On last Thursday, March 16th, three strange cars passed through going in the direction of Tennessee. Chief Powers became suspicious and got ready for their return. The sheriff and other officers being out of town the chief secured the aid of Troy Rector and Sam Bailey, and got in a car and located themselves in the road near W.V. Farmers and waited for the return of the suspicious cars. About 1 o’clock the cars made their appearance, a new Buick leading the procession and considerable in advance of the other cars. This car was stopped by the officers and searched but had no whiskey.
Clarence Anders and another party from Asheville, was in charge and (although?) Anders was arrested, the other man made his escape. In about five minutes two Ford cars drove up. The inmates of the first car were immediately put under arrest by the chief while Troy Rector made his way back to the third or last car, where there was also two men, one of them being Vernon Bailey and an unknown man who both ran. Rector called the chief, who left the car he had in custody with Sam Bailey and went to Rector’s aid. The officers chased the fleeing parties who began to shoot and the officers returned the shots, which resulted in a general fusillade. Bailey was captured by the officers while the other man made his escape. The officers returned with Bailey to the starting point and found that the second car and three men had escaped from Sam Bailey and made their final getaway. It was impossible to give chase to that car for the reason that they already had two cars and two prisoners then in custody. After the mist had cleared away it was found that one of the men (was?) Vernon Bailey who was arrested is the same Bailey who had played such an active part in Asheville. He is now under sentence for 10 years in the state’s prison for murder and is waiting the result of the Supreme Court. When arrested Bailey had on his person a .32 colt, most of the shells being empty having just previously engaged the officers. The party who was with Bailey that got away was pursued so closely by the officers that he ran out of his overcoat and the officers still have the coat as evidence of the race. After arriving at Marshall the officers found that they had captured one new Buick car, one new Ford car, 66 gallons of whiskey, a .32 colt pistol and a good overcoat. This is the largest capture ever made in the county and speaks highly for the officers who raided this number of cars and men in the night time under unequal terms.
The officers did not expect to find so many cars and so many men when they went out, if so they would have taken a force to have handled the whole bunch. However they done well, much better than could have been expected under the circumstances. Anders and Bailey were placed in jail on Friday. They were brought before Roy Gudger and Bailey’s bond was fixed at $4,000 and Anders at $2,000. They made bond and were released. Since the above capture we notice from the Asheville papers that Anders has been sentenced to the roads of Buncombe County for a term of 18 months for carrying a concealed weapon in Buncombe County. So Madison County will not get the use of either Bailey’s or Anders’ service for quite a while yet.
From The News-Record, Marshall, Madison County, N.C., Friday, March 24, 1922.
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