Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1895-08-31

Pollard was lying on the ground. H
then struck her several times with tn
eye of the axe. He then caught m
by the arm and carried me into tn
house. We went into the big room
Twas crying, and don't know all tha
he did, but saw him get something ou
OF chest and put liz his pocket. II,
then took me up to the forks of tn,
Burnsgate and Fort Mitchell roads
and told me II they caught me to pu
it on Mary end Pokey Barnes. anC
Mary Alternately, and said if l did not
do this he would kill me on next sight
PAID HIN PAPER MONEY.
He then give me two pieces of na.
| per money, but told me not to spend
1t around there, but TO 60 to Chase
City.
| He said that when got there Twas to
| spend some of it, and put the rest OF
| It in registered letter and mail it to
myself at Finneywood, ana when it
came that l must say my brother sent
it TO me from North Carolina.
He then left me AID 1 went straight
home. The next morning / went over
TO Chase City and spent some Of the
money, and put five dollars in a regis
tered letter and sent it to myself at
FinneywoOd. When 1 was over at
Chase City / gave the name of Osborne
Marable. gave one of the notes to a
colored woman in Chase City TO pav
for lunch got there. She sent her
daughter out TO get it changed, and
that's how they found me out.
SPENDING THE MONEY.
I did not know until she brought
the change back what kind of a note it
was. l went home that evening and
when got there they told me they
were going TO whitecap all the Ne
groes there TO find out who killed Mrs
Pollard, so / left home and STAYED
down on the railroad all night. Sun
day morning I came back home and
stayed all the morning. Then I went
and put my wife on the train and sent
her home TO Stovall, Granville County.
n. @. Monday / went up to Five
Forks, and that night Istayed with an
old colored man up there near Five
Forks. On Tuesday l was arrested.
j have not seen Mr.. Thompson since
that day. He was not at the trial
When / was in court, and while I was
telling about the white man, saw Mr..
Pettus standing or squatting in front
OF me. lie was making motions with his
mouth as il he was saying, Tell them
it was Mary Abernathy-Ab bernathv -
i had been told that ne SAID ne was
going to kill me if / said it was Thomp
son, and so / got scared and put it on
Mary and Pokey.
HOW MUCH TRUTH.
How much of truth. if any, there is
IN this statement, only time can tell,
but one thing is certain, that there are
some portions of it which could hard
ly have suggested themselves to Mar
able's unassisted Imagination.
might begin with what 1 am going
to say with the statement that person
ally do not believe either of these
statements, because there are many
things which prove conclusively to nv
mind that Solomon's statements are
false.
I shall take his statements in the
order in which they were made, and
so begin with his statement implicat-
ing the women.
In the first place, it is untrue that
he met Mary Barnes at the spring on
Thursday, the day before the murder.
Mr.. Pollard, himself proves this to
be untrde, for he saws that Mary
worked with him in the field that day
and that she did not go to the spring
at all.
A TELLING INDICTMENT.
In the second place, it is untrue that
standing down at the spring, he could
have seen Mary Abernathy standing in
the backyard beckoning him to come
up there From the spring you can
not see any portion of Mr. Poliard's
yard, not even the top of the chimney
of the house
This is conceded by every one to be
true, and SO proves his statements to
be false.
In the third place, Marable testified
although 1T does not appear in this
statement, that Mary Barnes, Mary
Alternately and Pokey Barnes were
standing in the backyard, and that
Mary Barnes ran out of the house.
handed Mary Alternately a bunch of
keys, and then ran back out of the
front of the house.
AN IMPOSSIBLE OCCURRENCE.
l have so often shown that it is i'm
possible for this to be true that it is
almost an imposition upon the public
to repeat it. But l will be concise as
possible. Mr.. Pollard says that when
he left the house Mary Alternately was
seated in the front porch, his wife was
sitting just inside the door of the big
room, while Mary Barnes was Carving
an armful of wood into the house
Mr.. Pollard went straight on ont to
the corn field, and by the time that
he had ploughed one short row of corn
and turned to come back, Mary Barnes
was standing at the end of the row.
So she must have left the house with
in minute or two after Mr.. Pollard
If this is so, then Marable's account ia
false again, for in so short a time Mary
Alternately could not have gone into
the backyard from the front of the
house, met Pokey Barnes, called Solo
mon Marable up to the house, and re
ceived the keys from Mary Barnes.
CLINCHING ARGUMENT.
Nor could Mary Barnes have gotten
the keys, for Mrs. Pollard was sitting
in the very room in which the KEYS
were kept, and she would not have al
lowed those keys to have been taken
nor would Mary Barnes have ATTEMPT
ed to have taken them in the presence
of Mrs. Pollard. say that this state
ment of Solomon Marable bears upon
its face the patent evidences of its un-
truthfulness, and that no amount of
explanation can make true what is
false in its inception.
At one time, too, Marable swears
that the murder succeeded the rob
berry, and at another time he saws that
the murder occurred first and the