Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 8, 1921 Williamson, West Virginia – Hatfield and Felts Size Each Other Up in Court
From the Baltimore Sun of February 6, 1921:
Sid Hatfield And Tom Felts Size Each Other Up In Court ———-
Principal In Mingo Trial Engages In Duel Of Eyes With Head Of Detective Agency, As Process Of Securing Jury Slowly Drags Along. ———-
(By a Staff Correspondent of The Sun.)
Williamson, W. Va., Feb. 5.-This has been a day of speculation and rumors and of desperate struggle on the part of everyone, except Sid Hatfield and the 20 others on trial for the Matewan murders, to be reasonably cheerful and comfortable. Court adjourned before noon today without having added to the jury panel and left all of those in attendance upon the case with nothing to do except talk and wander about muddy streets in a dismal rain, with bare, scarred, cut-over hills rising at one’s elbows, it seemed, to press down the gloom.
Out of all that came to the front stories from quarters favorable to the defense that the prosecution is deliberately trying to prevent a jury being selected in this county. The theory is that there is little hope of any Mingo county jury convicting Hatfield and the others, while there may be some hope that a jury from another county will do so, if the West Virginia Legislature passes the bill permitting juries to be drawn in murder cases from other counties. Also the theory is that the desire of the prosecution to get the case before a jury where there would be more chance to convict is based upon more than the usual ardor of the prosecution for success, or even that ardor plus the anxiety of the Williamson coal operators for conviction.
Added to all of that is the blood feud created by the killing of Albert and Lee Felts in the Matewan battle. They were brothers of Tom Felts, manager of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Tom Felts, known in these parts as “the man-hunter extraordinary,” a suave gracious-mannered man, and next to John J. Coniff, chief counsel for the defense, the most impressive and distinguished looking man connected with the case, is on the spot, surrounded by a large number of trusted operatives. He is supposed to be paying part of the large force of lawyers assisting Prosecuting Attorney Bronson, and he wants blood for the blood of his brothers.
Melodrama in life is had when he appears in court. Sid Hatfield occupies his consciousness, and he occupies that of Hatfield. After he had directed attention of the court to Hatfield’s possession of guns in court, and thereby led not merely to disarming the mountain fighter, but to the frisking of everyone entering the courtroom, including reporters, who do not know which end of a pistol goes off, the absorption of the two men in each other, when Felts is in court, became more pronounced. Each concentrated upon the other, is moved by an almost boyish craving to emphasize by physical proximity lack of fear.
Grins At Detective.
A day or two ago, when court recessed for luncheon and Hatfield stood with his wife in the midst of the rather gay party of prisoners and their friends, Felts deliberately worked his way through the crowd for no purpose apparently other than to walk by Hatfield. Five minutes later Felts was standing on the far side of the courtroom and Hatfield, on his way out, stopped within 10 feet of the detective and lingered, looking at his enemy and grinning from ear to ear. He stood there grinning, with Felts resolutely ignoring his presence, until the jailer gathered him into the mass of prisoners and moved them on to the jail to be given dinner.
With all of that and more like it in people’s heads and the impression general that a Mingo jury will not convict, the vigorous attempts yesterday of Judge Damron, of counsel for the prosecution, to disqualify practically all of those examined during the day for jury duty gave new life to the belief in defense quarters that the prosecution had made up its mind that conviction here is remote and was trying to block the completion of the jury. The idea was ridiculed, however, by counsel for the defense. Judge Damron said today that the story arose from the need to have something to talk about and that there was nothing in it. He was inclined to think that a jury would be secured, although he refused to predict the day when it would be completed.
Prisoners Make Merry.
Thus the speculation, the rumors and denials, among the partisans of the two sides, the lawyers and others following the trial, go while they struggle against the gloom and ugliness of this crowded-in-the-hills little mountain town. Not so the prisoners. They should worry, or so they think and act. While others slumped today, under the load of idleness, rain and ugliness, the prisoners made merry in the jail. The only group that rivaled them in good spirits were the members of the jury panel. They, God-forsaken beings for a week or 10 days past, locked up in the Courthouse and not even permitted to watch the proceedings of the court, were given freedom this morning by consent of counsel until 1 o’clock Monday, and the getaway they made, when the word “go” was given, beat all records.
Over in the jail, after court adjourned, the prisoners held levee. Wives, mothers and friends poured in-some of them going to the cells and others being received in the little anteroom put at their disposal by a good-hearted jailer. Now and then a prisoner was seen walking about with a baby in his arms. Everybody was cheerful. In a little group upstairs, Hatfield and his wife were the pace-makers in good humor. She was wielding a razor skillfully on the back of the neck of one of the other prisoners. It was good fun for all.
Sid and Jessie Testerman Hatfield —–
This To Be The Big Day.
But tomorrow, they said, would be the really good day. All their friends would be on hand to make Sunday cheerful and the food would be great. Already 10 chickens and one duck have arrived from Uncle somebody out in the hills. I told them that my guess was they would fare better than I, and they gave me a pressing invitation to come over and join them. They would have more than the 10 chickens and the one duck, they were sure, besides what the jailer gave them, and they thought he would furnish a good dinner. Come on over, they urged, plenty of food and a deck of cards and everybody friends.
J. W. O.
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Congressional Probe Asked.
Washington, Feb. 5.-Congressional investigation of the West Virginia coal situation including clashes at Mingo and other coal towns between union men and mine guards has been asked by representatives of the United Mine Workers of America and officers of the American Federation of Labor. They have conferred with Senators Johnson, Republican, California; Kenyon, Republican, Iowa, and others.
Senator Johnson said today he was “considering” introduction of a resolution for an investigation and expected to decide the question tomorrow.
Senator Kenyon said he had advised the labor leaders that he did not believe a resolution of inquiry advisable and that it would not be proper during the trials now in progress at Williamson, West Virginia.
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[Photographs, emphasis and paragraph break added.]
The Battle of Blair Mountain The Story Of America’s Largest Labor Uprising -Robert Shogan Basic Books, Jul 26, 2006 (search: spotlight “sid hatfield”) https://books.google.com/books?id=IVmypbQvHwAC
————Williamson, W. Va., Feb. 5.-This has been a day of speculation and rumors and of desperate struggle on the part of everyone, except Sid Hatfield and the 20 others on trial for the Matewan murders, to be reasonably cheerful and comfortable. Court adjourned before noon today without having added to the jury panel and left all of those in attendance upon the case with nothing to do except talk and wander about muddy streets in a dismal rain, with bare, scarred, cut-over hills rising at one’s elbows, it seemed, to press down the gloom.
