Floyd Allen - Aftermath

Aftermath

Floyd Allen was tried for the first-degree murder of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster. On May 18, 1912, Floyd Allen was found guilty by the jury. His stoic exterior gone, Floyd Allen wept freely as the verdict was read. In July 1912, after three separate trials, Claud Allen was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, and for second-degree murder for the killing of Judge Massie.

For their roles in the shooting, Floyd and Claude Allen were sentenced to death by electrocution. Sidna Allen received a total of 35 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, and for second-degree murder of Judge Massie. Sidna Allen also pled guilty to second-degree murder for the shooting of Sheriff Webb, and was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. Wesley Edwards drew nine years for each count of murder for the slaying of Foster, Massie, and Webb for a total of 27 years' imprisonment. Sidna Edwards pled guilty in August 1912 to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to 15 years in the penitentiary. Friel Allen was tried in August 1912 and after confessing to shooting Foster, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Friel Allen and Sidna Edwards were pardoned by Democratic Governor Elbert Lee Trinkle in 1922, while Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards were pardoned by Governor Trinkle in 1926. Victor Allen and Barnett Allen were acquitted. Burden "Byrd" Marion, a cousin and neighbor, had all charges against him dropped. Accounts differ as to whether this was for a lack of evidence, or because Marion became a state's witness and admitted his role in aiding the Allens. Shortly after the Allen trials, law enforcement officers found a still in an old house on Burden Marion's farm, and he was arrested for making illegal liquor. He was tried in federal court, found guilty, and sentenced to a year in federal prison at Moundsville, West Virginia. He began his sentence in August 1913, and died (officially) of pneumonia in prison on November 25, 1913.

Allen's death sentence was deeply unpopular with Allen supporters in the county, but many other residents were shocked by the deaths of so many people over Floyd Allen's refusal to serve a year in prison, and were not sympathetic. Governor Mann, who had received death threats in the same handwriting as the threats previously delivered to the trial judge, had to cut short a trip to Pennsylvania after learning his Lieutenant Governor, James Taylor Ellyson (1847–1919), had attempted to commute the Allens' sentences in his absence, instigating a brief constitutional power struggle between the two men. Governor Mann refused a request to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment, and Floyd Allen was electrocuted on March 28, 1913 at 1:20PM. Eleven minutes later, his son followed Allen to his death in the electric chair.

After a public display of the bodies at Biyle’s Funeral Parlor, the Allens were buried in the Wisler Cemetery in Cana, Virginia. For years it was alleged that the men were buried under a headstone that read in part, "Judicially Murdered By The State Of Virginia Over The Protests Of More Than 100,000 Of Its Citizens." However, photographic proof of this headstone inscription has never surfaced, though hundreds of photos exist of other items relating to the event, and despite a reward offered for a photograph of the inscription.

The Carroll County prosecutor placed liens on all property owned by Floyd and Sidna Allen for the heirs of the victims. As a result of three wrongful death lawsuits by the victims' estates and survivors, the property of Sidna and Floyd Allen was confiscated and sold at auction, forcing Sidna Allen's wife and two small daughters to live in rented quarters and work at menial jobs until Sidna's pardon. Floyd Allen's son, Victor, bought his father's house so that his mother would not have to move. In 1921, however, he moved his family to Tabernacle, New Jersey.

Floyd Allen's brother Jasper (Jack) Allen lost his job as constable as a result of the Hillsville shooting, but that did not end matters. On March 17, 1916, Jack Allen had stopped for the night in a roadhouse near Mt. Airy, North Carolina where he encountered Will McGraw, a moonshine hauler. A dispute between McGraw and Jack Allen arose about the Hillsville tragedy and during the confrontation McGraw drew a gun and shot Allen twice, killing him on the spot. Jack Allen was buried near his home in Carroll County, in the presence of a thousand mourners.