1926 - City Policeman Kills John Ken Wells
Jimmy Foster had held a variety of jobs during the past couple of years. None of them, however, gave him the sense of self-worth and satisfaction as his present one - a policeman for the City of Paintsville. He had grown up in Paintsville and knew most of its almost 2,000 residents and they knew and liked him.
At least, most of them did.
Earlier this week, however, he had made an implacable enemy of one of the town's most influential men...attorney John Kendrick Wells.
John Ken, as everyone called him, was well respected even though he had a fiery temper. He lived with his wife, Ruth, and their four children on Paintsville's Fourth Street. John Ken had served as City Attorney of Paintsville. He had two half-brothers, John and Claude Buckingham, who were also prominent members of the community. John Buckingham, a close confidant and friend of the late John C. C. Mayo, had recently moved to Ashland where he continued his banking career.
Aside from his temper, John Ken Wells had another trait which did not always endear him to his friends of acquaintances. He liked to drink...often to excess. It was this habit which led to the tragedy at hand.
Officer Jimmy Foster had arrested Wells for public drunkenness two nights before and lodged him in the city jail. Given his ego, John Ken Wells could not let such an affront go unanswered. He threatened Foster at the time, it was reported, and, later, when he was released from jail.
On Friday, February 22, 1926, Foster stood on the corner of Main and Mill Street (now College Street) near the Busy Bee Restaurant. Wells left his office on Main Street, on his way home for lunch, and walked to where Foster stood. Accounts differ on precisely what happened but it seems clear that Foster and Wells spoke and may have even argued.
One account relates that Wells told Foster to be ready when he, Wells, returned from lunch because he intended to shoot him. Another story places the blame on Foster for taunting Wells.
In any event, within the next hour Wells returned from lunch, walking from Fourth Street to Main along College Street, back toward the place where Foster still stood. As he approached Foster, but while he was still several feet from him, Wells moved his hands to the waistband of his trousers. Foster, as he later testified, feared that Wells was reaching for a pistol. The policeman pulled his revolver and began shooting. One shot shattered the plate glass window of Paintsville National Bank. Another went through Russell Hager's peanut roaster. Wells was struck with three bullets and fell to the street. He had no gun on him. The movement of Wells' hands to his waist was apparently intended as a gesture to show Foster that he was not armed.
Patrons of the Busy Bee Restaurant carried Wells inside and laid him out on the floor while arrangements were made to move him to Paintsville Hospital. One of the witnesses to the shooting, Beulah (Mrs. Sid) Webb, knelt beside the still conscious Wells and urged him, "Pray, Ken, Pray! He's killed you."
John Ken Wells died later that day in Paintsville Hospital.
Six months later, on July 22, 1926, Jimmy Foster was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for the murder of John Ken Wells. The jury deliberated three and a half days before bringing a verdict. At one point the jury was deadlocked 9-3 for acquittal. In testimony before the Court Foster's best and most compassionate witness was Ruth Wells, the wife of the victim. Nevertheless, community sentiment was strongly against Foster.
Circuit Judge J. F. Bailey kept the jury at their deliberations until a unanimous verdict was returned.
Jimmy Foster served his time in prison and then returned to Paintsville a broken and ruined man.
