SNAKE BITE IS FATAL. RELIGIOUS ADHERENT DIES FROM BITE
AFTER REFUSING MEDICAL AID
The death of 48-year-old Robert Cordle, who refused medical aid after
being bitten by a rattlesnake during church services, brought 1,500
curious persons today to a funeral home to see his body.
While the throngs passed the bier of the Doran resident, the Richlands
council passed an ordinance outlawing the use of snakes in religious
services and sent officers to the New Light church to destroy the
reptiles there.
Commonwealth's Attorney John B. Gillespie, who estimated the visitors at
the funeral home totaled 1,500, said after an investigation that no
arrests would be made. He explained that the state of Virginia has no
law, similar to that in Kentucky, forbidding the use of snakes in church
services.
J. W. Grizzel of Bradshaw, itinerant pastor who preached at the services
Thursday night when Cordle was bitten, was questioned by Gillespie.
The Commonwealth's attorney quoted Grizzel as saying:
"I was dancing with the snake held above my head. Brother Cordle
approached me and took the snake from my hands. I told him not to touch
it unless he was ready."
After a moment, the rattler struck Cordle in the arm, Gillespie said
Grizzle told him. Cordle threw the snake into the lap of George Hicks,
15, and then was taken to the home of a friend and later to his own
home.
--The Ashland Daily Independent
CHILD, SNAKEBITTEN AT RITES, MAY GET
MEDICAL CARE
Kinsmen of snake-bitten Leitha Ann Rowan permitted her examination by a
physician today, but barred actual treatment and claimed she was
recovering rapidly in justification of their sect's belief that faith
counteracts venom.
The six-year-old child was brought to Sheriff W. I. Daughtrey's office
today by relatives, after having been missing for three days while her
mother, Mrs. Albert Rowan, sought to avoid treatment for the girl.
Dr. H. W. Clements did not support relatives' claims that Leitha Ann was
almost fully recovered but said she had made some progress in overcoming
the effects of a Copperhead Moccasin's bite sustained eight days ago in
religious rites at her farm home near here.
He said her condition remained serious and directed that she be brought
to his office for another examination Monday.
Meanwhile the child's father, a mild-mannered tenant farmer, and
preacher-farmer W. T. Lipahm, tall leader of the snake-handling folk,
remained in jail on charges of assault with intent to murder. Sheriff
Daughtrey said they would be allowed freedom under $3,000 bonds when the
child is pronounced out of danger.
--Atlanta Journal
MAN SUFFERS SNAKE BITE DURING
RELIGIOUS RITES
A man listed by chief of police Ralph Tuggle as Raymond Hayes of Harlan
county was in a serious condition today from the bite of a copperhead
snake suffered yesterday during religious exercises in a vacant
storeroom.
Hayes and three other persons, including a woman, were under bond Chief
Tuggle said, pending a hearing Friday on charges of violating a Kentucky
statute prohibiting the use of snakes in religious ceremonies.
Tuggle said the four first appeared on the courthouse square and started
to hold services from the bandstand but that he dispersed them. The
chief said they then secured a vacant storeroom which was quickly
crowded and before police could break up the gathering Hayes had been
bitten by the copperhead.
--Barbourville, Ky., Advocate
MAN DIES OF SNAKE BITE. SECOND MEMBER OF RELIGIOUS
SECT TO DIE IN FOUR DAYS; BITTEN DURING SERVICES
County Attorney Dennis Wooton listed Jim Cochran, 39, unemployed
mechanic, today as the second member of an eastern Kentucky
snake-handling religious sect to die within four days as the result of
bites suffered during church services.
Bitten on the right hand Sunday morning Cochran, married and father of
several children, died 18 hours later at his home at nearby Duane.
Mrs. Clark Napier, 40, mother of seven children, died Thursday night at
Hyden, coal-mining community in adjacent Leslie county, and County-Judge
Pro-Tem Boone Begley said she had been bitten at services.
Wooton said Jimmy Stidham, Lawsie Smith and Albert Collins were fined
$50. each after Cochran's death on charges of violating the 1940
anti-snake-handling law. Unable to pay, they were jailed, he said.
Elige Bowling, a Holiness church preacher, is under bond pending grand
jury action on a murder charge in the death of Mrs. Napier. Wooton said
Perry county officials would be guided on further prosecution in the
Cochran case by disposition of the Leslie county case.
--Corbin, Ky., Times
Finding themselves in the throes of the law, members of the
snake-handling sect at times turned to drinking poison in testing their
faith. There was no legislation to prevent it, the leaders craftily
observed. However, in some southern mountain states such a measure has
been advocated.
At times, nevertheless, even in cases of death from snakebite during
religious service, county officials refused to prosecute, saying the
matter was up to the state itself to dispose of.