Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I - ' SHOT Arms WORK THE BRUTAL IBRD EH Df A HAN IN BIS VIBISH8P NO CLUE Tl MURDERERS iMr. Knwto^ IX ttmotk, a Peal and Doiub Man, Killed at IU? Boncb Near Cedar Hprin^N In Hpnrtnnburfc < 'ouutjr, bjr Thug* Who Robbed IIU Ibul. A Mo. ?Bin illWl VIMMV* < The Spartanburg correspondent of The State says what appears to be one of the fouleat murders ever committed In Spartanburg County, with tobbery aa a motive for the crime was brought to light Friday morning when the dead body of Krastus 1>. Kmoak, aged 7 4 years a deaf mute who lived alone at his home about one mile east of Cedar Springs institute was found In u crouching position on the floor of his workshop, a loom that adjoins his dwelling, having been shot In tho small of the back at close range with a shot gun which was loaded with bird shot. A broken shutter In one end of the workshop aud foot prints under tho window proves ahnost conclusively that the shot was tired from the outride of the window while Mr. Smouk who Is a cabinet maker, was at work on a pelco of furniture in his shop when ho received the fatal load. The murderer then climbed through the window and proceeded to rifle the pockets of tho dead man. His right hand pocket in his trous?? was found turud wrong side out and a small leather purse In which ho is known to have carried change w;xh missing. An examination of his iriink waa mnrfo ?nd thft too wnw Jound pried open and the contents minsacked, but whether any money tvas taken cannot be stated as it is not kuown whether or not he had any money Id his trunk. Hie coat was buttoned tightly and in his Inside pocket three $20 bills were found, while In his vest pocket was found a ladle's gold watch, both being evidently overlooked by the murderer and robber in bis baste to get away. It is believed that the crime was committed during the night while Mr. flmoak was at work in his shop for his body was found near the head of his work bench and between the thumb and index, finger of his .cjght hand was a lead pencil about i,wo inches long. A carpenter's square a piece of plank, were on the work table, indicating he was in the act of i riling off the board when he received his death wound. A small lamp,, I he oil of which had been burned out, was also on the table. The tracts under tho window ?hroiigh which the shot is supposed to hav? been fired load from the w indow to a patch of woods. At tho coroner's inquest a large number of witnesses were examined, though no evidence was adduced lo point to the guilt of any one. Some of tho witnesses testified that the last they saw Mr. Smoak alive was tost Sunday, while others stated they saw him late Sunday afternoon. The jury returned a verdict that the deceased came to his death from the gun shot wounds inflictod by a party or parties unknown to the Jury. The deceased is survived by one daughter end four aona, all of whom reside in distant states except Herbert Smoak, who lives in Union. EXPLOSION KlUiS NINE. ? . ... f toiler Hnrstx In Hc?J>oaf<l Air Line Shopa at Hamlet. Nino persona wore killed at. HamNorth Carolina on Saturday when a stationary engine in the shops of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad exploded, demolishing the building and hurling parts of the wreckage several hundred feet. The dead are: white, O. R. Uttor, general roundhouse foreman: William Utter, assistant foremen; TI. O. Reynolds, sloctrician. Negroes: Charles T^edhetter, James Powers. William Raltontine, John Thompson, Edward Gilchrist and one unldentlfltd man. Officials of the Seaboard arrived at fTnmtot Saturday night and It was stated that repair work on the structure would begin nt once. Infant F*tally 1 In rued. At Mulllns the infant child of Mr. and Mm. B. B. Eggloston was fatally burned late Tuesday evening. The b&by w-as toft to the eare of a young ourso while the mother was in an other part of tho house attending to domestic duties. The girl was standing orer a Are and let the infant drop from her arum. The baby lay hi the flames until the mother arrived And its Uttle head was frightfully homed. i m a a Whole Family Was Killed. The flour members of the family of l>dward H. Miller were killed Friday when their carriage wan etrock by an Illinois Central train near Champaign, T!1. Opal Soett, tho 1! ycor?M child of* a neighbor, was fatally hurt. They "ware returning from a Christmas oelebratlon. KILLED BY OVERSEER i . JiiMKH MIMH FATA^\ iThUW iX R CAMP IN A BOW MIim W? Ofwmr ud Camp an Operative at Columbia Back Mills When Tragedy Occurred, Another tragedy wae enacted in Columbia on Friday morning, when C, F. Camp, an operative of the Columbia Duck mil la, wan ebot and killed by James Mima, overseer of the twist room of the plant, and mayor of the town of ttrookland. .Minis was struck on the head by Camp, which necessi&ted his being iHkcu to a local infirmary, where It was said that hla condition way not considered strious. The inquest was held Friday afternoon by Dr. K. D. Walker, coroner 01 mcniana couuiy. About 15 witnesses were examined 01 the inquest. It was brought out that Camp was smoking inside thq uiill. a violation of one of the company's rules. Camp, it is said, was told to quit smoking, and when he did not do so was sent to Mima to get his "time." Minis told Camp to come back at D:H0 o'clock lor his money. Au argument ensued and Minis hit Camp. They grappled. Camp hit Minis on the head with a "spark plug" aud Mims shot four times in the room and as Camp went down stairs. These are the facts brought out at the inquest Friday. Camp had been employed at. the mills for about ten days. He is thought to be from Kpartanburg, or at least a tologram received Friday by Coroner Walker from Spartanburg asked for information and spoke as if a brother of the dead man would come to Columbia. Camp is said to have come to Columbia from Charlotte. The body is held at the local undertaking e:*LabUsh merit, awaiting* instructions from relatives. This is '*ie second shooting scrape that has occurred in Columbia within the last week. In the other case the man who was shot did not die. HdiOOL TKACJIEK MADE BOOZK. Tunght in the Morning and Worked I at Still in Afternoon. j At Greerville .before United States Commissiontr E. M. I//the Friday Prof. W. T. IJndsay, principal of Glassy Mountain school and a deacon in ft country church, pleaded guilty to i working In an illicit diHtlllery, the case being Rent t-o the next term ofi federal court and the defendant released on bond. I'rof. Lindsay was j arrested Monday by raiders in the! dark corner, the schoolmaster having! been caught while engaged in the manufacture of "moonshine" in a soeluded cove under Glassy mountain. With Lindsay at thotime was another man, but he was evidently oldl er at the business and effected his escape on the approach of the revenue men. Tht still was located within a stone's throw of the school house, where the man of letters spent his morning in teaching the young, later putting in his evenings and nights in the little sheltered cove making white liquor. Bo far as known the case has not a parallel in the Dark Corner's checkered history. KIILICD BY AN ACCIDENT. Columbia Man Victim of His Own Carelessness Friday. The Rtate Bays an accidental gunI ?hot wound self-inflicted caused the I death of George Wilmot Davis Fri! day afternoon about 5:30 o'clock. The accident occurred about two miles east of the city at the end of 'ho Shandon Annex car line, where Mr. Davis, who was returning from a hunting trip, was waiting for a car. 'bo df ? nils of the accident were unobtainable because there were no eye-witnesGes, but an investigation made by those who heard the shot and arrived a few minutes later showed that Mr. Davis had laid his gun aside and was playing with hie two hunting dogs. He evidently p!ek<*d tip his g,u? with the muzzle toward him and one barrel was discharged, the entire load entering his side. ftcfii8wl to need Warning. Despite a warning not to enter a saloon, A. H. Gray of Pawnee, Da., Friday night stepped upon the steel doorsin and was electrocuted. Death was instantaneous. A heavily charged electric wire had fallen upon the bnilding in which the saloon was located, charging the mental coping ind steel front which connected with the doorplate. Repairmen had admonished the strsTieor not to enter. . I . I .. M Oi ^ ?,.-UUIW?'l Train Plunges Into Hirer. Til A OAArHn roMrAit/1 vnnopn 1 #*#_ ? , r? 1 virw iivr? w a ? fieo at AuguatA haa received reporte of half of a freight train going between Covinrton and Almond. The treat!** wan deroollehed and eight or ten care are in the river. There were no injuries. MaMttAcre of Chrfatiana. According to a Port Said dlepAtch to Monde, a message from the Greek gcrcrrvmert vecec! Macedonia saye that the Turkft have mAssncred the Christian* 1n Mytllene. The number killed to not known. HUSBAND MURDERED i " TIE WIFE TELLS ALL AMBT TBI AWfBL CRIME GIVE DETAILS OF PLOT Aimtnd A/I?r tho Uoafwutoo of Hffl ranunour, Who Hrfd the Festal Hhnot, the Widow of Che Victim Mak^n a Full Gonfewikm, (ilviim Detalle of tiio Crime. ? - T<% T/IMCT O r f?Ae oee/iotik/1 JU ID, *J\lUilTO IVlU5f 49 V TT MT7 OI i wwu at her borne near Hound Oak. Qa., Friday after Nicholas Wllburn, 2f>, in ac onfesslon to the police, is alleged to have admitted that he killed Mrs. King's husband because she offered him $600 to commit the crinio and promised to marry him after it had been perpetrated. For two hours this afternoon Mrs. King sat in the woman's department King sht in the woman's department of the Jones' County jail refusing to admit any part in the murder of her husband. She had collapsed when placed under arrest, denying the charge at first. Oh detectives told her litt.lt by litAe doctives told her little by little of the conftvssion of Wllburn Bhe finally asked: "I)o you think that God will forgive me.?" Detectives assured her that they believed that lie would. "Then, with God Almighty as my help 1 will tell you all, for I cannot, meet my God with a lie on my lips," said Mrs. King. "Ask the people to have mercy on me, not for myself, but for my little children." Then she started in to tell the gruesome details of the awful tragedy and of her intimacy with Wllburn. "It was in March that my relations began with Nick Wilburn," she said "One night we were in the dining room alone , and Nick told me that he did not have a friend in the world I patted him on the back and told mm I would oe nis irienu. "From that timo on our relations wore of the most intimate character We would meet in the woods and and whenever my husband would leave Nick would come here and spend hours at a time. "We had signals bo that I could let Nick know when my husband was away from home. Had it not been for the $2,000 insurance we would never have planned to kill my husband. "My first attempt to kill him was to give him strychnine. Nick bought the stryohlnne and we put it in my husband's whiskey. When he became deathly sick, I gave my husband an antidote and he recovered. "After my husband recovered from the effects of the strychnine, then we planned to shoot him. Nick told me :hat we would catch him out hunting and kill him with bis own gun. This was to he done at the first, opportunity Nick had. The day of the killing Mr. King was sick and the doctor told him not to eat hog meat, so he told me that he was going to take his gun and go out in the woods and kill a couple of birds for supper. He left home about 3.30 P. M., and when he had gone about an hour, Nick came, and walking into the room missed my husband's gun. He askod me where the weapon was, and I told him that Mr. King had gone hunting. Nick said: 'Now is our time,' And I told him, 'Yes,' and directed him where my husband had gone. "Then Nick left, and when my husbnnd did not return I knew that he was dead, though 1 did not know where he had been, killed. 1 sent for Johnny Gordon und Frank Wllburn to go and look for my husband, j "After Johnny Gordon and Frank VVllbnrn, my son-in-law, left they asked Nick to go with him to hunt for King, I asked them to let Nick stay with me. After they had gone, Nick told me it wn? all over, and 1 saw in Nick's face this was so as he came In. I told him to brace up, if he didn't, his looks would give him away. "We did not discuss the killing further until the day Detective Vloore came to talk with me. This was on Tuesday, December 17. After Detective Moore left, Nick told me he Know he was suspected. I told him to brace up and give nothing away, even if he was put on the scaffold with a rope around his neck. "I had great confidence in Nick and didn't belifrve he would ever givt me away. When Nick was arrested I made up my mind I would go to the gallows before I would tell a word i Dut later I thought It over and came to the conclusion I could not meet j my God with a lie on my lips, j "I was a good chrlstaln woman before I met Nick Wilbura, and I had I never dono any wrong In my life. 1 Am 36 years old and have six childI ren, the oldest of whom la 18 years old end the youngeet 4 yoars. I wan married nineteen years ago. ! have heen a member of the Boptlst Church for fourteen yeara." ' Jamea King, a prominent planner, dtfiaapeared on December 12. H1? body wpb found with a bu^et wound In the heart In a wooda lot. where he had gone hunting. ?*1a bl*d dowm keeping watch over the body. i ; I Indications were at the time that King was responsible for his own death. Investigations led to the arrest of Wilburn and James Barber, a negro. * In his confeesion to-day to the "Mrs. King had offeree me $600 to kill her husband. She said she wanted to get rid of him, had promised to marry me If I killed him. He , had $2,000 life insurance. "On December 12, I was passing the King home. She called to me and told me that King had gone hunting , and for me to go through 'he woods, find him and shoot him. 1 i followed him and when he stopped to rest 1 sneaked up behind htm, 1 grabbed his &un and shot him just , over the heart. He begged me not to shoot him anymore. Just then he fell over. "I put his gun in his hand and arranged the body so as to make it look like he had shot himself, then went book to the house and told Mrs. King what I had done. She said 1 was a good boy and she thought a lot of me." Wilburn is a farm and saw mill hand. Barber, the negro prisoner stated that a few minutes before the killing that he was going to shoot King. He said that he had frequently heard Mrs. King tell her husbantt that she would like to get rid of him because she was tired of "seeing hiin sit around." Mrs. King is tho mother of six children. Her oldest daughter married a brother of Wilburn. Mrs. King has taken a prominent part in church work in Jones County. The King plantation is said to be ono of the largest in Middle Georgia. CONVICTS A UK BAH1UCD. Don't Want South Carolina Criminals Over in CJeorgia. An Atlanta dispatch says Governor 'Brown will bar from Georgia the convicts freed by Governor Blease, of South Carolina, if it is possible for him to do so. The Georgia executive, who is known far and wide for his stand against the too free use of the pardoning power, is far from pleased at the action of Governor Blease in turning loose upon the country so many desperate characters on the condition that they go to some other state. Governor Brown Friday severely criticised Bleaeo for taking each action. By, it he protects his own Slate, but at the same time menaces Die peace and welfare of other communities. "I don't know," said Governor Brown, "whether anything can be done, but it is my opinion that nothing can ,be done so long as any of the , convicts who may move to this state conduct themselves in an honorable and upright oanner and maintain a standard of good citizenship. "The action taken by Governor Bloase," concluded the governor, "1 think, is to say the least, one of great impropriety." ROIJGIC CJ1IKF I'THNl) ?. Shot And lx-ft in tlie Outskirts of the Town Ho Guarded. With a bullet hole in the back of his head, J. R. L. Moore, chief of police. nf Afihhnrn Ounrcli n'ou fimml lying dead on a buck street shortly before one o'clock Saturday afternoon by a searching party sent out five hours before hand. His revolver was found in his hand under his body. He lay face downward. That he wae murdered by two or three suspicious characters who have been in Ashburn several days but who were missed after tho murder Is the general belief About seven o'clock Friday night shots were heard on the outskirts of the town in the general direction where the body was found later. Several days ago Moore told four men, who hod been drinking and roystering on the streets, that they had better leave or they would be arrested. T.ater they were heard to say that they would kill him before they left town. o XKORO JOY KIRK HALTED. Ran Automobile Into Iluggy mid Turned It Over. j At Fnsley, Ha be Drown, R negro, | betng in an intoxicated condition Thursday afternoon, took out an automobile belonging to H. C. Hagood, 1 for whom be was working, and with ' two ornor negroes started tor a joy ride. However, they had only gone a short distance when the csr crashed Into ft buggy being driven by two or three boys p.bout 14 years of ftge. The children woro thrown from the 1 buggy, but none of them hurt. One wheel of the bugiry was demolished, ' the shaft broken and the harness cot^ sJdorably torn up. Mo serious damage was done to the car.. Brown, the negro, feared some trouble so took an early train out of town Friday morning, being out on a small bond. TiOfrt both of His Legs. At Morristown, N. J., John S. Hurler. 19, youngest son of the late Tohn S. Huyler, millionaire candv manufacturer, fell under a train Pd- 1 dav, death from his initiries following. Both the yonug man's legs wert? so badly crushed at' *he knees thn* limitation wan neoeasary. fiivts I HE FACTS MIL BURT C. TILLMAN WRITES 6F DELIVERY OF CHILDREN TO BROTOER i ' * : ' He Functuree* * fJenwatlonal Htory fient Out from Fdgefield and Hbow? That It Wat* Pul?? From UeKlnnlng a a ~ fWT co tuna ana uivm h * rur * i-i-sumi of tbo Matter. Henry C. Tllhnan, Esq.. an ablo young lawyer of Greenwood, who represented his brother, Mr. B. R. Tillman Jr., in his suit for the recovery of his children before the State Supreme Court, punctures the sensational story sent out from Edgotield about the transfer of the children from the mother to the father at that place some days ago. Here is the true version of the matter as given bj Mr. Tillman: To the Editor of The News and Courier: I have seen the story published in Thursday's Record and Erhday's News and Courier with referonce to the Tillman children. 1 have made it my rule to practice law in the Courts and not in the newspapers, and it is my habit to ignore newspaper articles which reflect on me or my family. But this story is so full of error ami falsehood that 1 cannot allow it to go uncorrected. The Tillman family has too many friends in South Carolina and our affection for these little children is such that It would be unfair to allow them to be used as an instrument with which to put us in a false light. From tbe beginning the desiro of the Tillmans has been to avoid as fur as possible all publicity or notoriety in this matter. The young lives of < these children have already been ; cross<Kl by too many shadows tor them now to be made the. target of iiir.u) til i / i n /-?r clnnrior WVion Mr. DePass, representing Mm. Dugas, and I, representing my brotner, had our conference in Columbia about ton days ago, ho expivsetd the fear that tho children would refuse to go to Trenton and would create a scene. In view of the sworn statement of Mrs. Dugas that she had not taught the children to hate their father or his people 1 thought the fears of Mr. Del*088 unfounded and told him so. Shortly afterwards 1 received a letter from De.Pass & DePuss stating that the children would be sent to Penn's drug store, in Edgefield, at 10:80 bn the morning of the i! Oth of December. 1 then suspected that it was the intention to give the anticipated "soeneM as public a setting as possible and have it written up in graphic style for the purpose of creating sentiment against the decision of the Court in allowing the children to spend a part of tho time with their father iu Senator Tillman's home at. Trenton. For the sako of those innocent little children, who cannot protect themselves from the designs of other people, I wrote at once to DePass & Do Pass protesting against the choice of such a public place and asking for the sake of peace and decency that the children be sent to some other place and ulso that they designate any private residence in Edgefield, or f preferable, we would send a mutual friend out to Edgewood to get the children in a quiet, decent way. If I had my files at Greenwood I would like to publish this letter, because it would show our attitude in the matter better than anything that can now bo said. To this letter I havo had no reply from I)ePns8 & DePuss or any one else. Consequently my brother and I went yesterday morning to the ap pointed place?Penn's drng store, on tlio square at Edgefield. The children were brought there and we received them from the negro nurse, who accompanied them. Neither child made any resistance, ami the older child did not cry at all. The younger one cried for her nurso to accompany her to Trenton (aa was natural). At no time did either one of the children cry for their mother, but the younger one was crying for the nurse, who was with her at the Lime. Before wo had driven two hundred yards she had stopped crying and we drove on to Trenton. There were several people in and around the drug store at tho appoint- 1 eii time, hut I hnvt no way of knowing if they were there to see the transfer of the children. Certainly we had told no one to be there nor had we made public where or when the children were to be delivered to na. n >Vly brother naturally sent no pres- fl ants to the home of his former wife. ( He has been told by her that be can not co there even to see his children when they are sick and whether or not he shall have that privilege is now before the Bupremo Court. His Christ mas gifts and manner of g1v?ng are private matters, with which I the public has no concern, but !t wtll i not bo amiss to add that the children r ptp bow at his homo In Trenton and t hot he and his family arp enjoying 1 hoir presence thore. It has boon a I since I have seen throe ban- ' rder chtldreu than those Utile tuiU ' .r.,i t->v own little child. It woukl 1 ho hord for a stranger to believe that 1 it ha? been three years since they < ir zmumm f ' *7* 3 DYNAMITERS CONVICTED THIRTY-EIGHT POlTfl) GTILTY ON AliL COUNTH. Th? Long mm* Tcdlow Trial of Um i. ^ Accasod EoOn to * Sweeping Tie?*e (ioTeramaii At Indianapolis on Saturday the United States Government, with stern and decisive swiftness, took Into its possession thirty-eight union labor officials convicted of conspiracy, or promoting expolsions on non-union work throughout the land, of aiding In the destruction which brought loss of life at I?s Angeles, Cel., and of carrying on a reign of terror declared to bt unparalleled in the history /n f o/\t?nlrv VI UJV tUUllVi J Almost the entire executiye staff of the International Association of Bridge und Structural Iron Woikers was convicted. Only two officiate or that union now remain out of jail At the head of the list of these convicted stands Frank M. K>aig the president. It was this union, with 12,000 members, that John J. -McNamaru was secretary-treasurer while ho con ducted the dynamltings out of which the present convictions grew. Saturday's conivctions, coining on a scale unprecedented in a Federal Court, were an aftermath of the killing of twenty-one persons in. the blowing up the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910. John J. McNamara and his brother, James, the Times dynamiter, are convicts in California; Hyan and his fellow officials, former associates of .McNamara, are Federal prisoners awaiting sentence. An effort will bo made to get the convicted men a new trial, but it is not likely to succeed. The convicted men may bo -sentenced to terms in prison Sr<?m one ,to forty years, ao cording to the degree of their crime *nd the discretion of the judge before whom they were tried. CONVICTS THANKS BLKASE. I ardoned Negroes March in a Ilo h j ? Vti _ rviii W UM UU1 MJ. Twelve negroes, who were included In tho eighty prisoners that received clemency at tho hands of the Govtruor on Tueeday, and who had been working on the Rtato farm, were brought back to the penitentiary and released. After they had donned citizen's clothing they went Friday to he office of th<* Governor in a body. A negro who had been sent up from Oreenville County and who had served a long term acted oa spokesman. With his coat buttoned tightly around him he lead the procession of blacks into the Governor's office, tho others following him in single Me. Drawing himself up, the Greenville negro saluted the Governor in military fashion, and then, acting an *t> kesrnan for tho bunch, expressed their appreciation of the liberated men for the Governor's kindness in giving them freedom. They then ?ach shook hands with the Governor, vho told them to be good citizens and to get some work on farms and not t>e around towns. With tho Greenville negro in the lead, who saluted before departing, :he whole dozen marched out single tile, passed through the State House grounds into Gervais street, and taking right Into tho middle of the street marched down towards the railroad still In single file. tvere together at their grandfather's The public knows ere this that we iavo been us patient as possible In his matter, and out of feeling for heee little innocent girls we have alowed to go unanswered many of the ' fi lt? V* /\ rl m ??? \\ I V* 1* ?* <? k. .v ? ?... L 1 I ? uirriluUMO ? 1IU II ll.tW pJIUIlNIH O n this case. Hut fair-minded people iiust bo disglisted with this latest ittempt to stage so sacred a thing as 1 child's love for its parent to create i maudlin sympathy when it cannot iccomplish anything save the rurther exploiting of these I'ttlo children. The Supreme Court has decided his case and has exercised much wi?lom in its decision. It is the intenion of my brother to live up to the otter and spirit of that decree, but I iannot allow any one to put him in in absolutely false light without etiering a vigorous denial, and it might 6 well be understood once and for all hat none of us intend to allow these fttle girls to be lied on or made the lawns in an unfair attempt to make he pawns in an unfnlr attempt to nake the people believe that they vould naturally hate their paternal elatlons. We resent and will resent, my attempt to create false sentiment it the expense of the present and fuure welfare oX thtse two little girls. Respectfully, ty n rr*i it n. v. t liinuia, Trenton, December 2?. Mfe before marriage Is like the >reface to h book that yet to be written. When the writing Is aotom'uuhed It Is not ucoften found bat the book beern but little reso romance to the nrcfnce. Rut more ofen. fortunately, there Is happy oor espondence between the two. The tu vu i o iuiu >8 for both hue* >and nnd wife to show the same di?? toa'tlon to pleaee that they manifested before marriage.