from The Keowee Courier
Pickens Court House, South Carolina
13 July, 1899

Murder Most Foul.

   James Felix Thompson is in the Spartanburg county jail, held as the murderer of his little six-year-old step-daughter, Stacy Gilliland, who died from the effects of beatings inflicted on her by his brutality. This punishment has been imposed upon the child from time to time in the past, until for the last few weeks its unusual and inhuman cause brought about the tragic terminus to a domestic life, little better than perdition itself. The man Thompson married a young woman, Adeline Gilliland, one year ago. Five years prior to their marriage she had given birth to an illegitimate daughter, and the man’s bestial nature and vicious temperament found a ready outlet for all abuse and punishment on the little child. For meanness and fiendish accomplishments of the most cowardly and barbaric nature, (says the Spartanburg Herald) this tragedy has not a rival in this county, and it is to be hoped that another of a similar kind will never occur.

-transcription by Kate Maynard, 2012