The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-02-11
MARTIN C0NFESSES.
THE MURDERER BREAKS DOWN AND
TELLS ALL ABOUT HIS CRIME.

TELLS ALL ABOUT HIS CRIME.
The Horrible Story Related to the Sheriff
kissed His Victim Goodbye After
Choking Her to death and Threw the
, Body in the River.
COLUMBIA. S. c., Feb 2.-Waites
Martin has confessed that he killed
Alice Mcleod. Yesterday morning
Sheriff Rowan went into Martins cage.
where he was chained down to the floor
and sat down upon box near him. He
asked him whether he had an accomplice
or not and what connection ANYBODY else
had with the murder. lie told Martin he
did not wish him to implicate himself, but
he wanted him to tell the truth as there
was already enough evidence against
him to hang him. The question was
such that it could not be answered with
ease and the negro after mature delibera-
ton decided that it was best to make a
voluntary confession. After awhile he
said:
Il will tell you the truth" and stat
ed that he would relate the whole mat
ter. The Sheriff told him if he did not
tell the truth he would stop him. Mar
tin said ''all right" and he told his story
substantially as follows:
He said that on Friday evening, some
time before dark, ne was standing on
Schultz's corner, one square from the
shanty car, waiting for Alice to come
and 90 up street with him. when man
whom he had never seen before came up
to him and asked If that woman over by
the car was not the woman who had
staid at Lena Hammonds' during Fair
week. Martin told him ives" and the
fellow said, 'Well she owes me some
money whicE l must have" Martin told
him that was none of his business, and
The man went away.
Martin says he then went to the car
and asked Alice to 90 home. She re-
fused and he pushed her out into the
darkness. She again refused and he
caught her by the throat and choked her.
He turned her loose and she still refus-
ed; he then pulled her on, and when
they were near the oil mill fence he
caught her by the throat and choked
her again. When he turned her loose he
noticed she did not rise, and then it
flashed across his mind that he had mur-
dered her.
Martin says after that DISCOVERY he
was so scared that he did not know what
he was doing, but if he had it to do over
again he would come straight to the jail
and surrender himself.
The Sheriff asked him, ''Well, what
neXt?n
Martin continued his story, and said
he then put the dead body on his back
and carried itas far as he could down
the railroad track towards the quarry.
The body was so heavy that he had to
put it down and rest twice. Where the
path leads from the railroad to the quarry
he again laid the body down.
There he conceived the idea Of
stripping it. He says he did not
know why he did it. At any rate
he lay the body down and stripped it of
its clothing just as it was found. He
threw the clothes in bundle to one
side ard left them. He then took the
body on his back and carried it to the
river bank and laid 1t down. He then
came back to the quarry and secured
the stone. He said he did not get it
from his yard. He then came up the
track to the compress platform, where
he got sack and then went back. Pick
ing up the rock on the way he went back
to the body. He said the sack he is said
to have gotten from the closet in his
house was taken on Friday morning and
he had brought potatoes in it. Those
were the potatoes that Alice was sell
ing.
After going back to the body, he took
the bag and prepared to conceal it.
He fixed it just as it was found, and
then ne says he drew it to point in the
river Just above where 1t was found. He
SAYS he kissed the dead woman's cheeks
and threw her into the water. In doing
so he slid her down gently into the
water.
When the prisner told Of kissing tie
corps he broke completely down and
wep like a child. His subsequent
he seemed unable to des-
,ribe, but says that when he went home
he did not 60 in the window, but went ID
he door. He positively asserted that
le haG never seen Wa shington until he
:aw him on the car, and that he had
nothing whatever to do with the murder.
Martin told his tale in straghtfor-
%ard manner. Some still hold the
heory that the woman was killedin bed.
Sheriff Rowan yesterday afternoon
made hunt for the clothes, but could
lot find them, and he thinks some igno-
ant field hand has found them and taken
hem away
Martin says he knows he must die,
md says he wants TO have his trla, over
md sentence passed on him as soon as
possible. Record.