AMAZING VENDETTA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMAZING VENDETTA.

YEAR-OLD KENTUCKY FEUD'' BREAKS OUT AFRESH.. After ft short period of calm the old fetid. between the Hargis and Cockrill factions in <* Kentucky'has become a» virulent as,ever, and* three more victims have to be added to the/long list this sanguinary vendetta. has produced. The latest'phase of the muartel came a few weeks ago, when ex-Sheriff Ed. Calls* . ham. chief lieutenant of Jim Hargis, was mortally wounded by his brother-indaw, ■'.' John Spicer, during a fight in Callahan's store- in CrockcttsTille. ' A moment later Sjiicer was shot by Callahan's son, Wilson. and fell dead across his victim's body. At, the same time, in Jackson, 'Kentucky* Daniel White, a Hargisite, shot and killed Jim Fugate, of the Cocknll faction, in a street revolver duel. White himself was blinded. Now from the mountains and bands*« armed factionista are pouring into the. little town of Crocket tsville, registering mutual vows .of vengeance and preparing for it carnival of bloodshed. It was in .1897 that this vendetta—which, it is estimated, has resulted in forty or fifty houses being burnt and over sixtv people being murdered---begun. It had it* genesis in the endeavour of Jim Hargis, a wealthy Democratic " boss," to make himself the ruling power in the district. He succeeded in getting himself made county court judge, his brother Alexander a State Senator, and his bosom friend, " Ed." Callahan, slnvi-iff. Hargis had had a dispute with * m*n named Cocknll over some land. Cocknll died, and a Dr. Cox became guardian to the two sons he left. . John Hargi* (another brother of the "boss") wooed ' <•» certain Jane Card well, who, however, refused him, and became engaged to Dr. Cox. Jerry Cardwell. the young woman's bro titer, in a quarrel which ensued, shot John Hargis dead. Though he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, the assassin was granted a full pardon by the Republican Governor of the State, Shortly afterwards. Ben Hargis, another brother of the Democratic "boss," was murdered by Tom Cookrill. " Boss" Hargis spent a fortune in endeavouring to have Cockrill hanged, but failed, mainly in consequence of the legal astuteness of David Marcum Young, a lawyer. '■-~" UfiRKAVED WlFteVi APPEAL. This enraged the Hargises. Dr. Cox, of Jackson, was hind from his and shot by a hidden assassin. Subsequently some of the Hargis gang were accused o( the crime, and one of them confessed that lie had been hired by Judge Hargis to slay Dr. Cox. Then Lawyer Young was waylaid and murdered in* sight of Hargis and Callahan, and his widow, dipping her handkerchief in the. blood of her husband, uttered a wild prayer to the Almighty, Baying, "Let me live to see David's murderers" killed as they have murdered him." All this while Judge James Hargis went unscathed, owing to what is known in America as his "political pull." He spent, it is stated. £40,000 in defending himself against charges of murder and lesser crimes, the law always failing to reach him. But justice reached him from an unexpected quarter,, for lie, was struck down in February last by the hand.of his own son. The latter, a drunken ne'er-do-well, resented a thrashing his father had given him, and shot him Tike a dog in his own shop. Mrs. Young affirms that heaven is. Hi„ s V"eriiig her prayer. " Three months ago." s*he says. "' Roes' Harcis was murdered by his own son. Now* Callahan,'' she added, "has fallen at the hands of his brother-in-law'. White, who is blinded, was a brother of one of my husband's murderers, both of whom ate in gaol. When they are slain heaven's will will have been accomplished."