The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1895-07-25

wouldn't do it. They went up stairs
to try it themselves. They unlocked
one look and hung the, keys In The
me and said l had to unlock it foi
them. Three men carried me upstairs
and the leader of the crowd ordered me
to unlock the door. told them
would see them dead and in hell before
1 would do it. They said they would
compel me to do it. | told them it
was q poor set Of men that couldn't
unlock door with the keys in them
hands. BY that time, they had the
lock undOne. About fifteen meu went
In the hall. One man stepped behind
the door and unwOund the cells. He
seemed to be we'll acquainted with the
place. They were gone in there about
| three minutes and came back with Ira
johnson. One man stayed to SEQ me
| lock up. He said he wUuld see that
none OF the prisoners got away. While
L was locking up, the mob left.
On cross examination, Mr.. Story
said he didn't recognise any of the
mob, that they were all masked.
Policeman Dan Henderson was next
sworn. He said: l had been to meet
the train and had como down to the
Mansion House in the bus. started
from the Mansion House to the guard
house and met Sheriff Gilreath. He
told mo mob was going to the Jail
and for me to go there with him. We
went, sometimes running and some
times walking fast. When we got to
crowd. The sheriff said. ''They are
there" The mob told us to halt, but
we kept on and they told us again to
halt. They said they would shoot hell
out of us if we went further. 1 heard
the guns cock. We stood there about
two minutes, when l heard one of the
mob say, " Everything's easy. God
crowd then marched of across Broad
street from the Jail.
On cross examination They kept
saying halt. Sheriff Gilreath said,
" Pm going down there" / said,
Hold on. There's no sense in that
He advanced u couple of steps. told
him to stop or they would shoot him.
He said, " They Won't shoot me-"
dark" BY this time the mob had
gotten nearly across Broad street.
The sheriff and went to tho jail and
met Story ut the gate. He told US
they had got the prisoner and gone.
They had the prisoner before they
halted us. There was no one on
Broad street except the mob, Sheriff
Gilreath and myself. Before we got
to the jail, the sheriff said, "They
have never Cotton q prisoner from me
and l hope we can save him." didn't
recognize any one. We we're abou
forty yards from the mob. 1T was
about fifteen minutes of three. There
we're at least one hundred men on
they would have shot Ls If we had
gone on. They cooked their guns right
on us. There were thirty or forty
guns. They talked like they were
talking through masks. [ don't know
whether they were disguised
Policeman 0. S. Gunnells was sworn
and said: Between two. and three
o'clock Monday morning, I was on
Finlay's corner with Officer McCarrell.
We saw a largo body of men going
down Brown street. l told McCarrell
to wake up the chief. ran to the
sheritf's house for him. I woke him
up and told him mob was going to-
wards the Jail. | then ran back to-
wards the chiefs. | waited for him,
but he didn't come, and | went down
l.
the mob turning up Court street. l
advanced on them pretty fast. | got
within thirty-five yards of them. Some
one in the crowd said, "Turn to the
right" They told mo to halt and
faced towards me with guns in position
to shoot. The outer line presented on
me and paused as If marking time,
while the rest passed through in rear
Of the Greenville News office. Then
the line fell in behind the mob. came
back to Main street and met Sheriff
Gilreath and Officer Henderson.
didn't see any more Of the mob.
Sheriff Gilreath was sworn and said:
About half past two o'clock, | was
awakened by Sergeant Gunnells. He
told me mob was going towards the
tell the jailor to hold till l got there
I dressed and started for the jail us
soon as possible. | met Officer Hen
derson and told him about it and asked
him to go with me. We goo to Held
mans old store and found that the
mob had possession of the jail. About
twenty-five or thirty guns we're point
ed at us and we we're ordered to halt.
| kept on but was stopped by Hender
son. My purpose was to get between
the mob and the jail, and with Story
ana HENDERSON keep the mob OIL. Ii
l had got there they would have had
to walked over mo to get to the prison
er. While I was parleying with Hen.
derson ! heard some say, We've got
him." Tho crowd then moved off.
DR.. w. E. Wright was sworn, and
testified as follows: l examined the
dead body of Ira Johnson, assisted by
Doctors Pack and Goodlett. We found
q inch rope around his neck, and
that he was shot from the ankles to
the top Of his head. The shot ranged
in size from bird shot to pistol shots of
38 calibre. All the shot seemed to
enter from the back. Fifteen or
twenty shots that seemed to be 32s or
38s went in the back, through the
lungs in the direction of the heart.
Four or five went through the surface
of the skin. ANY of these would have
caused death. His neck was not
broken. 1 Judge that there were
about five hundred shots in his body,
including the bird shot. His hands
we're tied behind his back with q
home e-made handkerchief.
DR.. Wright was the last witness. and
after his testimony the jury retired
and in O. few minutes returned with