The case was finally brought to trial on Tuesday, September 28, 1836. This time the jury was composed of Dudley Calvert, William Kendrick, Joseph Hampton, John McDaniel, Thomas J. Walker, Andrew Henderson, William Wilson, William Barkley, James Wilson, Augustine Crwnes, Andrew Thompson, and Benjamin Fitch. They found Liles guilty of mayhem, as charged in the indictment, and did “ascertain and determine that he undergo a confinement in the jail and penitentiary of this state for the term of one year,” and thereupon said prisoner was ordered back to jail.
But Larkin never went back to jail, nor is there any evidence tha he had ever been in jail during the court proceedings. His old hunting companion and high sheriff, W.B. Parker, stood responsible for his appearance. And now comes the most astounding tale in the history of court procedure.
The sheriff had planned on taking Liles to Frankfort within a few days. However, Liles asked the sheriff if he would permit him to go home for a week or ten days to try to harvest some crops, cut sufficient wood for the winter months, and make some preparations for his year’s absence.
He asked the sheriff to designate a day in which to meet him at the county seat at Clarksburg. This the sheriff agreed to and Larkin went back to his home on Kinney. At the end of the agreed time, Liles appeared promptly at the sheriff’s house and announced himself ready to go to the penitentiary. The sheriff outlined the plan to go to Vanceburg, catch a steam boat from there to Maysville, and go to Frankfort from there by stage-coach. Thereupon, Liles suggested that he be allowed to make the journey ‘as the crow flies’ and hunt through. This the sheriff agreed to and told him to be in Frankfort at a certain date.
At daylight on the day set, Liles put in his appearance at the residence of then Governor James Clark, and when a servant announced he had come over to go into the penitentiary. His backwoods appearance rather shocked the servant and during the conversation Governor Clark came downstairs in time to hear part of it. He stepped to the door and asked what the argument was about, and Liles informed him, as he had the servant, that he had come over to be put in the penitentiary. Inquiring if he had breakfast yet, the governor invited Liles to come in for breakfast and tell him about his troubles. When the narrative was concluded the governor dispatched a servant to the stage-coach inn with instructions to Lewis County’s high sheriff to come at once to the executive mansion.
Sure enough, Sheriff Parker arrived on the scheduled stagecoach and at once hastened to the governor’s house. Conducting Parker to his private office, the governor verified every detail of Liles’ story. He then inquired of Sheriff Parker, how he ever came to allow a prisoner convicted of a felony such an unheard of privilege. “Because when Larkin told me he would be here this morning, I knew that if he was alive he would be here. He’s just that kind of a man,” replied the sheriff.
The governor arose from his seat and said, according to a contemporary account, “I’ll be d…… Let’s have a drink.” To which proposition both friends agreed with alacrity.
In the meantime, the governor called in another attendant and after a conversation, which the two Lewis Countians did not hear, the man departed. In a short time he returned, bearing a rolled up official looking document. It was a full pardon. Handing it to Liles, the governor said, “A man as honest as you has no business in the penitentiary. Go back to Lewis County and behave yourself.”
Suffice to say, Liles walked back home across country as he had come and arrived home before the sheriff, who made the return journey by stage and steamboat.
The above story was later related by Sheriff William Beverly Parker. Now comes a part of which there is no official record, but which has been handed down by members of the family for more than a century.
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