The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-20
JEALOUS AND HE KILLED HER.
JAMES WAYNE'S CONFESSION OF
HIS WIFE's MURDER.

Curry Robertson Implicated by
Wayne in the KiIIfng-The Police
Doubt That Part of the Confession
and Believe the Husband Was
Alone in His Crime-Says He Met
His Wife on the Canal Bank With
Another Man.
James Wayne has confessed the murder
! Of his wife. At least he confesses to be-
! ing participant in it, but the murder it.
self he lays upon another man, whom he
says he paid 50 to break his wife, up
from going out at nights in company with
other men, According to Wayne's story
the woman's death is due to the alto
| gether too vigorous manner with which
his friend proceeded in the breaking up"
Wayne broke down yesterday morning
when being taken from the barracks 10
the Jail by Detective Godbold. Seeing that
the man wanted to talk the detective car
ried him back to the station house, where,
by direction of Acting Chief Reilly, the
story was listened to by the three detec-
tives. After telling his story to the de-
tectves Wayne repeated 1t to Police Clerk
Masters. who took 1t down in writing.
Chairman Karow of the police commits
sion, who was at the barracks at the time,
for some reason declined to allow repor-
tiers to listen to the confession. Neither
were they allowed to see the written con-
fession, which was withheld by Acting
Chief Reilly, acting under orders of the
chairman. When a Morning News repor-
ter learned of this state Of affairs he walk
ed over to the jail near by, saw Wayne,
by permission of the 1ailer after Wayne
had given his own consent, and learned
the story from his own lips.
Waynes story is as follows: my nama
is James Wayne. 1 am 80 years old and
have been in and around Savannah about
eighteen years. have been married seven
years. My wife and I have been quarrel
ing off and on an the time for the last
five years. When we were living in the
country she would come to town and stay
late at night, and that is what we got
to quarreling about She made me move
TO town. She seemed to get the devil in
her head after she got to town, and We
were quarreling all the time. She de-
clared that II 1 didn't quit quarreling with
her she would run me off. l told her she
couldn't do it, Curry Robertson told me
he would fix her for $1.50. He said he
only wanted to beat her and scare her.
left the house Thursday night. She run
me off. Napoleon Houston was the occa-
sion of it. He was seen coming out Of
the house after left Thursday night and
Friday night. Saturday night, between
and o'clock, 1 met her at Bryan and
Montgomery streets. I gave her $125 and
told her to go home. Curry Robertson
was with me. He said he could break her
up from going around at night. 1 gave
him 81 to break her up. We followed her
and found her on the canal bank about 3
o'clock There was a man with her. but
we could not tell who It was. The man
jumped to run and Robertson threw a
brick as hard as he could. 1 think he
meant to hit the man. The brick struck
| Emma in the back of the head, knocking
| her senseless. I got sorry for her. 1 ran
to the house, jerked a quilt off the bed
| and carried 1t back to put over her. When
/ got back with the quilt Robertson was
gone. l wanted to get somebody to help
me carry her back to the house. 1 went
| off to look for somebody to help me, and
was gone about half an hour. When 1
came back the woman was gone and the
| quilt, too. / couldn't find Robertson any
| where. / didn't know what to do l had
| two minds about it. Maybe Robertson
| had thrown her in the canal or she had
| got up and gone off. l could not find
| either her or Robertson. Sunday morn
ing / went to the police barracks, think
| ing she might have gone there to report
me. l went to the Morning News Office
| Monday and put in an advertisement for
| her. l met Robertson Sunday. 1 asked
| him where my wife was. He said he
hadn't seen anything of her and that I
mustn't ask him anything about her. He
said he had got his 81, and he didn't want
| to hear any more about it,"
/ WaVna aClrnOWladpad that ba had MIR
! chased a rope early Saturday night, but
said he gave the rope to his sister-in-law,
who lives on West Boundary street. Cur
| ry Robertson, he said, came here from Au-
| gusta about year ago, and that he did
| not do any regular work, being a fisher
man. He did not know where he lived.
| The detectives do not take much stock
| In the Curry Robertson story. They think
| IL possible that Wayne had an accomplice,
| but they are satisfied that he did the kill
! ing himself, or that it was done with his
| approval and that he assisted i'm weight
| ing the body and throwing il i'm the canal
| IL is the almost invariabie rule with negro
| prisoners in making confessions that they
confess to only a part of the crime at first
| and lay the worst of IL upon some other
/ party They sometimes make three or
| four confessions. The detectives are sat
! lsfied that Wayne will make a more com
| plete confession later.
! The detectives are looking for Curry
| Robertson, but they have their doubts
| about finding him.