A Courtroom Melee.

In November 1889, Henry Miller, of Brownsburg, Virginia, went to the home of Dr. Zachariah Walker to pick up a prescription. The doctor was not available, so his wife Bettie prepared the medicine. While alone with Bettie Walker, Miller could not control himself. He tried to kiss her, “offering other indignities which were repulsed." When Dr Walker learned of this he grabbed his shotgun intending to kill Henry Miller on sight. But before Walker could act Miller brought charges against him.

Both families were prominent and well respected but on the day of the hearing neither showed any sign of civility. As tensions mounted, the full courtroom erupted into a general melee. Guns and knives were drawn and by the end of the battle Zachariah Walker, Bettie Walker and Henry Miller were all dead, and three others were seriously wounded.

Read the full story here: Disorder in Court.

Disorder in Court.

Henry Miller went to the home of his doctor, Zachariah Walker, in Brownsburg, Virginia, to pick up some medicine on Wednesday, November 13, 1889. Dr. Walker was under the weather and could not see Miller, but his wife, Bettie, knew the prescription and she took him to the office while she prepared the compound. Though 50 years old, Bettie Walker was a strikingly attractive woman, delicate and refined, her black hair sprinkled with silver. Henry Miller, nearly 70 years old, could not control himself alone with Mrs. Walker; he tried to kiss her, “offering other indignities which were repulsed.”

Mrs. Miller did not tell her husband what had happened until Friday morning when the doctor was fully recovered.  He was immediately incensed and went out with his manservant and his shotgun looking for Henry Miller. He made it generally known that he intended to kill Miller on sight.