The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-21
| YAMACRAW MURDER.
DEADLY ENDING OF A SKIN GAME
ON FARM STREET

London Bright Shoots to KIN, but
Brings Down the Wrong Mantle
Victim Dies With a Prayer for
Mercy on His Lips, While the Muir
derer Makes Good His Escape in the
Darkness.
Another Sunday morning murder was
furnished by the colored skin gamblers of
Yamacraw yesterday.
London Bright shot Amos Dean in the
right breast with tue ever-ready revolver.
Dean was not the man he intended to kill.
Bright killed him, however. and, putting the
smoking revolver in his hip pocket, disap-
peared in the darkness, and has thus far
eluded arrest.
A SKIN GAME.
The murder was committed between the
hours of and O'clock yesterday morning,
in the rear lot of the two-story frame house
No. 81 Farm street A crowd of about
twenty colored men waTs in one-story
dwelling in the back part of the lot playing
''skin.n A DISPUTE aross between London
Bright and Harrison Williams over Is
cents. The lights were put out and Bright
got out first, and as no thought was fol-
in front of Viii liams and received
the deadly missile intended for Williams.
The wounded man staggered out, and after
going few steps south on Farm stree,
fell near the street pump, where he was
making his way for drink to cool the
fever of death that was mounting fro
heart to brain. With cry of Lord have
mercy on me-" he sank down, gasped few
times, and was dead.
THE JURY CONSIDER 1T MURDER.
Coroner Dixon summoned jury shortly
after daylight, and the verdict was: eve
do say from the evidence before us that
Amos Dean came to his deaf by pistol
shot wound in the breast inflicted by the
hands of London Bright, and we consider
it MURDER
1t was difficult TO get testimony. The
pistol shot dispersed the gamblers, and
when the police reached the scene Of the
shooting all was as silent as the dead man
who lay on the sidewalk. John Warren,
the colored man who rents the premises
was awakened and placed under arrest. He
knew nothing of the shooting, and said he
had been feeling i'll, and had retired before
the trouble began. Quite a number Of
colored men room in the mouse fronting the
street. but all of them affected TO be asleep,
aud none of them were witnesses to the
tragedy. Jack Richardson was the only
witness whose testimony was taken down.
He said:
AN EYEWITNESS TO THE SHOOTING.
"This morning about 1915 o'clock went
over to John Warren's mouse on Farm
street. The crowd was in there sitting at
the tables playing cards-a skin game
Harrison Williams and London Bright got
into dispute over a game, Gu sing one an
other for some time. London Bright finally
got up and walked into the yard. The crowd
nf nh fxua mb n in fha
started to come out, thinking there was go
ing to be fuss. | was sitting in the room,
but did not move. | saw Bright turn
just as he got in the yard
and fire pistol into the room through the
door. As soon as the shot was fired Harri-
son Williams blew out the lights l came
out and into the street. | did not know any
one was slot until saw Am s Dean out
eide lying on the ground he was not dead.
left before he died. | saw Amos Dean sit
ting in the room just III trout of the door be-
fore the shooting. While | was in there
he was sleeping sitting up."
PLACE OF oUTLAwRY.
One of the colored men who rooms in the
house on the street told MORNING News
reporter that he heard the shot, but did not
attach any Importance to it. 1t was of
common occurrence on Saturday night,
when some one got broke in the game, to
COME OUT on buS sidewalk ana uF6 on q DIS |
tol to stampede the gamblers and break up |
the game.
A MORNING NEWS reporter visited the |
gaming-room yesterday afternoon. The
two gaming tables were still in place, and |
covered with crocus sacks to deaden the |
sound of the excited gamblers as they
would bring down their hands violently on
the tables in the course of the play. The
two tables were surrounded by rude
benches of undressed lumber. It is in this
outHof-the'way place, where police are not
expected to intrude, that the colored
men assemble on Saturday nights to play
skin, and the few shrewder ones win the
earnings of the many sometimes as many
as forty or fifty being eager participants
IN the game of skin.
REMOVING THE BODY.
Deans BODY was turned over to his sister
after the inquest by Coroner Dixon. She
had it removed TO her home at Woodville,
from which 1t was inferred. The deceased
had two children, who reside with relative
in the Old Fort. Dean was a draynan,
and used to drive for Haines & Elton.
Bright is a longshoremau, and Harrison
Williams is said to be an all-round sport,
after the dudish style of Joe Dunk.