Headline: Christmas Debauch Had Fatal Ending
Phillip Ritchie Murder: Post #1
I recently came across this article about my 3rd great-grandfather Phillip Ritchie. Phillip Ritchie was born about 1851 in Rockingham County, Virginia. He married Margaret J. Dove on December 29, 1870. He was later murdered Christmas Night of 1906. The following post is the first in a series of articles about the murder.
From the December 27, 1906 edition of The Harrisonburg Daily News.
Phillip Ritchie, a married man living about five miles southwest of Fulk's Run, was stabbed to death Christmas night in a drunken brawl at the home of Hinton Caldwell, his son-in-law, whose home is half a mile east of that of the dead man. Charles Roadcap, a man of the same community, is in custody, charged with the crime. Roadcap surrendered voluntarily. He claims that he killed Ritchie in self-defense.
Ritchie's dead body, frozen stiff, was discovered shortly after daybreak yesterday morning by Nimrod Dove. It lay in the doorway of Caldwell's home. The clothing was saturated with blood that had come from a deep gash in the left side, directly over the heart.
Further than that Ritchie, Roadcap and two or three other men were engaged in a drunken debauch when the killing was done, little was made public yesterday regarding the circumstances of the crime. Magistrate J.C. Cooper and Deputy Sheriff Charles R. Fawley, who live near Fulk's Run, investigated the affair, but declined to disclose any facts within their knowledge prior to the holding of a coroner's inquest, which will take place today.
Commonwealth's Attorney Geo. (illegible) Conrad and Coroner Firebaugh (illegible) upon their arrival. It is probable that the inquest will be conducted by Magistrate Cooper, acting for Dr. Firebaugh. The dead man was about 50 ears old and leaves a large family. Eight or ten years ago he was convicted on the charge of operating an illicit still in Brock's Gap, for which he served a term of thirty days in the Rockingham county jail.
Charles Roadcap is not unknown to the officers of the law. In 1893 he was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for two years for shooting Lit. McDorman. The shooting was done near Chrisman. McDorman was not dangerously wounded.
Roadcap surrendered himself last evening to Justice Cooper.
I found this article on NewspaperArchive.Com.
