AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43104, 13 June 1907, Page 4

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY.

The American habit of exacting < summary justice for criminal offence® is promising to make the of laiw and order in the United States increasingly difficult#» Virginia f rhks lately furnished another dramatic illustration of the manner in which a man may take the law into his own hands”’ with impunity. ,A few weeks ago /ah ex : judgo : nairied 'Loving, of Nelson County, Virginia, shot dead'a young man named Estes, because the latter had drugged and assaulted Miss Loving. Estes invited the girl, whose age is nineteen, to drive with him oh a Sunday night. He brought her home In an insensible condition, and later sent a 'doctor to attend her, telling him that the girl was intoxicated. The doctor attended Miss Loving, and informed her father of hie conclusion®. Loving only waited until his daughter sufficiently recovered to tell her own story before he went ip search of her betrayer. , After a (drive of many_ miles- the ex-judge found Estes superintending some negroes who were unloading a goods waggon at a rural station. Mr Loving, unslung his rifle, and, addressing Este®, said, “So yo.u went driving! with ladies?” White with terror, 'Estes threw up hi® hands, but, disregarding this surrender; Loving fired both barrels at dose range, the Second shot , taking terrible effect in Estes’® head, i which was half blown away. The ■ negroes tried to raise the fallen man,'

bait leaving s&iu i is no usst? } no m dead. I shot, to kill.” He then inquired the way to the nearest magistrate, and gave himself up for the murder, passing the night in gaol. Next morning he was Released ori 'bail of £2OO, the money being promptly forthcoming from leading residents. Loving freely admitted his intention of killing Estes, but public sympathy, rather naturally, is entirely on his side. Both families are of good social standing. Loving has been a lawyer, judge and legislator, and is now manager of the Virginia estates of a New York millionaire. The bail o' £2OO is’ very low for the capital charge of murder, but the magistrate who fixed it took up the attitude that Loving 'could not have dona otherwise than he did after what he had heard from, his daughter. The-“unwritten law” sentiment is so strong! in Virginia that doubts are freely expressed whether Loving will be asked to undergo even the formality of trial for murder.