The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-12
TWO KILLED In ONE DAY.
JOE sILvERS SHOOTS FATE MEL
SON ON HIS OWN HEARTH.

James PlnCkney STRIKES ben hartley
on the Head and Fractures His Skull
The Silvers-N elson Murder the Re
suit of Family Troubles - silvers
Arrest and His Story of the Killing
The Quarrel Between Pinckney anc
Hartley over a Debt - Hartley;
Slayer Escapes but the Police on Hi.
Track.
The record of crime for yesterday foots
up two murders
Between - and O'Clock yesterday morn
ing Joseph Sllvers, Brazilian negro, shot
and killed Fate Nelson.
Between and o'clock last night James
Pinckney (coloredl, struck Ben Hartley
(colored) with missile, fracturing Hartley's
skull. and death ensued in a short time. All
the parties are colored.
Joseph Silvers. who lives on Cleburn
street, near its eastern terminus, was mar
ried year ago to a colored woman named
Minnie Mendel. During the greater part of
the time there has been domestic infelicity
between them owing to the presence of Fate
Nelson, who boarded with Silvers. Last
Thursday, the woman says, that her hus-
band removed his effects to Smithville
Her testimony before the coroner is that
about 10 O'Clock Saturday night Nelson
came home under the Influence Of liquor
and began cooking his supper in the fire
place in her room. Afterward he went out,
but soon came back and lay down by the
fire.
SHOT HIM DEAD.
A few minutes later her husband knocked
at the door came in. and asked: "Who is
that - lying there on the
foorg' and when she replied that it was
Fate, her husband said THAT is the -
-- have come after" and raised his
gun and shot him, saying that Nelson had
fought him for some boards, and he didn't
intend to pay him 81 IS for Them
To a MORNING NEWS reporter the woman
said that her son Willie, aged 10, was i'll
bed with her, and that when she lay down
Fate Nelson was in the chair in front of g
fire drunk, and had fallen out and lay in
front Of the fire; that the shooting occurred
about l O'Clock yesterday morning
The testimony of her son Willie "Silvers, ,
whose right name the mother says is Willie
Mendel, is to the effect that Fate Nelson
came in about 10 o'clock Saturday night,
went into his room and undresSed himself
and then went into his mothers room and
cooked supper by the fireplace; "that some
one else then knocked at the door, and he
found it to be Joseph Silvers. He then said,
L L
raised his gun and shot deceased
THE INQUEST.
Justice T. J. Sheftall, acting coroner in
the absence Of Coroner Dixon from the
city, held an inquest, Constable Wetherhorn
impaneling jury, and the verdict was that
the deceased came to his death by gun
shot wound, inflicted by Joseph Silvers,
and that the jury considered it murder.
Silvers was not arrested until f15 o'clock
last night Officer Hanley captured him
under the bluff, opposite the gas works. as
he was trying to hire boat to be set across
the river.
A MORNING NEWS reporter saw Silvers
in the barracks last night, add the prisoner
said that he would like TO make statement.
He said that Nelson had caused all the
trouble in his family, and had bulldozsd
him and annoyed him so that two or three
times he had appealed to Justice Molina for
advice.
WENT TO HIS wIFE's HOUSE.
On Wednesday last he said he mo we'd out to
Smithville, and yesterday morning at about
~ 80 O'Clock he visited his wife's home with
lis musket loaded with buckshot. In a
disguised voice he called his wife at the
door, and told her it was her cousin Carter,
come to pay her some money due her
When she opened the door, he saw a man
fireplace. His wife said it was Fate who
come home drunk and lay down by the fire.
Silver says he struck a match and
by its light he fired upon Nelson,
and then walked out of the house and re-
turned to his room in Smithville, where he
slept until o'clock in the morning He
went to Tybee yesterday, and on his return
was arrested as he was trying to get across
the river to sleep on barge belonging to
Smith ~ kAllV hU NVhOp1 ha IL
He said that the boy Willie was in the back
room on his cot, where he always slept,
when he visited the house and found Mel
son where lie should not have been.
TOOK HIS WIFE FROM HIM.
Nelson had taunted him, he said with
having driven him away from his own
home, aud had said 10 him that ne bad his
wife now, and that Silvers didn't have
sense enough to resent it or shoot. Silvers
says that he went to the house intending
TO take his wife to the newly rented
room in Snithville, where she had promised
to go, or to shoot Nelson If he found that
he was living in questionable rela ions with
his wife.
When the shot was fired the woman and
her son fed TO the next house, and the
shooting was not reported at the barrcks
until o'clock yesterday morning. When
the coroner arrived the body Of Nelson Law
bent almost double where he lay when the
charge OF buckshot entered his back. His
death was instantaneous. He was dressed
in his night clothes. His head lay in the
fireplace, and his feet on the hearth, which
was one pool of blood, and blood aimed the
floor. His body was left in the house wait
ing the return of his brother who works on
the David Clarke, which was due last
night. Nelson halls from Augusta, was
about % years of age, and was employed in
the lumber mill of Dale, Dixon g. Co.
THE SECOND MURDER.
The second murder occurred about $50
o'clock last night, and Acting Coroner
Sheftall, J. p, held an inquest at No 10
South Broad Street, the verdict Of the jury
being that the deceased, Ben Hartley, came
to his death by being struck on the head
with a brick or some other missile thrown
by james Pickney, and that the jury con-
sidered it murder.
The circumstances of the killing, as
learned by the testimony taken at the iu-
quest, are as follows: Pnckney owed
Hartley sum Of money which the latter
wanted to collect, and they got into a dis
pute about it at York street lane and Hous-
ton street. 1t appears that in crossing
Houston street Hartley wanted to strike
Pinckney with his fist, but a COM
panion, named Funk, caught him and
told him it wouldn't do TO get into
trouble. BY this time the trio bad reached
the northeast corner OF South Broad and
Houston streets, when Pinckney stepped of
the sidewalk, and, picking up missile, or
missiles NIT them in his pOckot and whan