The Forrest City times., 1896-01-03
WAIVED EXAMINATION.
,vt,uars and Swartz so to Ja'iWith- .,. 9rslin1lnary 1aarinS-A Dam
 aginS Statement

D, the night of October g. 1895, Il a..re occurred iu l. Angullle township, ..nr mics north of Palestine, one of .., n7nst dastardly assaSsinatlons that ,gar crimsonsd the annals of this .,nntv. E. C. McGowan, respected ''-s,, vas aroused from sleep and as ,e arose from his bed load of buck .,.,t fred by an asSassln'S hand, tore ,T tbe top of his head and he feil back corpse among the terrified members ~ he family. At first 1t was thought ,b,, NcGoWan was slam because he l..s1, fOn much concerning the murder aa. nwlessaeS5 which had prevailed in t4e western portion ot the county, no;able among which was the cruel ,ss,ssjuatiUa of old man Cape and Mrs. C C,uthall. but recent developments have demonstrated that this theory was far fr,n, fhe correct one. sheriff Williams ..var for a moment abandoned his ef- f,rts to run down the perpetrators Of Inc horrible crime. Detectives were sa. lo work on the case and the right st,4 finally began to uHfavel. Some twu weeks agO, as our readers will re- member. Bill Williams, $. +. Thomas. jnnu Swartz (Hhitel and Dave Williams IeoleTeG were arrested on information furnished by Detective Paul. On kon- day If last week Thomas had prelin- iparr h0aring before Justice Nelson, of flis ejtv, aad was committed without hal. Last Monday the cases of Bill and Dave Williams and John Swart2 WAS called in Justice Ralford'S court on change of venue. Bill Williams and Sy4rTz waived examination and were committed to jail to await the action of the grand jury. Sheriff Williams,
 Robert L. Freeland and Jailer Hzw k.ns were called as witnesses and testi- gsd as to statements made by Bill Will Daus concerning his presence at the scene of the murder; that he stood in rbe shnD door, while Swartx tapped on ths window of McGowan's room, and Dave Williams tired, the fatal shot as the victim arose to answer the sum. mons.
 Bill Williams was the first witness called to the stand, but acting under instructions of his attorney, refused to ansWer questions.
 Dave Williams, the negro, was the last to take tue stand, and he made what perports to be clean breast of the whole iniQutOus affair. Following is a verbatim report of his testimony
 Before McGowan WAS killed Bill Will liams came to ne and took me off from home into the,woods aud made a square box with marks on the ground, and said Dave, you are sitting in the
 middle of this box and there's death all around you, and I've got into it, and I'm the only one keeping the fel- lows from killing you. l have piece Of work to do; and I'll tell you, by Cd, if you mention 1t ever to anyone
 I'll have you killed deader than h-l. I'm going to kill AcGowxn. l moved back on the place to do it." 1 asked Mir. Williams what for, and be said Ny wife IS one of the heirs of Mo G0wau. and has got nothing out of the real estate property since the old man has been dead but S15 and Grant Me Gowan is the cause of it. He don't Eantme to act as if l was an heir of the 3cGowau family, and he has run over me long enough. He wants me to haul my cotton Monday and pay rent on the land lworGed. I'll have to kill him, and it Is best for me to do it before l haul the cotton. When do away with him the other boys will exac: no rent of me And whatever you do, you had better not say anything about this. If I'm taken up and put in jail, Eve got boys that will get you-there is no doubt about it." Then Mir. Holwell came along and we left.
 In day or two after that talk he wanted to borrow my Winchester to XII him with, and l told him that would never do-they would say it was
 me. lie said they could not prove il was me-there were more 36 .Wlnche5ters than one. l told him ] llau no cartridges, and he sent by Mir. bili Higgins to get some Winchester C&tridgeS, and Mir. Higgins brought hiin pistol cartridl>Ss No. 35 and they were too small. That ended our con- Yersd;lOn on that day
 III day or two after that he had oeeh about mile over to colored lelloW 5 named John King aud sent "lter a pound of big buckshot, and Sane oy Mir. HcGowan's that night and neStu MT, McGoWan talking 10 me "'out uaulng cotton; neither of us 3@" 9@ mn ab the time, but after 1 left o1'' NcIoWan 8. gong home, he walk Io Uut iIoi0 behind tree, between Mis house and Mr. McG0wan's, and S"i9 Dldnt Grant say for you to naui cotton tomorrow ?'' My reply .,,G ~18 les, sir; tomorrow evening""
 "5iI' don't yoa call on me to help s soJ load. Get Grant to help yon load, @i %i.u you get in the cotton pen and put mun io the wagon, and I'll be in the "e9u held in front of the cotton pen "n4 Shoot him out of the wagon" My alep,y was: No, sir; that will never ', G' So we didn't talk any more over a.4 a 4l that time. When evening came l ,. ,,..I get wagon on that account l h,a'l hegC 70 three or four places, but come to D"'e ana told him l couldn't get one, " At.sN llt L.. 1 A L.