Did the previous post leave you wondering about the details of this
story? Here are some previous articles from North Carolina newspapers on the
shooting of the police chief by the doctor.
From the High Point Review, June 9, 1921
Fight for Life Now On
at Lexington….Mental Condition of Dr. J.W. Peacock Described at Trial
Several Witnesses
Testifying in Behalf of Thomasville Doctor Who Killed Chief Taylor Says He Was
in Strange Mental State on Morning of Tragedy
Lexington, June 6. Witnesses testifying here this afternoon
in behalf of Dr. J.W. Peacock of Thomasville, now on trial charged with the murder
of Chief of Police J.E. Taylor of Thomasville, April 16, declared that the
defendant on the morning prior to the tragedy was in a strange mental state;
that he was apparently suffering from burns on the top of his head, neck and
hands sustained while trying to get his two automobiles out of his barn which
was destroyed by fire at the early hour of the morning of April 16. Witnesses
for both sides asserted that Peacock, following the tragedy, said that he
killed Chief Taylor because he set fire to his barn.
The state offered the testimony of 10 witnesses, beginning
at 3 o’clock, and concluding at 4:40 o’clock. Those testifying were either at
or near the scene of the homicide. The state put before the jury of Rowan
citizens a clean-cut case showing that Chief Taylor met death at the hands of
the defendant, Dr. J.W. Peacock. The defense as soon as the state rested called
its witnesses and when court adjourned at 5:30 p.m. had examined a half dozen.
It will continue upon the convening of court tomorrow morning at 9:30 o’clock.
Exceptionally good progress was made today, the first day of the trial.
Varner First Witness
Andrew Varner, a world war veteran who was talking to Chief
Taylor when the first shot was fired, was the first witness for the state. Varner
said that he and Taylor were standing on Salem street on the opposite side of
the street from Peacock’s office, when the first shot was fired. He told of
hearing the report of a gun, and turning, saw blood flowing from the chif’s
face. He didn’t know who fired the shot. Taylor, said Varner, threw his hand up
to his chest, and slightly turning, hollered: “Oh!” he then went into Pearce’s
grocery store on Salem street. Varner declared that he decamped and didn’t see
the remaining parts of the tragedy.
Dr. Peacock’s
Testimony
The murderer of Chief Taylor, of Thomasville, gives his
testimony as follows:
“I first realized that I had been shooting and had killed
Taylor after I went to the telephone and attempted to call my wife,” said Dr.
Peacock. “The last thing I remember before the shooting was seeing John Lambeth
and Mr. Huff.”
The defendant did not know what happened, he said, when he
was in his office on the morning of the homicide.
Dr. Peacock testified that he contracted tuberculosis when
he was 21 years of age, but that his condition had improved. Last fall he was
stricken with influenza and since then his health had not been good, he said.
The defendant testified that he had no malice whatever
toward Chief Taylor.
“The first question that came up,” said the defendant was in
regard to increasing his salary. “I made a motion as a member of the council
that the chief’s salary be increased. Taylor was suspended by the mayor and at
the next meeting I seconded a motion that he be reinstated. That was some time
in March.”
“What did you subsequently do with regard to the chief?”
asked John J. Parker, of the defense.
“Later I made a motion at another meeting that the chief be
asked for his resignation. That was after we had investigated Mr. Taylor’s
record. There was nothing personal in it and I was absolutely sincere in making
the motion,” replied the witness.
“The next morning,” said Dr. Peacock, “Chief Taylor met me
and asked me why I had it in for him.”
Dr. Peacock said he had done what he had done as his duty as
an official of the town.
The defendant stated that several persons had been to him
and said the chief was evidently threatening him. Dr. Peacock also stated that
on Thursday before the killing F.C. Bivens informed him that Chief Taylor had
said “If I didn’t stop working against him I was going west and damn quick.”
Dr. Peacock testified that John Moore asked what the doctor
had done to Taylor, requesting that if anything had been done to stop it as the
chief threatened to break up the physician’s home.
The witness also swore on the stand that R.E. Zimmerman
informed him of one of Taylor’s alleged threats.
“I feared him worse than I did a rattlesnake,” said the
prisoner when questioned by his attorney.
“Knowing the man as I did I was afraid. I knew he was brave
enough to do anything he said he would do.”
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Brutal Murder of
Brave Officer…Dr. Peacock Is Still in Jail to Await Hearing on His Sanity,” from
the High Point Review, June 16, 1921
The Hearing Will Take Place
Before Judge Finley at Lexington on June 28
Lexington, June 15—Dr. J.W. Peacock, who was found “not
guilty” of murder Saturday night by a jury of Rowan county citizens on the grounds
that he was insane at the time he killed Chief of Police J.E. Taylor of
Thomasville, remains in his cell at the county jail to await the hearing on his
mental condition at the present time, which will be held here before Judge T.B.
Finley on June 28.
The judge will then make a final ruling as to whether the
physician shall be committed to the criminal insane department of the state
penitentiary
Few big cases here have come to a less dramatic close. There
was no demonstration of any kind on the part of anyone when the jury announced
its verdict, except that when Dr. Peacock resumed his seat after standing up to
hear his fate his wife placed her arms around his neck and he held her in his
embrace for perhaps a minute. In the meantime, Judge Finley turned to the jury
and merely said: “Gentlemen of the jury, you are excused.”
When the jury came in and stated that they have arrived at
their verdict, they arose and in response to the predestined question: “What
say you?” they answered in unison, “Not guilty.” After the argument as to the
time of hearing about half an hour, court was adjourned and members of the jury
came over and shook hands with Dr. Peacock.
When Dr. Peacock entered the court room at 9 o’clock
Saturday night to hear the reading of the evidence of Dr. Isaac Taylor of
Morganton, which enabled the journey to soon agree, he supported Mrs. Peacock who
leaned heavily on his arm and appeared almost completely exhausted after a most
trying week. Other members of his family appeared, most too tired to display
emotion.
It was upon the testimony of the three alienists that Dr.
Peacock is now a paranoiac, coupled with that of a number of other physicians
who have known him for hears that they believed him insane at the time of the
act, that the jury returned a verdict holding him not guilty of murder. The
judge had charged the jury that they found the defendant to have been insane at
the time of the killing they should return the verdict as not guilty.
Many here are included to draw a sort of parallel between
the trial here and that of Harry K. Thaw, who was found not guilty on the plea
that he was a paranoiac. Of course, most of the elements entering into this
case are different from the famous New York case.
It is general conceded here by those to whom the verdict is
not pleasing that the jury did their duty as they saw it and that if they
accepted the large mass of testimony as to Dr. Peacock’s insanity no other
verdict could have been returned.
Some discussion hinges around the reports that Henry Shaver,
who was accidentally shot through the stomach by a bullet passing through
Taylor, and Mrs. J.E. Taylor, widow of the slain chief, had taken steps to
bring suits against Dr. Peacock for large sums of damages. In view of the fact
that the jury apparently held him to be insane at the time and incapable of
committing a crime, an interesting case has been brought up as to whether he
could commit a tort upon which damages might be recovered. The result of the
insanity inquisition before Judge T.B. Finley on June 28 may throw more light
up on this question.
-=-
From the Rockingham Post-Dispatch, June 16, 1921
Dr. J.W. Peacock was acquitted in Superior Court at
Lexington last week of the murder of the Thomasville Chief of Police, J.E.
Taylor. The experts, Doctors J.K. Hall, Isaac Taylor and Albert Anderson (the
same three who testified in the Foster Parsons trial here at Rockingham last
year) testified that Dr. Peacock was crazy at the time of the killing, and it
was on this testimony that the imported Rowan county jury acquitted the man. A
hearing will not be held on June 28th to determine whether Peacock
is insane at the present time; this coming hearing will decide whether he will
be committed to the insane department or turned loose.
Mrs. Ethel Taylor, widow of the slain man, has brought suit
against the estate of Dr. Peacock for $40,000 for damages. H.S. Shaver, who was
wounded by Peacock at the tie Taylor was killed, has also brought suit. He is
suing for $25,000. It is to be hoped that both will recover the full amounts.
To the lay mind it would seem that the acquittal of Peacock for this brutal
murder is an outrage on justice.
-=-
From the Elizabeth City Independent, June 17,
1921.
Mrs. Ethel B. Taylor, widow of Chief of Police J.E. Taylor,
who was shot and killed in Thomasville by Dr. J.W. Peacock, has instituted suit
against the physician for $40,000 as damages.
-=-
From the High Point Review, June 23, 1921
Lexington—At 10 o’clock p.m. the jury trying Dr. J.W.
Peacock charged with the murder of Chief of Police Taylor at Thomasville,
brought in a verdict of not guilty. The jury accepted the evidence of alienists
that Dr. Peacock was insane at the time Taylor was killed.
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