The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, September 28, 1922, Image 1
pi HI : I ' "" " I ' ' ' '' ' ' M P5' :'"M
(5hr Smttterg 2??rall) 1
$2.00 Per Year in Advance. BAMBERG, S. C., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28,1922. " Established in 1891.
Court
Only Fe
The court of general sessions, Special
Judge Robert Lide, of Orangeburg,
presiding, was adjourned sine
die Friday night. , The Goodwin case
consumed three days of the court, and
during the remaining two days, while
only a few cases were tried, a great
numbet were disposed of in one way
or another. Quite a few prisoners
pleaded guilty and were sentenced
to various sentences, while only one
. defendant * actually came clear
.through jury action. Settlement was
effected in one case, that of attempt
to savish, the defendant being ordered
to leave the state.
Many Plead Guilty.
The following defendants pleaded
ciHitv tn charges against them and
were sentenced as noted:
Lonnie Hartzog, violation of the
prohibition law, sentenced to six
months on the chain gang. After
three months service, the remainder
of the sentence is to be suspended,
provided the defendant is never again
convicted in court of any offense.
John Fewell, violation of the prohibition
law, sentence of six months,
three month? to be suspended during
good behavior.
Peter Murray, violation of the prohibition
law, sentence of six months,
three months to be suspended during
\ good behavior.
John Busby, violation of the prohibition
law, sentence of six months,
three months to be suspended during
v good behavior.
Willie Williams, violation of the
prohibition law, sentenced to six
months on the gang, three months to
be suspended during good behavior.
John Rucker, violation of the prohibition
law, sentence of six months,
five months to be suspended during
good behavior.
Gus Jennings, violation of the prohibition
law, sentence of six months,
five months to be suspended during
good behavior.
Holdover Grand Jurors.
xThe following grand jurors were
drawn to serve another year as holdover
grand jurors: '
T. P. McCrae, Denmark.
James T. Burch, Bamberg.
F. M. Bamberg, Bamberg.
J. E. Spann, Bamberg.
J. B. Varn, Colston.
D. N. Cox, Denmark.
Jury Cases.
Sheppard Sheldon was tried on a
* charge of housebreaking and larceny.
The jury found him guilty and Judge
v ' Lide imposed a sentence of six
months on the chain gang, but con{
sented to five months of the sentence
being suspended provided he is not
again convicted in any court of jurisdiction.
Frank Johnson, on a charge of
murder in connection with the killing
of Perry Smalls, w^ acquitted by the
jury. Smalls was killed near Denmark
while several negro boys were
pranking with pistols. Johnson
claimed it was accidental, though the
solicitor pleaded for a conviction of
involuntary manslaughter. The solicitor
laid the pistols on the table, with
the statement that if they had not
been in the possession or tne negroes,
there would have been no killing.
The deid man, however, according to
witnesses, exonerated Frank of any
intention of killing him, and asked
tha{ he be not punished, it is said.
Marion Kelley and Clinton Stone
were convicted of housebreaking and
larceny on both counts, and were
sentenced by the court to serve three
v years on the chain gang or in the
penitentiary each.
Isaac Way was convicted of rape,
and was sentenced by the court, on
recommendation to mercy by the
jury, to serve nine years on the public
works of the county or in the
* penitentiary. Way was accused of
ravishing a white woman. When the !
case was called for trial, the court
ordered the court house cleared of
all spectators, allowing only the officials,
jurymen and Herald reporter
j. UnroM nftfl oi5 if
to remain. iuc nciaiu Wuun?v.u .. .
best that 110 details of this trial be
printed.
Carrie Stevens was found guilty of
manslaughter in the hilling of Clara
Thompson %in the city of Bamberg.
The court imposed a sentence of five
years in this case. Carrie was alleged
to have shot Ciara about last Christmas.
She lingered in a dying condition
for several months, and died
last spring. The shooting occurred
near the oil mill here.
It was contended that Clara went
to Carrie's home and inquired the
whereabouts of another negro wor
jlgfaj&X ; u/,.. ...;; v" 1.......
d Friday;
W Cases Tried
ASSAULT IS ATTEMPTED.
Aiken County Man Arrested on Serious
Charge.
Aiken, Sept. 23.?Will Ripley, a
white farmer, about thirty years old,
was placed in Aiken jail late last
night upon the charge of attempted
criminal assault on a fourteen-yearold
white girl, daughter of a neighbor
in the PaPlmetto Farm section,
nine miles from Aiken. The child
was on her way to get milk from a
near-by farm house when she was
met by Ripley on the road and asked
if she wished to ride back home.
When she consented and was about to
enter the vehicle Ripley is alleged to
have seized her and dragged her off
the road to the woods. The screams
of' the girl brought Bonbright
Given, owner of the Palmetto Farm,
to her aid. Upon the arrival of Deputy
Sheriff Nollie Robinson to arrest
Ripley the prisoner had to be struck
to the ground before he would submit
to arrest. He is unmarried and
is said to have been drinking when
the attack on the child was made.
The victim's clothing was torn to
threads in her struggle. Though the
people of the section are very indignant
over the affair, they seem satisfied
to let the law take its course.
Jailer's Removal Recommended.
A recommendation that the present
jailer of the Orangeburg county jail
be removed for neglect and inefficiency
was the feature of the grand
jury's report to the court of general
sessions Friday afternoon.
Six grand jurors were drawn for
service next year with twelve new
nn?a these heine: L. H. Shingler, L.
D. Sturkey, P. B. Smoak, W. P. Stroman,
W. R. Bryant and A. N. Avinger.
'
One recommendation of the grand
jury was that the doors and windows
of the jail be provided with toolproof
steel bars. A number of escapes
have occurred from the new jail
within the past year.
The grand jury commended the
system of good roads being built, and
spoke of their continuance. Especial
attention was called to maintaining
them and to the condition of th?
Belleville road, which needs work
badly. The management of the county
affairs was commended.
It was recommended that the court
house be cleaned thoroughly.
The new legislative delegation was
requested to create a rural police system
under the supervision of a chief
of rural police, which it was believed
would help suppress lawlessness.
man, whereupon Carrie for some rea
son became incensed and shot her
down. The dead woman, it is said,
was unknown to Carrie.
Fred Carter was fou6d guilty on
two counts of burglary and larceny,
and was sentenced by the court to a
service of five years on each offense.
The sentences are not to be served
concurrently, but the one is to begin
after the other has been completed.
Carter was recommended to mercy
by the court.
Rape Case Settled.
The case against John Carter,
charged with intent to ravish, was
settled to the satisfaction of all parties
concerned. This case was sent
up from Denmark. Carter was a-barber
of good reputation and while in
a drinking condition made advances
toward a young lady of Denmark,
as a consequence of which feeling
ran rather high toward the negro, although
he was safely landed in jail.
It was set out in Ihe agreement to
drop the charges that he bore a good
reputation previous to this, and that
the parents of the girls wished to
give him a chance to redeem himoalf
holiovinp' that if Via had not
been under the influence of liquor the
affair would not have occurred.
Carter was ordered by the court
to leave the state at once and remain
out of the state indefinitely, being
allowed to return oitly in passing
through the state, or upon an occasion
of the death of some near relative,
in which case he may return
and stay not exceeding two days. Carter
agreed to the terms of the settlement
and also agreed to pay all costs
attached to the case, and was freed
to leave the state. Former friends
of the negro considered this a happy
settlement of the matter as the man
was really wel thought of before this
affair occurred.
- J
Detective Works
on Williams Case
Columbia, Sept. 24.?The arrest of
Irving W. Williams, son of J. H. Williams,
610 Moore avenue, Augusta,
Ga., suspected of and charged with
being the driver of the red wheeled
automobile which took the alleged
assassins of Reedy Booth and P. M.
Feaster, youthful guards, murdered
near the Hamburg shops of the Southern
in Aiken county, on the morning
of August 30, 1922, to and from
the scene of the killing, was the result
of an unearthing of clues by a
detective connected with tne law ana
order staff of Governor Wilson G.
Harvey?a detective who iia9 been
connected with some of the biggest
oepratives in the country in ferreting
out great crimes. \
As a sequence to this officer's investigations
there was unearthed the
whipping, on the identical spot, fifteen
days previous to the killing, of
an officer of the Southern railway, E<
W. Thomas, general foreman of the
shops at Hamburg, by a masked band
of six men. In this connection, J.
Martin, Vergil Thomas, Fred Thomas
and Budd Englett were arrested
for the assault and were placed under
$1,000 bands each. All are residents
of Augusta, Ga., according to the
statement of the detective.
At the solicitation of Solicitor R.
L. Guncer and many citizens of Aiken,
including many mill operatives, Govpernor
Harvey sent his detectives to the
scene of the murder of Booth and
Feaster, and this officer worked with
such success and secrecy that additional
arrests in connection with the
killing are expected within the next
few days.
Irving Williams was arrested and
brought to the penitentiary at 11
o'clock on the night of September 6,
three days after the detective had
been on the case, and Williams, who
is 17 years of age, was admitted to
* * - - "
$1,500 bail by judge nayne xv. xviv;c
yesterday at Aiken, on habeas corpus
proceedings.
Shot Down August 30.
Reedy Booth and P. M. Feastjer
both were shot down in the public
road about 200 yards from the Hamburg
shops at 5 o'clock on the morning
of August 30, Feaster being in^
stantly killed and Booth being mortally
wounded, and dying in about
tihree hours. They were shot with revolver
and rifle bullets and buckshot.
At the spot where the bodies were
found were strewn around exploded
rifle and revolver shells, the magazine
of an automatic pistol, three
dirty handkerchiefs, two of them with
the initials of the owners on them,
supposed by the state to have been
used as masks, and pieces of one
quarter-inch and one-inch thick hemp
rope.
' The supposition of the state is that
Booth and Feaster were decoyed into
the road for the purpose of being
whipped wirh the thick rope, and
when they resisted they were shot
down. It is believed that Feaster fired
two shots before the assailants of
the murdered men opened fire.
Governor Harvey's detective, spurred
on by the chief executive's law
enforcement programme, has worked
up a network o? evidence on which
vrmnp- Williams is being charged with
J v .. ? w _
participation in the "crime.
"When I was ordered on the case,"
said the detective this morning in
the governor's offipe, discussing the
case on authority of Governor Harvey,
"I did not have a thing to go on.
When T went to Hamburg the first
thing I considered was the motive. I
found that both Booth and Feaster
were morally clean and aught could
be said against them. I, therefore,
at once dismissed the element _ of
jealousy. After some work I got a
line on Williams and incidentally ran
into the whipping of Mr. Thomas,
which had been smothered."
The detective said that the propos.ed
statement of Williams, as given
at the coroner's investigation of the
double murder, did not tally with the
facts as established by him. The
father of young Williams, J. H. Williams,
was a striker, while the son
~*>?a 3nnthorn shnns as a
?Ui ivcu a l niv ? _
flue blower and was. therefore, not
ordered out on strike. On the night
of August 29-30, when young Williams
was supposed to have been
working at the shops by his father,
said the detective, the records establish
that he was not on duty, and his
testimony that he was at home on
that/ night, continued the officer, do
not coincide with the facts worked
up by him.
Had Father's Car.
"On the night of the murder," stat
Money Advanced
on Cotton Crop
Columbia, Sept. 23.?The South
Carolina Cotton Growers' Cooperative
association has paid over $1,000,000
to its members in advances, officials
of the association said tonight.
An average of approximately $100,000
a day was paid out last week, it
was said, and the volume of cotton
coming is expected to materially increase
this week.
6ne railroad brought fifty carloads
of cotton to Columbia Saturday
for the association. This cotton
came from points in the state in
which the association has no sub
sidiary warehouses. Columbia is one
of the three concentration points, the
other two being Greenville and Spartanburg.
The association has subsidiary
warehouses over the state in
which cotton is being stored. Heavy
incoming shipments were reported
from the association's concentration^
warehouses of Spartanburg and
Greenville today also.
From Coastal Region.
Of course, the greater bulk of the
deliveries up to this has been from
the lower part of the state, but deliveries
are expected to pour in from
the upper part of the state during the
coming week.
The distribution of over $1,000,000
in the lower part of the state should
have a decidedly stimulating effect
on business, officers of the association
think. This money represents
the first advance by the association
to members who have delivered their
cotton. This payment was made on
the basis of 12 cents a pound on short
staple and 18 cents a pouna on iuug
staple. . Additional payments will be
made as the cotton is sold out of the
various pools into which it is classed,
according to grade and staple.
Up to this time the association has
had no complaints of violation of the
contract or attempted violations.
Loyal members of the association are
.on guard in every county, officials
said, and prompt action will be taken
' in the case any member attempts to
violate it. \
ed the detective, "Irving Williams's
father let him have his car, a Hudson
speedster, the fastest, car in that
neighborhood, so that when he knocked
off from work on the following
morning he could bring back home
with him a chain hoist to lift a motor
at his home.
"We contend," he continued, "that
young Villian^s did not go to the
shops at all. After he left home with
the car he met Tracy Smith and Walter
Hoffman, two taxi drivers, at the
monument on Broad street, Augusta,
Ga., and rode with them around town
for some forty minutes. Then, according
to his own testimony, he went
to Aiken to listen to the election returns?a
boy that could not read nor
write. He claims that he left Aiken
at 9:20 that night, and reached home
j at 10 'o'clock, immediately going to
bed. However, I have an affidavit
from W. W. Wall,..a merchant, that
he saw young Williams in Aiken at
11:30 that night, and another from
M. H. Wooley, a barber of Bath, that
he got the boy to drive him as far as
Gloverville, seven miles from Aiken,
leaving Aiken at 11:40 o'clock that
night. When he left him, said Mr.
Wooley, Williams went in the general
direction of Augusta.
"Williams claimed that he left
home in Augusta at 6 o'clock on the
morning of August 30. As he approached
the shops, his automobile
came up to a dead body laying in the
road. He stopped, stepped over the
body, walked a few steps and found
the other body. | He then went to
the shops, passing H. J. feritt, special
agent of the Southern, and T. B.
Gregory, a guard of the Southern,
and went on into the'tool house. To
neither Britt nor Gregory did he say
anything of the finding of the dead
bodies. .
"Britt and Gregory went into the
road, and, finding the bodies. Britt
ran back to the shop. When questioned
as :o why he did not report
* *?/ ??* 4 o?> tt-Vion "ho saw Britt and
LUC UUUico ii uvu -
Gregory, he claimed he was too
frightened.
' Gregory claims that righr after
the salvo of shots were heard on the
public road, he heard an automobile
start up suddenly with great noise
and he continued ap hear this same
car until it reached the bridge crossing
the Savannah river, separating
South Carolina and Augusta. It the?
stopped, stated Gregory, and returned
to the spot where the bodies were
found, and from that time a period
at which it would take to walk.
Goodwin
Serve
FORI> FACTORIES REOPEN.
Manufacturer's "Industrial Strike"
Ends?Men Called Back.
Detroit, Sept. 21.?Henry Ford's
"industrial strike" came to an end
tonight.
At midnight his great automobile
plants in the .Detroit district employing
- upwards of. 70,000 men, and
which were closed for an indefinite
per1 >a uSi aamruaj' as nit; manufacturer's
protest against what he
termed "excessive" coal prices, again
were the scene of industrial activity.
The order for the reopening of the
plants came this forenoon from Edsel
Ford," son of the manufacturer and
president of the Ford Motor Company,
who made arrangements to obi
tain coal during a long conference in
Cincinnati yesterday with 50 mine
operators. The reopening order was
approved by Henry Ford and official
announcement giving to the heads
of Ford workers throughout the
country, who daily since the shut
down have scanned- the newspaper
headlines in their eagerness to learn
when their wages would start again.
Edsel Ford, in his telegram, copies
of which were dispatched to every
Ford assembling plant in the country,
said the interstate commerce commission's
latest order permitting the!
flow of fuel to automobile plants,
previously put in the non-essential
class, made it possible to obtain a
sufficient supply of the class of coal
required to operate the Ford enter/
prises.
OPPOSITION FOR FIRMER.
Republicans Plan to Nominate Candidate
in Seventh District.
Columbia, Sept. 20.?Congressman
H. P. Fulmer, of the Seventh district,
will be opposed in the November
election by a candidate of "tie Union
Republican party, the district convention
meeting here today having ?>pointed
a committee of seven to select
the nominee. It is understopd
a nomination will be made within the
next ten or twelve days.
Discussion took place as to whether
a white or negro candidate should
be put in the field, but the convention
adjourned without instructing the
committee,, leaving it free to use its
own judgment. R. H. Richardson,
Sumter, is chairman.
J. H. Goodwin, of Columbia, was
elected district chairman for two
years.
Renew your subscription today, j
20 yards, Williams appeared. He said
that the car which was at the dead
body of Feaster was his car.
- Car at Great Spefed.
"C. W. Caldwell, who lives on a
hill overlooking the spot where the
killing occurred, heard the volley of
shots, and shortly afterwards saw an
automobile traveling at a great rate
of speed pass his house going to-,
wards Augusta, loaded with men.
nnMc wr hari red wheels and he iden
tified it as J. H. Williams's car.
"Gregory said that when they put
the injured Booth in the car to take
him to an Augusta hospital, young
Williams got at the wheel -and he
shifted the gears and the car made
the same noise as that which he
heard leaving the scene of the killing.
"The theory of the state as developed
from the evidence is that
the driver, not wanting to see anyone
whipped or otherwise molested, went
to Aiken and took enough time, as
he thought, for the deed to he consummated
before he returned. When
he arrived at the scene, nothing had
happened, we contend, and he had
to wait on his companions. We are
satisfied that he backed his car some
25 yards up the road and then backed
it off the highway, concealing it in
the underbrush?to hide it from the ;
traffic which was very heavy that
night on account of the first primary |
election. Three days after the crime j
tracks made by non-skid tires identi- j
cal with those on the Williams car, j
were found in the underbrush to cod- i
form with the foregoing theory."
To show that the investigations of
the detective were made with the utmost
secrecy, a delegation of Aiken
citizens went to the governor's office
on September 7 to ask for help in
solving the murder of Booth and (
Feaster. At that time the executive
was talking with the detective and
Williams had been'in the state peni-j
need to |j
Twelve Years
Friday afternoon R. M. Jefferies,
attorney for E. L. Goodwin, convicted
of manslaughter in connection with,
the killing of Jacob E. Carter in.
June, 1921, argued a motion for a *
new trial before Special Judge Robert
Lide, of Orangeburg. After a hearing
from the solicitor and Mr. Jefferies,
Judge Lide refused the motion,
and Goodwin was sentenced to serve
twelve years in the penitentiary or on.
the county chain gang.
Mr. Jefferies served notice of intention
to appeal the case to the supreme
court, and pending this appeal,
Judge Lide ordered that Goodwin be ^reincarcerated
in the Bamberg county *jl3
I. TT. ?? X ? ? iU . /M
jau. ne will not Degin tne service
of the sentence until after the disposition
of the appeal, or may not serve ^
at all, if the supreme court acts fav- .Igj
orably on the appeal. N
During the trial of this case Good- v .^|
win's wife, who was Mrs. Vena Carter
before her marriage to Mr. Goodwin,
was in the court.room, with her two - ;^i|
small childrdh. Mrs. Goodwin's first
husband was Mr. Carter, son of Jacoh
E.Carter. '
It will be recalled that Mr. Carter
wad found dead in his yard in the ^
Little Swamp community. He had V:S
been shot down with buckshot, two 1
loads having taken effect in his body. jm
Appearances indicated that he had ' Wk
been shot unawares, as there was no i-*18
indications of a struggle of any kind. ; <
Witnesses testified to tracks being
seen in the lot, from which directiott 5
the shots appeared to have been fired. B|||
The rain a short time after" finding. ?|i
the body prevented the following of ; ^
of these tracks. 1
The case against Goodwin was baaed
entirely on circumstantial evl- >J|
dence. There were no eyewitnesses ^
to the tragedy which ended the life
of Mr. Carter, who was one of the *
county's finest?old citizens. ,v|jS
The solicitor had in his possession
an affidavit from Dr. S. P. Rentz, who ' ~
has since this tragedy met his own.
death in a tragic manner, his auto- - : ;:|SS
'mobile having overturned some
months ago in a ditch or pond on the
Hunter's Chapel road. This affidavit,
which was given in the proceedings :||
to secure bail for Goodwin, was to the , \
effect that he was passing that way >tSM
on the afternoon of the tragedy and j||
that he saw Goodwin coming from the / ^||
direction of Carter's home with a J
shot gun in his hand. Both Goodwin'
and his wife testified that Goodwin
I was at home all the afternoon until vj|
the officers same to arrest him for
driving his automobile without a li- *Jw
cense. * \ ^
Under the rules of the court, this SpfigS
affidavit could not be read or intro-^ ^
duced in evidence, but the solicitor 1.J8
on cross examination of Goodwin
brought out the fact that such an
an affidavit had been made by Dr.
Rentz.
The jury returned the verdict of
guilty of manslaughter Wednesday '--JH
evening about seven o'clock after
consideration of several hours. The
case went to trial Monday morning
before, and occupied the time of the
court for practically three days. The
sentence was one of the heaviest for
manslaughter ever imposed in this
county.
tentiary for at least twelve hours.
When investigating the murder the '
state officer heard of the beating of 'j?
Thomas, whom he did not know, nor
what position he held. After run-. < .-oi
ning down two or three leads he
found that the Thomas spoken of was
the general foreman of the Southern
shops. Mr." Thomas failed to report
the affair to the officers because his
assailants had told him if he did not
keep his mouth closed he would be
I summarily dealt with. And he took
their advice. j .Jl
I The detective, after considerable
investigation, got evidence which he
believed would connect Vergil Thomas,
Fred Thomas, Budd Englett and
G. W. Odom, as well as Martin, with
the whipping of Thomas. He then
came to Columbia for requisition papers
for the five men, which he took
at Atlanta, Ga. They were honored
by Governor Hardwick, of Georgia,
September 15, and the detective immediately
went to Augusta, arrested
the men and took them to Aiken. He *
found at Aiken that he did not have,
sufficient evidence against Odom to
implicate him, so he was immediately
released, September 18, by Magistrate
W. B. Raborn, of Aiken, placed
the other four men under $1,000
bond each, holding them for the .
grand jury.