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- Kingsport News, Kingsport, Tennessee
Thursday, July 18, 1946
Robert H. Bassett
Bristol - AP - Robert H. Bassett, 46, owner and operator of Bassett's Dairy Products Company of Bristol was killed instantly at 10:30 o'clock Wednesday morning and Ed Plank, 46 year old prominent farmer of near Bluff City, Tennessee, is being held in the Sullivan County jail at Blountville, on a charge of murder as the man who walked into Bassett's office and fired the entire six shots of a .38 revolver at the dairyman.
Deputy sheriff Lilburn Pyle, of Sullivan County, said that Plank told him at the Bristol, Tennessee jail before he was removed to the county jail, that he was drunk and did not know what happened at the time of the shooting, but that there had been "trouble" between himself and Bassett over a wholesale milk route operated by Plank.
After the shooting Miss Elouise Hagy, bookkeeper for Bassett's and an eyewitness to the shooting, seized Plank by the shoulders and, though he still brandished the gun in the air, shoved him to the street and to the Bristol jail, on a log adjoining the dairy establishment, and turned him over to the custody of the desk sergeant on duty.
Warrants Issued
Deputy Sheriff Pyle said that last Sunday Plank issued warrant charging trespassing against Bassett and two of his employes and that Plank told him that Bassett and two other men came to his farm early Sunday morning and removed some milk cans from one of his trucks, placed them in the Bassett truck and drove away, and that he later obtained the warrants.
Pyle said the warrants were served Tuesday and that a hearing had been set for Thursday before Magistrate J.W. Sage of the Nineteenth Civil District of Sullivan County.
Pyle said that Plank's wife told him that her husband had been drinking and because she did not want him to drive his car, she drove him into Bristol Wednesday morning to get a tire vulcanized.
"Mrs. Plank said that she left her husband with the car at a local service station and told him she was going to a department store to do some shopping and would return in about fifteen minutes." Deputy Sheriff Pyle states. "She said that when she came back Plank walked off down the street, and that she didn't know where he was going or that he had a gun with him.
"She said that within a few minutes she saw an ambulance passing the service station and within another few minutes heard the news that Mr. Bassett had been shot and that her husband was in jail."
Sheriff Amos Robinson of Sullivan County said Wednesday night that a preliminary hearing for Plank would not be set until after funeral services are held for Mr. Bassett, arrangements for which have not been made but which probably will be held Friday afternoon. Robinson said that no bond had been set for Plank.
Mr. Bassett is survived by his widow, Mrs. Katherine Bassett, who was shopping in a grocery store a few blocks from the Bassett's establishment when the ambulance passed the store on route to the scene of the tragedy.
She left the store when notified that her husband had met with a serious accident and learned of his death at a local hospital, where the fatally wounded man was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Plank, father of nine children, is owner of a 200 acre farm near Bluff City and has been engaged in delivering milk from producers to a number of processors, including Bassett's. He is well known throughout the county and Sheriff Robinson said Wednesday night that he had no record or knowledge of his ever having been arrested before.
1910 Federal Census of Campbell, Steuben County, New York (18 Apr 1910)
George S. Bassett - 53 - M - NY-NY-NY - Head - Farmer Dairy Farm
Ida G. - 50 - F - NY-NY-NY - Wife
Elizabeth G. - 15 - F - NY-NY-NY - Daughter
James W. - 13 - M - NY-NY-NY - Son
Robert H. - 12 - M - NY-NY-NY - Son
Clark B. - 9 - M - NY-NY-NY - Son
(Married 16 years, 4 children, 4 living, her 2nd marriage)
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Bassett Family Association Database
1898 - 1946 (48 years)