In March 1913, Floyd Allen and his son Claude were executed for the 14 March 1912  murder of Commonwealth’s Attorney William Foster.  The Allens’ case had gone through many twists and turns since the shootout in the Carroll County courthouse the previous March.  The trials of Floyd Allen, Claude Allen, Friel Allen, Sidna Allen, Wesley Edwards, and Sidna Edwards took place in Wytheville from April to December 1912.  The prosecution’s strategy was to prove the courthouse shooting was a premeditated conspiracy in order to make each defendant equally liable for the murders.  On 18 May 1912, Floyd Allen was found guilty of the first degree murder of Commonwealth’s Attorney Foster.  The prosecution’s strategy failed in the trial of Claude Allen.  He was convicted of the second degree murder of Judge Thornton Massie because the prosecution failed to prove a conspiracy.  Claude Allen then was tried twice for the murder of Foster.  The first trial resulted in a hung jury.  In the second trial, Allen was convicted of first degree murder.  Floyd and Claude Allen were sentenced to die in the electric chair at the Virginia Penitentiary on 22 November 1912.

The execution did not happen in November.  In order to allow the Allens time to appeal their sentences, Governor William Hodges Mann stayed the executions four times between November 1912 and March 1913.  Their appeals were twice rejected by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.  The United States Supreme Court declined to intervene.  With their appeals exhausted, Governor Mann set the executions for 28 March 1913.  During the four months of appeals, Mann received letters and petitions urging the governor to grant clemency to the Allens.  Mann refused.  That didn’t stop the Allens lawyers.  On 27 March 1913, with Governor Mann out of state, they suggested to Lt. Governor J. Taylor Ellyson that he had the authority to grant clemency in Mann’s absence.  Virginia Attorney General Samuel Williams, questioned by Ellyson on the constitutionality of this issue, ruled that the Lt. Governor had no power to act during a temporary absence of the governor.  Mann learned of Ellyson’s query to the Attorney General and quickly returned to Virginia to ensure the executions were carried out.

Floyd Allen died in the electric chair at 1:31 pm on 28 March 1913.  Claude was executed eleven minutes later.  The events of 14 March 1912 have been the subject of numerous books and articles with many of the facts of the case disputed (for example, who shot first).  Often lost in the details of the case are those who died as a result of the shootout.  Last night, the Carroll County Historical Society, as part of a Centennial Symposium, held a memorial service to remember the victims:  Judge Thornton Massie, Commonwealth’s Attorney William Foster, Sheriff Lewis Webb, juror Augustus Fowler and trial witness Elizabeth (Bettie) Ayers.  Today, the Society is conducting grave site wreath-laying ceremonies for the five.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

List of Records at the Library of Virginia related to the Carroll County courthouse shooting

• Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth, Papers relevant to the Floyd Allen case, 1912-1922, accession 21690 and 39265, State Records Collection.
• Records of the Virginia Penitentiary, 1796-1991 (bulk 1906-1970), accession 41558, State Records Collection.
• Wythe County (Va.), Circuit Court, Commonwealth of Virginia v. Floyd Allen, April-May 1912 (trial transcript), accession 28311, Local Records Collection.
• The Virginia Newspaper Project has partnered with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library of Congress, and other newspaper projects, to digitize select Virginia newspapers published from 1860 to 1922 via Chronicling America.  The newspapers are full text searchable.  Researchers can read contemporary media coverage of the shootout and subsequent trials.

Entries in the Dictionary of Virginia Biography related to the Carroll County courthouse shooting

• Floyd Allen (1856-1913)
• William Gibboney Baldwin (1860-1936), Co-founder of Baldwin-Felts Detectives
• David Winton Bolen (1850-1932), Floyd Allen’s attorney on 14 March 1912
• Stuart Bland Campbell (1888-1973), Wythe County Commonwealth’s Attorney, prosecuted Floyd Allen
• Robert Walter Childress (1889-1956), member of posse that chased Floyd Allen et all after the shooting
• Charles Francis Cocke (1886-1971), Sidna Allen’s attorney during his appeals

*Update – 21 March 2012*

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce a new blog, Fit to Print:  Dispatches from the Virginia Newspaper Project @ The Library of Virginia.  The first post, 100 Years Ago – Law and Disorder, is about the Allen’s and the Carroll County Courthouse shooting.

The Virginia Penitentiary collection came to the Library in multiple accessions over several decades. In many cases, the original order of the material had been disturbed or was unidentifiable.  The bulk of this collection has never been accessible.  Researchers are strongly urged to read the Virginia Penitentiary finding aid.  The guide describes the contents of the collection in detail.  It also notes the significant gaps in the collection as well as cross-references to other collections at the Library of Virginia containing Penitentiary material.

I found many interesting stories while processing this collection including: Susan Smith, #7956, writing Superintendent J.B. Wood regarding parole; an influenza outbreak in a State Convict Road Force camp in 1918; the shooting of Ballard Campbell, #20559, during an escape attempt from the State Farm in 1932; the injury of James Bell, #24204, who lost his eye while working on the State Convict Road Force in 1933; a report of the successful escape of Arthur Owens, #32265, from State Convict Road Force Camp 16 on 10 December 1934; and the unsuccessful escape attempt of Robert H. Wilson, #19440, from State Convict Road Force Camp 27 on 29 April 1935.

One blog post cannot do justice to the wealth of information found in this collection. Over the next several weeks and months, Out of the Box will highlight these stories in a new series of posts:  Mug Shot Monday;  Great (or not so great) Escapes;  and Prisoner Letters.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

Transcript of Susan Smith, #7956, Letter to Superintendent J.B. Wood, 1 January 1911

Transcript of C.F. Graham Letter to Superintendent R.M. Youell, 10 March 1933

Transcript of James Bell, #24204, letter to Superintendent R.M. Youell, 23 April 1933

The circumstances surrounding Robinson’s suicide are documented in an investigative report dated 5 May 1954 written by W. F. Smyth, Jr., Penitentiary Superintendent, to R. M. Youell, Director, Division of Corrections, Department of Welfare. The report can be found in the Virginia Penitentiary Execution Files (Accession 38103), which also contain court records, Robinson’s mug shot, criminal record, death certificate, and suicide notes, as well as the razor blade he used to cut his wrist in his first suicide attempt.

Joseph Robinson’s saga began nine years earlier. In the spring of 1943, Robinson and his girlfriend Margaret Fowler Barnes went on a crime spree in Portsmouth, committing several robberies and assaults culminating in the armed robbery of the Capital Theater. On 11 May 1943 at 10:00 p.m., theater manager Marc A. Terrell was shot and robbed of more than $700. The robbery occurred in the crowded main auditorium of the Capital Theater where over 1,000 people were viewing the movie Casablanca. Terrell was walking down the aisle with the box office receipts when Robinson and Barnes approached Terrell. Robinson shot Terrell in the stomach, grabbed the box of money, fired several shots in the air to terrorize the audience, and escaped. Terrell died five days later and the pair of bandits fled to New York State. The couple continued their crime spree in New York, where they were convicted of several robberies; Robinson was sentenced to a 15-45 year sentence and Fowler to a 10-30 year sentence.

Following an investigation by the Portsmouth police, Robinson and Fowler were extradited from New York to Virginia to stand trial for murder, armed robbery, and felonious assault. Barnes was convicted on all counts on 28 February 1951 and sentenced to three life terms in the Virginia Penitentiary. Robinson was also convicted and on 9 April 1951, Portsmouth Court of Hustings Judge F. E. Kellam sentenced Robinson to death for first degree murder, 30 years to life for robbery, and ten years for malicious assault. Kellam added that Robinson had “a heart of steel” and set the execution for 11 May 1951. However, Robinson’s appeals delayed the execution for several years until the court finally set a new date and time of 4 May 1954 at 7 a.m.

On the morning of his scheduled execution, Robinson did not sleep. In his cell on death row in the East Basement of the Virginia Penitentiary, he paced but said very little to the guards. At 5:12 a.m., Robinson asked L. K. Gangwer, Officer-in-Charge, “how much time do I have?” When told he had approximately two hours, Robinson told John Bradley, the guard on duty, that he was going to sleep.

Bradley looked into Robinson’s cell at 5:30 a.m. and saw him hanging from a sheet tied to a plumbing pipe. He immediately called for assistance and Gangwer and H. T. Harrison, Jr., Medical Externe, arrived within minutes. To thwart any rescue effort, Robinson had stuck a piece of a broken wooden spoon in the lock. When prison staff finally got the door open and cut down Robinson, he was dead. Robinson had also cut his left wrist with a Gillette double edge razor blade that he had smuggled into the death house in his shoes. Dr. Herman Nachman, a State medical examiner, said that the razor was not the cause of death. Nachman ruled death was due to strangulation.

Robinson left three suicide notes. The first note read:

i shall Die By my hands[.] i cannot think of any Reason why i Should let the State have Me put to Death. Die i must as it has Been said. i will Die By my hands[.] it cannot, it will not Be Said i Joseph Robinson were kill by the State[.] By Joseph Robinson, May 3, 1954, P.S. you cant live for ever. [sic].

In the second note Robinson wrote “i Didn’t want to Do this But if the State can cross me up, then i will Cross the State up. i live for two things in life money and women i can get them here.” [sic] In the third note, Robinson apologized to John Bradley, the guard on duty, for committing suicide on his watch:

i didn’t wont to Do this on your time. you is a Fined man. i tried to Get it over on that old Dog time. you shouldn’t work here Mr. [Bradley]. nothing here But Dogs. Mr. [Bradley] i Just cant let these Rats Kill Me. i want you to know Mr. [Bradley] i am sorry to Do this on your time. Be Good Mr. [Bradley.] May God be with you always.

Penitentiary Superintendent W. F. Smyth’s investigation provided a possible reason for Robinson’s suicide. Penitentiary officials interviewed another death row inmate, John Clay Kensinger, about his conversations with Robinson. Kensinger said Robinson planned to kill himself because he did not want Captain Weatherspoon, the guard on duty from 4:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., to see him die. He added that “Captain Weatherspoon had given him a hard time but he was going to get the last laugh on Weatherspoon, and he wasn’t going to see him die.” Kensinger also said that “Joe told me that Captain Weatherspoon had said he had seen 21 men die and he hoped to see one more.” Grover Willie Newman, a second death row inmate, confirmed Kensinger’s accounts. He also recounted that Robinson said, “Captain ‘Spoon would have a sad look on his face today, because he was going to get ahead of him.”

The Execution Files (accession 38103) subseries is open to researchers. The remainder of the Virginia Penitentiary Records Collection (accession 41558) is closed for processing. The collection will be open to researchers sometime in 2011.  [Update:  This collection is now open to researchers.]

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist

On 16 August 1912, 17-year-old Virginia Christian was electrocuted at the Virginia Penitentiary for the 18 March 1912 murder of Ida Belote, her white employer. Today, she remains the only woman to be executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia since the General Assembly centralized executions at the Virginia State Penitentiary in 1908. That historic distinction may be about to change. Barring any intervention by the judicial system or Governor Robert McDonnell, Teresa Lewis will be executed on 23 September 2010 at the Greensville Correctional Center for her role in the murder of her husband, Julian Lewis. Lewis’s pending execution has sparked renewed interest in the Christian case.

The Library of Virginia has a variety of documents concerning Virginia Christian’s execution. Rather than summarizing the case, I will let a representative sample of 51 documents tell the story from all sides: Christian’s family and her attorneys, Belote’s family, the prosecutor, and Governor William Hodges Mann. These documents were drawn from various State Records collections including:  Virginia Dept. of Corrections, State Penitentiary; Secretary of the Commonwealth, Executive Papers; and Records of Governor William Mann. Each image caption includes the citation of the document. The records of the Virginia State Penitentiary Collection, 1796-1991 (Accession 41558) are now open to researchers.

Readers interested in exploring how the Christian case was covered in the media should consult the Library of Virginia’s extensive newspaper collection. Click here for a select list of newspaper articles on the case. Derryn Moten’s 1998 dissertation, “A Gruesome Warning to Black Girls:  The August 16, 1912 Execution of Virginia Christian,” is a comprehensive history of the case. The Library has a copy on microfilm (Film 1497) that is available for in-library use only.  An article in the 15 September 2010 issue of Style Weekly, “Blood Sisters” by Melissa Scott Sinclair, explores the similaries between the Christian and Lewis cases.

-Roger Christman, Senior State Records Archivist
Original post edited for clarity

For more information on Ida V. Belote see Souls of the Departed:  Ida V. Belote

Transcription of George Fields Letter

Transcription of J. Thomas Newsome Letter

Transcription of Charlotte Christian Letter

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Warden Raymond Muncy's keys to the death chamber and electric chair.

The Virginia State Penitentiary Collection includes some unique items related to executions in Virginia in the late 1980s and early 1990s:  keys to the electric chair control panel, head electrodes, and death chamber at the Penitentiary.  These items were owned by Raymond M. Muncy, who served as warden from February 1987 until the Penitentiary closed in December 1990. They were donated to the Library of Virginia by Richard Oliver, a former Virginia Department of Corrections official.  Other records include execution files for Earl Clanton (14 April 1988), Alton Wayne (30 August 1989), Richard Boggs (19 July 1990), Wilbert Evans (17 October 1990), and Buddy Justus (13 December 1990); and four audio cassettes describing the executions of Richard Whitley (6 July 1987), Wayne, Boggs and Evans.  The recordings, made by unidentified Department of Corrections staff members in the death chamber, provide a chilling step-by-step description of each execution as it happened: the reading of the death sentence by the Warden,  administration of last rites, final statement by the prisoner, attachment of the prisoner to the chair, administration of electric voltage, time of death, and removal of the body from the death house.

These records are part of the Virginia State Penitentiary Collection, 1796-1991 (Accession 41558).  Access to the execution files and four audio cassettes is restricted for 50 years from date of execution.  This collection is currently closed for processing.  [Update:  this collection is now open to researchers. ]

–Roger Christman, LVA Senior State Records Archivist