Posted By:	Brenda Reed
	Email:
	Subject:	MURDER of ROSA BISHOP CATRON 1928 AT BIG STONE GAP, VA
	Post Date:	June 18, 2009 at 22:17:26
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/bishop/messages/7183.html
	Forum:	Bishop Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/bishop/

Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Virginia Post; Wednesday, 5 December 1928: TWO DEAD FROM DRINKING POISONG HERE THURSDAY [sic 28 November 1928] John Thompson Forces Catron Woman to Drink Drug and Then Poisons Himself -- Both Die Within Few Minutes "John Thompson, 55, former deputy sheriff of Wise County and road contractor, and Mrs. Rosa Catron, a resident of the district around the hosiery mill here, are both dead as the result of an affair which occurred Thursday morning at 11:00 o'clock in which Thompson is said to have forced the woman to drink a deadly poison at the point of a pistol and to have taken the remainder of the deadly poinson himself. "Thompson it is stated went to a local druggist Thursday morning and purchased forty cents worth of strychnine and a bottle of Abbott Bitters. Upon being questioned by the drug clerk, he declared that he intended to poison some rats. He then went to the home of the woman, and according to her story told just before she died, poured the drug into the bottle and told her to drink it. When she refused, she said, he drew a pistol and threatened to shoot her. She complied and drank a part of the poison. He then told her what she had taken whereupoon she rushed of out the house to the home of a neighbor where she told her story as doctors worked over her in the half hour before her life was gone. "Thompson was found in the Catron house dead as the result of drinking the remainder of the deadly durg. "According to the woman, Thompson and she had been acquainted and had quarreled for reasons not disclosed. Thompson is survived by his wife and six children while Mrs. Catron is survived by three sons. Funeral Saturday (sic 1 December 1928) "Funderal services were conducted from the home of Mr. Thompson Saturday morning with Reverend Claudius F. Smith of the Episcopal Church in charge, assised by Rev. R. O. Eller of the M. E. Church South. The pallbearers were P. H. Kennedy, John Qualls, Caner Collier, G. E. Gilly, Charlie Stacy, and Earl Jones." Mrs. ROSA CATRON has been proven to be ROSA BISHOP, born May 1887 at Scott County, Virginia to ANDREW HAYBURN "HABE" BISHOP & wife ARMINDA F. HALE. As ROSA CATRON she was poisoned with strychnine on 28 November 1928 at Scott County, Virginia. ROSA BISHOP's history is as follows: Mother ARMINDA HALE died when ROSA was near age 7 bef 1892. Father HABE BISHOP married widow JANE COX on 24 Dec. 1892. Then father HABE BISHOP married 17 year old MARY ELIZABETH BARNETT on 16 August 1899. HABE was alive in the 1900 census but some people believe he was poisoned by Mary Elizabeth. ROSA had the following relationships: Possible marriage to ANDY DYKES, brother-in-law of her brother JOHN C. BISHOP before 1905 On 29 December 1905 divorcee ROSA BISHOP married DRURY MELVIN CATRON, divorced, at Scott County, Virginia and by him had ARTHUR CATRON, RAY CATRON, & possibly KURT KATRON. By 29 August 1914 the marriage to DRURY MELVIN CATRON had ended in divorce as he remarried FLORA WRIGHT on that date and they moved to Norton, Wise Co., VA. Around 1912 ROSA BISHOP CATRON formed a relationship with LUTHER LIGHT by whom in 1913 she had a son named RANSOM CATRON. On 22 January 1922 as ROSA CATRON she married JACOB P. STURGILL at Scott County. Jacob had been married to RACHEL LOUISA FRANKLIN and was know to be with her as late as November 1918. By 15 November 1927 that marriage had ended when JACOB P. STURGILL married FRANCES GILREATH WEATHERLY. Around 1927 ROSA BISHOP CATRON STURGILL reverted back to using the name ROSA CATRON and moved to the area around the hosiery mill in Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Virginia. Sometime around then she formed a relationship with JOHN WINTON THOMPSON, former deputy sheriff of Wise County and a contractor. On 28 November 1928 JOHN WINTON THOMPSON held ROSA CATRON at gunpoint & forced her to drink strychnine poison. She died quickly at a neighbor's house. J. W. THOMPSON then committed suicide using the same method. It seems that ROSA BISHOP CATRON had drive JOHN WINTON THOMPSON to the edge and together they fell off the cliff.