53 Facts About Floyd Allen

Floyd Allen was an American landowner and patriarch of the Allen clan of Carroll County, Virginia.

Floyd Allen was convicted and executed for murder in 1913 after a sensational courthouse shootout the previous year that left a judge, prosecutor, sheriff, and three others dead, although the validity of the conviction has been a source of debate within Carroll County for decades.

Floyd Allen was born in 1856 and spent much of his life living in Cana, Virginia, located below Fancy Gap Mountain in Carroll County.

Floyd Allen was the patriarch of the county's most prominent family, which, in addition to owning large tracts of farmland and a prosperous general store, were active in local politics as proud Southern Democrats.

Floyd Allen was noted for his generosity, but his quick temper and easily injured pride.

Floyd Allen had a history of violent altercations, including killing a black man who was supposedly hunting on his property in North Carolina, beating a police officer in Mount Airy and later shooting his own cousin.

Judge Jackson recalled a trial in 1904 in which Floyd Allen was convicted of assaulting a neighbor, Noah Combs.

Floyd Allen had wanted to buy a farm owned by one of his own brothers, but could not agree on a price.

At the next term of court, Allen produced an order of clemency from Governor Andrew J Montague suspending the jail sentence.

Floyd Allen's body bore the scars of thirteen bullet wounds, five of them inflicted in quarrels with his own family.

In 1910, Sidna Floyd Allen was tried in the United States court at Greensboro, North Carolina for making twenty-dollar counterfeit coins.

Floyd Allen met the buggy south of Sidna Allen's home as he was on the way to his own home.

Deputy Samuels pulled a gun and ordered Floyd Allen to move away, and Floyd Allen rode back past the buggy to Sidna's store where he then blocked the narrow road with his mare.

Floyd Allen later stated that he never intended to have the boys set completely free, he just wanted them to be released from their manacles.

Floyd Allen had them handcuffed and tied up with a rope.

Sidna Floyd Allen was never tried for his part in the altercation, while Barnett Floyd Allen was acquitted at trial.

When Floyd Allen's case was set for trial, rumors arose that he had sent word to Deputy Samuels that he would kill Samuels if the deputy testified against him.

Floyd Allen later denied this, but the reported threat caused Samuels to leave the state the same night it was delivered.

Friel Floyd Allen sat in the back of the room, and the Edwards boys stood on benches next to the north wall.

Floyd Allen 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.

Many accounts claim that Floyd Allen initiated the confrontation by pulling a gun in court.

Floyd Allen stated that only then did he draw his own revolver and begin shooting.

Elizabeth Ayers, a 19-year-old subpoenaed witness who had testified against Floyd Allen, was shot in the back while trying to leave the courtroom, and died at home the next day.

Floyd Allen, 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 acquitted of involvement in the shootout.

Friel Floyd Allen gave himself up to detectives in the company of his father, Jack Floyd Allen, who worried his son might be killed while being apprehended.

Agent Faddis and four men raided Floyd Allen's property, seizing illegal stills and fifty gallons of moonshine.

Sidna Floyd 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.

Floyd Allen was the first to be brought to trial on a charge of murdering Judge Massie, Sheriff Webb, and Commonwealth's Attorney Foster.

Bolen had been standing next to Floyd Allen, and was facing Judge Massie when the first shots struck the judge's robes.

Deputy Clerk Dexter Goad admitted firing the second shot at Floyd Allen, striking him in the pelvis.

Floyd Allen said he thought Floyd's fumbling with his sweater buttons was a prelude to drawing his pistol.

Floyd Allen testified that he saw the crowd come out of the court house, and recognized Floyd and Sidna Allen as the last to leave, both of them following and firing as they backed out, apparently in response to fire coming from within the courthouse.

The last two bullets were fired by Floyd Allen and went through two of the steps of one of the courthouse's stairways, where they can still be viewed today.

Floyd Allen testified that one of the girls pointed out some of the Allens leaving the courthouse, when Sidna Allen came toward him, pointed his pistol at him, and fired.

Marshall then related that Sidna Floyd Allen's bullet buried itself in the window about six inches above his head.

Floyd Allen testified that he saw Sidna Allen firing just about the time he saw Deputy Clerk Goad fire.

Victor Floyd Allen asserted that Claude had taken Victor's handgun as the two left their hotel in Hillsville on that morning.

Floyd Allen denied firing a gun during the courthouse shootings, and stated that he did not see who fired the first shot, but thought that it came from the vicinity of Deputy Clerk Goad's desk.

Sidna Floyd Allen denied that he shot Judge Massie, or that he fired at Commonwealth's Attorney Foster, Sheriff Webb, or at Juror Fowler.

Floyd Allen claimed that when the shooting began, he drew his own revolver and fired five times at Deputy Clerk Goad and Deputy Sheriff Gillespie, because both men were firing at him.

Sidna Floyd Allen claimed that when he left the courthouse, Goad followed behind him, shooting him through the left arm, the bullet lodging in his left side.

Floyd Allen stated that he fired back at Goad on the courthouse steps, but denied shooting at Treasurer J B Marshall.

Floyd Allen said he went to Blankenship's Livery Stable after the incident, where he met other family members and left Hillsville with Claude Allen, Wesley Edwards, and Sidna Edwards.

Floyd Allen was tried for the first-degree murder of Commonwealth's Attorney Foster.

In July 1912, after three separate trials, Claude Floyd 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.

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.

Sidna Floyd Allen pleaded guilty and 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.

Floyd Allen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the shooting of Sheriff Webb, and was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.

Friel Floyd Allen was tried in August 1912 and after confessing to shooting prosecutor Foster, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Floyd Allen was tried in federal court, found guilty, and sentenced to a year in federal prison at Moundsville, West Virginia.

Floyd Allen began his sentence in August 1913, and died of pneumonia in prison on November 25,1913.

Jack Floyd Allen lost his job as constable as a result of the Hillsville shooting, and soon his life.

Jack Floyd Allen was buried near his home in Carroll County, in the presence of a thousand mourners.