Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
Two Lafayette County men with grievances towards one another settled their issues at gunpoint. A week before Thanksgiving in 1902, Charles Trulock was in the process of moving to Madison County, when he and his wife met up with a Mr. Bell along a road in the southeastern part of the county.
Bell quickly made his way to the buggy of the Trulocks and proceeded to pull the wagon seat off of the buggy, causing the couple to fall on top of him. In the midst of the fray, Mrs. Trulock reached for a shotgun, but was intercepted by Bell. He backed away a few steps and emptied both barrels into Mr. Trulock. For his part, Trulock was busy with his pistol, firing four shots in the direction of Bell, with two of those shots finding their mark.
The Trulocks made their way to a nearby residence, where Mr. Trulock later died of nervous shock, not the gunshot wounds. Bell was left lying in the road, where he was discovered several hours later. He eventually died of his wounds.
Information for this article was taken from Elizabeth Evans Kilbourne's book, “Madison County, Florida Newspaper Clippings, 1901-1903.”