Big Posse Pursuing Masked Murderers

The Fairmont West Virginian., May 5, 1905

      PARKERSBURG, W.Va., May 5 - A posse of officers accompanied by a large number of infuriated residents are searching Calhoun county for three masked robbers who at an early hour yesterday morning shot to death Charles Berkshire, a farmer living near Brooksville, after inhumanely torturing his wife.  The family were aroused shortly after midnight by the robbers, who, after binding the wife, led the husband to the center of the room, turned up the lights and ordered Mrs. Berkshire to count ten, stating the if her husband did not tell them where his money was they would kill him on the tenth count.   The couple insisted that they had no money and the outlaws pinched and beat the woman and applied burning matches to the soles of her feet.

     Screaming in agony, Mrs. Berkshire finally consented to count ten, and on the tenth count a shot rang out and her husband fell dead.  The fiends becoming frightened, fled, and it was hours afterward when neighbors found the woman in such a pitiable state of collapse that it is feared she will die.

     I have searched but can find no more information about this event.  Nothing - not even if poor Mrs. Berkshire lived.