The times and democrat. (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, March 03, 1908, Page 3, Image 3
Poeif? Justice h tmtucky.
'Jedge Jtm^Hirgi^ the "King cf Brenthig, %unty," Whose
Scepter Was a Shotgun, Is Slain by His Own
Son In His Store at Jackson.
One Bight not long ago a rider made
hia way . up Hell For Snrtin-creek
through the darkness. His mule stum
bled over the bowlders. Now and then
he.drew-up at a safe distance from
some mountain shack huddled in tKe
shadows of the pines.. As be called
the door opened silently. No light was
shown, but the man of the cabin step
ped silently oat. his Winchester over
his arm. ready for what might come;
"J?dge Jim Hargis was kilt today by
his son Beacher." was the low voiced
word of the messenger.
The man of the cabin turned silently
to take the good news to his wife. The
Paul Revere of the mountains clucked
to his mule and rode on, carrying the
news that peace had come to a trou
bled country.
When the drunk crazed son of Jim
: Hsrgis shot his father dead in his store
at Jackson, Ky., there fell a ruler
whose sway over his little kingdom
was as absolute as that of the czar
of Russia. For years there had been
no law in Breathitt county, Ky.. but
that of Jim Hargis' shotgun and the
Hargis gang. The richest man in the
county, a politician of great power and
for a long time county judge, Hargis
kept his turbulent constituents under
ped out from the throng and cocked
the shotgun he had been carrying over
his arm;- *
"I want to say. doc," he remarked
pleasantly, "that I ain't got nothing
special agin you. I always liked you
personal."
With that he fired a load of buck
shot into the body of the wounded
doctor, who must have died instantly.
Dr. Cox had a close friend, a lawyer,
James B. Marcum. He was not pleas
ed when he heard that his friend bad
been murdered. He was. In fact, in
censed. Moreover, he had the nerve to
say so: He went around Jackson say
ing what be thought about the case.
There was no particular mystery about
It. Every man in town knew the
names of the three men who had shot
Cox from the dark, knew where they
stood when they shot him and how
one of the three had hesitated until
the other two threatened him. Only
nobody said much about it above a
whisper, with the solitary exception of
Lawyer Marcum. He very well knew
that he was sending out an invitation
to death, wltb lt. S. V. P. engraved in
the lower left hand corner, but some
bow whenever he thought of his
friend, the doctor, which was pretty
CURT JETT OPENED FIRE ON HIM.
foot by the might of powder and shot.; nearly all the time, he just couldn't
I keep still.
But three months passed and there
eume no sign from the Hargises. Law
yer Marcum got careless.
One day he stood talking with an
other man In the courthouse doorway. J
Hargis looked across the street from
his store and saw him. With the judge
was Sheriff Callahan.
"Go git a gun, Ed," said the judge. |
"There's goin' to be somethin' doir>'. 1
reckon."
At that instant somebody inside the
courthouse fired, and Lawyer Marcum
fell dead. Sheriff Callahau ran across
the street, closed and locked all the
courthou'so doors and admitted not a
soul all that day. The same night the
assassin was smuggled out. But three
men had seen him. He was Curt Jett,
who had so obligingly slain Dr. Cox
as he lay moaning on the ground.
The killing of Marcum made a stii
even in Jackson, and Jim Cockrill
on the opposite side of the fence
from the Hargises. was heard to sav
he reckoned he'd have to take steps.
It wasn't more than a few days latei
;:.':it Curt .let; walked into the bole
dining room where Cockrill was sitting
By that same powder and shot he
died with his boots on.
The feud that the Hargis clan has
waged; against all its opponents in
Breathitt county began not long after
the close of the civil war?so far back
that the real cause of its origin Is
wrapped in obscurity. It is only re
membered that one of the Hargises
was the first victim. He was shot as
he stood one night in his sugar camp,
with his arm over the shoulder of his
newly married wife; Vengeance was
sworn by the Harrises, and Breathitt
county since that time has been indeed
a dark and bloody ground. Scarcely
a year has passed without one or morej
murders growiug from that single rifle j
shot in the dark nearly half a century
ago.
Just how much blood was spilled be
fore Judge Hargis and his outfit had
closed their grip upon the towu of
Jackson and the county of Breathitt
will never be known exactly, but the
story is a fearful one. Aud perhaps it
was only the peculiarly cold blooded
and open manner of the assassiuutioa
of Dr. B. D. Cox that accounts for the
publicity that followed it
Dr. Cox was not a feudis't He mere-j :>?;1 opened fire on him. Cockrill jump
ly dared to disobey au order from Har
gis to leave the county. He had no in
timate relations with either the Har
gises or the anti-Hargises. He was a
practicing physlciau and in some way
had been made the legal guardian of
one of the Cockrill boys, whose family
bad been for years opposed to Hargis.
The acceptance of such a job was a
tactical error, for it attracted the atten
tion of Judge Hargis.
"I have been ordered to get out of
Jackson." Dr. .Cox told his. friends one
day when he walked down through
Main street "I've got to get out of
here or "die,. they tell me. But I ain't
going to go. Here's where I've lived
and here's where I'll die when my
;tlme comes. I ain't going to carry any
firearms either, Jinx Hargis can kill
me safe enough if he .wants to.. It's no
see carrying .firearms., anyhow. I
wouldn't shoot anybody frpm behind,
but if. Jim Hargis is. going to shoot me
that's the way. he'll do It."
> That was the way he did it sure
i enough. That very night as the doctor
fwas going back home after making
j a call on a sick man he was shot in
I the back from the dark. He felt In his
tracks and lay there groaning. A
crowd quickly gathered, and the dying
doctor pleaded with them to kill him.
"For God's sake, boys," he moaned,
"put another charge Into me. I'm go
ing to die anyhow. Finish it up quick."
One of the bystanders was Cnrt
Jett, one of the Hards gang. He step
ed up, and Jett fled. Fighting in the
open was a new game to him. Twc
days later came a clear, sunny day.
Cockrill, walking down Main street,
crossed the street in front of the court
house. As he did so Curt Jett leaned
out of an upper window and shot him
down with a Winchester rifle. So well j
known were the circumstances and sc
geueral the expectation of trouble thai
the moment Jett showed himself at the
window several voices called to Cock
rill to look out But they were toe
late. Cockrill fell dying.
. Jett leaned out of the window and
pumped a few more bullets into the
body in the street.
"I want to Bee,- him squirm!" h*
shouted. Cockrill accordingly squirrr
ed for a few seconds before he died.
Every soul in Jackson knew all&bo?1
what happened. It was as public as c
dog fight Yet not a move was mad?
to arrest Curt Jett until after,.troop;
had arrived. Indeed, a young lawyei
who told a visiting newspaper man
what he bad seen begged the reportei
to give bim time to. get out of town
before he printed a stpry about It H<
got out of town, too, and stayed oat
. There wasn't any trouble in Jacksor
so long as the troops stayed. Hargh
bad given the word, and his word was
aw. Jett was convicted of the mur
der of. Marcum and is -serving a life
sentence. Hargis never was puniahe?!
for any one of the many murders ol
which he was guilty.
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