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Killing■_ChehalisColeman Lad, Held for Shooting His Playmate, May Be First Child of His Age tofIBe Tried for Murder; Former KentuckyFeudists Live in Country Where TragedyOccurred; More Trouble Is FearedBY HAL ARMSTRONGStaff Correspondent of The StarCHEHALIS, Oct. 24.—Herbert Coleman, who, at the age of six, has “killed his man,” was charged here today with being a delinquent boy.His hearing in juvenile court, which was scheduled for Tuesday, with every aspect of a first degree murder trial, was postponed until November 2, after a conference here at noon, Monday, between Judge A W. Reynolds, Prosecutor Herman Allen and the sheriff. The postponement wa»made, it was explained, because manyA1Imaterial witnesses are acting as guides to hunters in the woods and\4r.they cannot be reached until the hunting season is It is contended by the state that Herbert shot and mortally wound-led at Randle last Tuesday, with his father’s shotgun, Lynn Peters,| ^ | his nine-year-old schoolmate, after ay sided quarrel, and that he did it in cold blood.l ■with premeditation and malicious design. 1It will be up to the discretion of Judge Reynold* to determine whether Herbert’s youthful brain w*» sufficiently developed and keen to understand the?enormity of what he did.i- je ,i1r1! “He knew enough to use a shotgun. He knewJ what it was to kill. He threatened to kill. And he. did kill. He had that much knowledge/’ Prosecutor * Herman Allen declared today, when he filed the p!charge of delinquency against the Coleman boy.Allen pursed his lips.“It is time we did something:,“ he said, “to stop these £ | killings of children by other children. This shooting: isn’t i j the first, by any means, in the Big Bottom country, of one boy by another boy. But it is the first killing that we’ve had the evidence on—sufficient evidence to give a jury.A charge of murder may be lodged against the Coleman boy. .|B|pr.“If, said Allen, “the boy’s father demands a jury trial, and he is entitled to a jury if he wishes one, it is not unlikely that Judge Reynolds will assign the trial to the superior court, in which case the charge would be murder.”In this event, Herbert Coleman will be the first child of bis age to be tried on such a charge in this state, probably in aJU the United States, and likely in the entire world.Witnesses, some score of them, began trekking into Chehalis today for the trial. They are former Kentuckians, Tennesseeans. West Virginians, for the most part, progeny of feudists.They come from the Big Bottom country, where they came and settled from the Mountain Dew districts of theii native states. The Big Bottom is a country of hooked-nosed men and s^y, distrustful women.Handle, the sctne of the shooting tuk It to uphold the law. I tnle ef Lynn peters. In the geographi-1 ho. . \• fiIml center of the Win Bottom.At Handle there is no peace officer. Joe Hatfield, offered a sheriffs dcputynhip, declined.Hatfield wum a sheriff once In the i {mountains of Kentucky. At Handle i j he is a blacksmith, and more contented;Yesterday Hatfield told nie why he left Kentucky. The Hatfield* and the McCoys had long been killingone another, according to feudal S laws, an eye for an eye. a life for1r»iMa life, regardless.FTCl'D STARTS iOYKK A SOW“It all started over a pore ol* how. he said. “A McCoy owned her and site run In a llatfield’s grain. McCoy wouldn’t pen her up.“Word* led to words Then a Hatfield hoy married a McCoy girl and two McCoy boys cut him up with a knife. They tuk him to a cabin, where two Hatfields find** 'em.'If he lives.* says the Hatfields.• 4Well, a feller went my bond. I had to arrest-him. and in court he , ups and withdraws the bond. INIIOT (UlTIIKSFILL OK HM.K8 j“They like to done for me. They shot my clothes offen me. they come that clues. I got the clothes yet, all full o’ holes.“That night my wife says she is going to Washington state and has put up a sign that our farm is for sale. So we come West.There were tears in Hatfield’s steel gray ryes as hetold of their leave-taking.“We come here, he said, to ie peaceable. They was a lot of folks from hack there here ahead on ua. They was more conn* later.1 ain’t savin', y’onerstand. I ain't sayin’ nothin* about nobody, but *t looks to me like they is tooLynn Peters, 9, slaiiu byslaibullet fired by Herbert Coh-ttuin, 6, in ehild quarrel at Randle, Wash.Roosevelt Forgery Puts Woman in PenNEW YORK, Oct. 24- EmmaRichardson Burkett, HUlsdale, Ind., was sentenced to from six month* to thrtc years In the penitentiary today by Judge Alfred J. Talley formany young up* ’round here knowsforging the name of the late Col.too much about guns.I ain’t got young tins.?i‘we’ll let the law take its course. $|fhe dies, we’ll settle It right here.’j closet loaded. That's my own husi , He died, and the Hatfields roped the; ness Hut if t had young uns. I !two McCoys to tires and left ’em wouldn’t have no loaded guns. That . i riddled.Theodore Roosevelt to a not*.and 1keep m.v two guns staudin' in the jDes Moines Cars to Run After 10 Weekswould he mv motto.“That was the start of it. They’s “Hack where I, and most of these been killings ever Hence. Ever time { here others around here, come from, when things has settled clown quiet, ; the first thing a boy learns is somebody ups and kills somebody* about a gun.“Several Hatfields was sheriff | “It’s prone right into ’em, afore afore me. When 1 took the oath ll (Turn In Pare 7. Column tk. .DES MOINES. Rnva, Oct. 24.— Street gir service, h iltcd 10 weeks ago, will be resumed late this afternoon.Tlie Des Moines city council today passed a new franchise, drawn up by the street car owners, by aunanimous vote.
Newspaper Details
Seattle Star
Seattle, Washington, US
Mon, Oct 24, 1921
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Jessica A.
NA, 16 Dec 2022
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