The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1869-03-03

tened to Colonel Aiken to burn up tn
State that he could do it in thre
Sords, and that we must kill him.
Langdon, Conner and Fletch. Hodge
aid to us, after we came up-we al
wero armed, mean Hodges Depot
They pnt up target, and we all sho
IF our pistols at. We did it to re
load our pistols, SO as to be sure the,
would fire, being freshly loaded
They put it on Logan, Tolbsrt ant
myself, to do the shooting, saying tina
ls we did not live there, the negroes
would not know us. If any moro
shooting was to be done, thoy woult
do it. That if Randolph's guart
fired on US, they would fire on them
When the train came in, Langdor
Connor went to the conductor, and
asked him if Randolph was on board
and he came back and said he was on
tho train. The train ran up to the
side Of the platform. Randolph was
sitting by the door of tho car. The
rest all went to the upper end of the
platform, and got on tho platform. |
went to the lower end. just at this
time, the Grecnville train ran up.
Randolph Immediately changed cars,
and walked back to the last passenger
car, and took his seat. James Coch
ran stepped up to me at that time,
aud says: "Bill, you fellows ought
to have been disguised" said
"Jim, what do you think of it, any
bow Z" lie says: "EIo ought to be
killed, and now is the time to do it,
right now" Fletch. Hodges came
up with roll of money in his hand,
aud says Gas soon az you do
it, we give you this, and we will
back you if there is any more shoot
ing, we will do it," BY this time,
Randolph had got off his scat, and
walked out on the platform of the car.
john Books came up with his pistol
III his ha.rd, aud he says: "Now is
your jlmo here he stands on the plat
form W,,' hc pojoted u,m ont 10 ne,
Logu", Hniacr n"1 Hysch, do@e the
shooting Ne i, tnrre ,ho' him,
.ni he 81. kltrH dead i.WugInr
Conn"i t.id ne % ~ oh they would
do th" b9ianao He ha,i his pistol III
his hann We go; on our horses, and
rode pit, n" p"rSou ATTEMPTED TO
arrcstus We wcot 10 AiGck Ellis,
nbunt t%o und q haif r1llcS off lie
was not 81 home We wanted 10 Aee
aim Oh bua,nrSs lie WAS at Cokes-
bury. hogan r.d roibcGt went TO
Cokcsuury TO see hiui and found him
there III Der"ucrat meeting They
came back to Aieck Ei,,', with INN
They told ne that Nandoph's name
was brought up in tho Democratic
meeting, az to what they should do
with him. Some said, Goa, him up
and feed him to the dogs" Others
said. "they would box him up, and
express him to Gov. Scott as II pres
sent." Ellis knew that he vas killed,
and.killed BY us, and chat some of the
members Of the Democratic Club saw
it done; saw Randolph killed. Wit
ness was here warned by the rcspon-
dents counsel, Joseph D. Pope, Esq,
to speak only from his own knowl-
edge, to which Tolbcrt replied "I
speak from my own knowledge" =
The members of the Democratic Club
that | remember as being present
were James Cochran, Landon Con-
nor, and Fletcher Hodges. They ad-
vised me to shoot Randolph to kill
him, and they would back me in it.
Q.-State if there existed in Abbe-
vile, or in any other of the Counties
in the Third Congressional District, an
organization known as the Ku Klux
Klan
A.-There was. I do not knew Of
my own knowledge that it existed
in any other Counties but from pass
words and signs, believe that it did !;
given by members that l knew by
sign belonged to tho Klan in other
Counties. 1t was secret organiza-
tion of persons belonging to the De-
mocratic party, known as the Ku
Klux Klan, existing in the Counties
of the Third. Congressional District.
l know that it existed in Edgefeld,
Abbeville and Laurens. Members
took an oath on piDing. Nearly all
the members of the Democratic party
belonged to the Khan. Among them
were Capt. ). G.. Roozer, d.. Cress-
we'll, Bletch. Hodges, Langdoa Con-
nor, Bob Stanslcr., Don't know that
D. Wyatt Aiken did. The object of
the Klan was to regulate the Repub-
loan party break it up if they could,
and strengthen the Democratic party.
To do this, they we're to kill out the
leaders of the Republican party, and
drive them out Of the' State. The
oath taken by the members was this !:
10 do whatever their leaders ordered
them to do. We had leader in
every organization, who was known as
captain Of the company, and we were
sworn to obey his orders. He told
us to find out where the Union Leagues
met to fire into them, and kill the
Presidents, if we could. It was un-
.derstaod that Randolph was the man
that organized the Union Leagues in
South Caroline, and that was one of
the reasons why he was killed. We
had meeting the night before the
election, and had orders from our
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