Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies: Authentic History of the World Renowned Vendettas of the Dark and Bloody GroundMutzenberg, Charles Gustavus
History
Kentucky's Famous Feuds and Tragedies: Authentic History of the World Renowned Vendettas of the Dark and Bloody Ground
Mutzenberg, Charles Gustavus
Crime -- Kentucky; Vendetta -- Kentucky
Both Judge Hargis and Callahan gave out statements to the press to
the effect that Marcum would be as safe at Jackson as anywhere. In
the light of what occurred, this statement may have been true. The
statements were ambiguous, susceptible of various constructions. He may
have been as safe at Jackson as elsewhere, for it is quite possible
that assassins were at his heels wherever he went.
On Monday morning a messenger from a distant part of the county rode
hot haste to Jackson to warn him of renewed attempts upon his life. The
messenger did not reach him in time. When he found him the bloody work
had been accomplished--Marcum was dead.
The story of the assassination is horrible and pathetic. As has been
said, despite all warnings Marcum had begun to feel safe again and
resumed his interrupted law practice. He had business at the court
house in connection with the reopening of the contest cases.
At eight o'clock Monday morning, May 4th, 1903, he proceeded to the
court house with affidavits for filing. From the clerk's office he
walked to the front door of the court house, and, facing the street,
engaged in conversation with his friend, Capt. B. J. Ewen.
The corridors stretching out at his back were full of men. Marcum
was leaning on Ewen's shoulder. The two men had been conversing for
possibly three minutes, when, at 8.30 A. M., a shot rang out in the
rear of the corridor. Marcum staggered and as he sank to the floor
another shot fired. The first shot entered his back and the ball came
out through the breast. The next shot passed through the top of his
head and was doubtlessly aimed as he reeled.
Just before the shots were fired, one Tom White passed Marcum at the
door and gazed into his face in a manner calculated to draw Marcum's
attention. As White had passed, Marcum turned to Ewen and said: "That's
a bad man and I am afraid of him."
The body of Marcum lay where it had fallen for at least fifteen minutes
before any of his friends dared approach it.
Marcum's wife, on hearing of the murder of her husband, rushed to the
court house, knelt by the side of the body and in the blood and brains
that had spattered the floor, drenched her handkerchief. What sort of a
vow she made then may be imagined. We shall draw the curtain over the
scene of sorrow and grief at the home of the murdered man. He left a
wife and five children.
Marcum had been a practising lawyer for seventeen years. He was, at the
time of his death, a trustee of the Kentucky State College, a United
States Commissioner, and represented the Lexington & Eastern Railway
Company as well as other large corporations in a legal capacity.
THE REIGN OF TERROR.
Immediately after the assassination of Marcum, and for a long time
afterwards, conditions at Jackson were terrible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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