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Tuesday night last at Ashland, the county seat of Clay county. Alabama, J. D. Thornton; editor of the Clay County Advance, a weekly newspaper, was sitting in front of his hearthstone, surrounded by his family, when a load of buckshot crashed through the window from-out of the darkness and tore the entire top of Thornton's head off. He fell a corpse at the feet of his mother. Thornton had but recently moved to Ashland, and it is said his paper for some time has been making war on certain lawless gangs that have been operating in the county and it is believed his murder is the result of this crusade.
[Source: Sunday, December 20, 1896 Galveston, Texas; Submitted by Janice Rice]
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