on business, but not 
 the kind prescribed in Court ethics. As grim a look¬ 
 ing set I never saw before. 
 
 “Quick as a flash, the deputy sheriffs descended 
 upon the gun men, formed a circle about them and 
 never took their eyes from the dust-covered hip 
 pockest. 
 
 “Sidna Allen took the stand, glanced about the 
 Courtroom until his eyes rested upon his brothers and 
 companions, and then a feeble smile spread over his 
 furrowed features. He knew his coup had failed. 
 To the charge of counterfeiting he pleaded not guilty. 
 
 “Dinkens then came to the stand. He shifted about 
 and seemed to be in a highly nervous state. Never 
 once did he dare raise hfs eyes to the Allen boys. In 
 a timid voice he practically admitted his guilt. Wit¬ 
 nesses were there to identify him as the man who had 
 put into circulation clumsily wrought $5 gold pieces. 
 Not a witness we had would testify against Sidna 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS II 3 
 
 Allen. Dinkens drew five years and Allen was 
 acquitted. 
 
 “Later District Attorney Holton indicted Allen on 
 a charge of perjury in connection with his testimony 
 in the counterfeiting case. I was determined that 
 I would get my man this time. Threats were bruited 
 about that bullets would play as prominent a part in 
 the trial as musty law books. 
 
 “When I took my place on the bench, I noticed 
 that four of the Allen clan were seated in the front 
 row of the spectators benches and the two walls were 
 decorated with lounging mountaineers. My gun men 
 were also present, but they were not lolling against 
 walls. We had the goods on Allen this time, and I 
 sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in the peniten¬ 
 tiary. Not a murmur was raised; the mountaineers 
 left the Courtroom without giving their guns an air¬ 
 ing. Everything passed off as calmly as a day-, in 
 June. Dollars instead of six-shooters were produced, 
 and an appeal bond was obtained for Sidna Allen. 
 
 “The Allens are a fearless family. They will stop 
 at no obstacles, and the judge who is not alert where 
 one of them is arraigned before him runs a risk 
 greater than I would care to take again.’' 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 II4 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Floyd Allen’s Own Story—Claims the Court Offi¬ 
 cers Became Alarmed and Began the Firing, 
 Which Statement Is Discredited — Badly 
 Wounded, but Still a Game Old Mountaineer, 
 Who Can Be Killed but Not Conquered. 
 
 Floyd Allen, whose sentence of a year in prison led 
 to the murderous outbreak in the Hillsville Courtroom 
 and who is in Roanoke Jail, badly wounded, still ve¬ 
 hemently denies that the Allens started the shooting, 
 and contends that the first shot was fired by a Court 
 officer. He said to the writer: “I and my son have 
 been locked up here nearly a week now. I want a 
 square deal. In the first place, my son Victor never 
 fired a single shot. We both expect to be electrocuted. 
 Our murder is as certain as the sun will rise tomor¬ 
 row. But it will be plain murder if they put Vic. in 
 the chair. Me? Why, sure, I fired. But before Cock 
 I give you my solemn oath I did not start the firing. 
 I did not know when Judge Massie pronounced sen¬ 
 tence that there would be any shooting. It came un¬ 
 expectedly to me. That there was a conspiracy is a 
 damned lie. 
 
TME ALL£N OUTLAWS Tljg 
 
 “Of course, when everybody else started shooting, 
 I got my pistol and joined in the fray. Why shouldn’t 
 I? It was in self-defense. When our people went 
 into the Courtroom, they intended to kill nobody, and 
 I at heart was ready to go to jail. I am not afraid 
 of death, and that is what is looking us in the face. 
 
 “Judge Hairston is my lawyer, but they won’t give 
 him any show. We will be all tried in Carroll county 
 if I have any say about it, and we Allens—we are 
 fighting men—will show them how an Allen can go to 
 his death; but Vic, I want you to save him. The boy 
 never drew his gun. Maybe he ought to have, but he 
 didn’t.” 
 
 Ex-Judge N. H. Hairston said: 
 
 “I was asked by Mr. Allen to visit him, and 
 when I saw him he insisted on my acting as his coun¬ 
 sel. I have not decided whether I will do so or not, 
 but no matter what position I take, I would like 
 printed this statement: 
 
 “Both Victor and Floyd Allen have given me their 
 solemn oaths that they did not start the firing that 
 day in the Hillsville Courthouse. I believe them. 
 These are not the ordinary type of mountaineers. 
 These people are men of property and sense. No 
 matter what crime a man may have committed, he is 
 entitled to a fair hearing, and these people will get 
 theirs, or I will know the reason why.” 
 
 Floyd Allen is, comparatively speaking, an old man, 
 but he is still strong and vigorous. Standing over 
 &!?■ fe*t in his socks, his carriage is erect; he is alert 
 
ti6 THE ALLEI«' O'OfTLAWS 
 
 and vigorous, with a mass of curly gray hair covering 
 his head. His brow is broad; his eyes twinkle and 
 flash as he speaks. He is better educated than the 
 usual mountaineer and he talks with intelligence upon 
 ordinary current topics. 
 
TBB MUMiSt &mULWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Varied Facts and Incidents About the Allen Out¬ 
 laws—Interesting Data Concerning Them and 
 the Country in Which They Live—Romantic 
 Spots in the Mountains Where They Distilled 
 Moonshine Whiskey and Fought Their Feuds. 
 
 The lives of the Allen gang and the section of the 
 Blue Ridge mountains in which they live abounds with 
 romance and traditions of other days. It is there 
 that for generations they have distilled their moon¬ 
 shine whiskey, fought their family feuds, married 
 and raised their children, in practically a little world 
 of their own, which they seldom depart from and 
 which was seldom invaded by outsiders. 
 
 These mountaineers are the purest Americans, so 
 far as blood goes,.that there are. But they are just 
 a few generations behind on civilation. The same 
 type of man can be found all along the Blue Ridge 
 Mountains. It seems that in Virginia and North Car¬ 
 olina they have taken to making whiskey, and, with 
 their primitive determination, one who knows them 
 is inclined to think they will continue until greater 
 forces than law are brought to bear. 
 
 Rev. Isaac Canneday, who knows them well, says; 
 
II# 
 
 THl AL^i£N OUTLAWS 
 
 “I don’t blame the Allen boys and their partners so 
 much as I do the State of Virginia for allowing them 
 to remain in ignorance and to make whiskey. I say 
 that, too, remembering that I am a native Virginian. 
 Missionaries should have gone into that country years 
 ago and taught the gospel of love. The inhabitants 
 are not afraid of force. Love and persuasion offer 
 the only way to win them. If they wish, those moun¬ 
 taineers will make whiskey and sell it as long as they 
 live; the only way to stop it is to make them see the 
 error of their ways. 
 
 ‘‘This is a large-sized proposition, but the result is 
 worth it. There are some good people in the vicinity 
 who will help. In Hillsville are good Christian souls, 
 who play no part in the lawlessness of the mountains. 
 
 “Up in the Blue Ridge, where civilization is so 
 scarce, the Primitive Baptist religion holds sway. One 
 of the present outlaws is a pastor of the faith. I 
 have attended the religious gatherings out beneath the 
 trees, where the men can chew, spit and trade horses 
 while the sermon is in progress. They will not have 
 a building. Their worship is characterized by a mani¬ 
 festation of hatred for all other sects. They are 
 strong believers in predestination; that if God will 
 save them He will, and if He won’t, they can’t help 
 it. They believe that God made grain to be made into 
 whiskey and that a revenue officer should be helped 
 along to glory. 
 
 “There is an enormous field there for home mis¬ 
 sionary work. There will be no warm welcome await- 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS • I IQ 
 
 ing- the missionary, but in the end his efforts can win, 
 and this is the only way civilization will ever be carried 
 to these people.” 
 
 Criminal records of Carroll county show that within 
 the mountain section of Carroll county, where the 
 Allens live, not less than 30 murders have been com¬ 
 mitted in the last 20 years. Many of the homicides 
 resulted from drunken fights and were committed by 
 men whose minds were inflamed with moonshine whis¬ 
 key. Among the murdered were the Dunkard 
 ■preacher, Easter, who was called from his home and 
 shot to death for testifying against moonshiners. Four 
 men have paid the death penalty on the gallows in 
 the jail here, and another was killed by a mob which 
 stormed the little prison, took out the prisoner and 
 shot him to pieces. 
 
 Among the men jailed in the drunken fights were 
 two named Allen and two named Edwards. 
 
 “Judg’e Massie was warned by Sheriff Webb, State’s 
 Attorney Foster and Dexter Goad, Court clerk, at a 
 conference h^ld the night before the tragedy in the 
 Hillsville Courthouse that extra precautions should be 
 taken at the session of Court next day,” said Charles 
 P. Waugh, a merchant of Galax, Va. Galax is 15 
 miles from Hillsville. 
 
 ‘‘All three men urged the Judge, continued Mr. 
 Waugh, “to swear in additional deputies and have 
 every man searched who entered the Courtroom. In 
 fact, so strongly did Sheriff Webb plead with the 
 Judge that he take unusual precautions that Judge 
 
120 
 
 THE AbLEN 0UTLAW* 
 
 Massie informed him he would swear in. another 
 Sheriif if he was afraid to act. Finding that they 
 could not move the Judge, the three officials, all of 
 whom were men of nerve, determined to abide by 
 Judge Massie’s decision. But both Foster and Goad 
 expected trouble and went into Court armed. 
 
 “Foster had first incurred the enmity of Floyd 
 Allen some years ago when they had an argument in 
 a local magistrate’s office. Goad, so far as I know, 
 never had trouble with any of the Allen men, with the 
 exception of Jasper, or “Jack” Allen, with whom he 
 had a fight several years ago. But this, I do not 
 think, had any bearing on the seeming determination 
 of the Allens to get Goad.” 
 
 The finding of 90 gallons of whiskey and a still at 
 Floyd Allen’s home and two stills at the home of the 
 Edwards boys puts a different light on the Allens. It 
 has not been generally believed that the Allens manu¬ 
 factured or sold liquor. Jack Allen, it is understood, 
 used to sell whiskey from a wagon and once or twice ^ 
 the story runs, he defied the officers to search his 
 wagon. But Floyd Allen has been exonerated by | 
 the public from the occasional charge of moonshining a 
 or blockading. The officers now think, however, that | 
 he got much of his money making whiskey. The I 
 liquor and still found couple him, they think, with the 
 business. The Edwaids boys had not been suspected 4 
 of moonshining. .i 
 
 The discovery of the copper still and the whiskey 
 leads to the conclusion, United States and State offi- j 
 
IMM ALLJEJf ©¥TLAW* 
 
 cera declare, that the remark of George Peters, the 
 man executed for shooting to death Rev. Joseph 
 Easter, a Dunkard preacher of the Fancy Gap country, 
 as he was about to drop into eternity, becomes more 
 significant. Peters, while standing on the scaffold, 
 ready to receive the black cap, looked -down upon the 
 curious crowd, singled out a man from Fancy Gap 
 and said, ‘If my friends had stood by me I would 
 not be here today. It has been intimated many times 
 that some of the lawless Allens inspired the murder 
 of Rev. Mr. Easter, who testified before a grand jury 
 that indicted Peters for making moonshine whiskey. 
 The motive for the alleged part of the Allens in the 
 Peters affair has not been quite clear, but if it develops 
 that Floyd and Peters were fellow-moonshiners all is 
 plain. 
 
 Another tragedy was enacted in the old Carroll 
 county Courthouse several days after the real out¬ 
 break. Another troop of mountain outlaws rode in, 
 shot the Judge down off his bench and duplicated the 
 previous gruesome assassination, but this time it was 
 only for the moving-pictures. The actors did more 
 firing and made more racket and caused almost a3 
 much fuss as the real outlaws did, and Hillsville 
 almost had as much excitement. 
 
 The only real fighting was between the moving- 
 picture men. Hillsville’s rialto, which extends from 
 the Courthouse to the blacksmith shop, was not replete 
 •with amateur Thespians who wanted to take a part 
 in the scene and competition for their service was brisk. 
 
TWl ALL»>^ ©¥TLAW» 
 
 123 
 
 The pictures were finally made after much rehears¬ 
 ing, while the camera men clicked off the reels and 
 the stage manager’s megaphone made echoes in the 
 nearby hills. 
 
 The fighting Allens cannot be traced back further 
 than their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Allen, both of 
 whom were Scotch. Mrs. Allen was a McCombs. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Allen are high-strung, quick-tempered and 
 ready to resent an insult, real or fancied. Allen was 
 a Confederate soldier in the Civil War and on many 
 battlefields proved his courage. Industrious and 
 thrifty, he prospered as a stock breeder. 
 
 Jerry Allen was known as a sensitive, hot-tempered 
 man, sound of body and mind and amply able to take 
 care of himself in any physical or mental contest with 
 his neighbors. He was considered the champion fist- 
 fighter of Carroll county, and his fists were the only 
 weapons he used. He was not ferocious or savage, 
 but ever ready to accept anything that looked like a 
 challenge. He wore a chip on his shoulder and woe 
 be to the man who knocked it off. 
 
 In a cove in Fancy Gap he reared seven sons and 
 two daughters. The boys and girls grew up and 
 prospered. The young Allens were wealthier, keener 
 witted and more powerful physically than the average 
 of their neighbors. They inherited brains, courage, 
 temper, aggressiveness and clannishness from their 
 father and mother. The Allens were the business, 
 social and physical leaders o^ a large section of a 
 beautiful mountain country 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 123 
 
 Contrary to the report:- that the Allens had cut the 
 telephone wires, the fact is that they have not been 
 cut at all. Ella Wilcox and her sister, the operators, 
 refused to take fright at the Allens and have been 
 sticking to the switchboard night and day. 
 
 A day or two before the shooting one of the Allens 
 called for a number, and, not getting it quickly, said 
 to the operator: 
 
 guess you don’t know who I am; I m one of the 
 fighting Allens.” “Yes,” returned the country girls, 
 ‘‘and I’m one of the fighting Wilcoxes, and when you 
 come I’ll be prepared.” 
 
 Woman’s nerve hasn’t been lacking in Hillsville, 
 altliough the stories of it have been delayed. When 
 Clerk Goad was doing a pistol battle with two of the 
 Allens, his daughter Jazebel ran to his side with a 
 freshly loaded revolver and probably saved his life. 
 
124 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Some Distorted Stories of the Mountain Region and 
 the Great Man Hunt—Things Not So Warlike 
 as So Widely Described—Pastoral Scenes in 
 the Vicinity of the Homes of the Allens. 
 
 One who has read the accounts of the reign of 
 anarchy throughout the mountain region and then 
 rhakes an extended tour through it must needs smile 
 at the contrast. Outside the occasional detective bear¬ 
 ing his rifle much in evidence, the most lawless sight 
 that greets the traveler in those parts, advertised as 
 most dangerous, is the farmboy whistling on his way 
 to mill or some picturesque little mountain child gath¬ 
 ering galax for the Northern flower shops. Barring 
 the aforesaid detective, it would be difficult to find* a 
 quieter or more peaceful community anywhere outside 
 of a Quaker settlement than Fancy Gap neighborhood. 
 
 As for the detective, he is a source of pea'petual 
 amusement and delight to the native. 
 
 Of course all work in that vicinity was suspended, 
 not because there is anything to hinder folks from 
 working, but the temptation to gather around the 
 neighborhood store or the blacksmith’s shop and talk 
 Allen talk is wholly irresistible. And it is to these 
 
126 
 
 THE ALLEN ©UTLAWS 
 
 gatherings that the detect've furnishes the element of 
 humor. The hard, practical mountaineer saw at once 
 that for men to be merely patrolling the highways on 
 horseback was no way to catch a man in a thicket; 
 hence he has made the detective, who rarely if ever 
 gets off the beaten trail, the butt of his broad humor. 
 
 Then, too, although the mountaineer abhors the 
 Allens for the bloody deed of Hillsville, he rejoices 
 that the power of ,the bullying family is forever broken 
 and would delight to see them all hanged, still he feels 
 a kind of satisfaction at the thought that it is the man 
 from right there where he lives who is so cleverly* 
 outwitting these foreigners who came in to conquer 
 with banners flying. 
 
 When first the clean shaven detective invaded those 
 Fancy Gap parts he was disposed to sneer at tiie chin 
 whiskered native with the crownless cap and the cor¬ 
 rugated bootleg; but of late that has all changed and 
 the detective, irritated by the uniform lack of any kind 
 of success, grows peevish when the “ ’sang” digger, 
 with mock innocence, asks how many Allens he has 
 caught today. 
 
 It belongs to one of these same sons of the hills 
 to add a new and expressive word to the English 
 language. Talking to one residing near Piper’s Gap 
 who had been in the Courtroom the day of the shoot¬ 
 ing, he was asked what the crowd did when the firing 
 began. 
 
 “The crowd?” echoed the native, “Why, when they 
 commenced to pop, we-all jes’ squandered!” 
 
ALLS.N mtLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 In the Heart of the Outlaws’ Country—A Wild Sec¬ 
 tion Where Death Lurks Behind Every Rock_ 
 
 Rough but Hospitable Mountaineers on Their 
 Native Heath. 
 
 Halfway between Fancy Gap and Piper’s Gap is 
 Sugar Loaf, a great hulking mountain that could con¬ 
 ceal a regiment in its crags and wooded knobs. Along 
 the road that skirts it, two detectives were riding 
 leisurely; they were looking up at the mountain; they 
 continued to look as they rode.—and passed on. One 
 wondered why they did not go up into the woods and 
 ^ search for the Allens; but a second glance at the vast 
 flank of the great mountain mass made the wonder to 
 cease. Small chance there was to locate one man or 
 a hundred there. 
 
 That was a specimen of several excursions that 
 were made into the, mountains about Fancy Gap— 
 where, let it be repeated, the detectives still insisted 
 the outlaws were hiding. Sometimes they went down 
 to the southern slope on foot; once they spent all night 
 with a solitary mountaineer in a solitary cabin on a 
 solitary mountain. That was a mile from any road, 
 but the mountaineer was far more intelligent than the 
 
£2S TSa AJ-LEN OL'iLAWb 
 
 Other backwoods mountaineer.. Next morning that 
 mountaineer started off to stalk three miles back—for 
 a five-cent bag of tobacco. He said he never bought 
 more than five cents’ worth at a time and always 
 walked down after that one bag. 
 
 Throughout these goings to and fro we often came 
 upon some of the Allen folk, oftentimes lodging or 
 taking a meal with them. One and all invariably said 
 that they did not know where any of the hunted men 
 were; but every single one agreed in declaring that to 
 his knowledge, none of them were in the mountains 
 from Ward’s to Piper’s Gaps, nor anywhere near those 
 mountains. 
 
 No people could have been more hospitable to a 
 friend even, much less inquisitive strangers, than were 
 the Allens. At Jack Allen’s dinner table the guests 
 were given the head of the table, the seats of honor, 
 according to Carroll county etiquette. At the right 
 sat Jack himself; at his left sat a detective detailed' 
 to watch his every movement lest he communicate 
 with some of his hunted kinsmen. It would naturally 
 be supposed that under such circumstances the host 
 would have acted constrainedly toward the detective at 
 least. On the contrary, from the easy and genial 
 flow of conversation that fell from his lips one would 
 have supposed these strange sitters at his board were 
 old-time friends of his. Jack Allen is a man of keen 
 sense of humor and several times at dinner that day 
 told some genial story; then fearing, no doubt, that 
 levity might seem to his guests as sonqewhat out of 
 
TKIE ALLSN G'UTLAWv 
 
 place on the lips of a man in his position, he added; 
 
 “Well, no matter how bad things go we ought to 
 have our little jokes as we go through life.’’ 
 
 After dinner, Jack’s son Barnard, a handsome and 
 clever young man of some twenty-three-years of age, 
 took his guests out to the stable to see the horses. 
 Here were stalled, among others, as fine a pair of 
 Clydesdales as New York city can boast. 
 
 “Father refused eight hundred dollars for them,” 
 said Barnard proudly, “but I think my riding horse 
 the best of the lot,” and his queer visitors had to view 
 his favorite, a handsome saddle animal. If the old 
 English adage, “Show me a man’s horses and I’ll tell 
 you the man,” be true, Jack Allen stands high among 
 men. 
 
 Indeed, all of the Allens have horses. All the fine 
 horses of Sydna and Floyd have been seized and are 
 being used by the detectives. 
 
 Returning to Jack, so closely did that detective stick 
 to him that it was difficult to get a private v/ord. Then, 
 speaking of the tragedy. Jack said: 
 
 “Of course, it is a matter of deepest sorrow and 
 regret to me, this deep trouble of my brothers and 
 sons, but personally I was in no way connected with 
 it. I was sick in bed at the time. 
 
 “I was not connected with it and I am not going to 
 be connected with it, either. I don’t want to get 
 myself in endless trouble. Even if I would, there is 
 no way I can do any of them any good, and if there 
 were, and I should attempt it, I would be running a 
 
11© Tiri ALLEN ^^TLAWS 
 
 terrible risk of doing mys; 'f harm for life. Since 
 they left here I don’t know where they are, and I don’t 
 want to know just yet awhile. What I’m figuring on 
 now is to keep myself out of trouble.” 
 
 Jack’s attitude toward “the detective in the house” 
 is characteristic of a broad side of his nature. The 
 man was set to watch him by his superiors, Baldwin 
 and Felts, with a view of trailing him if he sought 
 communication with his hunted kinsmen, and thus dis¬ 
 cover their secret hiding place. Jack saw the man 
 skulking about in the cold rain outside. 
 
 “Here, you!” he exclaimed, going up to him in 
 open frankness,” “I don’t care who you are’ or what 
 your business is, but I don’t want to see any man 
 shivering around my place when there’s a big, warm 
 fire and plenty to cat inside.” And the fellow has 
 been treated as a guest ever since. 
 
 When Jack was told that the detectives at Hillsville 
 were boasting that they had trailed down and captured 
 his nephew, Sydney Edwards, at the point of the rifle, 
 he smiled broadly. 
 
 “Why, Sydney came to me the other day,” he said, 
 “and told me that he wanted to give himself up, as he 
 had been unarmed that day of the shooting and had 
 taken no part in it. I telephoned to the detectives and 
 they came and got him. He was waiting for them 
 There isn’t anything more to it.” 
 
 All the Allens with whom the writer talked—and 
 there were many of them—expressed exactly the same 
 opinion as Jack; that is, that they did not know where 
 
THE ALLEN 0UTLAWS 
 
 I3I 
 
 their fugitive kinsmen were but felt certain that they 
 were a long distance awa}^ from the locality where 
 the detectives placed them. And this unanimity can¬ 
 not be the result of any conference among them, 
 because in two instances the persons had not seen any 
 of the others since the tragedy. One was Victor 
 Allen, Sr., brother of Jack. He keeps a store about 
 three miles north of Hillsville, and his record as a 
 business man and a law-abiding citizen is as clean and 
 white as a hound’s tooth. ' 
 
 ‘‘I’ve never been in any trouble in my life,” he said 
 in talking of the Hillsville shooting, “and I am not 
 going to get into any now at my time of life. I 
 haven’t been to Hillsville or seen any of my brothers 
 since last August. If I could be of use to them with¬ 
 out getting mixed up in this terrible thing, I would 
 gladly help them, but I’ve got to be careful I don’t 
 injure myself.” 
 
 The other members of the Allen connection was 
 Rollo Mitchell, of Fancy Gap, who is a brother-in-law 
 of Sydna Allen’s. He exhibits a sensible ambition to 
 steer clear of all entangling alliances in the matter of 
 extending help to a fugitive from justice; but while 
 he considers, his connections by marriage have gone in¬ 
 excusably beyond all bounds, he thinks that the people 
 of Carroll county, especially the officials of the Courts, 
 have not been altogether free from blame. 
 
 “The root of all this trouble is this,” he said. "The 
 Allens have been spoiled, and badly spoiled, by the 
 Carroll people for ten or fifteen years I those 
 
132 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 of the family who have let their tempers run away 
 with them. If, when they first began to break the 
 laws, the persons injured had vigorously prosecuted 
 them and the Court had passed judgment just as it 
 would do in the case of others, this tragedy would 
 never have occurred. But, instead of that, when one 
 of them got into some serious trouble in law breaking, 
 the witnesses would gloss over their acts and the Court 
 impose a light sentence, or perhaps none at all, until 
 these men got to believe they were superior to the law. 
 
 “And, in spite of all that, they recognized at bottom 
 their duty to pay the penalty. Only they got so 
 spoiled that at length they presumed to pass sentence 
 on themselves; be their own judge and jury, so to 
 speak, as in the case when one of them resisted arrest 
 at Mount Airy, N. C., and the officers, being 
 frightened, doubtless, dropped the whole matter. Allen, 
 before he left town, went up to the Mayor and, telling 
 him he had broken the law and decided to pay the 
 penalty, added that he thought a certain sum was 
 about right and handed that amount over to the 
 .Mayor, 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Edgar James to the Scene of the Outbreak and the 
 Difficulties He Encountered—Special Repre¬ 
 sentative of the Publishers of This Book 
 Quickly on Hand, 
 
 The enterprise of the publishers of this 
 book is shown by the fact that the news 
 of the outrageous riot had scarcely reached the 
 outside world before they had the writer on his way 
 to the scene of the crime. Upon his arrivel at Hills- 
 ville, he found the little village almost paralyzed with 
 shock and fright. The bloody affair was the sole 
 topic of conversation, and everybody was much 
 excited. 
 
 The whole mountain country, it was said, was held 
 by the outlaws. It was averred they had taken refuge 
 in Devil’s Den, a monutain cave whose gruesome 
 name marched well with the tragic facts. Arms suffi¬ 
 cient for an army were hurried to Hillsville—where 
 there was nobody to use them. Attacks by the despe¬ 
 radoes upon Hillsville were each day threatened, so it 
 was said. For a man to venture alone into the country 
 around Fancy Gap, the center of the Allens’ domain, 
 was to take his life in his hands. 
 
134 
 
 THE ALLE.'i OUTLAWS 
 
 Meantime newspaper men poured in; the curious 
 came to see and shudder; even the moving-picture 
 man set his tripod in the middle of the road that 
 masquerades as Main street and ground, away at 
 detectives galloping madly in pursuit of fictitious out¬ 
 laws for the delectation of future nickelodeon audien¬ 
 ces. Countrymen flocked in to get the latest news, 
 and Hillsville entered upon an era of prosperity such 
 as it had never known. And meantime the tales that 
 grew with their roots in the mysterious mountains to 
 the south waxed with the increasing national interest. 
 Outlaws and detectives in popular vision took on 
 forms different from that of ordinary mortals in that 
 sombre region of rhountain and gorge wherein the 
 Allens were said to be defying the laws of God and 
 man. 
 
 Desiring to see Floyd Allen, who had been removed 
 to the Roanoke Jail, before venturing into a district so 
 given over to anarchy, the writer waited upon Judge 
 Waller Staples, of Roanoke, who had been appointed 
 to fill the vancy created by the murder of Judge 
 Massie, at Hillsville, to obtain the necessary permis¬ 
 sion. 
 
 “But the detectives will not permit you to go into 
 the mountain regions south of Hillsville,” stated the 
 Judge. 
 
 When was martial law declared in Carroll county?” 
 was asked. “What right have detectives to molest a 
 citizen of the United States upon the public highway 
 mo’-e than any other private person has?” 
 
THIS AL-LfiN ©HTLAWS 
 
 1^5 
 
 *‘But they want to protect you/’ explained Judg-e 
 Staples. “A man is taking his life in his hands going 
 down there' in that lawless region now.” 
 
 Whence it may be seen to what a bewildering extent 
 had spread this idea that because a handful of lawless 
 men had been guilty of the crime of murder a terri¬ 
 tory as large as a German principality should suddenly 
 become metamorphosed into a wilderness where an¬ 
 archy reigned supreme, and the life of a traveler, no 
 matter how peaceable, was in imminent danger. 
 
 Omitting the interminable details, the writer, in 
 company with a kinsman of the Allens, first ap¬ 
 proached the proscribed region toward Willis’ Gap. 
 This Gap lies some eight or ten ‘miles to the east of 
 Fancy Gap, which may be called the center of the 
 disturbed district. It took but a short time to be con¬ 
 vinced that none of the fugitives had betaken them¬ 
 selves over that far east, one of many reasons, and a 
 sufficient one, being that many of the residents there¬ 
 abouts are hostile to the Allens and all their kind, on 
 account of some ancient quarrel, not amounting to a 
 feud, but handed down from father to son with the 
 ancestral acres and merely evidencing itself in doing 
 any convenient injury. That district being thus,domi¬ 
 nated by enemies, as it were, it would have been tanta¬ 
 mount to walking into an open jail to seek harbor and 
 refuge there. 
 
 Accordingly, the writer went to Hillsville, still bent 
 upon invading the outlaw country, despite the warning 
 of Judge Staples about the interferance of the detect- 
 
T*1 ALLBN OUTLAWS 
 
 ives. It may be said here that never once during all 
 the time that he was in the mountains was he molested 
 or treated otherwise than with the utmost courtesy by 
 the detectives with whom he came in contact. He did 
 come across evidences of questionable behavior by 
 them in regard to the rights of the wives and children 
 of the men they were hunting, such as quartering 
 themselves on Mrs. Floyd Allen at her home, where 
 she sat wrapped in a grief as great as even woman¬ 
 kind can bear without unseating her reason, and for 
 the purpose of hunting them down, such as seizing 
 and using the horses left by the fugitives. But per¬ 
 sonally he found them throught the mountains alto¬ 
 gether most courteous men. As to their ability to 
 direct a mountaineer when his foot is on his native 
 heath;—that is a different subject. 
 
 In Hillsville one might hear fifty-seven different 
 varieties of the same Allen story all within the dis¬ 
 tance of a city block. The town divided itself between 
 two occupations, one waiting for news from the grim 
 southern mountains, and the other, which seemed in¬ 
 deed to attain the dignity of a profession, having its 
 picture “took.” Rare was the moment when one could 
 not see from one to half a dozen cameras snapping 
 away at things and men, mostly men. One proud 
 leader of the detectives who, when mounted upon his 
 curvetting black charger, with a most startling white 
 bridle, looked a very thunderbolt of war, had himself 
 snapped seven times in one afternoon, and then, with 
 thirst for fame still unsatisfied, galloped twice down 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 137 
 
 the street, with hand on rifle, while two moving pic¬ 
 ture men perpetrated the moving sight. 
 
 It is difficult to comprehend the situation in that 
 section without some knowledge of the topography of 
 the country, which is most peculiar. About ten miles 
 south of Hillsville runs the crest of the Blue Ridge 
 Mountains, tending a little south of west, at an alti¬ 
 tude of about 3,000 feet above sea level. On the 
 southern slope the mountain drops off precipitously 
 for about fifteen hundred feet to the lowland. At ir¬ 
 regular intervals there shoot out into the flat country 
 long spurs, like a series of wings. The intervening 
 gorges are as rugged and shaggy as the wildest part 
 of the Sierras. Cliffs and crags alternate with densely 
 wooded slopes or boulder strewn clearings. Here and 
 there a ruined cabin clutches the steep slopes. It is 
 on one of these precipitous mountain sides that the 
 Devil’s Den, where the outlaws were first said to have 
 hidden, but didn’t, is situated. To search this south¬ 
 ern slope for a distance of, say, fifteen miJos, would 
 take a force of fifty thousand men. 
 
TKE ALLaN ®UTLAWS 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Pursuit of the Last of the Allen Outlaws and Their 
 Clever Evasion of Arrest—Bloodhounds Still 
 On the Trail—Nearing the End the Detec- 
 tives’ Belief. 
 
 Close in pursuit of the last remaining fragment of 
 the Allen gang, the detectives and local officers of the 
 State of Virginia have lost no effort or sacrificed any 
 personal risk to complete their capture of all the des¬ 
 peradoes concerned in the Courthouse massacre, and 
 as this chapter closes the end is in sight. 
 
 Aside from the local application of this crime and 
 story, it is the “beginning of the end’^ of the lawless 
 regime which has, strange to say, so long existed in 
 the mountainous regions of the States of Virginia, 
 West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, where by 
 what, these mountaineers have been by tradition and 
 precept led to believe they were free to do as they 
 pleased in the domain which they consider God-given 
 to them. 
 
 When men have failed to trail these two outlaws 
 through the countless winding paths of the mountain 
 forests, perhaps the more sagacious beasts of the 
 canine species arc doing better work. The blood- 
 

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 lilililiii 
 
 IllSIiHW 
 
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 di]i i' i '' 
 
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 'Jt < V-' 
 
 C' '•,*<'■' 
 
 
 ,W^X’ 
 
 
140 
 
 r** ALLElf OUTLAWS 
 
 hounds still on the trail are gradually leading the pur¬ 
 suing parties to the last stand of the pursued. 
 
 The failure of these marvelous animals for days 
 has not been due to any fault of theirs, but by reason 
 of heavy rains the scent of the fugitives was fre¬ 
 quently destroyed and picked up again, with more or 
 less certainty by the dogs, which were more or less 
 persistent in their efforts to follow the trail in spite of 
 the fact that it was no longer new, arid these animals 
 were handicapped by manifold difficulties in the pur¬ 
 suit of their prey. 
 
 Bloodhounds are the most persistent and patient 
 ever known when on the trail. They will follow it 
 until they die of exhaustion before they will ever give 
 it up. They fear nothing in human form, but as a 
 rule do not attempt violence on the object of their 
 pursuit. They seek rather to locate than destroy, and 
 if, as in the old slavery days, when fugitive negroes 
 were pursued by whole packs of them numbering 
 often thirty or forty, sometimes into the swamps or 
 forests, all the fugitive slave had to do was to climb 
 a tree and, surrounded by the howling horde of 
 -hounds, calmly await the arrival of his master and 
 the posse, who, perhaps, administered a good licking 
 on his bare back and that was the finale of it all. 
 
TIKE ALL£N Q^TLAWS 
 
 141 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Nearing the End of a Desperate Chase That 
 Startled the Entire South—A Moonshiner’s 
 Story of Meeting . the Clansmen—The Finish 
 Nearly in Sight. 
 
 The story of the first shot fired upon Sidna Allen 
 and Wesley Edwards, and their narrow escape from 
 being laid low, was brought from the mountains April 
 2 by a posse of men returning to Hills ville for 
 supplies. 
 
 Alexander Divins, who has a farm between Fancy 
 Gap and Ward’s Gap, was aroused at i o’clock in the 
 morning by hearing a man moving about near his 
 corn crib. In a few minutes there was the sound of 
 another man approaching. The two met and talked 
 for a brief time in an undertone. 
 
 “Who’s there? What do you want?” called Divins 
 from a window. 
 
 There was no reply, but suspecting that the men 
 were Allen and Edwards, Divins shouted: “If you 
 don’t answer, I will shoot,” Still there came no reply. 
 Divins seized his shotgun and raised his window 
 higher. The noise of this alarmed the prowlers. Two 
 figures ran out of the darkness across a little clear 
 
142 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 patch lighted by the moon’s rays. The farmer fired, 
 but missed. He gave the fleeing figures a second bar¬ 
 rel, but they did not stop. Then he turned lose his 
 dogs, which followed them for a quarter of a mile. 
 The tracks which they found later led into the woods. 
 The shoes of the outlaws which are carried by the 
 posse men fitted the prints in the muddy soil. 
 
 Tom Strickland, another farmer whose place is 
 between the two gaps, and who knows Sidna Allen 
 by sight, saw that clansman in the moonlight late 
 Sunday night skulking along the edge of the woods 
 beyond some cleared land. Strickland watched him 
 until he passed out of sight, but did not hail him. The 
 detective scouts arrived there only a short time 
 afterward. 
 
 It is believed that Allen and Edwards had been 
 separated—possibly from the time when they were 
 driven out of Buzzard’s Roost—and that Sidna, when 
 seen, was on his way to join Wesley on the Alex. 
 Divins place. 
 
 The returning posse men also brought in full de¬ 
 tails of the first face-to-face meeting between Sidna 
 All^n and persons not a kinsman or ally. Fayette 
 Ayers, known to be a moonshiner and blockader, was 
 the one who encountered the desperado. Ayers said 
 today: 
 
 “1 was crossing the mountain when I saw a man 
 coming towards me. He throwed his rifle on me and 
 said: ‘Put up your hands.’ I did, and then he said, 
 ‘I’m going to kill you, get ready to die.’ I said, ‘I ain’t 
 
TME ALf.EN OUTLAWS 
 
 143 
 
 done no harm to you/ He said, ‘you know who I am, 
 don’t you?’ I told him ‘I think you are Sidna Allen. 
 But I never said a word agin you, Mr. Allen, and 
 ain’t going to begin now. Don’t kill me Mr. Allen.’ 
 
 “He had his rifle raised to his shoulder all this time 
 and his finger was on the trigger. I thought any min¬ 
 ute that he would pull. But after a long time he let 
 his gun drop by his side and said: ‘All right, give 
 me that weapon you’ve got and go on about your busi¬ 
 ness.’ I did not have no weapons so he let me go. 
 
 “He was a terrible-looking man, with his beard 
 grown long and his eyes shining in the dark like a 
 wildcat.” 
 
 V 
 
144- 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 Taking the Prisoners to Roanoke Prison Where 
 They Were Held to Await Trial—Despite the 
 Boast of Floyd Allen That He Would Not Go 
 to Jail, He Went All Right, and Without 
 Resistance 
 
 Old Floyd Allen vowed and declared that he would 
 not go to jail, and it was in living up to his vow that 
 he started the Hillsville massacre, but he went to jail 
 anyhow and became the occupant of a cell in the city 
 prison at Roanoke. 
 
 After a 12-hour journey Detectives “Dan” Baldwin 
 and Joseph Fink arrived in Roanoke early in the 
 morning on a special from Hillsville, having in charge 
 Floyd Allen, who is wounded; his son, Victor Allen, 
 and “Bud” Marion. The movements of the train 
 were kept exceedingly quiet, and but few people were 
 aware that only men under arrest in connection with 
 the Hillsville tragedy v/ould arrive in Roanoke. Only 
 newspaper men were at the station when the special 
 pulled in. 
 
 Judge Staples, who has been holding Court in Hills- 
 village under the orders of the Governor, was the only 
 passenger on the special outside of the prisoners and 
 the two detectives. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 145 
 
 The 18-mile trip from Hillsville to Blair was made 
 in a carriage. In spite of his wounds, Floyd Allen, 
 stood the trip well. At Blair the special train was 
 waiting. The prisoners and two detectives traveled 
 in the baggage car since Floyd Allen had to occupy 
 a pallet. 
 
 In spitiTot^his wounds Floyd Allen w^as carried on 
 a stretcher from the train to the jail. The other two 
 prisoners were marched to jail under a heavy guard. 
 
 At the jail Floyd Allen had little to say, although he 
 answered questions in a polite manner. His condi¬ 
 tion is not serious, but he will remain under a guard, 
 it being feared he will attempt to end his life. 
 
 Judge Staples accompanied the prisoners to jail and 
 turned over the court order to Deputy City Sargeant 
 Allen, who then took the men to the cells. They each 
 occupy separate cells so that communication may be 
 impossible between the prisoners. 
 
 Victor Allen, son of Floyd, is a polite young man 
 and his actions and answers to questions are not what 
 one would expect from a man charged with the hide¬ 
 ous crime with which he is connected. When asked 
 how his father was getting along and how he stood 
 the trip, he replied: “He is pretty peart.” 
 
 When Victor Allen and “Bud” Marion, who were 
 handcuffed together, left the office of the jailer and 
 were escorted to their cells they bid Detective Dan 
 Baldwin goodbye and said: “Come to see us tomor¬ 
 row. Good luck, Mr. Baldwin.” 
 
146 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 The stairway leading to the jail is steep and it was 
 with difficulty that the officers got the stretcher 
 carying-Floyd Allen up. While on his way up his 
 wounded leg was caught and he cried out “You are 
 killing me!” Further than this he had no complaint 
 to make. 
 
TJRi: ALL£N ©UTLAWS 
 
 H 7 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 I 
 
 The Law of the Mountains the Code of the Allens— 
 They Ask No Aid from Court or Jury in 
 Avenging Their Grievances—The Unwritten 
 Code Is the Six-Shooter, and It Is Used When¬ 
 ever Circumstances Warrant. 
 
 The Allens, central figures in.Virginia’s tragedy of 
 the Courts, have been pictured as uncouth, wholly illit¬ 
 erate, dare-devil mountaineers. Only the latter descript¬ 
 ion entirely fits. They are not as remote from civiliz¬ 
 ing influences of some of the feudists of Kentucky, 
 nor do they habitually slouch into town with a rifle 
 over thhe shoulder. But they are of dare-devils. It 
 has been the family creed that the profaning touch 
 of an officer of the law must not be laid upon an 
 Allen. If the law wanted an Allen, let the law send 
 word to that Allen and he would come, “as a moun¬ 
 tain genteman should.” 
 
 The psychology of the Hillsville tragedy is fur¬ 
 nished in the words of old Floyd Allen, who slashed 
 his throat soon after he was put in jail. He said: 
 “Old Floyd Allen ain’t never been sent to prison yet. 
 There ain’t no Judge or Sheriff that’s going to send 
 him thar now.” 
 
 He uttered almost the same words when fudge 
 A!a?'!^’e sentenced him to a year in prison. 
 
14^ THE <51 LSN OUTLAW® 
 
 The full story of what transpired in the dingy little 
 Carroll county Courthouse may never be written. 
 But this much is believed today: It was not the out¬ 
 burst of momentary passion. The Allen gang shot 
 as one man, and each henchman of the chief who 
 stood at the bar of justice selected a designated vistim. 
 Judge Massie fell first, shot three times. He lived 
 long enough to say that “Syd” Allen had snuffed out 
 his life. 
 
 Floyd Allen himself is said to have given the signal 
 that brought out the pistols. The jury had found him 
 guilty of interfering with an officer. He released two 
 of his nephews whom a deputy sheriff attempted to 
 take to jail on a petty charge of disturbing public 
 worship last April. Old Floyd beat the deputy sheriff, 
 and Allen-made law had once mpre scored a tempo¬ 
 rary triumph. 
 
 The setting of Virginia’s tragedy could not have 
 been located in a more isolated spot than Hillsville. 
 It is 13 miles from any railroad. It has one telephone 
 line that connects it with the world outside. The 
 Courthouse sits in a square, and in front of it stands 
 a monument to the Confederate dead. The Court¬ 
 house is a tpyical country affair, built of red brick. 
 
 There was nothing unusual about the manner in 
 which the Allens came to town on the day that old 
 Floyd was to stand trial. Every one was aware of 
 course, of the Allen creed that the law must not inter¬ 
 fere with the reign of the band, but not even the more 
 timorous expected any serious trouble. The attorneys 
 
Tits AiSSN OUTLAW# 
 
 149 
 
 for the prisoner are said to have assured the Judge 
 and Prosecutor that rumors of violence were un¬ 
 grounded. 
 
 They reckoned, however, without the knowledge of 
 the fires of hatred that smouldered in the breast of 
 every Allen, who reached for his gun as old Floyd 
 stood up to receive his sentence. 
 
 Newspaper correspondents and detectives who 
 flocked to Hillsville expected to find that the Allens 
 lived in squalid cabins, as do some of their more un- 
 fortionate neighbors. They found instead that the 
 Allens are fairly well to do, and that some of them are 
 even wealthy. They are hospitable and live well for 
 people who are 13 miles from a railroad; they are not 
 unusual folks—except that they believe that the law 
 of personal retribution should rule instead of the icwVP 
 made by legislatures. 
 
 That is the sum and substance of the tragic story 
 of Hillsville. The law sought to penetrate across the 
 mountain ranges and to take hold of a section hitherto 
 ruled by brute force and what the Allens term 
 “manhood.” 
 
 One day a man met an Allen on one of the moun¬ 
 tain trails. This Allen was in street and mountain 
 parlance “full.” 
 
 “What are you full of?” asked the traveler. 
 
 “Full of moonshine and manhood,” said the Allen. 
 The questioner turned out and gave Allen the 
 roadway. 
 
 Tn their own minds the Allen outlaws ar** heroes. 
 
t50 THE ALLK?^ ©HTLAWS 
 
 Whether anybody else thinks so oi lot, concerns th«m 
 very little. They believe they did the proper thing- 
 in resisting arrest and refusing to go to prison, and 
 they have a perfect right to do as they please and to 
 kill anybody -who interferes with them in the pursuit 
 of their life and happiness. They do not recognize 
 any law or officers, and have openly declared a dozen 
 times since their tragic affair, that they will yet be 
 freed by their friends and comrades, and will never 
 go to prison for the parts they took in the Hillsville 
 Courthouse tragedy. In a number of interviews given 
 out by the members of the gang under arrest they 
 justified their acts and said they -would do the same 
 over again if the conditions again occurred. 
 
 B 
 
THE ALLEN QUTLAWS 
 
 Jt5i 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 The Pursuit of the Allens the Most Remarjcable 
 Man Hunt of Modem Times—Sensational 
 Surroundings and Conditions, Together With 
 the Use of Bloodhounds, Added to the Excite¬ 
 ment and Public Interest^—Baldwin’s Famous 
 Sleuths Scouring the Mountains Day and 
 Night, While Sheriif’s Officers Were Every¬ 
 where. 
 
 In many respects the manhunt for the Allens and 
 their gang is the most remarkable in the history of the 
 South, and although men have been trailed in tlie 
 States of Virginia and North Carolina by officers of 
 the law, there has never been such a great chase after 
 a gang of criminals as in this instance. There were 
 many unusual conditions. First the desperate char¬ 
 acter of the crime and the absolute disregard of law 
 and order, when the gang shot up the Courtroom and 
 slew the Judge and two other high officials, killing 
 several spectators and wounding numerous others. 
 
 Much misinformation has been detailed concerning 
 the Hillsville murderers since the tragedy in the Court¬ 
 room that brought them^nto the limelight. These 
 men are not the typical mountaineer of the feudist 
 type, so common in the more remote mountain coun- 
 
152 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 ties of West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. They 
 are not “our contemporary ancestors,” uneducated, 
 primitive and dating their traditional hatreds from 
 the Civil War or even from as far back as the Revo¬ 
 lution. They are not the descendants of escaped bond- 
 servants and. unassimilable elements of the early Co¬ 
 lonial settlements. 
 
 They are men who have enjoyed many of the ad¬ 
 vantages of the average rural community. Some of 
 them, or their sons, have been to college. Many of 
 them are wealthy, few of them have not been beyond 
 the confines of their counties. No mistaken belief that 
 they were protecting their heritage of freedom, or 
 defending themselves against oppression, excuses or 
 palliates their crime. They have set themselves up 
 for years as the arbiters of their own destinies in* 
 those mountains, and have attempted to carry terror 
 into the hearts of all who might oppose them. A de¬ 
 liberate effort to dominate their territory by force 
 has led steadily up to the crime which electrified the 
 country. They knew what they were doing, and were 
 not laboring under any misapprehension of the real 
 nature of their crime. 
 
 Virginia will bring every one of them to account 
 and enforce the severest penalty the law allows upon 
 thm. She had troops enough to surround with an 
 impenetrable cordon the territory in which they were 
 hiding, but not enough to hunt them down in their 
 refuge, for troops are not equal to that task. 
 
 The captured outlaws tell many stirring stories of 
 
Courthouse, Hillsville, Va.—Crowd leaving after shooting. 
 
I54 ’rWf. ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 their several narrow escapes from their pursuers 
 before capture and laugh in disdain as they recall the 
 numerous instances in which they wriggled cleverly 
 out of the very hands of the pursuers. One instance 
 was at Squirrel’s spur, in the heart of the mountain 
 wilds, where three of them w^ere in a cave, the en¬ 
 trance to which they had covered with bushes, when 
 a squad of detectives came past talking loudly of their 
 plans’ and how certain they were of capturing them. 
 They lay as quiet as mice and after the bragging offi¬ 
 cers had left, they made a hurried departure and took 
 the back trail, thus keeping on increasing the distance 
 between themselves and the officers. They were later 
 captured by another posse, which came upon them 
 unexpectedly in the woods and forced their surrender 
 at the points of a dozen rifles and revolvers. While 
 they were in the cave'hiding and the officers were 
 passing, unsuspecting their close proximity, one of 
 their number proposed they shoot into the posse and 
 kill them all, but wiser heads prevailed on them not 
 to do so and they passed on unharmed. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 Planned to Starve Out the Two Fugitives Still at 
 Large—Detectives Determine to Play a Wait¬ 
 ing Game—Believed That Lack of Food Will 
 Force the Outlaws to Surrender—Officers 
 Think They Have Them Well Surrounded. 
 
 After nearly three weeks had elapsed since the 
 Hillsville Courthouse tragedy and all but two of the 
 desperate Allen gang had been captured and locked 
 up in jail, the detectives and posses, still in pursuit of 
 Si'dna Allen and his nephew, Wesley Edwards, deter¬ 
 mined to play a waiting game and simply starve the 
 two outlaws into submission. This plan was agreed 
 upon after the officers had learned positively that the 
 two men were being supplied with food by relatives, 
 and in order to cut off this supply several arrests were, 
 made. 
 
 April 3 Jordan Edwards, a second cousin of Sidna 
 and Wesley Edwards, was brought into Hillsville a 
 prisoner and locked up in the jail. Ele is charged 
 with harboring and secreting the fugitives annd sup¬ 
 plying them with food and other comforts. 
 
 The arrest was made by Alfred Baldwin, one of 
 the chiefs of the agency conducting the pursuit. Bald¬ 
 win having ridden that afternoon to the Edwards ' 
 
Igf THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 home in the Fancy Gap district for the purpose of 
 serving a warrant issued by Justice of the Peace 
 Thornton, sworn to on information and belief by Dep¬ 
 uty E. C. Payne, one of the detective scouts. 
 
 The officer charged Edwards with a felony. Should 
 conviction ensue the accused may be sentenced to the 
 penitentiary for a long term of years as an accessory 
 after the fact in connection with the Courthouse 
 murder. 
 
 Throughout the Fancy Gap district there are two- 
 score or more families of direct kin of the Allen out¬ 
 laws or who are related to them mere or less directly 
 by rnarriage. The detectives say they have informa¬ 
 tion that many of these have fed and harbored the 
 fugitives during their mountain wanderings. The 
 campaign begun recently is intended as a warning to 
 them. Should it not be heeded other relatives of the 
 Allens and Edwardses will probably be arrested in a 
 few days. The detectives have determined to cut off 
 as far as possible the fugitives’ sources of supply. 
 
 Jasper Allen popularly nicknamed “Jack,” the father 
 of Friel Allen, youngest of the imprisoned clansmen, 
 has suffered a stroke of apoplexy and is a broken 
 man. Telephone messages received by Judge D. N. 
 Bolen, his attorney, report that the stroke has left 
 “Jack” Allen partially paralyzed and has deprived him 
 of the power of speech. Devout followers of the 
 Primitive Baptist faith in Hillsville are commenting 
 upon how heavily the hand of Providence has been 
 laid upon this hardy old leader of the Allen clan. 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 157 
 
 . His wife one Sunday persuaded “Jack” to attend 
 church service in the Baptist meeting-house, where 
 his brother, Garland Allen, was to preach. He went 
 with her and during his brother’s sermon became so 
 affected that he seemed to lose his self-control. He 
 began to cry, to mutter to himself and to talk inco¬ 
 herently. Friends got him out into the air and drove 
 him to his home before he collapsed completely. 
 There he suffered a period of semi-consciousness and 
 then apparently rallied slightly, but he' had lost the 
 power of speech and showed other evidences of a 
 partial paralysis as the result of a slight' cerebral 
 hemorrhage. He is about 55 years old and has been 
 j one of the sturdiest, physically, of the Allen clan. 
 
 In his time “Jack” Allen has beaten more that a 
 score of men brutally and his gun adventures would fill 
 a volume, one of the most repellant chapters of which 
 would have to deal with his duel with his brother 
 Floyd. , He shot five bullets into the latter’s body, 
 aiming the last two as he lay on the ground half 
 blinded by the hemorrhage from a pistol ball which 
 had ploughed a furrow through his scalp from fore¬ 
 head to crown. 
 
 The hand of God and the vengeance of man have 
 truly been laid heavily on the Allen gang, and the 
 swiftness with which justice pursued them after the 
 battle in the Courtroom shows conclusively that the 
 day of the outlaw is past forever, and that lawlessnesi 
 must be obliterated at any cost. The prompt action 
 of Governor Mann in offering large rewards fc r the 
 
158 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 capture of the outlaws, dead or alive, together witx 
 the great tidal-wave of public indignation that arose, 
 caused many to take up the pursuit, and it has never 
 been relaxed a single moment from the time it was 
 commenced. Doggedly, determinedly and systemat¬ 
 ically the trailing of the outlaws has been carried^ out, 
 even bloodhounds being employed to aid in striking 
 the trail, and day and night the pursuit went on until 
 all but the last two of the gang have been brought to 
 -justice. The one thing that did most to defeat the 
 officers was the loyalty to the gang of their relatives. 
 Despite the big rewards these sturdy mountain people 
 were dumb as oysters when it came to giving any 
 information regarding the whereabouts of the fugi¬ 
 tives, and not the slightest particle of information 
 could be in any manner gotten out of them. 
 
 That they knew of the whereabouts of the mtlaws, 
 the detectives were fully aware and that tlitj' werc^ 
 being suppied with food by these relatives and friends 
 was also an assured fact, but despite all their cunning 
 and watchfulness the officers were unable to gain the 
 merest scrap of information or catch even one of 
 them “with the goods.” It is supposed their opera¬ 
 tions for and meetings with the two remaining out¬ 
 laws have been principally accomplished of nights, 
 but despite th^ fact that the detectives shadowed 
 several of them, nothing come of the surveillance^ and 
 no evidence against them was securred. Determined, 
 however, to cut off their food supply, the detectives 
 arrested several of the most active of them on sus- 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 picion and they will be held in jail without bail long 
 enough for the outlaws to be starved into submission. 
 At least that was the plan of the officers, until they 
 could devise a better one for getting the two fugitive^ 
 into the toils. 
 
 r- 
 
 
 \ 
 
TILS '.LLEN ©UfTLAWfe 
 
 i6o 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 The Criminal Records of the Allens and Hov/ They 
 Earned Them—Secret Service Agent Who 
 Knows Them Well Joins in the Chase and 
 Matches Their Cunning—^Interesting Story of 
 Their Lives and Doings. 
 
 United States Secret Service Agent H. E. Thomas, 
 who lives at Allisonia, Va., knows, the Allto gang well 
 and also has their complete criminal records. As soon 
 as he heard of the outbreak, he joined the official 
 forces in the pursuit of the men. 
 
 Thomas worked up the counterfeiting case against 
 Sidna Allen, leader of the gang. At that time the 
 Allen brothers made several attempts to kill him, and 
 his intimate knowledge of the gang alone prevented 
 them. 
 
 Secret Service Agent Thomas describes the Allens 
 as well-to-do but notorious for their crimes and blood¬ 
 shed. He believes Sidna Allen will never be taken alive 
 and that the price of $300 on the head of each of the 
 Allen gang “taken dead or alive” will soon result in 
 the extermination of these outlaws who. have terror¬ 
 ized the mountains about the Carroll county for 
 
fHE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 i 6 i 
 
 more than a quarter of a century. Thomas knows 
 their haunts and knows the mountain trails and cav¬ 
 erns equally as well as they do, and his assistance is 
 counted upon as very valuable by the State authorities. 
 
 The Allen family is well known by United States 
 officers. They have always been considered desperate 
 and have engaged in frequent clashes with officers. 
 Floyd Allen boasted of carrying 13 bullet holes in his 
 body, five of which he said, were put there by a 
 brother. He related that he and a brother engaged 
 in a pistol duel, both falling with the first fire and 
 then, while prostrate, emptied their revolvers into each 
 other. Both later recovered and settled their many 
 grievances. 
 
 Sidna Allen was sentenced by Judge Boyd to two 
 and a half years in the Federal prison at Atlanta. 
 Quite recently the Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting 
 at Richmond, ordered a new trial. Allen was 
 first tried with Preston Dinkers on a charge of coun¬ 
 terfeiting, Dinkers was convicted and Allen was 
 acquitted, the former getting a five-year sentence. 
 
 Later District Attorney A. E. Holland had Allen 
 indicted for perjury in connection with his testimony 
 in the counterfeiting case and he was tried a year ago. 
 At the time the four brothers were present and during 
 the two days of the trial thev occupied front seats in 
 the Courtroom. One, Lloyd Allen, was frequently 
 found loitering in the Marshal’s office, and was appar¬ 
 ently bent upon gaining the friendship of the office 
 attaches. 
 
i6s 
 
 tHE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 During the trial information was given the United 
 States Marshal that before leaving Floyd county,Va., 
 for the trial of his brother, Allen said that Sidna 
 should never be carried to jail alive. Upon this infor¬ 
 mation the Marshal took special precautions to pre¬ 
 vent a demonstration and during the trial the brothers 
 were kept under close surveillance. When the jury's 
 verdict of guilty was brought it and Judge Boyd 
 passed sentence, an extra force of officers was sta¬ 
 tioned in the Courtroom and every precaution was 
 taken to see that the Allens did not attempt a demon¬ 
 stration. Immediately after sentence was passed the 
 appeal was taken, and the brothers, with other moun¬ 
 tain friends present, made security for the appeal 
 bond. 
 
 Strong military force, to be followed by a perma¬ 
 nent army of occupation, composed of missionaries, 
 teachers and social workers, is the only solution of 
 conditions in the lawless “moonshine" district of Vir¬ 
 ginia, according to Rev. Isaac Cannaday, who has 
 made a close-range study of people and conditions 
 there. Rev. Mr. Cannaday is a Lutheran missionary, 
 who is on a furlough in this country after a nine 
 years’ service at Guntur, India. Before going to 
 India he preached for two Summers, while a student, 
 at Willis, in Floyd county, and at Galesboro, in Carroll 
 county, Va. He has recently returned from a visit 
 to Hillsville, Va., where he was the guest of Capt. 
 W. H. Sutherland, for many years clerk of the court 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 163 
 
 Captain Sutherland’s successor was one of the men 
 shot. 
 
 “There are two classes of people up there in those 
 mountains,” said Rev. Mr. Cannaday. “One class is 
 law-abiding, but the other class holds to the idea that 
 no law has a right to stop them from making whiskey. 
 All classes have a deep religious feeling, but the moon¬ 
 shiners are ignorant and superstitious. 
 
 “Nothing short of military force will ever break up 
 their trafiic in illicit whiskey. This has been going on 
 for many years, but no great progress in other ways 
 can be made among them until this has been stopped. 
 In view of the fact that the whole trouble is due to 
 the violations of Federal laws, the Federal Govern¬ 
 ment should undertake to see that these laws are en¬ 
 forced. After this traffic is stopped, then the home 
 missionary agencies of the churches of the country 
 should concentrate their forces there, so as to reach 
 every person. 
 
 “The people of Galesboro are among the finest I 
 have ever known, and even the moonshiners are ten¬ 
 derhearted and have a deep devotion for religion. 
 With teachers, missionaries, nurses and social service 
 workers they could be regenerated in one generation. 
 The whole country should applaud the heroism of the 
 jurors who did their duty although they knew tliey 
 might be killed for doing it.” 
 
164 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 The Allen Gang Bid Defiance to Governor Mann 
 and All the Officers of the State of Virginia, 
 But That Does Not Prevent Their Capture 
 and Imprisonment on the Charge of Murder. 
 
 Hillsville was recently excited over the news that a 
 party of the Allens or their sympathisers rode to a 
 point within thre miles of town and placed a notice of 
 their own beside the Governor’s posted proclamation 
 offering rewards for the wanted clansmen, dead or 
 alive. 
 
 This is the notice said to have been posted: 
 
 “WE WILL GET YOU FIRST.'” 
 
 To those who have made it their concern: 
 
 ‘We have plenty of arms and bullets. We know 
 how to use them. These hills are an unhealthy place 
 for strangers to visit. Remember this. You can get 
 us in the end, maybe, but we will get you first.” 
 
 It is said that there were a dozen or more in the 
 party which posted this, but whether or not any of 
 the men charged with the Courthouse murders were 
 there nobo'dy seems to know. 
 
 Governor Mann received the news of the defi very 
 calmly and predicted the speedy arrest of the men, 
 and his prediction soon came partly true. He had 
 Judge Waller R. Staples, Roanoke, who is sitting in 
 the Court of Hillsville, having come on the train which 
 
 I 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 165 
 
 brought Floyd Allen, Victor Allen, and Merrion, one 
 of the Allen gang, to the city of Roanoke for safe¬ 
 keeping. After the Judge left, Governor Mann said: 
 
 Judge Staples told nie that he did not know where 
 Detective Felts and his men were, but that he knew 
 they were on the trail of the Allens, and that they 
 had been since early the day before I saw him. That 
 the men have been traced to some stronghold in the 
 mountains is the impression left on me by Judge 
 Staples. 
 
 ‘The detectives have taken into custody Garland 
 Allen, the preacher brother of the Allens, and they 
 took him along with them to Sidna Allen’s house. 
 When the officers got to that place, however, they 
 found no one in the house. It was possibly due to 
 this that the report started that Sidna Allen had been 
 shot and his wife killed. 
 
 “Thirty-six indictments have been returned against 
 nine of the men engaged in the shooting, but the ab¬ 
 sence of a witness prevented the indictment of the 
 tenth man, and this case will be taken up when the 
 Court reassembles to take up the indictments which 
 have already been returned against the Allens, the 
 Edwardses, the man Merion and others. 
 
 “I am hourly expecting news from the section, and 
 just the moment it comes it will be given to the public. 
 
 I am more and more convinced that there is no neces¬ 
 sity for the presence of any soldiers in that county. 
 This is in accord with what the officers them 
 selves say.” 
 
i66 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 Local Views on the Allen Gang—Mistaken and 
 Misplaced Sympathy May Save, the Younger 
 Outlaws—Press and Public Against Any 
 Maudlin Feeling in Their Behalf—Gov. Mann 
 Promises All Shall Be Severely Punished. 
 
 When young Claude Allen’s hands went up before 
 the muzzles of a couple of Winchesters, each held a 
 big revolver. He was ready to fight. His captors 
 got, the drop on him; that was all. 
 
 The time will come when considerable mistaken 
 sympathy will be shown for this young man. In a 
 sense it has already appeared. The press has been 
 filled, side by side with its scareheads, with accounts 
 of the rugged, simple existence the mountaineers of 
 the Blue Ridge live, ignorant rather than defiant of 
 the law. 
 
 It is an easy atmosphere of romance and untutored 
 freedom to weave, this. But those who know the 
 true conditions best seem little inclined to place even 
 the flimsie.st halos on the Allens’ heads. 
 
 From two cities of North Carolina and Kentucky, 
 

 Interior of Courtroom at Hillsvillc, Va., showing how the shooting occurred. 
 
t68 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 between which lies the range of the feudists and both 
 of which know them, come these testimonials to the 
 character of the romantic desperadoes. 
 
 Says the Charlotte Observer: 
 
 “Being largely a special class, intermarrying among 
 themselves, the degeneration of their already evil 
 qualities went on apace. Many generations of vicious¬ 
 ness and crime are behind the men who murdered 
 Judge Massie on the bench. It is a pity that such 
 men cannot be exterminated as the poisonous reptiles 
 they are; but, pending the day when railroads and 
 good wagon roads shall have reversed the age-long 
 forces of heredity and environment which have molded 
 them, we can at least avoid their getting themselves 
 regarded as heroes and we can punish their outbreaks 
 
 more sternly- than before.” 
 
 And this is the mountaineer as Colonel Watter- 
 son’s Louisville Courier-Journal sees him: 
 
 “As a rule, he drinks to excess and performs most 
 of his deeds of lawless daring when well ‘keyed up’ 
 with whiskey. He can usually be procured to commit 
 crimes against individuals with whom he has no differ¬ 
 ence. The bullies who ride at the back of a moun¬ 
 tain leader are often as closely related by ties of bood 
 or marriage to a prospective victim of their rifles as 
 to the man who has enlisted them in his support. 
 Every kind of immorality flourishes among the pro¬ 
 fessional ‘bad men.’ It has been shown by several 
 investigations of recent years that the use of morphine 
 and other drugs, in addition to whiskey drinking, is 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS I 69 
 
 fairly common among these men, even in remote 
 sections.” 
 
 The Allens and their fellows are exponents, not of 
 liberty but of lawlessness. And now that some of 
 them are being brought within the rules of civilization 
 not one word of pity need be wasted on them. 
 
i70 
 
 XHE ALLirr OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVm 
 
 The Loyalty of the Mountain Women and Their 
 Bravery in the Hour of Danger—Most^f 
 Them Can Ride and Shoot as Well as the Men 
 and Are as Daring—Many of Them Aid in the 
 Making of Moonshine Whiskey—Perfect Ama- 
 zons» They Know Every Mountain Trail and 
 Give Revenue Officers Lots of Trouble. 
 
 This story of the rnountaineers of Virginia would be 
 incomplete were not a chapter on the character of 
 the women of that wild region included. 
 
 The women ar^ pretty much like the men in bravery, 
 hardihood and nerve, and there is little difference 
 when it comes to a fight which sex takes part. Most 
 of the women are daring riders of wild and danger¬ 
 ous horses and nearly every one of them can shoot 
 as well as a man. They are high spirited and maintain 
 the same ideas about personal liberty as do their out¬ 
 law brothers, husbands and relatives of the male sex. 
 They believe the mountains belong to them and they 
 dare anybody to dispute the assertion. They nearly 
 all belong to church and profess religion, yet any one 
 of them will draw a bead on a suspected stranger as 
 quick as lightning. They take part in the manufac- 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 I7I 
 
 * 
 
 ture of the illicit “moonshine” whiskey, and in not a 
 few instances partake of it as well. They are loving’ 
 and devoted wives and sweethearts, and will willingly 
 lay down their lives for their loved ones, but they 
 are independent in the highest degree, permitting no 
 one to dictate to them or rule them with anything but 
 kindness. They are, as a rule, excellent cooks, neat 
 housekeepers and loving, attentive mothers and wives, 
 but they are just the opposite away from home, and 
 if a stranger happens to start something, he would be 
 as likely to get a bullet from a woman’s gun as from 
 her husband’s. Some of these mountain girls are 
 very pretty, despite the tanned and weatherbeaten 
 complexions, and nearly every one of them is tall, 
 slender and a perfect specimen of womanhood. They 
 are radical in all their opinions and stpong in the luvt 
 or hatred. They will give their last penny to a loved 
 one just as quickly as shoot one who has become in¬ 
 volved in a family feud. They fear nothing or no¬ 
 body, and woe be unto the mortal who tries to take 
 advantage of their sex and cow them into submission. 
 The flash of a big Colt and a 44-caIiber bullet is the 
 usual ending of the attempt.. They are sagacious and 
 cunning in a high degree, and can almost smell the 
 approach of a sheriff or revenue officer. They keep 
 the men constantly posted while they are at work at 
 the moonshine stills, and in some instances have intri¬ 
 cate codes of signals to warn the men of the approach 
 of danger, that have eternally baffled the revenue men 
 and Government officers. In the matter of attire they 
 
172 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 •* 
 
 are surely not as particiflar as the woman of the city, 
 and it must be admitted the calico gown and sun- 
 bonnet is frequently their favorite attire, but on special 
 occasions they dress up and some of their finery is 
 such as would hardly be expected in mountain wilds. 
 Like their husbands and relatives, they are of varied 
 fortunes, and while some of them are very poor, 
 others, like the Sidna Allens, for instance, live in fine 
 houses and fare on the best that money can buy. 
 During the raid on*this gang, the women have been 
 especially vigilant in keeping the men posted as to 
 the movements of the officers, and the latter are of the 
 opinion that they would have captured all of the 
 refugees long ago, if their women had not kept tip¬ 
 ping them off as to where the officers were and in 
 what direction --they were moving. It was this fact, 
 together with that of the relatives of the outlaws 
 keeping them well supplied with food and blankets, 
 that caused Governor Mann to issue a special procla¬ 
 mation calling on all citizens to withhold from Sidna 
 Allen and Wesley Edwards, the only two uncaptured 
 members of the outlaw troop that shot up the Carroll 
 County Courthouse nearly a month ago, and promis¬ 
 ing prompt prosecutions for any persons who do 
 assist them. 
 
 This action had been arranged after conferences 
 with the heads of the posses, and so Detectives Bald¬ 
 win, Payne and Edwards rode 20 miles into the Fancy 
 Gap section and arrested Jordan Edwards, a cousin of 
 Wesley and one of the Allen kinsmen, and locked him 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 173 
 
 up on a charge of being an accessory after the fact to 
 the Courthouse murder. 
 
 With the backing of the Governor it is now. ex¬ 
 pected that raids on the Allens, who populate this 
 district, will be frequent. The detectives claim they 
 have been hampered in their hunt by false clues and 
 trails. They are certain that Allen and Edwards have 
 received aid. Without it, their capture is a question 
 of days. 
 
4 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 Allen Clan Members Still Evading Arrest and 
 Dodging the Detectives—Officers Having a 
 Long, Hard Chase After the Outlaws—Dan¬ 
 gerous Work Trailing Them Among the Rocks 
 and Forests—Many Clever Tricks Being 
 Played By the Crafty Woodsmen to Escape 
 Arrest. 
 
 A posse of detectives and deputy sheriffs raided the 
 Iift)mes of Floyd Allen and the Edwards boys, Floyd’s 
 nephews, in the Fancy Gap country. Both houses 
 were’ deserted, but at Floyd Allen’s the detectives 
 found a still and 90 gallons of moonshine whiskey. 
 Two more stills were found at the home of the Ed¬ 
 wards boys. These discoveries are important, because 
 they bring the Federal Government into the hunt. 
 While it was generally known that the Allens sold 
 moonshine whiskey, nobody had openly accused them 
 of making it. 
 
 The discovery of three stills indicates that illicit 
 distilling was probably the chief source of their wealth. 
 It explains, too, their bitter defiance of the law. , 
 
 Under Detective Felts, a posse is pursuing Sidney 
 Edwards, nephew of the Allen brothers and believed 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 175 
 
 to be one of the gang that shot up the Courtroom. 
 The mountaineer is fleeing as fast as a badly burned 
 foot will permit. Surprised by the approach of the 
 detectives, he stepped accidentally in a big caldron of 
 hot corn mash at his “moonshine still,” and being bare¬ 
 foot, was severely burned. 
 
 He left in such precipitate haste that the posse 
 found his revolver hanging in its holster on the wall 
 of his mountain cabin. His Winchester was missing, 
 however. 
 
 The detectives believe that the outlaws have settled 
 on a plan of action for the campaign. It was learned 
 that the entire clan under the leadership of Sidna 
 Allen left their stronghold and gathcied at the home 
 of Jack Allen, regarded by the authorities as the most 
 dangerous member of the clan. Here the subject of 
 action was discussed and it was decided to fight to 
 the death. 
 
 Jack Allen is regarded as one of the brainy men of 
 the clan. It is believed that he absented himself 
 from the raid on the Courthouse so that he would be 
 free to move about the country, thus being of immense 
 assistance to his brethren and able to look after their 
 property while they w'ere defending themselves in the 
 mountains. 
 
 That the Courthouse murders were planned in ad¬ 
 vance and everything that could possibly aid in carry¬ 
 ing out of the plans formed for the wiping out of the 
 county authorities carefully considered, is no longer 
 doubted by those who have charge of the prosecution 
 
176 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 of the State’s case against the accused men. It is said 
 that the clan even wrote to Sheriff Webb telling him 
 that unless the Court officers left their rifles at home 
 the Allens would not appear at the trial. 
 
 Despite the advice of his friends the sheriff heeded 
 the clan’s warning and at the trial he and his deputies 
 were armed only with revolvers. The Allens knew 
 that they could not carry rifles into Court themselves 
 and they planned not to be taken at any disadvantage. 
 
 Floyd Allen his son Victor and Bird Marion, in¬ 
 dicted by the grand jury, are in jail at Roanoke. Floyd, 
 who has made many threats of suicide, is under close 
 guard, the authorities fearing that he may find some 
 means of carrying his threat into effect. The prisoners 
 are all closely guarded, the guards being changed 
 every three hours. On the orders of Judge Staples 
 no one is allowed to have any communication with 
 the prisoners. 
 
 The outlaws realize that they have a hard task be¬ 
 fore them. It is admitted that the band might remain 
 in the thickly wooded mountains indefinitely and that 
 their capture will only be accomplished by patient work 
 on the part of the detectives. It is the plan of the 
 detectives to proceed cautiously and pick off the out¬ 
 law band one by one until all have been captured or 
 killed. 
 
 Meanwhile the State authorities were planning to 
 cripple the Allens in another manner and cut off their 
 supplies. It was announced that damage suits would 
 be immediately instituted ag^nst the Allens by the 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 177 
 
 executors of the estates of those who lost their lives 
 as a result of the shooting, each suit being for $10,000. 
 Besides these the clan members will have to answer to 
 seven or eight suits instituted by persons who were 
 wounded in the Courthouse fight or in the fighting 
 since the murder. With the filing of the suits attach¬ 
 ments will be issued against the property of the Allens 
 under the Virginia law. This will successfully cut 
 off the source of supply of the band and handicap 
 them seriously. 
 
 To capture all the outlaws alive will be the aim of 
 the State authorities. If the men indicted for the 
 murder can be captured and brought to trial and 
 punished by the State it is believed that the effect in 
 increasing the respect for the law among the moun¬ 
 tains of Virginia will be worth the price. 
 
 Two bands of detectives and deputies about 40 
 strong are looking fdr tlie remaining men and are de¬ 
 termined to get them. The two bands are working 
 together and keeping in touch with each other. A 
 pitched battle between the outlaws and detectives is 
 not thought to be probable. 
 
 Members of the posses who remained in the bush 
 all night had planned all the woodcraft safeguards 
 which would have been adopted had they been trail¬ 
 ing savage Indians rather than prosperous Virginia 
 mountaineers. The men were not allowed to light 
 a camp-fire for fear that members of the gang, at¬ 
 tracted by the glow, would make a midnight assault 
 upon the detectives and shoot them as tliey slept. 
 
.78 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 A cessation of the Spring rains which have fallen 
 almost continuously since the shooting gave the posses 
 an advantage of better roads. The guide of the main 
 band of man hunters is a half-breed Indian, who is 
 familiar with all the trails of the North Carolina 
 border. 
 
 With the waning of the Allens’ star as the result 
 of the Courthouse murder, stories of members of the 
 clan Are cropping up which show that they completely 
 dominated the life of this portion of the State for the 
 last 25 years. The clan had no regard for the law or 
 the rights of others, but ruled by the right of their 
 rifles. Through their peculiar code of honor that 
 bound them to aid each other to the death in case of 
 trouble the Allens were able to hold control of their 
 little principality and it is thought will go down with 
 their rifles in their hands. fighting for that supremacy 
 they have long maintained. ' 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER XXXX 
 
 Searchers Growing Weary of the Long Vigil and 
 Hard Riding Over the Mountain Trails—Will 
 Be Glad When the Last of the Ou laws Has 
 Been Captured or Killed and the Great Man 
 Hunt Ended for Good. 
 
 It was another false scent that drew into the moun¬ 
 tains nearly every man of this section that could ride 
 a horse or carry a gun. 
 
 A part of the posse returned weary and dis¬ 
 couraged, and reported that the gang had not been 
 found at Chestnut Ridge, where it was believed to 
 have been trailed. 
 
 The returning posse found gathered on the Court¬ 
 house green, anxiously awaiting news from the night 
 sortie, practically every woman and child who had 
 been left behind by the man-hunters. It was with 
 mingled feelings of disappointment and relief that the 
 families of the lawful members of the community 
 learned that the outaws had not been encountered or 
 located. 
 
 News that the Allens had slipped out of their dis¬ 
 covered refuge at Squirrel’s spur and reached Chest¬ 
 nut ridge were brought to ITillsviile by a mounted 
 messenger. Immediately afterward Detective Felts, 
 
l8o THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 leader of the searchers, galloped off for Chestnut ridge 
 at the head of a band which included even the men 
 who had been in the saddle all day. 
 
 Sidna Allen is said to have been seen making his 
 way down the trail from Squirrels spur, and it is 
 believed that he reached the Chestnut ridge section 
 with the rest of the wanted men. 
 
 People here think that but for their refusal to de¬ 
 sert Sidna, whose wounds prevent him from under¬ 
 taking a journey of any length, the younger members 
 of the gang before this would have made their way 
 through the hills and started West. 
 
 A friend of Mrs. Sidna Allen, who saw the wife of 
 the outlaw chief, quoted her as declaring that she had 
 no idea where her husband was. 
 
 '‘I wish to God I did,” she told the friend. “I wish 
 there hadn’t ever been a gun made. I left our house 
 the night this awful thing happened before my hus¬ 
 band went. He told me to do everything I could for 
 our two little girls and to be kind to his dog and cat 
 I havn’t seen him since; havn’t heard a word from 
 him. I don’t know where he is or how to reach him; 
 he may be lying exposed with his wounds, perhaps 
 dying. 
 
 “Whatever he did in county Court, I believe he is 
 now truly repentant for it, but he won’t give up unless 
 I appeal to him for our children’s sake. No father 
 ever loved his children more, nor was a kinder hus¬ 
 band, but he has the Allen temper and that caused 
 all this trouble.” 
 
lilpllplii 
 
 
 illllliliris 
 
 
 Posse of Citizens who hunted down the Allen outlaws. 
 
tHE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 Mrs. Allen returned to her home and has been en¬ 
 deavoring to pursuade a nephew to open her husband's 
 store, closed since the tragedy. 
 
 Sidna Allen was hurried away from approaching 
 pursuers without even a horse, according to William 
 T. Quesinberry, who has been in his employ for years. 
 Quesinberry said that the first he knew of the shoot¬ 
 ing was when he walked into Allen’s home‘ to find 
 Sidna on the couch wounded through the left arm and 
 with a flesh wound in the stomach. He contradicted 
 the story told by Mrs. Allen by declaring that he left 
 the husband and wife together and when he came back 
 in the morning both were gone. 
 
 The confiscated moonshine and the stills captured 
 at the Edwards and Allen homes was brought to 
 Hillsville. The liquor was spilled into the street and 
 the still burned. 
 
 Responding to a special appeal from Governor 
 Mann, of Virginia, Governor Kitchin, of North Caro¬ 
 lina telegraphed the sheriffs of Stokes, Surry and Alle¬ 
 ghany counties, all of which border on Carroll county, 
 Virginia, to take every step possible for the appre¬ 
 hension of the 17 desperadoes who killed the Court 
 officials at Hillsville, Va. In his telegram asking for 
 assistance Governor Mann said: 
 
 “I am informed there were 17 of the desparadoes, 
 and that they are making their way to the North 
 Carolina mountains adjacent to Carroll county line., I 
 will thank you to have North Carolina officers look 
 out for and arrest the outlaws.” 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 183 
 
 The section lying along the border of Carroll 
 county, in Virgrnia, and Stokes, Surry and Allegheny 
 counties, in North Carolina, is a wild, mountainous 
 country, and once the desperadoes make their way 
 into the caves of these mountains it will be an almost 
 impossible task to locate and capture them. Moon¬ 
 shiners thrive in these mountains, and the outlaws will 
 find ready reinforcements if they are forced to take a 
 stand against the militia, which will possibly be sent 
 against them. 
 
 The grand jury empaneled by Judge Staples made 
 a report in which indictments were returned against 
 every man engaged in the shooting in the Courthouse. 
 
 John Moore, one of the supporters of the Allen 
 gang, who was in the Courthouse when the shooting 
 took place, strolled into town and was arrested and 
 
 locked up. 
 
 All the indicted men are charged with murder or 
 being accessories to murder. 
 
184 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXXI 
 
 The Trial of the Outlaws Will Take Place When 
 Public Opinion Has Subsided and the Last of 
 the Allen Gang Brought to Jus'ice—The Whole 
 Gang May Go to the Electric Chair. 
 
 That the entire Allen gang may expatiate their 
 crimes in the electric chair of the State prison at 
 Richmond is generally predicted, and the trial, which 
 will take place in due time, will doubtless take place 
 at Hillsville, in the very same Courthouse where the 
 awful massacre of IVIarch 14 was committed. After 
 a long conference with the attorneys and State offi¬ 
 cials, Judge A. A. Campbell made the following 
 statement. 
 
 “The trial of Floyd Allen and his son and any other 
 of the Allens will take place here. This trial will be 
 conducted by me in the Carroll county court where the 
 murder of Judge Massie and other court officers was 
 perpetrated. We have definitely decided to try the 
 I Allens in Hillsville, the scene of their crime. Difficulty 
 will doubtless be had in the selection of a jury, but 
 jurymen will be impaneled from three counties—Pu¬ 
 laski, Carroll and Grayson. 
 
 “As a Judge, I cannot further discuss the case ex¬ 
 cept to say that the prisoners will be accorded a fair 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 185 
 
 trial. They will be regarded as innocent until they are 
 proved guilty, and they and their counsel will be given 
 every opportunity to defend themselves and prove 
 themselv'es innocent. As a judge of the State of Vir¬ 
 ginia, I will not tolerate any attempt, should any offi¬ 
 cial dare to make it, to railroad these men to the elec¬ 
 tric chair. Further than that I do not feel that I 
 should with propriety discuss a case over which I must 
 preside.” 
 
 Attorney Draper, who will assist in the prosecution, 
 had this to say: 
 
 “The evidence against Floyd and Sidna Allen is 
 entirely too conclusive to question. We have eyewit¬ 
 nesses of the tragedy who will take the stand and 
 swear that Sidna Allen fired the bullet which killed 
 Judge Massie. We have other witnesses who will 
 go on the stand and testify that they saw Floyd Allen 
 shoot and kill the Sheriff. No plea of self-defense 
 will hold, in my opinion.” 
 
 Mr. Draper said that court would convene and then 
 be adjourned. 
 
 “The delay,” he said, “is for two reasons. First to 
 give the detectives a chance to run down and capture 
 more of the outlaws, and second, to permit public in¬ 
 dignation to die down. There will be no question of 
 the Allens not getting a fair trial. Their every con¬ 
 stitutional right will be safeguarded and the prosecut¬ 
 ing officers will make it a point to see that they get 
 ample justice and every opportunity to defend 
 themselves,” 
 
i86 
 
 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 S. F. Landreth, appointed District Attorney foi Car- 
 roll county to succeed the late Mr. Foster, said: 
 
 ‘‘ The prosecution will be rigorously conducted, but 
 I assure you that the Allens will get a fair trial. 
 Such is due them and such is due the State of Vir¬ 
 ginia. Their power in Carroll county is broken ^nd 
 will never be reasserted.’* 
 
THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXXXII 
 
 Narrow Escape From Death of a Mountaineer Who 
 Met Sidna Allen Face to Face—Came Near Be¬ 
 ing Shot by the Outlaw in Mistake for a De¬ 
 tective—He Says the Outlaw is as Spry as Ever 
 and Will Put Up a Terrible Fight if He is Cor¬ 
 nered. 
 
 The only man who has met Sidna Allen face to 
 face since the latter’s escape from his home when it 
 was raided by the posse, is Lafayette Ayers, a moun¬ 
 taineer, who has been aiding in the search. Sidna 
 Allen is not as helpless as has been reported on ac¬ 
 count of the wounds he received in the Hillsville shoot¬ 
 ing. Ayers came face to face with Allen in a path 
 in the mountains and found himself covered by the 
 outlaw’s gun. Allen told him that he had just a few 
 rpinutes to live as he intended to kill Ayers for help¬ 
 ing the authorities in the chase. Ayers begged for 
 his life and vigorously denied that he hae given the 
 his life and vigorously denied that he had given the 
 detectives any help. Allen finally let him off and told 
 him to get out of the mountains as quickly as possible. 
 Ayers said that the outlaw was in no way handicapped 
 by his wounds and is alert and crafty as ever. 
 
 The meeting occurred about five miles from the 
 
r 
 
 188 THE ALLEN OUTLAWS 
 
 spot where the detectives had drawn their cordoti 
 around the supposed hiding place of the outlaw. It 
 was their first intimation that Sidna had eluded them. 
 
 Several times the detectives have come within a few 
 minutes of catching Wesley Edwards, The discovery 
 of food and blankets in caches have convinced the pur¬ 
 suers that they were close on his trail, and once he 
 had to run and leave his blanket and food supply on 
 the ground, so close were his pursuers. 
 
 Three miles east of the footpath, where Sidna Allen 
 was encountered, and lying within the shadow of Buz¬ 
 zard’s rock, the detectives found a bed of leaves, a 
 new blanket and some provisions, unmistakable evi¬ 
 dence that Edwards had spent the night there. Plenty 
 of food has been found in different places in the 
 mountains during the last few days, showing that the 
 outlaws are well supplied. 
 
 When the posse took the trail. Detective Felts 
 seemed certain that the long chase through the moun¬ 
 tains would end in pitched battles. He thinks Allen 
 and Edwards have located themselves in some small, 
 well sheltered cave or thicket, and while without food 
 or supplies, have determined to sell their lives dearly. 
 All they have left is their guns and ammunition. 
 
XH* OUTI,AWS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXXIII. 
 
 With all the others of the desperate gang safely 
 under lock and key, the Virginia authorities more 
 than redoubled their efforts to capture Sinda Allen 
 and Wesley Edwards, who were still at large despite 
 the constant increase in the number of their pursuers 
 and the thorough scouring of the wilderness in which 
 they were supposed to be hiding. As later develop¬ 
 ments proved, however, they were searching in vain, 
 for while they thought their human quarry were still 
 at hand, they were in reality far away and laughing 
 in their sleeves as they read in the newspapers of the 
 wild pursuit of themselves through the forests and 
 mountains of Virginia, not very far from the scene 
 of the crime, where the officers supposed them to be 
 hiding in a cave, with but little food and short of 
 ammunition. Every preparation for a desperate re¬ 
 sistance was made when they were finally cornered, and 
 that it was to be a battle to the death between the two 
 outlaws' and the officers of the law, nobody doubted. 
 But the entire theory was wrong. Instead of being 
 in hiding in a cave near Buzzard’s Rock, where they 
 were suspected to be, both outlaws were quietly hid¬ 
 ing in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, to which place 
 they had made their way, probably on freight trains, 
 and when finally discovered by the police of that city, 
 instead of being a desperate resistance, with ample 
 gun-play and bloodshed, there was quiet, peaceable 
 
190 ‘ THE AliLEN OUTLAWS. 
 
 submission and surrender. Their arrest occurred on 
 « September 14th. They were promptly talcen back to 
 the scene of their crime and placed in jail to await 
 trial. 
 
 These interesting trials began April 30th, when 
 Floyd Allen was placed in the prisoner’s dock charged 
 with the murder of Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster, 
 in the very same courtroom in which he had fired the 
 fatal shot and started the massacre of the court’-s ofii- 
 cers. He was convicted, and on May 17th sentenced 
 to death. 
 
 Three days later, on May 20th, the trial of Claude 
 Allen began. July ist he was found guilty of second- 
 degree murder and given 15 years in States Prison, 
 but his counsel made motion for a new trial, which 
 after some delay was granted, and on June 2nd his 
 second trial began. This resulted in a disagreement 
 cf the jury, and his counsel made desperate efforts to 
 prevent his being brought to trial again, but the people 
 were so incensed with the crime that they were deter¬ 
 mined no loophole of escape should be opened to any 
 one of the gang and insisted on his third trial. It was 
 July 19th, and at its conclusion proved a fatal error 
 on the part of himself and his counsel in not accept¬ 
 ing the verdict and sentence imposed at his first trial, 
 for on this his third trial he was found guilty of mur¬ 
 der, in the first degree and sentenced to death in the 
 electric chair. 
 
 September iSthj the trial of Sidna Edwards and 
 Friel Allen were concluded, and they were each sen¬ 
 tenced to 18 years in prison. 
 
 ' September 23rd Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards 
 
THK AI^tEN OUTLAWS. 191 
 
 were arraigned. Their trials were long and sensational. 
 Both were, however, eventually^ found guilty, and 
 Sidna Allen was given 15 years in prison, while Wes¬ 
 ley Edwards got 27 years behind the bars. 
 
 January loth a petition of appeal in the cases of 
 Floyd and Claude Allen, then in States Prison at 
 Richmond, awaiting execution, were filed with the 
 Supreme Court, but the decision was against them. 
 Thev were respited until March 7th. Still another 
 and imal appeal was made to Governor Mann for com¬ 
 mutation of sentence to life imprisonment, but was 
 sternly refused, and March 28th was fixed by the Gov¬ 
 ernor as the date of their execution. Accordingly on 
 that date father and son marched bravely from their 
 cells to the fatal chair in the dimly lighted execution 
 chamber and went to their deaths without a murmur. 
 Despite their crimes and the lives of outlawry they 
 had led, there is none can say that they did not die like 
 men and heroes. 
 
 Of all the gang the only one who went scott free 
 was Victor Allen, one of the younger members of 
 the famous family, who was acquitted by reason of 
 lack of evidence against him. 
 
ig 2 ' 
 
 TilE AEEfiN OUTLAWS. 
 
 
 CHRONdL&tSir'dlJ^ f HE ALLEN CASE. 
 
 V4' ' 
 
 > % ‘ 
 
 f 
 
 1912. 
 
 W^rch 14—CarrrH Circuit Court annihilated ; five killed. 
 
 March 15—FJoyd and Victor Allen placed in 
 March 22—S'dna Edwards captured. 
 
 March 28—Claudg. Allen caught. 
 
 's*March 29—Friel Allen captured. 
 
 April 30—Trial of Floyd Allen for murder of Commonwealth’s 
 ney Foster begun * . ;■ 
 
 May 17—Floyd Allen sentenced to death. ; ^ 
 
 May 20-^T)t:^^ of Claude Allen begun. 
 
 Jtnie 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 fV 
 
 murder. 
 
 
 ,uly 
 $ept. 
 
 'Igl; 
 
 Oct. 
 Nov. 
 Nov. 
 Nov. 
 Nov. 
 Dec. 
 Dec. 
 
 Dec 
 
 March 
 
 -Claude iAllen given 25 yearJ^for second-degr( 
 
 -S'eeond )trial of Claude Allen begun. 
 
 13— ClauxfejfAllen jury unable to agree, and discharged. 
 
 19^—Thii^ trial of Claude Allen begun, 
 
 27 — Claude Allen sentenced to death. . 
 
 14— Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards arrested at Des Moines, Iowa." 
 l^hriel Allen sentenced to 15 years; Sidna Edwards to 18 years. 
 23—Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards arraigned*at Hillsvdle. 
 
 —^Floyd Allen and Claude^jAllen sent to prison for execution. " 
 < — Trial 6f Sidna Allen b'^un. * V 
 
 38—Supreme Coust refuses appeal of Floyd and Claude Allen, 
 p—Floyd and Claude Alien respited to December 13. ■ 
 
 22—Sidna^ Allen given 15 years f«: second-degree murder. 
 
 3—Second* trial of Siflna Allen b^un. 
 
 11—Sidn^ Allen given 5 years, also 15 years on compromise. isVes- 
 ley Edwards also agrees to compromise verdict, and is given 
 27 years- in penitentiary. Floyd and Clauoe Allen respited to- 
 Jan^ry 17. ^ 
 
 ,14—Sidna”Allen and Wesley Edwards i^eceived at State prison. ' 
 i.yi.O. ^ 
 
 10—Petition in •yecond appeal for Floyd and Claude Alien filed with 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 15— Petition refused. 
 
 16— Floyd and Claude Allen respit'ed tckMarch 7. 
 
 ' ~^*M^ (or justice made "by attorneys J^fore Governor 
 
 6—Gc^ernor refuses appeal, and fixes 2$ as date m 
 
 execution. '