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GIVEN A LIFE TERMfMITCHELL COUNTY JURY FURGE-SON GUILTY.HILLING 1GCIISRED IN DEG.Wm. Rhodes an Insurance Man Was the Victim—A Hard Legal Battle Fonprbt in the Case.We, the jury find the defendant, L. K. Furgeson, guilty of murder In the first degree and assess his punishment at confinement in the state penitentiary for life. H. J. FREE, Foreman.The above verdict was returned by the jury about 7:35 Friday evening 1j the Ferguson case, Judge Shepherd delivered his charge about 4:30 and the jury retired to consider of the verdict, which was soon announced.Ferguson was charged with the mur cier of Wm. Rho'des, an Insurance agent in this city on the 27th day of December, on one of the main streets of the town. The shooting occurred about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the day, and created intense excitement at the time.It appears that the day previous to the shooting Wm. Rhodes had filed a complaint against Ferguson for using indecent and abusive language In the presence of his (Rho'des’) wife, and this brought on the trouble, and caused Rhodes to lose his life. At the time Rhodes was shot he was crossing the street from the corner of Shep perd’s grocery store to the Colorado Drug Store, when it is alleged that Ferguson wauked towards him with a shot gun and fired one shot into his body, causing almost instant death. Ferguson was taken into custo'dy and admitted that he killed the deceased, but attempted to prove that the said Rhodes had threatened his life, and also that he was temporarily Insane when he fired the fatal shot. The state resisted all of these allegations an'd made a vigorous fight to have Ferguson condemned to die, but the advanced age of the defendant perhaps saved hig life.
Newspaper Details
Abilene Daily Reporter
Abilene, Texas, US
Mon, Jan 27, 1908
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 12 Aug 2023
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