Big Bone Homicide
Boone County Recorder
 July 3, 1889

The Big Bone neighborhood is very much excited over a homicide that occurred near Normansville last Sunday. The particulars as we got them are substantially as follows: Kirg Craig and Richard Walton are brother-in-laws, the former a singleman. They both live in the neighborhood, and have not been on good terms for some time. They both looked upon the wine when it was red, and last Sunday Craig was drinking pretty freely. Craig on foot and Walton on horseback with his baby in his arms, met in the road near Mosby Allen's, when, Walton claims Craig knocked him off his horse with a rock. To frighten Craig, Walton drew his pistol and fired one shot in the air, but it did not have the desired effect and Craig kept going toward him when he fired directly at him, the shot taking effect in Craig's right breast just below the nipple. 

 

After firing the fatal shot, Walton struck Craig a terrible blow in the head with a stone. Craig lived only about five minutes after he was shot and made no statement about the trouble. Walton's wife and another person or two were present and witnessed the killing. Walton was arrested and will appear before Judge Baker to day for an examining trial. 

 

The Big Bone people attribute this sad affair to the presence of a floating barroom kept by R. K. McManama on the Indiana side of the Ohio opposite Hamilton, Kentucky.
Edited by James Duvall, M. A.

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Editor's Notes:
This affair is known in Boone County as the Walton - Craig Tragedy. Walton was held on Five Hundred Dollars Bond for his appearance at Circuit Court. Kirg Craig and Richard Walton are brothers-in-law.
The phrase look not on the wine when it is red in the cup is from Proverbs 23.31.

Big Bone History