Colson & Smith, Louisville Courier Journal, July 2, 1895

SHOT-RIDDLED.

Four Alleged Bad Characters Brought to Earth.

TRIGG COUNTY TRAGEDY.

The Bloody Affair Started By An Ex-Convict.

Prospect for Lively Times in Carter County.

THE RAILROAD TAX AGAIN.

Hopkinsville, Ky., July 1—(Special.)—News reached here to-day of the murder of four persons last Friday in a remote section of Trigg county. All are said to have been very undesirable citizens and among the better class of people there is little mourning over their removal.

It seems that several years ago one Abitahl Colston was sentenced to the penitentiary for horse stealing and that among the witnesses against him were four brothers named Rhodes. Colston swore that when released from prison he would kill some one for helping to send him up, and when his term expired a few days since, he began looking up the Rhodes boys.The first one he met was John Rhodes on Friday afternoon, and after a few words he shot and instantly killed Rhodes. Leaving his body in the road, he moved on and soon came upon Ab Rhodes and “Chat” Hammond at a well. Hammond was in the act of hanging Rhodes a cup of water and this so frenzied Colston that he forgot his feeling toward Rhodes and shot and killed Hammond.

Evidently little affected by his crime, he proceeded on to the cabin of his mistress, one Mollie Smith, and the next morning the bodies of Colston and the woman were found stiff and cold and riddled with shot. There was a great deal of excitement over the murder of Rhodes and Hammond and it has not been found whether Colston and the Smith woman were killed by the Rhodes boys or their friends.