n for
him and I cannot go about him or have anything to do with him." Then
Judge Hargis repeated that Beach was destroying his business and would
do the same with Dr. Hogg's business if Evylee kept on harboring him.

Not a word was spoken between father and son. But as Jim Hargis walked
in his direction, Beach pulled himself up out of his chair, stepped
around behind the spool case that stood on the end of the counter,
leered at his father and moved toward him. Beach came within three feet
of his father. The next thing they were grappling.

Terrified bystanders and clerks heard the report of five pistol shots.
All five of the shots lodged in Jim Hargis's body. By this time the two
men were on the floor. The father holding the son down with one arm,
lifted in his right the smoking pistol. "He has shot me all to pieces,"
gasped Judge Hargis as he handed the pistol to a bystander. He died in a
few minutes.

Loyal to her unfortunate son, Louellen, the widow of Judge Hargis, set
about to get the ablest lawyers in the state to defend him. Will Young,
matchless orator of Rowan County, was not able to clear Beach on the
first trial. On the second, however, aided by the legal skill of
Governor William O. Bradley, D. B. Redwine, J. J. C. Bach, Sam H. Kash,
and Thomas L. Cope, Beach was sentenced to the penitentiary for life
instead of the gallows.

As the years went by the mother continued to plead for her son's
freedom. Time and again she made the journey to Frankfort to beg mercy
of the governor. Weary and sad she lingered outside the door of the
mansion. She hovered close to the entrance of the chief executive's
suite in the capitol, pleading by look, if word was denied her. Finally
the governor pardoned Beach Hargis, because, it was said, His Excellency
could no longer bear the sight of the heartbroken mother. Beach was
pardoned on promise of good behavior.

But scarcely was he back in Breathitt County when pistol shots were
heard again. He rode out to the farm of relatives a few miles from
Jackson and when the womenfolk spied him galloping up the lane they took
to the attic in terror. Beach, reeling drunk, staggered into the dining
room where the table was set for dinner. There was a platter of fried
chicken, another of hot biscuits. He shot all the biscuits off the
plate, threw the chicken out the door and didn't stop till he had
riddled every dish on the table.

The womenfolk up in the attic, with fingers to ears, s