The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-04

gentlemen, you can't go back there. I'll
look out for my business myself"
The two men struggled. Some one fired
| pistol shot and the witness ran. The old
man had nothing in his hand at the time.
| The witness said he and one Of the girls
ran out into the yard and hid behind a
| wood pile. Three or four shots were fired.
| The two men, after firing the shots, came
out in the yard looking for him, he
thought. but did not find him. He remain
! ed in the yard about ten
minutes. When he came back the bar
was wide open and nobody there He
| thought Thornburg had gone out for
| policeman. Two men came In and called
| for beer. They gave him a quarter, but
! the cash box was missing and he could
not make change. The women came back
| and he told one of them TO go ahead,
| play the piano and have a good time. The
| patrol wagon came with Detectives Scully
and GOdbold. They asked him If Thorn
! burg was dead, and he told them no, that
| he had gone out to look for an officer.
Several people came in and asked him if
the old man were dead, and he told them
no. Lucutia, the housekeeper started to
look for the old man. She could not ma
him upstairs. Some one suggested that
they look in the yard. He pushed the
rear door of the dance han open and saw
the old man lying there dead, behind the
kitchen.
Fred Behr, a young German sailor, who
happened TO be in the dance hall when
the shooting began, is likely to prove an
important witness. Behr cannot speak
English, but there were several Germans
present who interpreted his story. He
said he was standing in the dance hall
when he heard scuffiing in the adjoining
room. Three men rushed in from the
side door Two were in uniform and were
following the other man. One of the men
Uniform a tall slender man with a can
on his head, had pistol in his hand and
fired al the old man. He thought there
were three shots fired. He ran out the
front door and waited until the men came
out and followed them He lost them at
one place, but found them again on
Broughton street. He saw Pitts, the man
who did the shooting, hand pistol to an
other man, who went off on a street car
He followed the men to near the market
and saw them arrested by two officers.
Behr may have to stay in Savannah
a while in order to give his testimony, as
he is the only one of the witnesses VINO
claims to have actually seen the shooting
One of the witnesses called attention to
the finding of the cash drawer under the
bar with only about a dollar in it, while
Is cents was found on the floor. He
thought the drawer had been robbed and
thrown under the counter. This might
have been done by some one else in the
as by Pitts or Colhni.
-Four empty cartridge shells of 32-cali-
Der size were found on the floor of the
rear room, where they had been thrown
out, probably in reloading the pistol. a
fiattened bullet was also found, which
had evidently struck the wall and re-
bounded. There was also a bullet hole in
the wall Of the rear room.
A casual examination of the body show
ed only two wounds, one in the middle of
the breast between the ribs and the other
in the right hand. The ball which enter
ed the breast evidently penetrated the
heart, as Thornburg was dead when
found. The dead man was lying on his
back. He had apparently backed away
from his pursuers and fallen on receiving
the last shot, the one through his breast
His pistol was found behind the bar with
all the chambers loaded. 1t had evidently
not been used.
Both Pitts and Collini were stationed at
No engine house, Henry street,
Pitts being attached to the chemical COM
pany. He has been in numerous scrapes
before, one of them being of a serious
character. He has not been considered a
bad-hearted fellow but when drinking
was utterly reckless and was always ready
for fight, drunk or sober. He evidently
had his lighting clothes on yesterday lie
IS said TO have had one or two small
scraps before reaching Thornburg.
Thornburg will be buried at
1 O'Clock this afternoon in the
knights of Pythias lot in Laurel
Grove cemetery. He was formerly a men,
Der of Myrtle lodge and also of DuGuesclin
Division, Uniformed rank, but was in bad
standing through a lapse of dues. The
members of Myrtle and other lodges will
attend his funeral, paying the last tribute
OF respect to their dead brother. Thorn
burg was a widower, his wife having died
a short time ago. He had no relatives here
except a step-son.
Pitts has young wife and a baby about
four months old, who live with his mother,
brother and sister at No. 22S Bryan street.
The inquest was concluded at $3.50 o'clock
this morning. More witnesses of the
shooting were found than We're expected
when the inquest began and the coroner
decided to continue the investigations
The jury brought in a verdict of murder
against Pitts and exonerated Collni. The
latter portion of the verdict was somewhat
Of q surprise, but 1t was too late to get
the views of the jurymen on the subject.
The examination of the body by the cor
oner showed five pistol shot wounds. in
the heart, the bladder. the right groin,