Days of Darkness (32 page)

Things may have eased a bit when Tom Baker, during the first week of August, was tried in Barbourville for the murder of Will White and found guilty. But he was freed on appeal and was soon back home again. The next day James Helton, who was thought to have been with the Bakers when Will White was killed, was shot at in Manchester but was not hit. He was with James Carmack, who had testified for Tom Baker.

When things are going wrong, nothing goes right. The Reverend Dickey couldn't even preach a funeral without trouble erupting. On September 8 he wrote:

Yesterday a dreadful scene occurred at a burial in this neighborhood. A young man named Frank Parker died from chloroform which was given him that the surgeon might operate upon his leg which had the white swelling [gangrene]. His body was being buried, the people were singing, when the dogs began to fight in the midst of the women, who stood in a close group. A man named York picked up a board and began to pound the dogs to part them. One of the dogs proved to be the property of Charles Parker, father of the dead man. Parker rushed to York, jerked the board from his hands and knocked him down with it and struck him several times. The women screamed, especially the relatives. Mrs. Parker, mother of the dead man, fainted. The relatives all rushed together for battle, but no one offered resistance. The Murrays, who are enemies of the Parkers, ran to the homes nearby and got their guns and pistols, but the people dispersed. No further violence was offered. York and Parker are neighbors but not friendly. York says he did not know whose dogs they were. Brother Riggs says he had never seen anything so heathenish in his life.

Frank Parker, the dead man, was a wicked boy. Parker, his father, is a church member but a man of violent temper. He is raising a family of boys who are the dread of society.

While all this was going on, James Baker and Jesse Barrett were indicted for the murder of the Howards, and Judge Wright ordered them transferred to the jail in Stanford. He directed Sheriff Beverly White to take a guard and escort them to the jail, despite the protests of Tom Baker, who swore that White would kill them or pretend to be overpowered by others who would kill them. Everything considered, Tom's fears were not illogical, but the judge ignored him, and the prisoners were in good time delivered to the jailer at Stanford. This set off an interesting exchange of letters between the principals that
was published in the
Louisville Courier-Journal.
The first was a letter to the governor, allegedly from James Baker and Barrett, who were in the Stanford jail, warning that they would be killed if they had to return to Manchester for trial and begging the governor to furnish them an escort of troops for the journey and for protection during the trial. The two accused the Whites of an impressive list of crimes, chiefly against the Bakers and other purportedly peace-loving citizens. This brought a prompt reply from John G. White in Winchester, a copy of which was published on September 10, 1898, in the
Courier-Journal:

Hon. W.O. Bradley, Governor of Kentucky, Frankfort, Ky.

Dear Sir:

I noticed a letter in yesterday's Courier-Journal addressed to you from Stanford, supposed to be written by Jesse Barrett and James Baker, when in fact it was either written or dictated by one of the worst criminals that Kentucky has ever known, Thomas Baker, the father of James Baker and the man who caused and led James Baker and Jesse Barrett to the bushes within two hundred yards of his house and shot down two of his nearest neighbors and wounded A.B. Howard, a man of sixty-odd years of age. After shooting two of them down in the road, he went down to the road and finished them. They were arrested by my brother's deputies, tried before the county Judge [who] ordered the sheriff, B.P. White, Jr. to deliver them to the Stanford jailer, which he did, unharmed, over the same road that these bushwhackers and midnight assassins are so uneasy now to travel. If they are afraid of anything it is that God will cause the trees and rocks to fall upon them and grind them to pieces when they go back to the scenes of the terrible crimes they have committed.

I do not write you this to try to induce you or to prevent you from sending soldiers with them to Clay County, but I do write you to remove the slander that they have undertaken to impose upon my brother. They know they are doomed under the law and evidence that is against them, and that they are to die on a scaffold by a jury of their own selection or to remain in the penitentiary the rest of their natural life for the crimes they have committed.

Governor, Tom Baker, as I have stated above, beyond any doubt is one of the worst criminals that have ever marked Kentucky soil from his boyhood up. His first act in his boyhood was to cut a man who was under the influence of liquor, and if he had not been prevented would have cut him to pieces. His next act was to visit New York city, obtain counterfeit money to take amongst his friends and neighbors of his county and distribute. His next act, as I remember, was to slip up behind a brother mason and strike him in the head with a rock, from which at least the size of a half of a dollar of skull was taken from his head. His next act was to get his cousin to go to the Kentucky River and buy rafts from the raftsmen and dispose of them at a sacrifice and divide the money and run his cousin off to the far West. … his
cousin has never been heard of since that time. His next act was to lie in the bushes withing two hundred yards of his house, take his own son, James Baker, and this man Barrett and shoot two of his neighbors to death from ambush and seriously wound another. His next act he made two trips below where my brother lived to meet him and take his life, which he did meet him and shot him to death, and took money from my brother's pocket.

I would be very thankful to you if you would have this letter published.

Your friend, John G. White.

White's effort served to bring a ringing response from Thomas Baker, who on September 13 wrote to the Hon. W.O. Bradley:

Dear Sir:

I see in this morning's Courier-Journal a letter from John G. White pretending to say that Tom Baker was the worst criminal that ever walked Ky soil and pretending to give a history of the Clay co feud between the Baker and Howard and White factions. I will now give you a history and it is correct as every good man in Clay co will wittness to this. When Tom Baker was 15 years old Reuben Woods, a man 23 years old and 50 pounds heavier than Tom Baker and a man Tom Baker did not no [know] walked up to Tom Baker and knocked him down and was on him when Tom Baker cut his clothes several times. Baker was tried and acquitted & Woods was fined $5 as records of Clay co will show. The next act he said I went to N.Y. to buy counterfiet money which is a black lie. The next act he says I slipped up behind a Bro Mason & hit him in the head which is another lie. I did hit a man with a rock. It was in a difficulty & we was face to face when I hit him. the next act he says I drove off a woman & burned their house & burned a store house the same night which is another one of John G. Whites black lies, at the time they claim I burned the houses I was 5 miles away where my Bro was shot by one of these good deputies of B.R White who is sheriff. They was 21 men stayed with me that night who knows that I could not a burned the house for I was not away that night.

Whites could only get two witnesses to swear that I burned the house, one is a mooneshiner who I arrested 3 years ago & is one of the worst characters in Clay co. The other is a half-witted boy who does not know right from wrong, he says Tom and Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett killed two men and wounded old man 60 years old which is another one of his lies. Tom Baker, John Baker and Charley Wooten was tried and acquitted. John G. White would have you believe that they Dan Hacker and Jim Robinson was afraid of Tom Baker to swear the truth on first trial when Tom Baker & all his bros was under arrest at the time they swore & could not even talk to witnesses & all they pretend to say is that they did not no where Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett was when the men was killed when on first trial they stated that they was with Jim Baker and Jesse Barrett when the killing was done & this is all the proof that was against them when they was refused bail & when the grand
jury failed to indict them. When Tom Baker & Will White met White turned his horse before Baker & pulled his pistol & while in the act of shootin Baker Baker raised his gun & shot White & this is proof that Baker was convicted on. He had forgot to tell that 2 weeks before Will White was killed he Will White in Manchester drove an old woman 60 years old up to where my two lonely sisters lived who neither had father or mother to protect them & made this old woman when he had torn her clothes off of her and shot over her head and under her feet go up to my sisters house tell them to send out ans & Tom Baker that he aimed to kill them and all the rest of the Bakers as he came to them for murder was in his heart. It has been a few years ago that John G. White and his bro Will & his cousin Daugh White shot and murdered Jack Hacker and Dale Lyttle in the courthouse door and put all the witnesses in fear & never was indicted for this brutal murder & for the same case John G. White said he had to leave Clay Co and did so leave a short time ago & he John G. made open sport of his old uncle B.P. White and barked at him like a dog to try to get a difficulty out of him … his bro who is sheriff of Clay Co., a few years ago abused & shot under his old uncle's feet B.P. White who a few days later was sent to asylum and came back a dead man from the abuse he received from this good man who is sheriff now of Clay Co. & he has forgot to tell you that since James Baker and Jesse Barrett was put in jail that Daw White & Felix Davidson a cousin of John G. White's & a deputy sheriff of B.P. White waylaid and killed John Baker and Frank Clark near Manchester and shot them 36 times each & the people of Clay Co is afraid to have them arrested & never will be unless they is soldiers send to Manchester to give protection to the citizens witness in the case. And he forgot to tell that Gilbert Garrard of Manchester who was a candidate and run for sheriff against B.P. White last Nov. & was a friend of Tom Baker was waylaid and shot while on his way to Sunday school & since has had to leave Clay co. & he did not tell you about James Howard killing old man Geo Baker who was unarmed and never carried a weapon & was a peacemaker & Baker with his hands up begging for his life. I am surprise that John G. White would attack my character when every good man in Clay co know Tom Baker and the Whites too and their characters. But I will look over him for a streak of insanity runs in the White family old Daugh White drowned himself a few years ago & Hugh White hung himself over at Richmond Ky. & B.P. White killed himself in the asylum over the abuse that B.P. White, Jr. gave him & I hope that John G. White will miss this streak of insanity & kill himself when he thinks of the black murder he committed when he killed Jack Hacker and Dale Lyttle in Manchester & I hope he won't have to call for the rocks and mountains to fall on him & hide him from the face of him that sits on high in the judgement day. … All I ask is a fair trial & investigation of all cases & I think as John G. White has given you one side of the case that you have here my side & I vouch for every word I have said to be true and refer you to any man in Clay co. who is not interested on either side…. Published so that the truth may be known. Yours truly.

Thos. Baker.

In this letter, Baker protests his innocence of White's charge that he, Baker, burned the home of a woman, though no such charge is contained in White's letter. It is possible that White had accused him of the arson in a previous letter, though Bradley's papers contain no such letter. Or the reference to the fire may have been evidence of Baker's feeling of guilt. The incident to which Baker refers was, obviously, the burning of the Hall home and Campbell store after Hall and Campbell stopped Tom and John Baker as they were approaching Manchester and demanded to know where they were going. The Bakers declined to answer, a gunfight ensued, and John Baker was wounded. Tom was arrested and tried for arson but acquitted when he produced witnesses who swore he was miles away on the night of the fires.

A note: When Tom says “the governor rewarded Howard,” he means that the governor put out a reward for Howard. I can find no other reference to this. When Judge Eversole had warrants issued for several Bakers and Howards, Jim Howard came into court voluntarily. No Bakers were reported as present when court began.

Commenting on the two letters, the
Courier-Journal
reported that “fifteen men have been killed in Clay County during the past month.” The report did not list the victims.

Meanwhile, back in Manchester, life went on as usual. Someone took a shot at William Treadway as he was sitting in the Lucas Hotel, but missed. “He is afraid of the Bakers,” said Reverend Dickey, “and is a wicked man,” a statement that might be considered the mother of all non sequiturs. It may also indicate that the reverend had his Howards and Bakers confused, since Treadway was a friend of Tom Baker and had had a gunfight with Beverly White.

“A few weeks ago, Sheriff B.R White, Jr. got drunk and shot into Mrs. Lucas' house and cursed her fearfully,” wrote Dickey. “He also shot into the Post Office.” And on December 4, Dickey noted that Theo Cundiff, jailer, was so drunk he had to be carried home on a board (which seems, in retrospect, a rather common-sense conveyance for someone in such a state).

But then the reverend put his finger on the deep and tragic effects of the violence. “The two principal business firms of the town have consolidated,” he wrote, “leaving but two stores that sell dry goods, a little grocery store and a small Negro store. [Apparently blacks were not allowed to buy in stores that sold to whites.] Manchester is looking very seedy. The devil seems about to destroy the town. In the 21 families making up the town proper, only ten have children between 6 and 20 years, and two of these are leaving. There are only three young ladies and one is leaving in January.”

Jim Howard's trial was transferred to Laurel Circuit Court in London because, according to his account, “So great was the sentiment in my favor in Clay County that a change of venue was taken to Laurel County by the Commonwealth. After two trials and several continuances the case was practically abandoned.” This is a rather generous interpretation. Howard got a hung jury, then was found guilty but appealed and was awaiting the judgment of the Court of Appeals at home in Manchester when he became involved in the Goebel affair (to be described in a later chapter). He was never retried for the Baker murder. As he said, the case was just abandoned.