Acquittal After a Fatal Crap Game
A man is acquitted of murder in the second degree after a street game of craps turned into a deadly knife and gun fight.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
In Judge Humes' court yesterday, Frank Moten, a Black man, was acquitted of the charge of murder in the second degree. The killing occurred July 24 at Franklin, and Ed Armstrong was the victim. Several men were shooting craps when a row began between Moten and Lee Brent over the handling of money. Ed Armstrong, who was running the game, ordered the men to leave. As Moten left, he heard a remark he interpreted as a vile epithet and turned back. A fight ensued. Moten pulled a 44-caliber revolver, but the defense proved that Moten was being carved with a knife by Brent and held by Armstrong when he fired, accidentally killing Armstrong.
“The defense showed that while he had his gun out Armstrong seized hold of him and then Brent commenced carving him with a knife, whereupon he broke loose from Armstrong and commenced shooting at Brent. He missed his mark but killed Armstrong.”
This reporting offers a window into the lethal stakes of informal street commerce in a 19th-century boomtown. It also highlights the racialized nature of criminal justice, even when self-defense was successfully argued.
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