The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-04-16

B. Davis, who repeated very gllbly the teslf
mony that he had given a score OF times be
FORE. His story was that he had lived in Yors
County since September, 1869; that he wal
Initiated In January, 1871, into an order calico
the Invisible Empire of the South; was sWorr
in by J. Wesley Smith at his own house; only
attended one meeting, that was held one
| night In January at an out.of-the-way place or
the bottom lands of Bullock Creek; had
small fire nude of trash and brush WOOD; o1
the light of that fire he had read the ccnstitu'
| ton and bylaws of the order, and had thet
Indignantly withdrawn from the organization
because it was a political conspiracy; Oh ina
occasion they elected Charles Byas CHIEF, VII
liam Good, night hawk, and himself secretary
he had never had anything to do with then
| after that night; afterwards had been told o.
their killing Charlie Good for voting the Re
| publican ticket; was told Of this by j. Wesley
| Smith and ]. Madison Smarr; had also heard
of the whipping of other negroes for the same
| reason.
The witness was c~ross-examined by Col
onel Hamilton. He said he had read the con
~stitution and bylaws by the light of the trash
fire on the night of the meeting; remembered
Its contents perfectly, and swore hat the one
produced BY the district attorney was the
same one; knew of the %whippings and the
murder of Charlie Good, because he had beer
told of them at 1.-THE time, and from hearing the
testimony at Columbia; after the killing o.
Charlie Good, the members of the Khan hac
told all the neighbors in the locality about 1t
suppose they did that to keep 1t O secret, 30
as to get all the neighbors into completely In
the affair, and give them a reason for conceal.
ing it; had gone to Major Merrill voluntarily
and made his statements, and had never been
arrested.
Thomas L. Berry was next put upon the
stand, and recited the same testimony that he
had given several times In Columbia, and
which has frequently been reported. He tes'
titled to q number Of outrages, Including the
killing of Charlie Good and the shooting OF
two other colored men. He detailed the cir.
c~umstances Of all these cases with the utmost
mlnuteness, and with a facility that had evil
IDENTIFY been acquired by long practice, but on
being crossexamlned By Colonel Hamilton ne
admitted that he had witnessed none ofthe
occurrences, and had only heard of them.
The next. witness, Osman .Gunthorpe, was
one of the sam sort. He knew nothing OF
the defendant, and had never seen him until
coming into court, and no attempt was made
to connect the defendant Bith any of the out
RACES 10 which he testified, the object being
apparently to impress upon the minds OF the
Jury the terrible nature of the Ku-Klux organ
~izatlon, leaving the defendants connection
with 1t to be established afterward.
Sarah Wilson, colored, was next called, and
was the first witness whose testimony bore
directly upon the case. She testified that on
Tuesday night in April, 1871, a party OF dis
gnised men had come to her house searching
for her husband and threatening violence to
him. While they were In her house she had q
pine torch, and by this light she had recognized
the defendant, William Lowery, by his
breaches, which were Of mixed, country
made leans. Almost every one about there
wore mixed, country made jean breeches, but
she recognized these particular breeches as
being the defendants, and was, therefore,
positive In her Identification of him. Some of
the party had then gone to the adjoining
house OF her fatherin-law, Dick Wilson, or
..BIg Dick Wilson" as he was generally known,
brought him out, laid him down In front of
her door and whipped him numerically with
their ramrods, telling him they were going to
make a good old Democrat Of him. All this
was told In the vernacular aud with much cir
cumlocution, but the above 10 the substance OF
the testimony.
Richard Wilson, colored, the husband of the
last witness, was next called up. He testified
that, on the night. in question, he had been
Staying out" in the woods, and, seeing a party
Of disguised men riding up the road toward
his house, had followed them cautiously.
There were eight in the party, and, at his
house, they began firing pistols and guns, and
hunting for him. He was badly frightened,
and concealed himself behind q fence on the
other side of the road. Then two of the men
went to his fathers house, brought the old
man out, laid him down on the ground IN front
of his (the son's) door, and whipped him a.
related BY the last witness. They asked him
about his politics. and he told them he was q
Radical and member of the League. The wit
ness repeated a great deal of profane, indie
cent and abusive language used by the dis
gulsed men, and said they told him he must
put 8 card in the paper, within ten days, re-
nouncing Radlcallsm or they would come for
him again. He named some of the party that
he recognized, but did not identify the de-
PENDANT as being one of them.
..Blg Dick Wilson" eolored, was next called.
He related the circumstances Of the whipping
in his own way, but told substantially the same
story as was testified to by the two last wit
nesses. lie identified Lowery positively as
being one OF the men who had stood over him
and whipped him, and said he knew him by a
scar on the back of one of his hands, and by
his having two fingers crooked, as the result
of an injury. Knew him also by his clothes,
but did not recognize his voice.
John Lyttle, white, was next called. He
testified that he was a member Of the Ku-KluS
Khan, and had been on the raid lin question
There were ten men on the raid, and among
them he named the defendant, William Low.
cry. The raid was for the purpose OF taking
guns away from the negroes, and he heard
nothing about whipping any negroes when
they started. There had been a raid just be-