| Summary: | Two 1907 newspaper articles reporting the attempted murder of black West Florence resident Mrs. Mattie Davis on Saturday night, November 16, 1907 and the subsequent arrest of African-American Giles County, Tennessee native and Florence Baptist pastor, house-painter and contractor Rev. John L. Legg (1867-1954) and his son Paul (1886-aft 1914) on charges of attempted murder. Someone approached Mrs. Davis' house and, not knowing she wasn't home asleep, fired into her bedroom window at her bed; neighborhood resident and witness Mrs. Martha Jones initially testified to police that she had seen the Leggs fleeing the scene however in court under oath Mrs. Jones changed her testimony and the Leggs, father and son, were acquitted and released.
Photo of Rev. John L. Legg. Rev. John L. Legg died in Giles County, Tennessee in 1954. Son Paul was convicted of rape in Lawrence County, Alabama in 1909 and served time in the state penitentiary from 1910 to 1914 and died sometime thereafter.
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