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Sweetwater Telephone, (Monroe Co. TN) Thursday, January 16, 1908:
"Tell Of Killing Garret Hedden---Sheriff Pryor Watson and Deputy Thomas Blair, of Monroe County, who were with the posse that raided the Hedden distillery on Lost Creek early Saturday morning, have been in the city on business this week. To a reporter for the [Knoxville] Sentinel who inquired of them about the raid and the “moonshiners,” the officers said that the illicit distillery was located in an almost inaccessible place in the mountains. Garret Hedden, the old man who owned the still, and who was instantly killed by the officers when the raid was begun, was a veritable terror in that section. It is said he had killed four men and had never been arrested. According to report, Hedden had more than once sent word to Sheriff Biggs, of Polk County, that if the officer should ever come after him, “he’d better bring along a coffin.” How peculiarly wise that advice was is shown by the developments of Saturday’s raid. A coffin was needed, but not for the sheriff.
It was not for making “moonshine” that the officers went after Garret Hedden. He was wanted for a graver crime. The old moonshiner was charged with having murdered his brother about eight years ago; and it was for this and other charges thst Sheriff Biggs resolved to accept the challenge Hedden had sent him.
On the morning of the raid, rain was falling and the dead leaves and underbrush of the mountains around Lost Creek were soaking. This enabled the officers to travel with comparatively little noise. They were able to approach the moonshiner’s still unheard and unseen fortunately for themselves. They crept down the mountainside slowly, and when they grew near the still, caught sight of Garret Hedden just outside the door. They called on him to halt, but he made a break for the door, and five double-barreled shotguns pourede a storm of lead into his body.
It is stated that no harm was intended for Hedden’s son, who was mortally wounded by the officers. He and his brother were struck by stray buckshot when they ran to the door upon hearing the officers shout to the old man to halt."
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