The herald., 1896-02-17
PEARL BRYAN'S MURDERERS
Stand in Some Danger OF
Lynch Law
ADDITIONAL CLUES FOUND
Indicating the Guilt OF the Men in
Officers Believe They Have Located ths
Surrey In Which the Wretehcd
Girl Last Rode
Associated Press Special Wire


CINCINNATI, o., Feb. l6.-The eXcite-
meut in this city and vicinity over the
atrocious murder of Pearl Bryan has been
intensified by the astounding Developments
made last night. People had time to read
the papers today. The feeling tonight is
of silent but of the ready sort that pro-
tends latent danger. No outbreak is anti
cipated, and successful lynching here
would be out of the question with the pres
ent efficiency of the police and the mill
tary. While the feeling here is of the en-
plosive sort, the external restraint is suth-
cient to prevent an explosion. Every
other man one meets expresses the opinion
that short work should be made of these
men. The thinking and strictly law.abid-
ing element in Covington and Newport
have confidence in the courts and believe
in depending on the courts to mete out
justice to the prisoners. 1t is now probable
that they will be taken to the Covington
jail, which is very strongly guarded and
well situated to resist siege. The Jail in
Newport is weak.
The detectives have a clue to the surrey
that was employed to carry the human
tigers and the victim to the scene of the
slaughter. They think they have found the
surrey on Walnut Hills, and they are try
ing to identify it.
A special circumstance that gives weight
to the testimony of George H. jackson, the
negro who drove the surrey to Fort Thomas.
is the high name lie hSArs among all his
employers.
Mr.. Rebstock. a liveryman for whom he
worked for two years, said:
"He is the best and truest all-round negro
| have ever seen."
Major Widdekind of McGregor avenue,
Mount Auburn, the negro employer, says:
George H. jackson is highly intelligent.
very reticent, has no bad habits, never
drinks liquors or uses tobacco: is compe
tent, trustworthy and efficient as an EN-
ploye. and is an active member of the Sec
ond Colored Baptist church. He takes two
daily papers and is a man of more than
ordinary intelligence. | have the most
complete confidence in his veracity and in
tegrity.'
Major Widdekind and the family have
noticed that he has been unusually silent
since the murder, and that he has lost ap-
petite. Another circumstance in his favor
is that there is an offer Of a reward of $500
for the discovery of the cab driver. George
II. jackson has not made any claims for
this reward. hor has he ever spoken of it..
In his statement last night he said he found
in the surrey instead of a round hitching
wei.ht, piece of railroad rail about foot
long, while waiting for the return of the
two men who had gone away with the girl
at the place of the murder. 1t had two
holes through it. A leather strap was fast
hitching weight and soon ran away as
fast as he could run until he reached home.
Right here is the great point in the chain
of circums stances. II was just precisely
such a piece of railroad iron that was
wrapped up in Jacksons bloody coat when
it was fished out of sewer catch-basin at
the corner of John and Richmond streets
several days ago. What emphasizes this
evidence is the fact of his coat being
wrapped around piece of railroad iron
has never been mentioned in the news
papers.
Another circumstance that supports
Jackson's story that the conveyance used
was a surrey, and that Jackson abandoned
it in fright one tragic night, is the fact that
q gentleman of Newport, driving toward
Fort Thomas in buggy on that Saturday
morning about 3 O'Clock, met a surrey
drawn by gray horse With two men on
the front. seat, and collided with it. He
got out and the men in the surrey drove on
toward Newport at furious rate. The
mans name is not given. but Ge will be on
hand when required as witness.
AS if to clinch the matter IL procession of
carriages containing policemen and report
ers started at a quarter to o'clock to Fort
Thomas last night. Jackson drove the
leading carriage. The procession struck
the murderers' route at Vine and Third
streets and with Jackson for guide fol-
lowed it to the bloody ground. Halt was
made at the Newport bridge toll booth to
seek another link in the awful chain that
binds these men to the guilt of Pearl
Bryan7s murder. Toll Collector Tarvin
said he remembered the surrey driven by
IA colored man passing over the bridge
about | O'Clock on the morning of February
|. 1t contained man and woman and
there was white man with the negro
driver OH the seat.
The procession was led by George IL.
jackson to unfrequented back streets in
Newport and by long, circui olIS route of
muddy roads, in the darkness under a
cloudy sky and finally into the Alexandria
uise near Fort Thomas. After driving a
short distance. George H. Jackson stopped
Just where blind lane set out from the
road, and stopped.
Here said he, "is where they took the
lady telling me TO turn the carriage around
and wait.
George H. jackson has not been to the
scene of the murder since it wes COM
mitted. Where he stopped in the darkness
last night was about 200 yards from the
spot where Pearl Bryan was found dead
ou the morning of February |. George n.
Jackson is a man of few words. Here on
the spot where the too contiding girl was
led to her cruel death, and at about the
same gloomy hour of that tragedy, the
colored man repeated his story of the
events of that fatal night. There was a
dramatic realism in the simple, unaffected
recital of this dusky child of
nature tnat moved all preseu.
as no counterfeit presentation on
the stage can move men. The settings of
the scene aided in its effect. When the
negro described the strange noise and the
sounds of scuffle in the leaves and
bushes along with his own sudden fright
and flight, the bystanders shuddered and
almost imagined they could hear the
rustic of the leaves in the struggle Of Pearl
Bryan for her life.
The route out to Fort Thomas was about
five miles out by the Licking pike and
thence by dim country roads TO the Alex
andria pike. 1t was about twice as far as
the drive to the fort by the nearest route.
The examination of the twenty OF thirty
men in the seIni.circle at the Jail last night
hy the colored man jackson was dramatic
in the extreme. Waiting stood near one
I extremity of the arc. The negro jackson
began his inspection at Walling's end OF
| the line. He examined every one, man by
| man uuti1 hQ COt To the end 0f the line