Feud Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900 by Altina L. Waller p. 220 "By the fall of 1888, the detectives had succeeded in capturing three more Hatfield feudists--Charlie Gillespie, Ellison Mounts, and Alex Messer." The Hatfields and the McCoys by Otis K. Rice p. 28 Judge George N. Brown of the Pike County Circuit Court charged a grand jury with naming the killer of the three McCoy boys. The grand jury returned indictments against twenty men. Alex Messer was one of them. p. 99 Before the end of October 1888, Detectives Dan Cunningham and Treve Gibson "concentrated their attention upon Alex Messer, one of the most dangerous men on the Tug Valley. Messer had once served as deputy sheriff of Perry County and allegedly had twenty seven notches in his gun." "the detectives traced Messer to a store in Lincoln County, West Virginia. They engaged him in friendly conversation, and Messer invited them to his lodgings. There Cunningham and Gibson identified themselves and the helpless Messer went along peacefully." Rice’s source: The Wheeling Register, November 18, 1888. For Messer’s killings, see also Huntington Advertiser, September 11, 1888. p. 101 During Ellison Mounts trial, he named Alex Messer as one of the 7men who actually shot the McCoys p. 105 Alex Messer tried simultaneously with Dock and Plyant Mahon and all received sentences of life imprisonment. Rice’s source: Huntington Advertiser, September 11, 1889. p. 106 "When Alex Messer heard the judge sentence him to "hard labor for the period of your natural life," he rose and, addressing the bench, declared, " Hit’s mighty little work I can do, Jedge. Hain’t been able to work none o’ any’ ‘ count for several years." Sentenced on September 5, 1889 and taken to Frankfort, Ky.