Note: This is the first of three posts about the murder of Lloyd Clary.

Lloyd Clary of Frostburg was the managing editor of the Cumberland Daily Times. He, along with John Broydrick, also owned the newspaper, which was a merging of the Mountain City Times and the Cumberland Times and Civilian.

On October 27, 1873, Clary wrote an article critical of how the long-time Clerk of the Circuit Court of Allegany County Horace Resley paid jurors.

“The talesmen from Lonaconing were paid $8.50 each; those from Frostburg $4.00 (the Clerk taking the trouble to tell them in Court to go down to the office and get their certificates), while those from Mount Savage and the country districts were allowed to go without being paid at all, and without receiving any intimation from anybody that anything was due them,” Clary wrote in the Cumberland Daily Times. Also, Resley was overpaying those jurors he did pay more than they were due.

Further, Clary intimated there was more wrongdoing, perhaps even shady dealings, by writing, “In the case of Lonaconing the money was handed over to Mr. Patrick Mullen, an earnest satellite of the present incumbents, for distribution all of which gives rise to considerable comment.”

While it’s not known how Horace Resley reacted to the article, his eldest son, John, took it as an attack on his family’s honor.

Around 2 p.m. on Oct. 27, an angry John Resley headed for the offices of the Cumberland Daily Times. He found Broydrick at the corner of Baltimore and George Streets in front of King’s Shoe Store.

“Did you write that article about my father in this morning’s paper?” Resley asked.

“No,” Broydrick replied.

Resley raised his arm as if he was going to strike Broydrick.

“I don’t want any trouble with you,” Broydrick said quickly. “I’m no politician.”

“I’ll make a politician out of you and Clary, too.”

Then Resley headed down Baltimore Street to the newspaper office. He found Daniel Bradley, a collector for the newspaper, at the office and asked him if Clary was in. Bradley said he was and Resley headed up the stairs to where Clary’s office was located on the second floor.

Resley was in Bradley’s sight the entire time, but he was unable to see or hear Clary when the editor met Resley near the top of the stairs.

“I looked after him,” Bradley told a jury later. “Just as he reached the top, he put his hand behind him and pulled a revolver and said, ‘You son of a—, did you write the article about my father ?’ Then he fired the two shots, turned about and came down stairs, holding the revolver in his hand.”

Both shots struck Clary. One shot hit him in the ribs and was not fatal. However, the other shot went in the left side of Clary’s throat, passing through his windpipe and severing his carotid artery as it passed out the side his neck.

Bradley ran up the stairs and found Clary lying on the floor bleeding. Doctors Orr and Dougherty were brought in to try and help him. They stabilized Clary and had him taken on a stretcher to City Hospital.

Before removing him from the newspaper office, Clary made a dying statement to Justice of the Peace J.M. Beall that would be admitted as evidence in Resley’s trial. Clary told Beall pretty much the same thing that Bradley would later testify. However, he added that once he had been shot the first time, he told Resley, “Give me a chance.” Clary said Resley said, “You damned, son of a bitch, I’ll kill you.” and then fired the second shot.

Clary’s family in Frostburg was notified, and they made the half hour trip to Cumberland to be with Clary.  A local priest gave Clary the rights of baptism before he died at 8:45 p.m.

Clary was buried two days later, but the story was far from over.

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