No Home, No Trade, 21-Year-Old Who Robbed Store May Die After Being Shot, May 1, 1919

From the Hickory Daily Record, May 1, 1919

Alleged Robbers Shot by Gastonia Officers

Gastonia, May 1—A.L. Rook, a white man aged about 21, who claims Greenville, S.C., as his home, is in the city hospital here with bullet wounds in his body which the physicians fear may prove fatal. The wounds were sustained about 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon while Rook was fleeing from police who were after him and three companions who are charged with breaking into and robbing Freshman store Tuesday night. The bullet pierced his liver, stomach and intestines and his condition is such that little hope is held out for his recovery. Two of the other three were caught and are now in jail. They are Robert Cox, who says he is from Fries, Va., and James Wood, who says he is from Durham. The fourth man got away.

Cox and Wood claim that they did not know the other two until they ran up with them in Reidsville Monday night. Both appear to be about 21 years old.

Immediately after he was shot Rook was brought by the officers to the hospital. Chief of Police A.B. Hord and Policeman Carl Wright were the officers who made the arrests. From the best information obtainable both officers shot and it is not known which one fired the shot which wounded Rook. 

Before going on the operating table Rook, that is the name he gave, stated that his only relative was a sister, Mrs. Nancie Barnett of Greenville, S.C. He said that he had no home or trade and did not work. On his arm was tattooed the words “Hobo Bill.”