A KENTUCKY BULLY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 195, 12 May 1908, Page 2

A KENTUCKY BULLY.

' AMAZING CAREER OF CRIME.' ■ Judge Hargis, of. Jackson, Kentucky, waa (says the New York correspondent. of the "Daily Telegraph" .011 February 7) shot yesterday afternoon by his reprobate son, and died m the; evening; and "to-day his'elaborate £300 casket, which" he had had mado. t6 order two'months "ago, - "in case of emer-> geiicy,'.' contains' his'corpse; '."Judge 'Har- V gis's death; which tbok'- place in: his. own country shop/ closes •'£ .'series*-'of feuds 'in" Breatliill County, Kentucky, which can only.•bu paralleled by the' fierce /Vendettas <«£ Sicilian or 1 Corsicaii romance.' That such a career'is.'possible'in modern;times in civilised' America sccriis almost ' beyond realisation, except to .those with practical; acquaintancs of the conditions existing in certain portions of tho Southern States. • 'In Breatliill County, >Keivtucky, it'is; possible lor a democratic boss to bo a- county judge, a shopkeeper*,'and a dispenser Apolitical patronage, and Judge Hargis; though a rude, "uneducated man,'was'all these .arid other things besides.: Tho deceased nian spent several thousands of pounds—£4o,ooo," according to the Jackson ~ correspondent of tlie "New York World"—in'deferidmg charges of : murder against him; but' whother on charges, of murder or lesser crimes! the' law always failed to reach him.-,,• He-dominated Breatliill County politically, and his.influenco was such that for twenty years his misdeeds in the mountains of Kentucky. went; unpunished until yesterday, when Beach ; Hargis, his drunken son, aged 21,-who bitterly resented a thrashing his father had. giv;en him 011 tho;previous day, went into his storo and shot him down like a dog/ . The judge was only, wounded, and- he. shrieked .for mercy, whereupon . his<-. son. responded. . .by emptying t»-o;more barrels into the.prostrat's body. of his' father, who died ten riiinutea late;. • -''[r

The deceased judgo was the central figure;.'' ia what Kentuckyians call tho "Great Hafgia \-. Cockrill feud," the origin of which many ; years ago was a 'neighbours' quarrel 'about' some land. Family . differences, business 'differences,- and political • differences all figured in tho great quarrel. The Hargises had'long been dominant in Breatbill-County, where.tliey conducted a general shop,, wera engaged in the lumber trade, and were/generally .active. Tho brothers James, Alexan- • der, and Elbert .were good business men, and . accumulated a large, fortune. The Cockrill family, opposed tho Hargises at the. polls,- and feeling was bitter when one day Benjamin ; Hargis, a younger, brother of Judge jamej • Hargis, met one of the Cockrill boys in i publichouse near. Jackson. . Shots w.ero ex-, changed, '■/■and Cockrill killed Benjaniii Hargii. . In the autumn of 1902 came the first'mup-: . der in tho fend.,. Dr; Cox, of Jackson; guar ' dian of tho Cockrill boys, was tho victim . Ho was called from his homo one higlit to, answer a professional call, and as ho entered his gate 011 his. way homo hq was shot by a concealed assassin: ' Afterward John Smith', John Abner, and others, of the. aliased Hargis band of assasins were accused of., tho crime, and in a confession miido by ono ; .of them 110 asserted that Judge Hargis had . hired , them to kill Dr. Cox. Innocent per-'' sons becamo involved in the vendetta, and it is estimated that twenty-three'homes and many business places .Were .' burned,. and ' sixty murders-were'done in street tights or from ambush during the political, campaigns, : ■ in which sevcra| families became engaged. V., When the brilliant young lawyer, James! Marcum, ,lay dead'in the streets of Jackson', riddled by bullets from the guns of dssassins hired by .Hargis,, Mrs. . Marcum, • a snia.ll,; . slender, pretty girl, ran in an agony of grief to her husband's side, kneeling there ami dabbling her handkerchief, in the blood of tho fallen man. She passionately, called 011, God for vengeance, and'cried, "I swear that tho moil who did this shall die by the gallows if God lets me live and gives 1110 strength." Her husband was slain in May, five vearsago, and although tlie little woman laboured with feverish energy, and made great bring tho murderers to just-ico, time lias seen her hope prow moro and more elusive. • The final blow fell in July last, when, by trickery,' Hargis was acquitted of Mr. Marcum's murder. . ' • . Now Judge Hargis, head of the Hargis clan, and tho most notorious feudist, of time, lips dead in ail expensive coffin, and his son is raving liko a maniac in gaol.. Yesterday and to-day tho parricide tried to commit suicide, and was. only restrained by force. When lie shot his father lio was ro-. covering from a drunken debauch.