Badly Shot Up But Still Living

This is from the March 19, 1926 issue of the Pike County News.  Remember that this takes place during Prohibition.

BADLY SHOT UP BUT STILL LIVING

“Riddled with bullets but still living and evidencing strong chances for recovery, Will Leslie of Beaver Creek was brought here to the Methodist Hospital Monday after a pistol duel with Willie Miles.

“The trouble arose in a crap game about three o’clock Sunday morning, when both were decidedly intoxicated.  According to the story which Leslie told to G. D. Ryan who took him from the train to the hospital, they were trying to fix up a bet and could not agree, and Miles said, ‘We’ve both got guns, let’s shoot it out.’  At that moment Leslie dropped a ten dollar bill and stooped to pick it up and the other man started firing.  Bullets went through both hands and through two places in his leg, and one pierced his neck, went clear down one side, and came out between the seventh and eighth ribs.

“Bystanders got Leslie on the train and brought him up here, but the other man managed to elude the law and got away.”

Woman Shoots Neighbor in Row Over Well Bucket This Morning

Believe it or not, this July 23, 1926 article in the Pike County News is not unique:

WOMAN SHOOTS NEIGHBOR IN ROW OVER WELL BUCKET THIS MORNING

“An argument last night over the ownership of a well bucket let to the killing of Sarah Luster by Armina Hall…..”  “…..the two women came out from their homes on the side of the hill and engaged in a violent row.  Mrs. Hall, who is badly crippled, started down the road with Mrs. Luster behind her, each of them berating the other all the time.  Mrs. Hall then drew her gun and fired three times at the other woman, evidently to scare her, as the shots kicked up the dust fifteen to twenty feet away from her.  As they reached the crossroads she fired twice more, striking Mrs. Luster in the leg and in the heart.  The woman fell to the ground and died instantly.”

“Her four little children came out of the house screaming and sat down to keep the flies off their mother’s body until the undertaker, G. D. Ryan, could get there.”

The Problem of Crime

Southeastern Kentucky in the early 1900s had its genteel society.  There was a Rotary Club and a Kiwanis Club; there was a DAR chapter.  Women had their bridge clubs and church socials.  That said, if one reads only the front page of The News it could easily be concluded that lawlessness and gun violence were rampant.  Even beyond that, the reader gets the sense that many had hair trigger tempers that could instantaneously produce kill-or-be-killed rage.  Crime certainly took place in the city of Pikeville, but the county seemed to produce the bigger share of violence and felonious behavior.

Much crime involved alcohol, which was illegal during prohibition.  Prohibition began with the ratification of the 18^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on January 16, 1919, and became effective January 16, 1920.  It ended on December 5, 1933, when Utah became the 36^th state to ratify the 21^st amendment, repealing prohibition.  The beginning days of the widespread removal of consumable alcohol from society was not as dramatic as it could have been since over half of the 48 states already had some form of prohibition laws.  The Volstead Act, after its author, Andrew Volstead, R-Minnesota, was passed about 10 months later and defined intoxicating liquor and the amendment’s enforcement provisions.  The Act was passed over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson.  Wilson supposedly was opposed to prohibition and kept a supply of bootlegged liquor in the White House.

The legal loopholes of the Volstead Act and widespread willingness to violate its letter and spirit made liquor discretely available in many places.  The law allowed for limited amounts of wine and hard cider to be produced at home.  Some alcoholic beverages were still produced but were available only through government warehouses.  This alcohol was legally used for religious services, such as Catholic communion, and for medicinal purposes.  Physicians could prescribe liquor for medicinal purposes and pharmacies would fill them, usually without question.  This provision was abused, as would be expected.  But alcohol was often truly used for medical purposes.  It must be remembered that today substances are produced for the sole purpose of medical use, but in those days there were few such remedies.  Instead, people were forced to rely on the real or perceived medicinal properties of common substances, or they could take their chances with the numerous “snake oil” remedies widely touted.

Prohibition was not a unique American experience.  Most Scandinavian countries, as well as some Canadian provinces and Muslim countries, have or have had prohibition laws.  

The Detailed Story of a Lynching

I've also had a mildly increased interest in the subject of lynching since I learned of one of my own ancestors who had been lynched.  Many associate the practice as a legacy of the South and racial attitudes toward blacks.  While that was usually the case it was by no means confined to that description.  My lynched ancestor was white, 15 years old, and was hung by persons unknown from a telegraph pole in 1885 in northern Minnesota.  

Following is a transcription of a report publish in the Pike County News in 1927: 

Report of Lynching Written By Official

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County Attorney Sends Report Of Murder and Lynching To Governor Fields

County Attorney, Harry Moore, of Letcher County, has made the following official report of the lynching of Leonard Woods (colored) after the murder of Hershel Deaton to Governor Fields, which gives a complete account of the lamentable affair as well as what led to it:

On last Sunday night, at 11 o’clock, Hershel Deaton, who is employed by the Elkhorn Coal Corporation as mine foreman at Fleming, Ky., while driving from Jenkins to Fleming and at a point approximately one mile from the Jenkins post office, was hailed by a negro by the name of Leonard Woods and, on stopping his car, the negro demanded that Deaton carry him and two colored women who were with him to 206 (a mine tipple), which was a distance of three-fourths of a mile in the direction in which Deaton was traveling, and Deaton replied, “This is not a taxi, this a private car and I can’t take you,” or words to that effect, whereupon the two women attempted to climb on the rear of his car, which was a Chrysler coupe, and Deaton requested them to get off from the car, which they declined to do and Deaton stepped out of his car and went to the rear to get them off, at which time one of the women handed Woods something from the large pocketbook in her possession and immediately a pistol was fired by Woods, the bullet taking effect in the left side of Deaton, passing through his body and lodged itself just beneath his skin on his right side.

W. M. Townsley and Ernest Jordan, two young men from Fleming who were with Deaton, had not up to the time of the shooting left the car, but immediately following the pistol report Townsley jumped out of the car and went to the rear thereof, where he found the negro standing with the pistol in his hand, a few feet from Deaton, who was lying on the concrete pavement, and immediately the women started up the road and the negro ran down the road.  Townsley and Jordan lifted Deaton in the car and drove back to the Jenkins hospital where it was found upon their arrival Deaton was dead.

Negro Women Found

The officers of Jenkins were immediately notified of the shooting and they made every effort to ascertain the names, description and whereabouts of the two colored women and the man, and about 3 o’clock on Monday morning their efforts were rewarded by locating the women in “Slickrock,” a colored quarter of Jenkins, and from the women the name and description of Woods was ascertained and the officers continued their search for Woods that night, and about 7 o’clock Monday morning he was taken into custody in the woods at about one-half mile from the scene of the shooting and was driven to Whitesburg by automobile, where he was delivered to the county jail there.  The remains of Deaton were taken to Coeburn, Va., where his funeral was held on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night automobiles bearing Virginia licenses kept coming across the State line at Pound Gap at intervals of five, ten and fifteen minutes apart, passing through Jenkins, Fleming and Neon and on in the direction of Whitesburg, and several cars fell in at various points along the way and especially at Fleming and Neon.

At about 10:30, Tuesday night, Branson Tucker, a deputy sheriff located at Jenkins telephoned M. T. Reynolds, Sheriff of Letcher County, informing him that a number of Virginia cars had passed through Jenkins headed for Whitesburg, and the Sheriff, having retired for the night, immediately dressed and came to the Court House, and with Joe Stamper, the town marshal of Whitesburg, went to the jail and notified Mrs. Mantie Whitaker, the jailer, to take her family and leave the jail, which she did, delivering the keys to Mr. Stamper, and the Sheriff went to his office in the Court House and in a few minutes the crowd had gathered about the jail, at which time the Sheriff went to the rear of the Court House and addressed the crowd, pleading with them to dis-band and let the law take its course, and was told by one of the leaders that “we appreciate your speech, but we have come after our man.”

Efforts To Enter Jail

The Sheriff mingled a few minutes with the crowd, then went to the Court House and in company with Joe Stamper, town marshal of Whitesburg; W. M. Combs, a deputy sheriff, went to the second floor of the Court House and watched the mob in their attempts to break into the jail.  After about fifty minutes of labor with hacksaws, axes and other instruments, entrance was gained to the jail and to the cells in which the negro was confined.

Before entrance was made to the jail and after considerable efforts were made with axes to gain admittance, six men, armed with high-powered rifles and pistols, went to the second floor of the Lewis Brothers store and awoke Oscar Lewis, two of the men entering his room, where he and wife and baby were peacefully sleeping, and one pointed a pistol and another a rifle, ordered him to get up and sell them some hacksaws and blades, which demand Mr. Lewis obeyed by selling them a dozen blades.  Mr. Lewis states that he was unable to recognize any of the men and that they were strangers to him.

The mob started to take the two colored women with the negro, but they protested their innocence with having anything to do with the killing of Deaton further than being along and that they had given the name, the description and the whereabouts of Woods that led to his capture and the women were then placed back in jail and Woods was loaded in an automobile and the signal given to leave town, and after loading up their respective cars the crowd fired several hundred shots in the air and left for or in the direction of Jenkins, and with them went several carloads of Whitesburg citizens who were awakened by the mob in getting into the jail, for the purpose of seeing the execution.

Taken To Jenkins

Woods was taken to the place where he murdered Deaton at Jenkins and efforts were started to string him up between two automobiles, when S. H. Privitt, Chief of Police of Jenkins, appeared on the scene and to the lynching of Woods in town.  Finally, he persuaded them to go out of town, which they did, journeying on to the Kentucky-Virginia line at Pound Gap, where Woods was placed upon the platform which was constructed for the celebration of the opening of the Pound Gap road on Saturday, November 18^th.

And while hanging from a rope placed about his neck and fastened to two posts of the platform, his body was riddled with bullets.  When one rope was cut in two by a bullet his body fell to the platform and gasoline was poured over him and set ablaze.  His clothing was badly burned and his body scorched.

The Virginia crowd returned to their places of abode and the Kentucky cars came back off the mountain and returned to the town from whence they came.

Handkerchiefs Cover Faces

During the time entrance was being gained to the jail a few of the crowd wore handkerchiefs over their faces, leaving just their eyes disclosed, but the larger percentage wore no masks of any description and they all were well dressed and so as I have been able to learn no one her recognized anyone in the crowd.

The county jail was badly damaged and six prisoners were permitted or made their escape therefrom after the door had been sawed open.  Those who escaped were Carl Hall, Camp Armstrong, held to answer a Federal charge of violating the liquor laws; Linzey Morton, charged with grand larceny; Charley Spurgeon, charged with house-breaking, and Noah Hamilton, charged with house-breaking and Ballard Meade, charged with a violation of prohibition act.  None of the prisoners have been apprehended.

I am in possession of the names of six Letcher County citizens against whom circumstances point as being participants in the lynching, but lack a little more definite evidence to justify action at this time.  But I believe it a matter of a few days before sufficient evidence will be had to establish with a certainty several of the Virginia party and a few in Kentucky who were present and took an active part in the storming of the jail and lynching of Woods.

In a conference with F. A. Tate, Commonwealth’s Attorney of Wise County, Va., and with T. H. Kennedy, Wise County Sheriff, I was assured that they are lending every assistance in Virginia to discover and to bring to justice those on the Virginia aide who were parties to the crime.  The killing of Woods occurred about six feet across the Kentucky State line in Virginia and from all information that I have been able to obtain, those participating in shooting rifles and pistols at the body of Woods were stationed on the Virginia side.

Difficult To Get Evidence

I find it most difficult to get any tangible evidence against anyone connected with the lynching, due to the fact that nine out of every ten persons in both Letcher and Wise Counties are in sympathy with the execution of the negro, although a majority regret the necessity, as they express it, of “riding over the law.”

The idea of lynching Woods seems to have originated at the burial of Deaton at Coeburn, Va., on Tuesday morning as the crowd left Coeburn in Tom’s Creek Tuesday night to carry out the plan and were reinforced by others joining in at Dorton and Pound Gap.  Before they reached Kentucky and at the time they reached the jail at Whitesburg they were well prepared to take the prisoner, being well armed with rifles and pistons, and the report is, although I have not been able to verify it, that they had 100 sticks of dynamite to use if necessary to carry out their plan.  I am of the opinion that it would have taken a small army to have prevented them from carrying it into execution.

The Plight of Prestonsburg

In May, 1921, The Pike County News reprinted an editorial from the Prestonsburg Citizen lamenting the breakdown of public order there.  The piece starts out, "To what is this city coming?"  It goes on to describe the problems in more detail:

"'Bootlegging' thrives unrestrained despite official effort.  Public drunkenness is so common that it occasions no comment except, perhaps, some jocular remark, and 'pistol toting' is so general as to be fashionable."

The writer goes on to blame 'moral lethargy' and inertia for the lack of effective response.

One surprising statement made was unexpected:

"The fearless performance of strict duty under the law by officers is liable to bring about homicide.  If the officer escapes he is apt to find himself indicted on a charge of murder."

The general crime rate in those days, particularly murder, rivals that of the worst U.S. city today.  I will have much more on this later.