SHOOTING IN GREENBRIER
Grant Cochran shoots and kills Lundy Perry
May 26, 1904
A killing, the result of a feud of several years standing, occurred at the Walkup place on Droop Mountain on the Greenbrier and Pocahontas County lines Saturday evening. Lundy Perry, aged twenty-five, is dead and Grant Cochran, a useful, industrious citizen is in jail at Lewisburg, waiting examination by the grand jury of Greenbrier County.
Cochran, with a number of hands, was at work on Droop Mountain preparing for a crop of corn. Toward quitting time Saturday evening, Lundy Perry, Roy Darnell and Bunyon Fogus came to the field to see a boy in Cochran’s employ. When Cochran saw Perry coming, he was prepared for trouble as there was bad blood between the two and it was known that Perry had made dire threats against Cochran for the part the latter had taken in a fight ensuing Perry resistance of arrest. It seems that Perry brought up the old trouble by asking Cochran if he was not the man who had clubbed him. Thereupon both men drew guns and commenced shooting. Perry was shot in through the heart, in the stomach and had a wound in the back. It was not ascertained whether the latter was a separate shot or the bullet entering the abdomen had gone through the body. Upon examination of Perry’s pistol, it was found that he had fired a single shot. The men were about a dozen steps apart. Perry died in a few minutes. Cochran came to Marlinton and gave himself up to the authorities of Pocahontas County Saturday night.
The inquest was held Monday at the Droop Mountain sawmill where the dead man had been removed from the Walkup farm. The coroner’s jury was made up of the following citizens: C. O. Callison, J. R. Penick, C. H. Hannah, M. W. Walton, Sam McClung, G. W. White. The verdict was that Lundy Perry had come to his death at the hands of A. G. Cochran. Cochran waived examination. He has retained L. M. McClintic and Col. R. S. Turk as counsel. …
The feud, which the killing of Lundy Perry was the outcome, originated at a fight at Droop church three years ago. A. G. Cochran and several others were appointed special officers to quell a riot and arrest Lundy Perry and a number of others who were drunk and disorderly and disturbing religious worship. Arrest was resisted and knives and clubs were much in evidence. In the melee, Cochran downed Perry with a club, while the latter was trying to carve John Dunlap, who had broken his stick with a bowie knife. The officers finally overcame the resistance but not until several of the unruly members were much battered up and a number of the officers had wounds from sticks and knives.
Perry was about twenty-five years old and unmarried. He is a son of Solomon Perry, near Sue. He has been employed by Kirk & Ross, sawmill men, the past year. For a number of years, he has worked in the lumber woods. He was a man of tremendous frame and utterly fearless.
A.G. Cochran has ever had an enviable name as an industrious and law abiding citizen. He is a son of the recently deceased D. J. Cochran, of Droop Mountain. He is about thirty-five years old and unmarried.
GRANT COCHRAN’S TRIAL
July 28, 1904
The trial of Grant Coch-ran, a citizen of Pocahontas, for the killing of Lundy Perry, held at Lewisburg, resulted in a verdict of voluntary manslaughter. On motion of his attorneys, L. M. McClintic and Col. R. S. Turk, Judge McWhorter set the verdict aside and granted him a new trial.
The facts of the case in a nutshell are that Perry, who had made threats against the life of Cochran, came into his field, armed and with two companions, and made a hostile demonstration again-st Cochran, and Cochran shot him. Perry, falling with a loaded pistol in his hand.
The action of the Judge in setting the verdict aside gives general satisfaction in both counties concerned.
