Colson & Smith, Wilmington Morning News, July 3, 1895

FOUR PEOPLE SLAIN

Result of a Row Caused by a Kentucky Desperado.

HIMSELF WAS ONE OF THOSE KILLED

Abithah Colston Shot Down One Man and Then Another Who Was Bringing the First a Drink of Water—Lynchers Then Killed the Murderer and a Woman.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., July 2.—Four lives is what a row cost in Trigg county on last Saturday evening, near a place called Higgins Landing. The fatalities were caused by Abithah Colston, an ex-convict and desperado, who was himself one of the victims.

He had recently been released from the penitentiary, where he had served seven years for killing a farmer, John Crump, on the edge of the Tennessee and Kentucky line. Colston was a quarrelsome man, and soon after his return was involved in rows with the neighbors. On Saturday afternoon he appeared at Higgins Landing armed with a double-barrelled shotgun.

John Rhodes, who had before incurred the ill will of Colston, came up in time to be used as a mark for the ex-convict’s abuse. They quarrelled [sic] and then began fighting.

Rhodes was getting the better of the rough-and-tumble match, and Colston finally broke away, snatched up the gun, and shot his antagonist down. The wound was fatal, and Rhodes fell to the ground.

Colston went to a saloon near by, but returned in a few minutes, and was greatly enraged to find Chat Hammond bringing a drink to his victim, who was still alive and begging for water. Hammond was a friend of Rhodes, and angrily threatened the ex-convict with arrest and hanging.

Colston did not reply, but finally raised his gun and fired at a short range. Hammond was killed instantly. A dozen men had come up, but had not foreseen the second tragedy. They were unarmed, and Colston threatened to kill the first man who should molest him, and backed off slowly till he got to a safe place, and then broke into a run and escaped. He went only a short distance away to the house of Molly Smith, a woman of ill-repute. She persuaded him to go with her, and the two went to the house of a farmer to ask him to hide the murderer. The farmer refused, and drove them away with his gun.

They returned to the woman’s house, a log cabin on the bank of a creek. That night the county was aroused and a lynching party was organized. They demanded Colston’s surrender, but he would not give himself up and opened fire. None of the lynchers were hurt, but both Colston and the woman were shot down and killed. Their bodies were found the next morning. Both had been riddled with buckshot. Rhodes died late that night. News of the tragedy did not reach Hopkinsville, the nearest town, until yesterday.