The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-17
A MYSTERIOUS MURDER.
Steven Williams Shot Down by an
Unknown Hand.


When BE Was Shot-His Wife Ar
rested Charged With Being an Ao-
oessory to the Crime-she Denies
All knowledge of the Guilty Parties.
Steven Williams, colored, a switchman
at the Central railroad wharves, was
shot and killed last night about II o'clock
by an unknown party.
He was shot in the breast near the
heart, and chased his slayer thirty or
forty feet before falling to the ground,
where he soon expired. The shooting oc-
CURED on Bay street, where the track
from the Central railroad yard crosses to
the wharves.
Who the party was that di. the shoot
ing or what was the cause of the diff
Guilty is not known. The murderer's
name was given last night by watchmen
at the wharf as both Lee and Lincoln,
one of whom is also a switchman in the
Central Railroad yards near the wharf,
and who, it is said, has been particularly
6blGlLlNE W w ll4d4Io WIG.
SAID SHE POINTED HIM OUT.
Williams does night work in the yard
near the wharf and every night about s
org o'clock his wife, Eidia, carries his
lunch to him Last night before leaving
home at Pine and Farm streets, he in
structed her to come down with his lunch
about o'clock.
1t was considerably later when she ar
rived and as reported by Waterman at
the Central railroad wharf shortly before
the shooting occurred, two women and
two men together with a little child,
crossed the second bridge going down
Bay street towards the wharf. He says
he heard some one ask:
"Where is her" then the reply, "There
he is" after which two shots were fired ;,
and Williams, who was coming out of the
railroad yard at the time, was the victim
of the shooting.
CHASED HIS SLAYER.
After he was shot Williams ran after
his murderer for distance of forty feet
when he fell dead in his tracks, and the
murderers, whoever they were, went on
out Bay street away from the city.
The woman must have been very close
to her husband when the shot was fired,
as she reached him almost as soon as he
fell.
The police were notified at once of the
shooting, and Coroner Dixon sent his
wagon out after the body. 1t was brought
in to the coroner's Office on Perry street,
where it was found that although
two shots had been fired
only one had taken effect and that in the
center of his breast just above the stom-
ach.
WILLIAMS WIFE ARRESTED.
Elidia Williams, the murdered mans
wife, was arrested as a supposed acces-
sorry to the crime and was brought into
the barracks about o'clock this morn
ing Her story and the statement of
the Waterman at the wharf agree
in the particular that there were two men
in the party who did the shooting. From
the evidence it was believed that she had
pointed her husband out to the murderer,
whoever he was. 1t was stated last
night that the murderer was in
innate with Williams wife, and
from this and other circumstances men
toned she was suspected.
CHASE, BUT He ESCAPED.
Williams, it seems, was just coming out
of the Central Railroad yard to get his
lunch when he met the parties, who
ever they were. The question is
whether his wife was in that crowd She
says there were only two men in the par
ty and that the shooting was done with
pistol which she saw.
The watchman says she was with the
men and that another woman also was
with them. Others state that the shoot
ing was done with a rifle.
The murderer dropped his hat at the
point where the scuffle took
place. 1t was picked up
whsn Williams body was brought in.
About 80 o'clock switchman at the /
mile post on the Central said a man passed
without hat. He chased him, but the
man made his escape.
The cause of the murder, as well as the
murderer's identity, seemed yelled in
mystery last night. 1t was vari-
ously stated that it grew out of
Williams running too much with other
women, and that Williams wife had too
great a fondness for other men
Whatever was the cause of it, it will
probably come out when the inquest is
held this morning
THE WOMAN's STORY.
At the barracks Williams wife denied
any completely in or knowledge of the at
fair, further than that she saw the shots
fired and saw her husband fall. She
stuck to her story throughout a cross-fre
of questions and no amount of question
ing could swerve her from the
account first given. She said that it is her
custom to carry supper to her husband
every night he works, as sometimes he
has only to work in the day.
Last night she carried his supper as
usual, and waited for him from about s
O'Clock until 10 o'clock before he made his
appearance. She was sitting on
the railroad track waiting for him,
when two young negro men came along.
They We're talking in boisterous man
ner and cursing. She kept her back to
them, and remained silent. As they
came near her one of them said, "How
do you feel, sweetheart" But she paid