Crime Newspaper Data for Bell County Kentucky
 

May 15, 1885
The Marion Daily Star, Marion Ohio

TRIPLE KILLING
Terrible and Distressing Affair near Pineville, Ky.
A Family Fired Upon While Returning from Church, and Three of Them Killed.
    Woodbine, Ky., May 12-Intelligence has just been received that another chapter has been added to the bloody record of the Bell County vendetta, and three more persons sent into eternity by Andrew J. Johnson, the notorious outlaw and apparently implacable demon. Sunday as Josh Hoskins, Jailor of Bell County, was returning from church, accompanied by several of his children and Thomas Napier, the whole party was fired upon by Johnson, who was lying in wait behind a building in the little town of Pineville, and Hoskins, his little daughter, ten years old, and Napier were instantly killed. The weapon used was a large revolver, the first shot killing Napier, and the second killing both Hoskins and the child, who was standing behind her father in the wagon, with her hands upon his shoulder. This assassination is the result of a difficulty between Napier and Johnson the day of the last Presidential election, when Napier was wounded in the eye by a shot from Johnson's ever ready pistol. As soon as Johnson had committed the bloody deed he called to his aid two of his friends, and they were intrenched in Johnson's house at dark last night, defying the authorities and threatening to kill the first person who undertook the arrest of the murderer. Excitement was at fever heat, and a posse is being summoned to storm Fort Johnson, and capture the culprit and his command. The three persons killed by Johnson swells the list of his victims to five, all killed in the past three years.  

HOT SOUTHERN BLOOD
A Man Killed for Slapping a Bad Boy-An Editor Shot.
    Pineville, Ky., Dec. 14- As S.W. Begley was walking down the street Monday morning a small boy named Ebb Renfroe jumped before him and snapped a toy pistol in his face. Begley threw out his hands and pushed the boy off the sidewalk, when he picked up a rock and struck Begley. Begley pushed or slapped him again, when he ran off to where his father, T.R. Renfroe, lived. His father saw him crying, and asked the reason, and was told that Begley had knocked him down for nothing. this made Renfroe furious, and he started up the street, saying that he would kill any man who would knock his children around.
    Several persons expostulated with him, but to no avail. He went to direct to Begley's house, and was told by Begley that he did not strike the boy. Renfroe then started off and said, "I will investigate this matter." He returned later, however, and in a quarrel which ensued shot Begley. The bullet took effect in the right side of the face, near the ear, and entered the brain. Begley fell like a beef, and his blood and brains scattered over the sidewalk. Begley was carried to his home next door, where he died in a few hours. Begley has four brothers who live here, and all of them are fighting men.

It is reported that Frank Phillips was killed by Capt. A.M. Smith, near Pineville, Ky., on the 20th inst. A grudge dating back to the war is the cause assigned.

Outlaw Sentenced
Pineville, Ky., Feb. 6-Clem Partin, the Bell county outlaw, was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary on a charge of shooting to kill. Partin yet has several charges of graver character to answer, chief among which is one for rape.

November 10, 1897
Newark Daily Advocate, Newark Ohio

At Pineville, Ky., Andrew Vaughn shot his wife and then suicided.

November 4, 1898
Newark Daily Advocate, Newark Ohio

As the result of a feud, John Meadows at Pineville, Ky., shot dead two brothers, John and Clayton Matthews.

December 24, 1900
Newark Daily Advocate, Newark Ohio

Floyd Brice fatally shot from ambush at Pineville, Ky.

December 10, 1901
The Landmark, Statesville North Carolina

Berry Howard, under indictment for complicity in the assassination of the late Governor William Goebel, was arrested at Pineville, Ky., Saturday. Howard had been keeping out of the way since he was indicted.

Shot and Killed.
    Pineville, KY., Oct. 27-Jesse Broughton, who was recently convicted on the charge of murdering Charles McIntyre, but who secured a new trial, was shot and killed at West Pineville. Britt Harlin was badly wounded at the same time. Harlin says he, with Broughton and Joe Sparks, was sitting on the railroad talking, when Will and Hays Peace came up and fired. Broughton is a mine boss and it is said he reprimanded the Peace boys.

CHARGED WITH MURDER
Pineville, Ky.-John Rooney, a miner, is held here by police charged with the murder of Edward Baker, 15, who was shot during an argument. Rufus baker, 45, the boy's father was probably fatally wounded.

POLICE CHIEF KILLED BY ASSISTANT OVER ARREST OF PRISONER
    Pineville, Ky., April 29-Joseph Asher, police chief, was shot and instantly killed in police court here last Tuesday by Garrett Smith, assistant chief, following an altercation between the officers concerning an arrest of a prisoner for liquor law violation.
    Asher was hot  five times, Smith surrendered to Jailer James Howard.
    The shooting occurred in the court Police Judge Daniel Hoskins Smith, Judge Hoskins said, had arrested a man on a charge of drunkenness and the prisoner had been fined $20. The prisoner paid the fine and departed to return a short time later accompanied by Asher. Ascher asserted, the judge said, that the man should not have been arrested in an altercation and the shooting followed.
    Asher did not speak after the shooting began and did not return Smith's fire, Judge Hoskins said.

Toting Guns Bad Practice
     Over in Pineville, Kentucky, the other day, they sentenced a 13 year old boy to imprisonment for life on a plea of guilty to the charge of killing a playmate. The circumstances surrounding the admission of guilt and the sentencing were pathetic. Perhaps the judge could do nothing less than inflict a life penalty, but there seem to be circumstances incidental to the killing that would warrant a stay of that sentence.
     It is a well-known fact that in Kentucky the people are privileged to carry firearms. This lad carried a revolver because it was common practice among the boys. At the trial he said that lads paraded about the streets with revolvers, and so he carried one. In a quarrel, the other lad picked up a stick, and Heath Greer, the 13 year old boy, pulled a gun and fired the fatal shot.
    We do not want to place the blame upon the parents, but we do believe that the community in which he lived should see that the law is enforced and that punishment is meted out rather than excusing the carrying of concealed weapons.
      The boy must got to the reformatory until he is twenty-one years of age, and then to prison for the remainder of his life. The lessons learned at reformatories do not tend to make boys better. The companionship with all kinds of criminals does not reform. This lad, who, in the heat of argument, shot and killed a playmate, deserves a lesson, but no good will result by railroading him to prison for life. He has not yet really learned right from wrong. Let us picture here in Sheboygan some lad of thirteen years of age being classed as a hardened criminal because of some infringement of the law. Understand, dear reader, we do not condone crime, but there are cetain extenuating circumstances that deserve consideration.
    Now that a forcible lesson has been brought to the leading citizens of Pineville, they are going to organize a Scout movement so that the boys will be taught good, wholesome recreation, and the danger of gun-toting and quarreling. Young lads in Kentucky have seen their fathers carry guns, and they have seen infractions of the law winked at, including moonshine depredations. Under an atmosphere like that, it is not at all surprising that crime is committed.
    This object lesson from Pineville, Kentucky, ought to set every parent thinking about our present-day conditions when laws are winked at, and when children see their own parents imbibing of illicit liquor. The laws must either be enforced or amended so that the child may understand that this is not an age of bad faith.

Blue Grass Sheriff
Appointed sheriff of Bell county to succeed her late husband, Mrs. Ellen Broughton, of Pineville, Kentucky may some day have the duty of locking up Theodore Dreiser, famous author of "An American Tragedy," for it was here that Dreiser was indicted on an immorality charge while investigating conditions in the mining district. More than 100 persons are at present under indictment in Bell and Harlan counties for murder and other offenses connected with the mine war.

Back -- Home