Ernest Reid Coffey

Ernest* was a native of North Caroline, born on Christmas day in 1916.  He was the seventh of eight children and last of four sons born to John Wesley and Nancy Kizzie Ann Hatley Coffey.

Prior to his conviction for the murder of his uncle, James Hardy Coffey in 1936, Ernest was a suspect in a number of petty crimes.

James Hardy Coffey was a son of Thomas Avery and Louisa E. Gragg Coffey and brother to John Wesley Coffey.  He was married on Sep. 10, 1905 in Watauga Co., NC to Lillian Mae "Lillie" Gray, daughter of William and Delia A. Gray of Boone, Watauga Co., NC.  Together, they had seven children, the middle being a son born in 1912; the others all daughters.

James became a law enforcement officer and at the time of his death he was a deputy sheriff in Watauga Co.  In 1936, the year he was killed, a number of vacant summer homes and camps in the surrounding forests had been broken into and items stolen.  Through investigation James apparently began to suspect that his nephew Ernest, and others were involved.  News items of the day report that James was about to charge the nephew when he was killed.

He was killed on Apr. 5, 1936.  News items of the day draw a picture of him arriving home after a day on the job and being killed by a shotgun blast through a window while giving one of his daughters a violin lesson.  Other reports tell of him singing hymns while omitting the violin lesson.

Ernest was arrested after allegedly boasting to a friend that he had killed his uncle.  The trial did not last very long and he was convicted in July, 1936 of murder in the first degree.  The first degree conviction was the first in the history  of Avery County and, he was sentenced to death in the state's gas chamber.  The conviction was upheld in Oct., 1936 by the state supreme court.

Another news item - undated - reported that Ernest's execution was delayed by Gov. John C. B. Ehringhaus. In Aug., 1937, then Governor, Clyde Hoey commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. In 1940. As more evidence giving credence to Ernest constant denial of guilt began to emerge, Gov. Hoey again changed his sentence to "20 to 30 years."  In 1948 he was paroled!

James Thomas Rusher, in his book** entitled Until he is Dead, considerable space was given to the murder trial and subsequent efforts to free Ernest, called Reid in the book.

Ernest father never believed that his son was guilty and spent years pursuing his release.  Other family members also believed in his innocence and worked for his release.

After his release, he married Zula May Baker, believed to be of Robeson Co.  She was born c1917 and died on May 16, 1977.  Ernest died on Mar. 16, 1981 in Raleigh, Wake Co.  Both are buried at Brier Creek Memorial Gardens in Leesville, Wake Co.

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*See also The Edward Coffey Project: James Hardy Coffey - http://bit.ly/1jWOS5d and, The Edward Coffey Project: Murder of James Hardy Coffey - http://bit.ly/1jWOQKQ

 ** Until He is Dead: Capital Punishment in the Western North Carolina History, Parkway Publishers, 2003, ISBN: 1887905731, 9781887905732, 246 pages

Murder of James Hardy Coffey

According to the book, Until He Is Dead: Capital Punishment in Western North Carolina History, by James Thomas Rusher, and published by Parkway Publishers, Boone, North Carolina, 2003, Ernest Reid Coffey was the first and only person ever convicted of first degree murder in Avery Co., NC.

He was accused of and sentenced to death for the assassination of his uncle, James Hardy Coffey. James was the younger brother of Reid's father, John Wesley Coffey. They were sons of Thomas Avery and Louisa E. Gragg Coffey.

During the evening of April 5, 1936 someone fired a single shot from a 12 gauge shotgun into the living room of the Hardy Coffey home, near Linville, NC, killing Hardy, a deputy sheriff in Linville. At the time, Linville was a resort area and Hardy was responsible for assuring the homes of absent owners were safe from thieves.

Reid Coffey, and some of his pals, were known trouble makers in the area and circumstances of the day and evening of the murder made him the prime suspect. The author's description of the law, the background and sentiment of the people of those days in North Carolina are not discussed here, but Coffey researchers should find the book to be a valuable connection for their library.

The author dissects the trial quite well, pointing out discrepancies in testimony, the appeals process and the then governor's commutation of the death sentence as well as the eventual release of Reid from prison. Intermingled in all of this are described the efforts of Reid's father to see that his son did not unfairly die for a crime of which he believed his son to be innocent.

To my knowledge, no one else was ever charged with the murder of James Hardy Coffey.

This murder was not the first tragedy to affect this family. Thomas Avery Coffey was a son of Austin and Mary A. Blalock Coffey. Before her marriage to Austin, Mary had given birth to two illegitimate children: William McKesson (Keith) Blalock in 1837, and Mary in about 1842.

When she and Austin married, Austin raised the children as his own. During the Civil War Keith fancied himself a Yankee and made plans to help the Union cause. He and his wife, Malinda Pritchard joined the Confederate army - she disguised as a young boy - and both hoped to defect to the Union side whenever their CSA unit was near or engaged with a unit from the Union side.

According to history however, their CSA unit was sent to an area of NC where action was limited. Malinda was discovered to be a female when during a skirmish she was shot in the shoulder. She was discharged and a month later Keith was discharged. He is said to have undressed and rolled around in poison ivy. The result was that he became so sick the CSA had to let him go home.

Upon his return home, he and some of his henchmen began to transport Union recruits through the Confederate lines. Between August, 1864 and February, 1865 Blalock's gang became responsible for a reign of terror that resulted in many deaths, including his own uncle William Coffey, brother to Austin. Elisha Coffey, Keith's cousin and probable son of Joseph and Isabella Lindsay Coffey, is said to have been a member of Keith's "bushwacker" gang.

As that war is often described, it was really brother against brother, father against son.

Click on the title to read an earlier blog about James Hardy Coffey.