Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-02-24
ARRESTED AS HALVES, AccoMpucE.

ARRESTED AS HAYES ACCOMPLICE.
| BIRMINGHAM, Ala, Feb. 23.-Peter Will
| Hanson negro hack driver, was today
arrested and jailed charged with being an
| accessory to the now famous Halves MUIR
ders. About six weeks ago DR.. i. V.
Purdy, veterinary surgeon, came to
| Deputy Sheriff j. II. Sharp and told him
| that on the Saturday night when Mrs.
| Halves and Irene were supposed TO have
been murdered, he and his wife were re-
| turning home about II o'clock at night
| from visit to friends near Ayondale,
and when they approached the corner OF
Avenue I and Twenty-seventh street, near
Walnut Grove, he saw hack drive up ana
four people get into it. The light from the
lamp made it an easy matter to partly
distinguish the faces and forms OF those
who composed the party. The hack then
drove north to Avenue and turned up
east towards the Halves residence He
could not tell which way 1t went further
than that DR.. Purdy described the
hack, the color of the horses and the
apparent size and color of the man as
seen in the darkness. The night was not
very dark at that hour, and he could not
possibly have been mistaken in the dis
cription. He and Mrs. Purdy walked al
most up to the hack unobserved, and if
they were noticed by any of the party no
visible signs were made that they had been
discovered.
Capt Sharp followed up this clew and
finally settled upon hack No. 73, owned
and driven by Peter Williamson, mulat-
To, about 81 years of age, who came to this
city several years ago from Florence,
Ala. He did not arrest the negro
then, but went to see DIR. Purdy,
and got him to go to the union depot,
where Williamson's hack was standing,
and identify the outfit. As soon as DE-.
Purdy saw the hack he did not hesitate to
days ago.
This morning Capt S6arp swore out
warrant for Williamson's arrest charging
him with being an accessory to the muir
der of Irene and Mrs. HAYES. The man
was seated on his hack, just opposite to
the entrance to the passenger station,
when Capt. Sharp arrested him, at 1880
O'Clock, and carried him at once to the
county Jail. The man protested his limo
cence and says he can prove an aliol.
Sheriff Smith issued peremptory Instruc-
tions to the guard of the Jail that Viii
hanson should be placed in solitary cell
and be allowed to communicate with no
one His wife called at the jail about II
o'clock. but she, too. was2denied admis-
says that the man will not be allowed 10
speak to living person except his attor-
ney until after his preliminary trial, which
will be held before Justice Garrettson at
10 O'Clock tomorrow. Captain Sharp
carried DR.. Purdy to the county Jail
and asked him to point out from
the prisoners two of the people
whom he had seen get into the hack. Dr.
Purdy says that he had never seen Halves |
or Fanny Bryant until today As soon as
the doctor had looked about the Jail and |
examined the faces of each of the prison
ers, he selected Halves and Fanny Bryant. |
He would be almost willing to swear that |
the two got into the hack together and |
drove off. The doctor also described to |
Capt Sharp the manner in which the |
driver held his reins when he drove off |
from the beef market. Capt. Sharp says |
that this popularity in Williamson's driv |
ing is strikingly noticeable, and was not |
that the doctor should have no.
ticed his style of holding the reins.