The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-11-28
SALEM
WAS 1T ACCIDENTAL
Jim Sykes Dead With a Bullet
in His Brain.
ROANOKE TINES BUREAU,
DILLARD & PERsINGER BLDG,
S,rrM VA Nov. 81.


Thursday evening Salem was startled
by whas appeared to DO murder, for
about o'clock Officer Boon was notified
that Jim Sykes, the colored man III
charge of Capt. c. b. Strouse's stables
on CLAW street, had been found dead on
a lounge in small room, originally in
tended for harness. at tho entra ace to
the stable. Notifying tho mayor and
Magistrate Weber, the officer went
round and took charge of the body,
which he found lying on lounge, the
left hand resting across the body, the
right on the hip; face slightly inclined
to tho left, bullet wound in the head,
about an inch above the right car, from
which had poured q quantity of blood
and brains, which formed congealeo
mass under the head.
Meanwhile, City Sergeant Frier had
summoned the following jury: Messrs.
M. f. Huff, #. A. johnson, j. A. Finke,
w. w. Harveycutter, w. M. Nelson
and Frank A. Lovelock. These, together
with Acting Coroner Weber and DR..
Robertson, at once repaired to the
stable and viewed the body and its sur
roundings. The room was small; on one
side was the lounge on which laid the
dead body, and right opposite was
window, on the edge of which were Two
32-calibre pistols of different makes.
Beside the corpse was an empty half
pint whiskey bottle.
The first witness examined was Jim
Bryant. colored hostler. employedsin
the adjacent livery stable, who said:
al came over here late this afternoon
after feeding the horses, and knocked
at the door of this little room. 1t was
fastened and Mary Curtis come to the
door and said, "Lor, Jimmie has Shot
himself" / said, No he hasn't l
then peeped at him and ran back and
called Mr.. Foster, the horseman at the
livery, and then he sent boy for
police Questioned as to what the
woman was doing there, the boy stated
that she had been staying with Sykes
in the stable for the past two days; that
she was woman of loose character.
and was from Christiansburg. Witness
also said that Sykes was about twenty.
and had only recently come from
Newsom's, Southampton county.
Mary Curtis, large, tall mulatto
girl, was next sworn and told to tell all
she knew. For several minutes she
told lie after lie, denying that she had
been in the stable until five minutes
before Bryant knocked at the door,
and that she knew nothing about the
cause of the boys death. Being warned
that it might be very serious for her
unless she told the tru tn, she changed her
base, acknowledged that she had been
lying, and in answer to many questions
stated that she had been there for the
past two days and that in the morning
Sykes had gone out and bought some
fruit and half pint of whisky. That
about four o'clock, when he was nearly
drunk from the effects of tho whisky,
they were both sitting on the lounge
and each had pistol in their hand, of
4 sudden he raised his pistol and said,
IN shoot you" and she said "shoot
ahead" after which they get to fooling
with the pistols and his went off, and
he fell back on the lounge, but did not
speak though he breathed. She said
she wiped the blood off his face with
his handkerchief, but did not know
that he was dead, and was too scared to
give the alarm, though she acknowledged
that she staid there an hour and half
after and ought to have called for help.
After the shooting she said that she
put the pistols in the window. Being
repeatedly questioned as to which hand
Sykes held his pistol with, and in what
position was the pistol whenit went off,
she stubbornly insisted that he held it
in his left hand but did hot know how it
was held when it went off, nor could she
explain how he could shoot himself &C
cidentally over the right ear with his
left hand. At $40 p. m. Thursday the
inquest was adjourned and Mary Curtis
and Jim Bryant locked up in Jail for the
night.
This morning the coroner and Jury as
sembled in the council chamber and
Mary and Jim were re-eXamined separ-
ately but their evidence did not differ
materially, though Mary seemed con-
fused and occasionally told lie or two.
Several other witnesses were examined,
whose testimony bore cut tho foregoing
particulars, and those who knew the
parties stated that there was no quarrel
at any time between them, but that they
were always most friendly. DR. Robert
SON was the last witness to testify, and
as he had made an autopsy of the head,
produced the bullet, which he found
lodged in the base of the brain, and
stated that death was instantaneous.
Shortly after twelve the jury rendered
the following verdict, that I'VE believe
that James Sykes came to his death be-
tween the hours of and p. M, on the
Goth OF November 1901, being accidents
ally shot in the head by a pistol in the
hands OF Mary Curtis.
After this Mary and jim vera both
discharged. ana Sykes body, after being
embalmed by Funeral Director Oakley,
was shipped to his home in Southamp-
ton county.
SALEM FOR SETTLEMENT.
Unanimous Meeting on the Debt Oues
ton.
In to.day's Times Register appeared