The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-27
GEORGE ELDER ON THE GIBBET
wATKINsvILLE's Brutal NEGRO
MURDERER HANGED.

Death Ensues Twenty Minutes After
the Failing Of the Drop - Nine
white Men and Three Negroes the
Only Witnesses OF the Hanging.
-Four Hundred Persons surround
the JatI-The Condemned Mans
Wife FaintS the Coffin Is
Brought 10 the GaIIOws-StOry of
His Crime and Previous HRngings
at WafkinsvilIe.
twatkinsville Ca, March 2Z-George
Elder (colored) was hanged here this
morning for the murder of Bob James, an
aged negro, on April II of last year.
The drop fell at 1913 o'clock, and Elder
was pronounced dead in twenty minutes
The execution was conducted by Sheriff
b. E. overly and was witnessed by nine
white men and three negroes
Elder was attired in a black suit, with
white shirt and tie. AS he passed down
the Jail stairs his repeated goodbye to
everybody" in a husky voice. fell on the
hushed murmer of the crowd of 400 peo-
pie that surrounded the Jail.
He was perfectly silent after he entered
the enclosure.
His wife tainted when the coffin was
brought to the gallows before the eXecu-
ton, and never saw him again.
The body will be buried at Shady Grove
church, three miles from here.
"A colored minister eXhorted the crowd
10 take warning from his fate while ne
was being prepared for execution
At William Marshall's plantation. seven
miles south of Watkinsville, on April ~
1895, Elder shot aud instantly Killed BOD
James an old negro man, with the murder
ed mans gun, and within a few yards of
the old mans home.
Elder had won the gun from the old
mans son in a game of cards. Ihey quar-
relied over it and Elder followed the son
home, still contending for the possession
of the gun, when the old man ordered Ell
der not TO come any nearer his home with
the gun but to give ii up to him as it was
his property Elder at close range dis
charged the gun into the elder James
breast making a dreadful wound. He
then shot at his son, from whom he had
won the gun, only sprinkling him little
with the shot.
The murderer was exceedingly vindic-
tive after he was sentenced, and express
ed the wish that he might escape so that
he could kill Sheriff overly and his moth
er because she did not raise him right his
wife because she was unfaithful. He also
Jones, Stephen Elder and Sydney Robin
son, because one predicted that he would
fail to get a new trial, another reminded
him that the Bible said: "A life for a life"
and the other said that he would like to
spring the trap-door that viii let him drop,
as he believed he fully deserved the pen
atty.
The last legal execution at Watkinsville
occurred about fifty years ago, when Will
son Oneal, a runaway slave who was own
ed by James Oneal of Jasper county, was
hanged for HOUSEKEEPING He had COM
mitted many awful crimes, once assault
ing a white woman, but eluded the Off
GERS for years and found refuge in a cave
he had dug out for himself in the upper
part of the county.
Two negro women were hanged some
time before Wilson for killing their young
master, who was a cripple and rode to the
field to superintend the laborers. The wo-
men killed him with their hoes and con-
cealed the body in the hollow tree This
occurred at the old Durham plantation at
Skull Shoals, in the lower part of the
county.
About seventy~five years ago, in 1919,
Thomas Wells. a white man, was hanged
for killing Peter Perry, former friend at
Salem, where both resided and were high
~ respected. Wells became unreasona-
bly, jealous of Perry's attention TO his wife
miseonstruing what was proven to have
been only friendly politeness into improper
admiration, and shot Perry. Wells was
confident that he had only defended the
honor of his home and would be acquitted
on trial.
When Perry's will was probated it was
found that in il he had named twelve of
his friends whom he had wished summon
ed as witnesses against Wells should he
assassinate him as Perry anticipated at
the time he wrote his WILL Also in the
Will were enclosed abusive letters from
Wells 70 Perry. In his will Perry had re-
cited the fact of Wells unfounded zeal
ousy and emphatically declared that he
believed Wells wife to be an honorable
woman, asserted his own innocence and
expressed the wish that Wells should be
vigorously prosecuted II he killed him. as
he feared at the time.
His WILL with the evidence of the
friends named therein, and his ante-mor-
TEN statement, together with other evil
dence, convicted Wells and he paid the
penalty.
white man named Epps was impris-
oned in the Jail at Watknsville a long
time for killing his own father, about
forty years ago. His long confinement
appealed to the outsiders and he was res
cued, his shackles removed and spirited
away.
He has never been heard of since. IL
IS known that he was concealed in the
loft Of the old court house itself for sew
eral days by his friends. awaiting the op-
portunity TO remove him safely. The
weather was bitter cold at the time and
his rescuers kept him wrapped in blank
cts and supplied him with food claudes-
timely.