The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-02-24

there, that he had gone ap to A6beville Court.
house, and was going to Anderson that night
w. Tolbert came to the depot with me. Both
were well known at Hodges Depot. When we
arrived there we found crowd of men,
s9e ber. We e,eHs oommenoed % I taising % about RAM
dolph; that he had threatened to Colonel
Aiken to burn up the State; that he could do
and st mHss kill him
| us, after we came up--we oil were armed,
mean at Hodges Depot. They put up q target,
and we all shot off our pistols at it. We didit
would fire, being freshly loaded They put it
on Logan, Tolbert and myself, to do the shoot
| ing, saying that as we. did not live there, the
negroes nssre would not know us. II any more
would fire on them. When the train came in,
LanRdon Conner went to the conductor, and
asked him if Randolph was on board, and he
| came back and said he vas on the train. The
train ran up to the side of the platform. Ran
| dolph "as sitting by the door Of the car.
| The rest aii went to the upper end Of the
to the lower end. just at this time. the
Greenville train ran up. Randolph imme-
diately changed cars, and walked back into
James Cochran stepped up to me ut that
time. and says: bill, you fellows onght to
have been disguised" I sald "Jm, what
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 and says, cas-
soon as you do it we give you this, and we will
back you; IT there is any more shooting we
will do it," By this time Randolph had got
of his seat and walked out on the platform of
the car. John Brooks came up with his pistol
here he stands on the platform;" and he point
ed him out to me. Logan, Tolbert and myself
done the shooting. We all three shot him, and
he was killed dead. Langdon Conner told me to
rn0 gould do IN 1,oln III hal l.,
pistol in his hand. We got on our horses and
rode of. No person attempted o arrest us. We
went to Aleck Ellis, about two and half
mes m on he was not as home We e. vented
bury. Logan and Tolbert went to Cokesbury
to see him. and found him there in Demo-
cratic ean! meeting. They came back to Aleck
dolph's name was brought up in the Demo
cratic meeting, as to what they should do
with him.. Some SAID. "Cut him up and
feed him to the dogs" Others said, "they
would box him up. and express him to Cover
nor Scott as a present." Ellis knew that he
was killed, and killed by US, and that some of
the members of the Democratic Club saw
here warned by the respondents counsel,
Joseph D. Pone ESQ.,, to speak only from his
own knowledge. to which Tolbert replied; II
speak from my own knowledge."] The mem
as being present were james Cochran. Lang
don Conner 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 Abbevie, or in
any other OF the counties IN the Third Con-
gresslonal District, an organization known as
the Ku-Klux-Klan?
A.--There was. do not know of my own
knowledge that it existed in other counties;
but from passwords aud signs, be lieve that it
did; given by members that knew by signs !
belonged to the Klan in other counties. 1t |
was secret organization of persons belonging
70 the Democratic party, known as the Ku- |
!t1I Klux- Kan, existing in the counties Of the
Third Congressional District. know that it
existed in Edgefeld, Abbeville anu Laurens.
Members took an oath on joining. Nearly all
the members of the Democratic party belong
ed to the Kan. Among them were Captain |
J. G. Boozer, ID. Cresswell, Fletch. Hodges,
Sat1 0anner Bob 6 stanser Don't know
Klan was to regulate the Republican party;
break it up if they could. and strengthen the |
Democratic party. To do this, they were to |
kill out the leaders of the Republican party, |
taken by the members was this: TO do what
ever their leaders ordered them to do. We
had q leader in every organization, who was
known as captain OF the company, and we were
sworn to obey his ordore. Ho told us to find
out where the Union Leagues met; to fire into
them and kill the presidents, if we could. It
was understood that Randolph was the man
that organized the Unlon Leagues in South
Carolina. and that was one of the reasons why
he was killed. We had meeting the night
captain to come early to the precinct next
morning armed, and not to allow a negro Re-
publican to cast O vote. To try to persuade |
them to vote the Democratic ticket, and if
they insisted upon voting, to force them back,
fight them, kill them, shoot them. John G.
bers that know, but there were more than
that. W. ToIBERT