Floyd Allen - Trial and Shooting

Trial and Shooting

After close to a year of delays, Floyd was finally brought to trial on March 13, 1912. The trial was presided over by Judge Thornton L. Massie, the same judge who had appointed Floyd to the post of county police officer six months before. Floyd Allen was well represented by a team of two attorneys, Walter Scott Tipton and David Winton Bolen, both of whom were retired Carroll County judges.

Rumors arose in the community that Floyd Allen had reportedly sent word to Deputy Samuel that he would kill Samuel if the deputy testified against him. Allen later denied this, but the threat, whoever sent it, was sufficient to cause Deputy Samuel to leave the state the same night the threat was delivered.

Samuel's departure forced the state's Commonwealth's Attorney (prosecutor) William M. Foster to rely on testimony from Deputy Easter. Foster had been Commonwealth’s Attorney of Carroll County for eight years, having been first elected on the Democratic ticket. Later, he changed to the Republican party, and by 1912 was a prominent leader in the GOP in Carroll County, being elected the last time on the Republican ticket. Foster was a political enemy of the Allens, as they had supported Constable Jack Allen's son Walter as Democratic candidate for Commonwealth's Attorney against Foster in the last election last (Walter had lost in a bitterly-fought race). In the grand jury testimony, Floyd Allen admitted 'roughing up' Samuel, but not with the intent of releasing the prisoners: "That there Samuel was abusing the boys. He had them handcuffed and tied up with a rope. I just can't bear to see anyone drug around."

Fearful of the Allens' reaction, and having received death threats, many officials of the court armed themselves. At least two of the participants, Judge Massie and Sheriff Webb, had told friends that they expected trouble. There were many of the Allen clan among the spectators in the courtroom, most of them armed with pistols. Sidna Allen and Claud Allen were in the northeast corner of the courtroom, standing on benches to see over the crowd. Friel Allen sat in the back of the room, and the Edwards boys stood on benches next to the north wall. When the jury returned a guilty verdict against Floyd, sentencing him to one year in the penitentiary, Floyd Allen is reported to have said to Judge Massie: "If you sentence me on that verdict, I will kill you." Judge Massie at once proceeded to sentence Floyd to one year's imprisonment.

According to Floyd Allen's defense attorney, David Winton Bolen, " hesitated a moment, and then he arose...He looked to me like a man who was about to say something, and had hardly made up his mind what he was going to say, but as he got straight, he moved off to my left, I would say five or six feet, and he seemed to gain his speech, and he said something like this, 'I just tell you, I ain't a'going.'" At this point, shots broke out in the courtroom.

Accounts differ as to who actually fired the first shot. Many accounts claim that Allen initiated the confrontation by pulling a gun in court. In his defense testimony, Floyd Allen stated that Sheriff Lew F. Webb fired first, but that the shot missed Allen, at which point Deputy Clerk Goad, the Clerk of Court, fired and hit Allen, causing him to fall. (When Floyd fell, wounded, he landed on top of his lawyer David Bolen, who is reported to have said, “Floyd, they are going to kill me shooting at you!”) Floyd Allen stated that only then did he draw his own revolver and begin shooting. After a fusillade of shots, the Allen clan left the courthouse, armed with both pistols and 12-gauge pump shotguns, and shooting as they ran.

Judge Massie, Sheriff Webb, Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, the jury foreman (Augustus C. Fowler), and a nineteen-year old girl (Elizabeth Ayers) were all hit and died of their wounds sustained in the crossfire. More than fifty bullets were later recovered from the shooting scene. Elizabeth Ayers, a subpoenaed witness who had testified against Floyd Allen, was shot in the back while trying to leave the courtroom, and died the next day. Seven others were wounded, including Deputy Clerk Goad and Floyd Allen. Floyd, wounded too badly in the hip, thigh and knee to leave town, instead spent the night in the Elliott Hotel accompanied by his eldest son, Victor, who was later found not to have been involved in the shootout. Upon his arrest by deputies at the hotel, Floyd attempted to slash his own throat with a pocketknife, but was overpowered before he could complete the job.

Virginia law held that when a sheriff died his deputies lost all legal powers, so Carroll County was left without law enforcement by the shooting. Recognizing the need for immediate action, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney S. Floyd Landreth sent a telegram to Democratic Governor William Hodges Mann which read:

Send troops to the County of Carroll at once. Mob violence, the court. Commonwealth's Attorney, Sheriff, some jurors and others shot on the conviction of Floyd Allen for a felony. Sheriff and Commonwealth's Attorney dead, court serious. Look after this now.

Governor Mann immediately called on the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to find those responsible for the shootings and arrest them. Rewards ($1000 for Sidna Allen, $1000 for Sidna Edwards, $800 for Claude Allen, $500 for Friel Allen, and $500 for Wesley Edwards) - dead or alive - were posted by the State of Virginia. Within a month, all parties were in custody, save for Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards. A manhunt then commenced for the remaining Allen fugitives, and several posses of detectives and local deputies searched the surrounding countryside. The U.S. Revenue Service sent an agent, Deputy Agent Faddis, to investigate reports of illegal liquor trafficking by the Allens. Agent Faddis and four men raided Floyd Allen's property, seizing illegal stills and fifty gallons of moonshine. Two more illegal stills were found at Sidna Edwards' house.

Claud Allen and Sidna Edwards were placed into custody after a brief search. Friel Allen gave himself to detectives in the company of his father Jack Allen, who was apparently concerned his son might be killed while being apprehended. However, Sidna Allen and his nephew Wesley Edwards fled the state. After several months' chase, the two were located by Baldwin-Felts detectives in Iowa after a tip from an informant. Sidna Allen maintained until the end of his life that this informant was Maude Iroller, Wesley's fiancee, who provided information on the fugitives' location in exchange for $500 from the detective agency. Others state that Miss Iroller’s father, who had never approved of his daughter’s romance with Wesley Edwards, tipped off the detectives that Maude was going to Des Moines to marry him. Knowing the two men were now in Des Moines, Baldwin-Felts detectives soon located the men, arrested them, and returned them to Carroll County to stand trial.