Rory Matthews, who is now confined in jail here where he has been s ince his conviction at the special June term of Superior Court, has abandoned his appeal to the Supreme Court and will within the next few days be carried to Raleigh and begin his 30-year sentence in State Prison. Matthews abandoned the appeal, which he gave notice of taking at the June term, by allowing the time in which he was allowed to perfect it to elapse. The time limit expired on August 10th. His attorneys state that he is resigned to his fate now that he has been allowed to stay in Lillington through the summer.
Matthews was first convicted of first degree murder last September following his trial for the murder of Daniel J. McLeod on July 30, 1925. An appeal was then taken and because Judge W. A. Devin had sent a message to the trial jury out of session and in the absence of the defendant, the Supreme Cout gave Matthews a new trial. At the re-hearing at the June special term of Superior Court this year, Matthews drew a verdict of second degree murder. Judge Sinclair sentenced him to 30 years at hard labor in State Prison. Matthews is now nearing 50 years of age, and the sentence means life imprisonment. It may be that he will gain a parton afre he has served a number of years.
People of Harnett county and of the State generally are familiar with the story of the homicide. Matthews and McLeod had engaged in lawsuits for some time, the question at issue being boundary lines between their land tracts which joined each other. A railroad which McLeod wanted to open from his land leading out to the public highway figured largely in the dispute, and it was on this little piece of road which Mcleod and a number of his hired helpers were working that furnished the scene for the killing. Matthews shot McLeod with a breechloading shotgun, the shots taking effect in his breast and killing him almost instantly. Matthews quietly surrendered to the officers when they went to arrest him. They found him sitting on his front porch eating watermelon and brought him to jail here, where he has been ever since, except for a short period when he was carried to State Prison pending his appeal to the Supreme Court following his first trial and conviction of murder in the first degree. The prisoner has kept in fine spirits all the while, and numbers of visitors, who either go in the jail to see him or else stand on the outside and talk to him through the window, have seemed to furnish him much cheer. Although he is looking well now, those who have observed him closely are of the opinion that his confinement is beginning to wear upon him.
The case of Rory Matthews has been of widespread interest, not only among people of his native county but throughout the state. The final chapter will be written in the story when commitment papers are filed for his entry into State prison to serve the 30-year term. He is not without sympathizers, and it is altogether likely that a petition will be circulated for his parole or pardon before he has served a great portion of his term.
From the front page of the Harnett County News, Lillington, N.C., Aug. 26, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn84006598/1926-08-26/ed-1/seq-1/
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