Alonzo "Lon" Pursley

The story I am about to tell you is true.  The late Judge Shelly Riherd of this county verified it in full for me.  He grew up a neighbor of the subject of this story, and told me that he never knew a nicer or better man.  Shelly said that Lon just had a talent for being at the wrong place, at the wrong time, or the right place at the right time, whichever way you choose to look at it.  Before I tell you Lon's story, let me give you the background that began his troubles.  The following is a newspaper article concerning the murder of his brother James, known by the nickname of "Jenks".

From the GLASGOW TIMES, July 1894

"Charles Parrish Kills Jenks Pursley"

    Charley Parrish, commonly known as "long-legs" among his friends, shot and killed Jenks Pursley last Friday evening.  There appears to have been previous bad blood between the two young fellows, but the immediate cause of the killing was a difficulty between Tom Hale and Pursley near the Mitchell farm on the Knob Rd.  In this row, Pursley was cut slightly by Hale while being held by Parrish - as Parrish says, to keep down the trouble.  They adjusted their differences and came to King Smith's distillery, where the fuss again commenced at once.  In the course of the rumpus, Parrish got a shotgun and shot Pursley twice - once in the right side and the other load blowing off the top of his head.  Pursley died in a short time.  Parrish came to town and gave himself up, and Monday was brought out for his examining trial and was remanded to jail.  Tom Hale was tried as an accessory to the killing and held over in a bond of $200.oo, which he failed to give and was also remanded to jail.

Alonzo was known to all as "Lon" Pursley.  After the murder of his brother Jenks, Lon killed Jenk's murderer.  A man from Stovall Crossing (now Park City Ky. in Barren Co.) once told us that when he was just a young boy, he was walking to Glasgow for Jockey day (previously described in Dakota Jack's notes).  Lon stopped and gave him a ride in his wagon. Lon didn't say much so the boy, making conversation, asked him what he was going in for.  Lon answered very calmly "I'm goin to kill a man."  He immediately thought Lon was just "windy" and dismissed the comment.  When they got into town, Lon pulled his horse and wagon up in from of Pedigo Stables, stood up, pulled a pistol out and shot a man dead who was sitting on the bench in front of the stables.  The rider was only a kid at the time, and said he believed he ran all the way back home.  He thought he had rode into town with a crazy man.  Lon proceeded straight to the sheriff and told him what he had done.  No charges were brought.

    Several weeks later, Lon was in town again.  A man came up to him and told him there was a guy who wanted to see him at the Upper Depot Cafe, but he didn't know what he wanted.  Lon set out for the cafe, and about half a block away, a friend met him and told him not to go in there, it was a trap and they intended to kill him for revenge of the previous shooting.  Lon went anyway and again killed a man, went to the sheriff and turned himself in.  Once again no charges were brought, it was clearly a case of self-defense, and Lon had witnesses to this effect.

    Then in April of 1933, there was a dispute over a property line. When the sheriff arrived, the other man lay dead with his shotgun beside him, on his side of the fence.  The sheriff was laying for Lon this time, three killings were 1 too many for any man.  Lon's son Warner took the rap.  The family knew that the very least sentence Lon could get was like in the penitentiary, but more likely would get the death penalty.  The man he shot was known to be a troublemaker, but Lon had been drinking a bit too much in the years prior so his character was also in question.

    Warner was charged with murder, court case # 5188, April 17, 1933. However he was never prosecuted.  The sheriff still believed that Lon had committed the crime and kept trying to find the truth.  But neither the family nor friends and neighbors would admit anything.  You see, Warner had a clean record and was a decorated veteran of WWI.  He had a much better chance of beating the rap than his dad.

    In the meantime Lon?s wife Maggie Ward committed suicide,

The previous shootings by he husband Lon seemed to have little effect on Maggie and her love for her husband.  However, after the ordeal where her son took the rap, Maggie seemed to have a calm nervous breakdown.  The sheriff was insistent in trying to prove that Lon murdered the guy to eliminate him as a neighbor, then the sheriff could eliminate him.  Maggie could not bear the thought of life without Lon, and was sure she was going to lose him.  In late July 1933, she filed a will with the Barren County Court, leaving all she owned to Lon.  A few days later on Aug. 2nd, 1933, she walked out in front of an oncomming train on the Barren - Edmonson County line and committed suicide.  The newspaper article read that she had not been well recently, and it was thought that she might not have heard the oncoming train. 

Thought charges were dropped against Warner and none brought against Lon, Lon drank heavily after the loss of his beloved Maggie and was charged with Public Drunk, and carrying a concealed deadly weapon in September of 1934.  But he overcame his problems and lived until 1961, a very well liked man in the Stovall's Crossing community.