NEWSPAPERS: BURLEY BOYS' DEATHS DUE TO RECKLESS SHOOTING, THE CORONER'S JURY 
DECIDES 1919, Connellsville, Fayette Co., PA
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           m2mhomlish@ezol.com

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Friday, February 21, 1919, The Daily Courier, Connellsville Pa.

This article is not complete.  A entire section is torn out, but I am
sure the article would be on microfish somewhere.

BURLEY BOYS' DEATHS DUE TO RECKLESS SHOOTING, THE CORONER'S JURY DECIDES

One of the Victims of Tragedy Near Sodom on the Evening of February 7
Believes Gunman Was Member of Railroad Shifting Crew

That Albert and William Burley came to their death by gunshot wounds
inflected through the reckless shooting of Harry Halley and that from
the evidence we recommend that the said Harry Hilley be held to await
the action of the grand jury and the Juvenile court, was the finding of
the jury which this afternoon probed the killing of one of the boys and
the fatal wounding of the other along the Youghiogheny river near the
old Sodom shops the evening of February 7.  Save for the testimony of
the mother, Mrs. Jerry Burley, there was no evidence of intent on the
part of the Halley boy, who is now in jail in Uniontown.  Several other
witnesses declared the boy was just shooting into the river from a pile
of ties along the bank of the stream, while one said he was shooting at
telegraph poles, tin cans, stones and other objects in an apparently
aimless manner.  Mrs. Burley told the jury that Albert, who died at the
hospital from intestinal wounds, told her that he had shouted to the
person on the bank (who it was he did not know) to be careful where he
was firing and that the reply came back that he intended to shoot the
other one, too, meaning William who was wounded in the head and died a
few minutes afterward.    Testimony by railroad men who were shifting
cars in the vicinity at the time, also that of Mrs. Burley was the same
on one point-that it was dark, or almost so.  The railroaders testified
that the shooting took place between 6 and 6:30 o'clock.  
The testimony of all was that the 
(something about a fire but a whole paragraph is missing.)  
The testimony developed that the wounded Burley boy thought it was one of
the railroad men that had shot him and that he demanded to know why when
they made their way to the scene to learn what the trouble was.  How the
Halley boy was at first connected with the shooting at all was not
divulged.  All the railroad men said they did not know who the boy with
the gun was.  They had heard his name afterward, they said.  After his
arrest, at his home, the Halley boy, according to the testimony of
Policeman D. H. Turner and Deputy Sheriff Martin F. Murphy, at first
denied any knowledge of the shooting.  Then he admitted that he had
purchased a gun, unknown to his parents., Mr. & Mrs. Thomas J. Halley.
At first he told the officers the gun was hidden near Dull's livery
stable.  When it was not found there, he said it had been stolen.
Later, to Deputy Sheriff Murphy, he confessed, the witness said, that he
had hidden it near Fayette Field, under a board.  He accompanied the
officers to the spot and the weapon, a repeating rifle was found.  It
was exhibited at the inquest.  Other witnesses called were Lewis E.
Welling, conductor of the shifting crew of engine 1109, E. J. Love,
George H. Fuehrer, E. L. Frye and C. E. Lunnen, members of the crews,
and the father of the Halley boy.  It was Conductor Welling who heard
the shout of the wounded boy and told the others about it.  He said he
did not hear a shot after the boy called.  This was in contradiction to
the testimony of the mother who said that Albert was wounded first and
William shot dead next, according to what the wounded boy told her.
Brakeman E. L. Frye testified to going to the river bank, picking
William up in his arms and carrying him to the shifting engine in which
he was taken to the baggage room at the Baltimore & Ohio station, where
he died in a few minutes.  He was shot in the head.  The mother had the
boy's head in her lap when he reached the river, the boy said.  The work
of his being shot had been carried home by Albert, the wounded boy, who
told her William was dead and that some one had shot them like dogs.
Flagman Lunnen told the jury that he saw the boy with the gun walk down
the tracks and across to the river bank previous to the shooting.  He
said he was firing at poles, cans, and other objects and that it sounded
like a machine gun.  On the jury were Edward L. Duggan, E. C. Moore, J.
B. Kurtz, Irwin Prinkey, J. C. Henry and E. D. Wolfe.