This is exactly right.

This story contains adult content and language.

Listener discretion is advised. The previous two times that the Witchers and the Clements stepped into a legal

proceeding, they both ended in disaster.

But Vincent Oliver Witcher hoped that this time things would be different.

Vincent Oliver and four of his grandsons

were set to face an examining court of five judges.

Witnesses would be sworn to tell the truth about what happened on Saturday, February 25th,

the day James, Ralph, and Johnston Clement were killed.

The judges would deliberate and decide whether the five-witcher men should be tried in the

circuit court for premeditated murder, a conviction that would result in death by noose for all of the

witchers on trial. There was so much at stake. On March 15th of 1860, the 78 year old captain was the first to face the panel.

Vincent Oliver Whittier and his grandsons were brought up from the jail to the courthouse in Franklin County.

This wasn't a country dry goods store like Dickinson's where the divorce proceedings took place

the month before.

This was a real court of law which must have been sobering to

Vincent Oliver the once feared politician and military hero. Hundreds of people packed into the courthouse. Hero.

Hundreds of people packed into the courthouse.

Guards stood near the doors.

They smartly checked weapons at the door this time.

Vincent Oliver had failed to convince his jailers to let him keep his weapons because he feared retribution from the Clemens.

The attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia paced the floor as the first witness was called before the panel of judges.

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