Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Hughes Brothers, Accused in Murder of Deputy Sheriff Louis Blevins, Surrender, Jan. 31, 1923

Two Surrender at Bakersville After Tragedy. . . Flem and Herbert Hughes Give Themselves Up in Mitchell

Bakersville, Jan. 30—After having been sought since October 19, last, Flem and Herbert Hughes who figured in the double tragedy in which Deputy Sheriff Louis Blevins and Arthur Hughes were killed in a liquor raid, surrendered here today. Their attorneys are preparing to institute habeas corpus proceedings.

The killings occurred in the Big Rock Creek section near the Tennessee line. Deputy Sheriff Clyde Pritchard had received reports as to the whereabouts of the alleged moonshiners in the vicinity and with his deputies went to the scene. The officers halted a machine in which they claim were John Moffitt, Henry Troutman and Garfield and Arthur Hughes. Shots were fired from the car and Deputy Sheriff Louis Blevins was killed on the spot. Troutman was wounded, but together with Moffitt, he is said to have fled.

Mr. Pritchard placed the two Hughes boys under arrest and took them back to the Hughes home and left them in charge of his deputies while he went out to look for the pair that had run when the officer was killed.

In the absence of the sheriff, Flem and Herbert Blevins are alleged to have come to the house and inquired if the Hughes boys had been arrested. Before an explanation could be made, the officers say, shots were fired and Arthur Hughes was mortally wounded, death resulting two days later.

Moffitt was caught by the sheriff and was detained under a bond of $1,000. The Blevins boys disappeared after the second shooting and nothing was heard as to their whereabouts until they appeared in Bakersville and gave themselves up.

From page 2 of the Asheville Citizen, Wednesday morning, January 31, 1923

No comments:

Post a Comment