The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-03-30
MURDER LAST NIGHT.
DTsOSS NECK TIL: SCENE OF ~
OTHER TRAGEDY
Walter Pemberton, CoIored. Shot In IN.
Head aud I~n>tantiy Ma.
Said to Have Been Shnt IN the Arm.

Walter Pemberton, Coiored, Shot In IN.
Head aud I%n>tantIy Xii. M.
Said to Have Been Shot IN the Arm.
At the residence OF Jane. While.
colored. on Second street bct0~,
Brunswick and Bladen streets, the no.
torious section OF the city known a..
"Dross Neck" there was a shooting
ARRAY that resulted in the instant
killing of Walter Pemberton, oolor,I
last night about 10 o'clock.
In about ten minutes after the trare
dy. the two colored policemen. Lou.
Geyer and Joseph Sharp. reached the
scene Of Tie murder. Jim Whitley, IN.
man at whose house it occurred. ran
up TO Fourth street. q couple Of blocks
away. and notified the policemen.
When they got to the house the mea
who had done the shooting had disap-
peared.
A Messenger reporter vent over 70
the scene Of the murder at 1910 p
m. and found an excited crowd Of col
ored men and women crowding into the
house to gaze on the lead man. He wa.
lying Cedu Ia lUt pdSSd6S ~ SAAAc
hole in his forehead and his brain.
oozing out Of the hole just over hie left
eve. There was but the one wound.
wHITLEY'S STORY.
When Police Sergeants Thomas Los
sin and T. B. Thayer heard OF the kill
ing, they went to Jim Whitley's house
and arrested him just as The Ne.sen-
ger reporter had got there, after crop
ing his way through lar streets and
alleys. Whitley was taken to the city
hall and locked up, to be detained untp
the case can be investigated. He stated
to the reporter that himself. Walter
Pemberton, Henry Shepard, Simon
Prince and Archy Brayley were sit
ting in a room at his home, engaged in
a sociable conversation, when Simon
Prince told Henry Shepard he wanted
him to pay him what he owed him.
Shepard replied, I'll never do it"
Prince jumped up and began to draw a
pistol and Shepard jumped up in an
instant and also pulled his gun. All the
men then jumped to their feet. Whit
ley states that he said. Don't you
niggers shoot in here" but seeing thein
inching up to each other and believing
they were going to shoot, he made .
break for the door. followed by Walter
Pemberton. He got safely through the
door and ran down the. passage, but
just as Pemberton got in the door tive
shots were fired. One OF the bullets hit
Pemberton in the head and he fell dead
in the passage.
Whitley says he shouted to the men
in the room that he was going for q
policeman and that Shepard cam out
Of the room and left. Prince stayed In
room, but was gone when Whitley
got back there with the two policemen.
Whitley says a woman named Mary
was sleeping In a room across
passage from the room In which
shooting occurred. His story IL that
one OF the men was backing towards
the door with his drawn pistol and the
other was standing near the fireplace
fronting the door with his weapon. The
who was at the fireplace missed
his man and accidentally killed Penn
Such is Whitley's story, but It il be
lieved the party were gambling and
fell out. Whitley says they were not.
says both the shooters were drunk.
Pemberton is about "A or 25 year.
u age and works as a section hand
Captain j. M. Woolard. section
on the Carolina Central rail
DAD. He is a single man and lived with
lis sister on Brunswick street.
Henry Shepard Is a stevedore and
Primo works at Powers. Gibbs
Co.'S fertilizer works.
Jim Whitley works at the ChaAupio.
Compress employed.
One Of the bullets passed hrouxA
he facing Of the door and II was evi-
fired from a 38-calibre pistol
Coroner Jacobs was notined Of the
filling and went over to the scene at
lis p. m. He viewed the body and had
{ removed to the residence Of deoeas-
DIS sister on Brunswick street., be-
seventh and Eighth streets The
oroner will summons a jury Of inquest
oday and the inquest will be held 10
borrow.
1t was reported late last night thar a
nan who had beer shot in the arm
pplied to a physician to have Il drees-
o. Out the doctor declined. He IL be
eyed to have been one Of the men VII.
ngaged In the shooting ARRAY.