Rev. Ormond's Suit Against W.B. Cole to Start April 27, 1926

Ormond Damage Suit to be Started April 27th. . . Famous Letters of Miss Elizabeth Cole Will be Offered During the Hearing.

Raleigh, April 19—Trial of Rev. A.L. Ormond’s $150,000 suit against W.B. Cole, Rockingham slayer of W.W. Ormond, will begin Tuesday, April 27th, in the Wake county court, and unless the plaintiff calls off the case with a continuance, the civil action will start that day.

The defense asked for immediate hearing of the issues and the court will get the long ahead of the ordinary expectation. It had not been thought possible to get into this trial before late fall. But the district has an unusually good judge and both sides are anxious to have it heard by a man of Judge Barnhill’s type.

The case will have hardly less interest than the criminal action tried last fall in Richmond county. At that time Mr. Cole was indicted for murder in the first degree and a union county jury acquitted him. The acquittal was soon followed by announcement in the Greensboro Daily News that Mr. Ormond would institute civil action against the wealthy mill owner. Within a few days the summons was issued from Wake court. Mr. Cole was not in the state at that time, but process on him following his return put the case squarely into the courts.

James A. Lockhardt, J.C. Sikes and J.C.M. Vann, who appeared in the defense in Rockingham, will not be here for the defense in the civil cause, and Clyde R, Hoey, who led the prosecution in Richmond county, will not participate in the trial this time. Attorneys have been added locally. The defense has Jones and Horton, of the Wake bar, and the plaintiff has attached R.N. Simms, of the Raleigh bar. Douglass and Douglass, who prosecuted criminally, Larry I. Moore and perhaps others, will take part on the side of the Rev. Mr. Ormond.

The famous letters of Miss Elizabeth Cole, excluded from the criminal case, will be offered in evidence here. Whether they will be admitted or not, nobody can say. But if there is a chance to hear them read, the court house will not hold a tenth of the people who will seek admission into the court room trial place. It is assumed of course that Miss Cole will testify at this hearing, though it does not appear that there is any reason for placing her evidence before a court since that might not have any effect on a verdict for damages.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Tuesday, April 20, 1926

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