Mother Of Two Killed At Polls, Shields Third

Louisville Herald, June 17, 1922

Mrs. America Combs, mother of Asbury and Cleveland Combs, who lost their lives at Clayhole, was to take the stand today in an effort to clear the stain from the name of her son, Leslie Combs, who is accused of firing the first shot in the tragedy which caused the death of four men and wounding of 17 others.

"I stood there while they shot my baby boy right in the heart and saw my oldest fall in the arms of my other son and now they say he did it and it is not so," cried the broken-hearted mother.

Several witnesses testified Friday that it was Cleveland Combs who fired the shot which killed George McIntosh.

"George McIntosh shot Asbury Combs twice in the chest and immediately Cleveland Combs, from the door of the voting house, shot George McIntosh," they state.

Efforts on the part of counsel for the four Democrats accused of conspiracy to prevent an election to bring out testimony dealing with the destroying of poll books, who shot and who threw the books into the creek were completely blocked. Ryland Musick and John Waugh, attorneys, succeeded only in getting avowals into the record.

George Noble, who gave an account of what shooting he saw take place on the morning of the election, had told that he saw George McIntosh shoot Asbury Combs and Cleveland Combs shoot George McIntosh.

Saw Others Shooting

"Did you see anyone else shooting?" asked Mr. Musick.

"Yes, sir."

He was asked what he was shooting as by Mr. Musick.

"Object, object, object!" shouted the Republicans' counsel in a chorus. The court sustained the objection and Mr. Musick made the following avowal:

"If the witness had been permitted to answer he would have said 'Saw Bill Campbell down at the creek shoot the ballots and say now we have done what we came here to do, let's go.'"

Noble was asked when he saw Bill Campbell.

"The next time I seen Bill Campbell was when he came down the road with them poll books."

"Object," said the Republican counsel.

The defense made several other attempts during the afternoon session, but were blocked. Although a number of witnesses have testified that they saw Sam Mullen shoot Ethan Allen, Sam Mullen is not under indictment. Mrs. Billy Noble said that Leslie Combs was in the voting house where she was when the racket came and that he had no pistol.

"When Cleveland was shot he begged for one," she said.

"What happened after the shooting was over and did you see anyone come in the voting house?" asked Mr. Musick.

"Object" came from the prosecution, and Mr. Musick made an avowal as follows:

"Witness would have said: "Saw Campbell come in and get the poll books.'"