On March 12, 1912, a gunfight broke out in the Carroll County Courthouse after the conviction of Floyd Allen, wealthy landowner and patriarch of the then-powerful Allen clan. The story made national headlines until it was eclipsed by the sinking of the
Titanic on April 12, 1912. Floyd Allen was on trial for illegal rescue of prisoners, assault and battery, and interfering with deputies. The charges stemmed from an altercation during which he freed his nephews—who had been arrested for brawling and disrupting a religious service, fled to North Carolina, but were recaptured and being taken to the Carroll county jail—and pistol-whipped a deputy sheriff with his own malfunctioning gun, leaving the officer unconscious. Arrogant and short-tempered, Floyd had vowed he would never spend a day in jail. He had previously avoided jail time for other crimes, including killing a black man who was supposedly hunting on his property in North Carolina, nearly killing the successful purchaser of a farm he wanted, and even attempting to kill his own brother. Prosecutor William Foster (who had won his elective office by defeating another Allen clan member) received death threats but proceeded to trial beginning on March 12. However, the jury was deadlocked and therefore kept overnight in a local hotel. The next morning, after Floyd was convicted, Judge Thornton Massie refused to set aside the verdict (as had happened in an earlier case), and sentenced Floyd Allen to a year in jail and a $1000 fine, at which point Allen stood up and openly refused to go. Gunfire erupted between lawmen and Floyd and several Allen family members present at the trial who came to his "aid". Researchers continue to disagree as to who fired the first shot. An estimated fifty shots were exchanged before more than 100 witnesses; Judge Massie, prosecutor Foster, Sheriff Lewis Webb, and the jury foreman were shot dead, and a witness died of her wounds the following day. Floyd, his brother Sidna, the court clerk, a deputy, another juror and two spectators were wounded. Floyd and his family initially escaped. Because Virginia law at the time said deputies' law enforcement powers depended on their sheriff being alive, the assistant court clerk
S. Floyd Landreth telegraphed Governor
William Hodges Mann, who sent deputies employed by the
Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency by train from Roanoke. The wounded Floyd Allen and his son Victor had stayed in a Hillsville hotel overnight and were arrested the next morning. Other members of the Allen clan were soon captured. However, Sidna Allen and his cousin Wesley Edwards escaped, and were captured months later in
Des Moines, Iowa. For their parts in the fatal melee, Floyd and Claude Allen eventually received the
death penalty, and were
electrocuted in late March 1913. Victor Allen was later acquitted: Governor
Elbert Lee Trinkle pardoned two Allen cousins in 1922, and Governor
Harry F. Byrd pardoned Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards in 1926. ==Points of interest==