Few people regret to know that the notorious Tom Ellis, of the Birmingham Hornet, who has been a blot upon the fair name of Alabama, was tatally wounded Saturday night in an encounter with detective Sullivan in a saloon in that city. He has been a festering sore for a long time and every one expected him to meet a violent death..
WE learn that the Birmingham Hornet, founded by Tom Ellis and so conducted that his death by violence resulted, has been moved to Atlanta. It is to be edited by J. C. Campbell of the defunct Atlanta Avalanche, an organ of the saloons. The revived Hornet will probably not be as handy with its sting as its Birmingham progenitor was.
If it is not better behaved. in its resurrected estate than before its lapse a year ago, there will be some business for an Atlanta undertaker..
A TERRBLE ENDING. Thomas Ellis, the editor of the Birmingham Hornet, was fatally shot by Detective A. J. Sullivan, in a personal rencounter in Hewlett's billiard parlors, Birmingham last Saturday night. He lingered in intense agony until Tuesday morning, when death put an end to his sufferings.
In his dying declaration he asseverates that Sullivan was the aggressor. Sullivan is now a prisoner, and will be dealt with as the law directs The following personal notice of Sullivan appeared, a few days ago in The Hornet, and caused the **Can anyone be surprised now at the lies that have been circulated and printed regarding the shooting affray between Tom Ellis and Detective Scarborough since it has been announced that 'Sullivan is working up the case.' He has certainly succeeded in 'working up! several contradictory lies. Such a man is a disgrace to the profession he claims to represent. He is a social outlaw; he is n parasite on the body politic; he is a lazy loafer and, should be forced to earn an honest living, even tho' it be in the chain gang. For a few paltry dollars he would swear away the life and the character of the best in the community, or persuade other disreputable men to do it.
That such a man should succeed in playing the role of a detective in Birmingham is a disgrace to the city. The very disgusting and repulsive appearance of the corpulent swine is enough to convince a person of ordinary intelligence of his true character. In fact, be is a veritable octopus, an ulcer fungus on humanity, an itinerant Chinese stink ball. The best interests of humanity demand the suppression of such quacks. The vile knave who will thus prostitute an honorable calling is worse than the most red-handed murderer Lot ever dangled from the scaffold."
DEATH OF TOM ELLIS. The Editor of the Birmingham "Hornet" Succumbs to His Injuries. BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 8.,1888
Tom Ellis, proprietor of the Hornet, who was shot Saturday night by Detective Sullivan, died yesterday. How he lived so long after being shot is a mystery even to physicians.
His pulse ceased to beat thirteen hours before he died, and three hours before he stopped breathing his limbs were cold and rigid. The preliminary trial of Sullivan will be held Thursday. Last night W. W. Moore, business manager of the Hornet, announced his intention of shooting Sullivan on sight, He was locked up by the police, but was released on bail today.
About two years ago Ellis shot and killed a woman, for which he was sent to the insane asylum. Subsequently he swore out a writ of habeas corpus for himself, and made a brilliant speech before the Judge. He was adjudged not insane, and was soon back in Birmingham, again publishing the Hornet. He said he had reformed, and his paper was tolerably decent for awhile. It gradually grew worse, however.
Ellis' next move was to shoot Detective Scarborough, formerly of the Atlanta police. This was about three weeks ago. Scarborough was employed by Detective Sullivan, and after this shooting Sullivan began to talk about Ellis in Powdery complimentary way. Saturday ago the Hornet contained an attack Sullivan, in which the detective was likened to a pet monkey that is a thousand miles away from home and has lost its bearings," and denounced as "a veritable octopus, an ulcer fungus on humanity, an itinerant Chinese This resulted in the shooting.
EDITOR SHOT. Tom Ellis, of the Birmingham Hornet, Punctured. Mortally Wounded by a Detective Whom He Had Vilified, and Whom He Tried to Kill. SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER. BIRMINGHAM, ALA., February 4.-The climax in the carnival of crime which has blackened the character of the magic city of the South for the last few weeks was reached this afternoon when Detective R.
D. Sullivan shot and mortally wounded Tom Ellis, editor of the Weekly Hornet, in a billiard saloon on First avenue. Sullivan, who is one of the best detective officers in the South, returned to the city late last night from a chase after an escaped convict in Lamar County. On his arrival he was shown a copy of last Saturday's Hornet, containing a bitterly denunciatory article about him, accusing him of the highest crimes and threatening his life. This evening Sullivan was sitting in a billiard parlor reading the paper, when Ellis came in to get a cigar.
Sullivan looked up, and, as he did so, dropped the paper. Quick as a flash both men drew their revolvers and began to fire. After shooting five or six times, Ellis got behind a doorway and fired at Sullivan again. By this time the latter's pistol was empty, and he ran back in the billiard-room. Ellis walked out in the street and began reloading his pistol.
He began to stagger, and a bystander caught him. He was carried into a doctor's office, and, on examination, was found to be shot three times, once in the stomach and twice in the face. Although Ellis fired at least seven times Sullivan was untouched. He gave himself up. To-day's tragedy grows out of the fact that a few weeks ago Ellis shot and seriously wounded Detective Hawk Scarborough, Sullivan's partner, and the Hornet article was written because of Sullivan's activity in securing witnesses to testify in his partner's favor.
The career of Tom Ellis is one having no parallel in the history of desperate deeds in this city or State. He was a man of undoubted courage, and held human life as if of no more value than a hog's. A few years ago he shot and killed his mistress in a house of ill-fame here. For this brutal murder he escaped after a heated trial on the plea of insanity, and after a brief stay in the asylum. His paper, the Hornet, as the name implies, was a vile sheet, taking an especial delight in raking up the wayward acts of married men, married women, prostitutes and others around town.
He was under bond for the shooting of Scarborough and for criminal libel at the time of the killing. Ellis comes of a good family, and was one of the best known men in Alabama. He was about thirty. Sullivan came here a year or two ago from Nashville, where he was at one time spoken of for Chief of City Detectives, and was considered a courageous officer..
PERSONAL JOURNALISM AGAIN. Again the country is called on to witness a tragedy growing out of the use of the public prints to vent private spleen and animosity. Tom Ellis, the editor of the Birmingham Hornet, which has been disgrace to the fair name of journalism since its initial number made its appearance was shot and fatally wounded whom by Andrew J. Sullivan, a detective he bad brutally assaulted in the columns of his paper. Ellis' career in journalism has been most violent and scandalous, and the end that has overtaken him has been expected by his acquaintances from the day that he published the first number of his paper. He would doubtless have been killed long | before this but his victims heretofore, whose characters he has attempted to blacken, have been men who preferred to disregard his venomous as• saults rather than spill human blood; but at last, he assaulted the wrong man. The provocation in the casa of Ellis is briefly summed up as follows by the Birmingham Age: "The Hornet, of which Ellis is the editor, contained in its issue of January 28, a most libelous article directed against Sullivan.
He was accused of every vile thing a man could be, and branded as a thief, a liar, and a disgrace to the profession which he represented. Among other things, it stated that Sullivan once, in order to establish a case of larceny of meat from a railroad car against a certain man, took some of the stolen meat, which had been recovered, and in company with a negro secreted it in the man's house, and next day arrested him and proffered the meat as evidence. The language of the article was so vituperative as to be unfit for these columns." This incident illustrates again the truth of what the TIMES has always contended for: that the day of personal journalism, vituperative abuse of private character in the public prints, has gone; and it were well if the lesson were thoroughly learned by those inclined that way before there is any further shedding of blood. The public acts of public men are legitimate subjects of newspaper investigation and criticism, but men who have access to the public prints must not complain if the victims of their personal abuse and assault repay them with the only weapons of which they may have control--the pistol or the horsewhip. The sooner this kind of journalism is put down, the better it will be for the country; and at the rate of mortality now attained, it may be reasonably expected that it will be killed out by reason of its own violence before very long.
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