Cole's Murdering of Ormond Brings Sordid Story to Public, Oct. 6, 1925

All Hands Lose as the Result of Cole’s Act

At this writing the much talked about Cole case at Rockingham, in which old man W.B. Cole is being tried for his life on a charge of having shot young “Bill” Ormond to death at that place a few weeks ago, is rapidly drawing to a close and within a few days the jury will probably have rendered its verdict and Cole, the slayer, will know whether he is to go to the electric chair, spend his remaining years within prison walls or whether he is to be freed.

We will not predict what the verdict will be, knowing full well that one never can tell what a jury will do, but regardless of whatever their decision in the case shall be, all hands have lost as a result of Cole’s action in slaying the penniless ex-service man.

Bill Ormond has lost his life, old man Cole has lost whatever respect he was held in the community in which he lived and will be a marked man as long as there is life in his body. His daughter, around whom the whole sordid story seems to have revolved, has had her character besmirched and her good name dragged in the dirt and Cole’s wife and other children have and will suffer.

Cole, on the witness stand, said that he slew Ormond in order to protect his own life and to protect his family. He declared that Ormond had threatened bodily harm to himself and to hold the name of his daughter up to ridicule and that he shot to prevent all of this.

But in so doing Cole failed miserably. The name of his daughter and of his family and of himself has been on thousands of lips during the past few weeks and will probably be for days to come. The name has been dragged in the dirt, it has been bandied about in the dives and the hovels and those who bear it have suffered.

There are courts which give attention to the slanderer. If Cole was afraid of Ormond in that respect he could have reverted to the law and, backed up by his wealth, we have not the least doubt but that he could have gotten results and if Ormond was guilty, he would have been punished.

But Cole failed to do this. He took the law into his own hands and made a sorry mess of it and no matter how the verdict is rendered, everyone connected with this sordid tragedy will have lost.

From page 4 of the Carolina Jeffersonian, Oct. 6, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073001/1925-10-06/ed-1/seq-4/