SUSAN PAGE
1948
Harry Conley and Susan Page Die At Hager Hill
State Patrolman Shot In Attempted Arrest Monday Night
A brother and sister, Harry Conley, 48, and Susan Conley Page, 52, were killed
instantly about 10 p.m. Monday night in a shooting affray on the Lick Fork Road near
its junction with Route 23 about 4 miles south of Paintsville.
Cpl. Homer Howard, 44, of Salyersville, a member of the state police, Forest Conley,
brother of the two killed, and George Page, Mrs. Page’s husband, were wounded.
Howard is a patient in the Prestonsburg Hospital where his condition is reported to
be satisfactory. He was struck by bullets in the liver and on the hand and arm.
Forest Conley was shot in the chest and arm. He was taken to the Paintsville
Clinic, and later dismissed. He executed a $3,000 bond for his appearance before
the County Judge for an examining trail.
Harry Conley and Mrs. Page were shot several times.
It is reported that the shooting started when Howard and Patrolman Benjamin J.
Music, 26, tried to intercept an automobile occupied by the Conley family and driven
by Page, after the policemen had been tipped off about a drunken disturbance along
Jenny’s Creek just off Route 23.
Hearing shooting, Howard and Music waited at the junction of the Lick Fork Road and
Route 23 until members of the Conley family came onto the highway in the automobile.
Then they stepped forward and announced all were under arrest.
“That’s when the shooting started,” a police spokesman said.
Page was slightly wounded police said, and was removed to the jail from which he was
released Tuesday without charge.
It was stated here this week that the incident took place at the same place where
German Conley, father of the Conley’s was killed by Charlie Blair several years ago.
Harry Conley was sentenced in the Johnson Circuit Court at one time for life
imprisonment as a habitual criminal but later pardoned by Govenor Ruby Laffoon. His
record, the State Police Detachment said, included convictions for a killing and a
rape.
Forest Conley was also convicted and served a sentence in the penitentiary. He is
the father of Forest Dean Conley who is serving a life sentence for the slaying of
Jasper Blair in the Legion Hall here last January.
Two other women, Margaret Burke Conley, wife of Harry Conley, and Liza Baker of
Floyd County, were passengers in the automobile, but they were not injured and are
not being held.
The shooting on the Lick Fork Road prompted the call to police, and was said to have
started when Harry Conley, on a picnic with the others, became intoxicated and
entertained them with some pistol target practice.
Funeral services were held yesterday at 2 p.m. at the Page home for the two slain
members of the Conley family. The services were conducted by Rev. Adron Davis.
Burial was made in the family cemetery under the direction of the Preston Funeral
Home.
Capt. Vernon Sanders of the State police and Forest Conley, now under arrest, will
not receiving examining trial pending the outcome of Howard’s injuries.
Paintsville Herald
Thursday
8 July 1948