The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-10-29
Southern Performers. ii
HOW THEY WORK EoR THE PARTY IN
ALABAMA. - KILLING AND WHIP
ING REPUBLICAN VOTERS.

Ou Uu0 OIL luSIduC, Ill MOUllo, Jue
examination of the prisoners brought
there from Sumter county, alabama
charged with Kuklux outrage and
violations Of the enforcement act
began before United States Commis.
sioner Gillette, and was attended by
a large crowd, nearly dozen
attorneys appearing forthe prisoners
who had been visited in their con.
inement by many Of the first people
Of the place. and supplied with
comforts and delicacies. From q
dispatch to the Chicago Inter- Ocean
we take the following report of the
testimony:
The first charge taken up was the
murder of Billings, the white
Republican, who was killed near
York. early in September. He was
formerly from Brooklyn, N. Y, and
owned large plantation near there.
He probably carried more influence
than any Republican in the county,
and as a gentleman at Maridian IN
formed me, ''the colored people all
swore by him." On the day he was
killed he had addressed aRepublican
meeting some fifteen miles from his
residence, and his body was found
dead in the road, lying partly under
his horse, which was also shot.
Judge Croatia, Billings law partner
testified to technicalities, to the fact
that he was dead, and that his body,
was found or Sunday morning by the
roadside.
Richard Wright, was then called,
and mulatto boy about Is years OF
age came TO the stand. He identified
Bullock and Renfro, saying he had
known them for more thau FIVE years.
On the Saturday evening that
Billings was killed he was walking
along the road toward the latter's
house, going to public dinner, when
he met an old man named Nelson
Doyle, who asked him where he could
stay all night. This opened the
conversation. The witness learned
that the dinner was over, and started
back to bis fathers housr with Doyle.
Soon they saw Billings riding through
a narrow road, and when fifty yards
or more from them Renfro sprang out
from the bushes with a revolver,
saying: ''Halt, you damn Yarkee
son of "a and was followed by
FIVE or six men, all of whom fired at
Billings. The horse fell first. Bill
ings jumped from him and started to
run, but fell dead. Renfro saw
witness and Doyle, and, coming to
the latter, said: "Did you see what
we did down there, old man ? IF you
did, Cod damn you, get out Of this
country, or I'll kill YOU The old
man put for the bushes. Then
Renfro said to witness: "Dlck, did
you see that p Witness said, 81
did," ''Here, said he, handing him
$40, "take that and get out Of this
country,if you don't want to be shot"
"Hold on!'' he interrupted. "Come
to my house tomorrow morning."
Witness went home, packed up his
clothes, and went to Meridian
without telling any one whore he
was going, and he did not say any
thing about the murder till his father
found him in Meridian two weeks
after. There were twenty-five or
thirty persons with Renfro, he thought
among whom he knew Bullock,
Sledge, Clay, Fitzpatrick, and Mar
tin. After leaving him they looked
at Billings body to see that he was
dead, and then went off again into
the woods.
NelsonDoyle, the old man to whom
the last witness referred, repeated
the story of the murder, and said
that he told ahont Il Union N o4A.A.A