Allen Parish was the nephew of Buck Parrish, of Durham, NC. In the summer of 1920, Parrish lived in Graham, North Carolina, and was suspected of taking part in an attempted lynching at the Alamance County jail. During the attempted assault on the jail, members of the Durham Machine Gun Company were forced to open fire to stop the attack. Two men were wounded and one man was killed. Parrish was noticeably wounded in the days following the assault. He maintained that the gun shot wound to his knee happened on a different night and that it was the result of his accidentally dropping a loaded .45 caliber pistol on the floor.