Bud Grogan 1

Newsletter

STONEVILLE TRAGEDY CLAIMS FOUR LIVES MADISON MESSENGER MSDraw.1.01 Publisher Volume No. JANUARY Issue 28, No. 1937 Date Crazed Man Kills Three Then Takes Own Life

Tragedy stalks in Stoneville Tuesday afternoon when Ed Mize of Martinsville, fifty year old suitor, shot down his sweet-heart, Miss Frances Grogan, then turned his gun upon her parents, Mr. And Mrs. Bud Grogan killing both. Mize sold out from the scene of the shooting, leaving the bodies of his victims on the floor of the one room cabin, after an unsuccessful attempt to kill 16 year old brother of Frances, Thomas. He returned to Martinsville in a truck and about an hour after the mass murder, took his own life with the gun that had already claimed three lives. According to Samuel Martin an uncle of the boy, Thomas Grogan, Mize entered the Grogan cabin about one o’clock. He approached Miss Frances, who was nursing her three year old daughter, with the demand; “I want my money”, “I haven’t got your money”, the girl replied. I’ve only got four dollars and you can have it if you want it”. “I don’t want that,” Mize replied. “I going to have my money or I’m going to have blood.” According to Thomas Grogan, Mize drew his pistol at that moment and started shooting. He fired a ball into Frances’s body while the child was sitting on her lap. Nancy Anne fell to the floor and began crying. Mize then shot Mrs. Virginia Grogan in the back of the head as she stood in the doorway. She fell dead in her tracks. Thomas fled the house, with Mize shooting after him. He heard more shots, then silence. When he came back to the house shortly to rescue the little girl, Mize had left. He found his father’s on a bed behind the door. Mize it was learned was awaiting trial on manslaughter charges in connection with a truck crash in which Howard Blackwell was killed. State Officer P.C. Novlin of the Virginia Force, who investigated Mize’s death, said that he found a note in the filling station operated by Mize. To Whom it May Concern: “I don’t think I will be held responsible for Blackwell’s death. Fannie Grogan, I love, dear and sweet to me. I thought she loved me but she has turned into a wolf. She took $400 while I was drunk, knowing I had to meet my trial. I am going to kill her if God lets me live long enough. And then I’ll kill myself.” Throughout the enactment of the tragedy, little Nancy Anne lay on the floor at the feet of her dead mother crying, unharmed. Indications showed, according to report, that Bud Grogan had “broken,” his shot gun and was in the act of loading when Mize sent the fatal bullet into his brain. The bodies were left as they fell, blankets covering their faces, until ten o’clock Tuesday night, when they were removed to a Leaksville funeral home. According to Mrs. Willie Mae Jones, a married sister who took Thomas and little Nancy Anne into her home at Martinsville, the tragedy had brought death for the sixth time into the family during the past four months.

A funeral service for the Grogan’s will be held at the home of Sam Martin, brother of Mrs. Grogan, near the Grogan home at two o’clock this afternoon. Each will be buried separately in the cemetery near the home.