The Mingo Republican

Five Prisoners Taken To State Penitentiary

Five persons convicted of felonies during the last September term of the Mingo circuit court are en route to the state penitentiary, Moundsville, in custody of Deputy Sheriffs J. L. Dent, Dewey Ferrell and Lee Sartin.

Two of the quintet, Edgar (Cannonball) Meade and Birdie Stroud, were tried and convicted on murder indictments. A jury found Meade, 52 year old Ragland tavern keeper, guilty of murder in the first degree in the fatal shooting of Orville Runyon, Jr. and the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment was imposed by Judge Charles W. Ferguson.

Stroud, 52, was convicted of second degree murder in the fatal shooting of George Ferguson and is to serve a five to eighteen year sentence.

Others of the quintet are Charlie Stockton, confessed drug addict, one to ten years for breaking and entering the Leckie drug store. Matewan; Donald Duard Rasnake, two to ten years for car theft and John Mounts, one to five years for attempt to rape.

Meade, who served in the first World War, narrowly escaped the death penalty. Nine of the jurors, it was reported, favored a verdict of first degree murder without a recommendation for mercy.

Meade's crime was committed in his Ragland tavern, apparently with but little if any provocation. Question of his sanity at the time he riddled the body of Runyon with bullets was at issue in his trial.

Stroud forfeited a $10,000 bond when he failed to appear for trial at the May term. He was apprehended some weeks after his disappearance in a Columbus, O. rooming house. Fatal shooting of Ferguson occurred near the Stroud home on Middle Burning creek.

Stockton was one of three dope addicts involved in the burglary of the Leckie drug store. Others were his wife, Lillian Stockton, native of the Pigeon creek section of Mingo county, and Otis Frank Hall. The burglary was perpetrated to secure a supply of dope, Hall told Judge Ferguson.

Sentence of one to ten years was also imposed on Hall but he was returned to Charleston to stand trial for breaking and entering drug stores there...also to procure dope. Mrs. Stockton was placed under the care of physicians in an effort to cure her of the drug habit.