The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-20
HIS oVERcoAT BETRAYED HIM.
WALKER HELD FOR THE MURDER
OF STEPHEN GIBBONS.

NuGNls AOMM0AAN MnM AN@h -
Aeeessories-The Evidence hears
ont the Deteetives' Theory Tn at
There Was "a Plot Among the Flee
srIc Railway Men 10 Give the West
Savannah Negroes a LessOn-Th's
Testimony All One Wny-WaIIser's
Grey overcoat the Chief Link in
the Evidence Against Him.
After thoroughly investigating the case
against G. p. Walker. T. l. Guest. J. T.
Connolly and Fred Floyd, the four Eiee-
trio railway employees charged with the
shooting Of stephen Gibbons, colored
Saturday night. the coroner's jury brought
in verdict last night. charging Walker
with murder and the three other men with
bein accessories to the fact
1t only took the jury ten minutes 10
make UP their minds and the verdict was
unanimous Guests statement that he
was the man who shot Gibbons was not
credited by the jury. there being no evil
dence whatever TO support it. The jury
took the same view of the matter as the
detectives, that Guests statement is part
of a made up plot between the four men
to get each other out of the trouble.
All the witnesses who testified to the
shooting swOre that II was the large man
in the gray overcoat." who shot Gibbons,
and the jury identified this man as Walk
er. Guest is believed to be the man who
fired his pistol in the air, while all the
evidence went to show that Walker was
the man who pursued Gibbons and fired
on him, after which Gibbons was heard
to exclaim, "Oh. Lord, I'm shotr'
There was not the slightest evidence to
show that the shooting was in any way
Sol he ola Hfr.fr
that of a reliable white witness, went
TO show that the four men had gone out
on the last car by agreement TO give the
negro patrons of the line a lesson for
their treatment of the conductor and mo-
torman the Saturday night previous, and
on other occasions They may not have
intended to carry il as far they did,
but they certainly made a bad job of it,.
Walker who is charged with being the
principal in this affair, is fine-looktng
young fellow, and is said to be from
good family in Edgetield county, South
Carolina He has not been in Savannah
very long, having come here from Au-
gusta, where he was a member of the
police force. His gray oVercoat, which IS
likely to play a prominent part in the
case, is well known to the police, as
Walker has worn it several times in the
police court when "A witness in petty cases.
Guest has also been in the police court
frequently as witness and principal in
several small affairs.
Coroner Goette spent some time yester-
day morning in getting his witnesses to-
gether. The first witness was called
shortly before noon The taking OF evil
dence was continued up to 800 o'clock,
when an adjournment was taken until
O'Clock, from which time testimony was
received until z O'Clock, when. the case
was given 10 the jury. Inc -FOUR prisoners
declined to go before the jury, acting UNI
der the advice of their attorneys, Sea-
brook & Morgan.
Conductor Frank Granger was the most
interesting witness before the jury, al
though the jurymen had their own opinion
of his testimony.
Granger said that he was conductor on
car No. g. Car Al ran off at the Augusta
road below the crossing, and the wreclSing
car went out to put Al on the track.
Guest, Walker, Connolly and Floyd went
with IL. on the last trip they went to
the end of the line with me. Some of the
negroes got off at curve No 2. and some
at the Augusta road and some at Jasper
Springs. My trolley rope was cut about
100 yards from Jasper Springs and Slipped
the trolley off the wires causing some
confusion among the negroes. When we
got to the end of the line, called out
lend of the line" and gave them time
to get off the car. l changed my trolley
before they all got off, and went back
inside to put down the number of fares
had on the register. While l was doing
this / heard the shooting. Shortly after
ward Walker and Guest, Connolly and
Floyd came back / thought the shooting
was shut, and could not tell exactly
how far it was 1 do not know who did
the shooting. All four had pistols, but
none of the pistols were shot out but Mr..
Guests. ! heard him say that he had shot
a negro. Guest showed his pistol to So
On being crOss-quesuoned the witness
said: 'Motorman Borders was standing
at one side of the car, the last saw of
him; he asked me II l were going to
stay with the car, and told him yes.
think he got back minute or so be-
fore the others. l did not pay much atten-
ton to what was said. L heard Guest
say the negro was trying to shoot or
cut him and that was the reason he shot
him. The men all got off the car at the
Central depot except a passenger who
Granger acknowledged that he gave the
coroner wrong information when seen by
him Monday, and that he was not under
oath at the time.
The negro witnesses did not all agree in
their testimony, but showed that they
had pretty lively time of it, Frank Screw
en- told the story Of the disorder on the
car the white men pulling off the trolley
and threatening the negroes with their
pistols. one negro, Bacon, exclaimed
Don't do that way, treat de car right
gentlemens." When the car got TO Jasper
Springs the trolley was pulled off. He was
afraid to get off. One little fellow got
off and was knocked and cuffed around
One of the white men exclaimed: Where
is that - - who gave us cheek
stephen Gibbons got off and was
slapped down. He started to run, and the
white men pursued him. They ran him
about 200 yards away, and then one OF
them exclaimed. shoot the - -
Two of the white men fired their pistols
in the air, and two others fired at Gibbons
One was tall man with a mustache
Screven said there were six white mer
who pursued Gibbons, and that the con
ductor was one of the party The motor
man 'staid with the car, he said, and put
on the light and started ringing his bel
after the shooting was over Screver
said he followed the crowd and saw the
shooting of Gibbons. He said the meu
caught u0 with Gibbons on the road
knocked him down and kicked him. He
got up and started TO run, and one of then
exclaimed, Shoot him. shoot the - -'
One man fired up in the air, the Other
fired at him, and called halt, halt" But
Gibbons kept on running. The men theI
turned back and went to the car
Darius Jones gave pretty much the same
testimony as Screven. When he goi
off the ear with his wife, he stepped one
side to get out of the way. He had Z
basket on his arm, and his hand i'm his
pocket. One of the white men came III
and told him to take his hand out of hi!
pocket, that he had a gun. He denied
having a weapon One of the men sale