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- Description is exactly "A series of newspaper articles and court documents chronicling the Saturday, May 20, 1898 murder of African-American resident of Green Hill, in Lauderdale County, William R. Allen and the attempted murder of her brother Wiley Chisholm on Thursday, July 10, 1902 by Sallie Allen, William Allen's wife.
On the morning of May 21, 1898 WR Allen was found dead in his bed with his head horribly battered by a hammer, which was found lying by the side of the bed.
Allen's wife Sallie was the chief suspect, and at her May 23 and 24, 1898 trial testified that she got up early to prepare breakfast then went outside to investigate an unusual noise in the yard, and when she got back to the house to call Mr. Allen to breakfast she discovered him dead in bed with his head bashed in.
After a two-day trial attended by 150 people Mrs. Allen was acquitted, however feeling in the community was that she was guilty. These feelings were borne out on July 10, 1902 when Mrs. Allen attempted to kill her brother Wylie Chisholm with an axe, nearly succeeding. She was again arrested, indicted for assault with intent to murder, and at her September, 1902 trial her attorney entered a plea of insanity, resulting in her being sent to the Jemison Center insane asylum for Negroes at Tuscaloosa.
Nothing more is known of Sallie Allen at this time, if she was released from the asylum or when.
Sallie Chisholm (ca. 1874-) was a daughter of George and Esther Chisholm of Green Hill. She married William R. Allen on September 18, 1892 and the couple had three children."
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