The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-21
TALE OF REVOLVING CRUELTY.
CONVICTs IN MIsDEMEANOR CAMPS
TORTURED TO DEATH.

Frequently LoathsOme - Large
Death Rate Among the Convicts.
County Juries smother the Com
plants Brought Before Them.
Atlanta. Ca, Aug. 20-The report Of
Capt. Phil. G. Byrd of Rome, who was
appointed by Gov. Atkinson special agent
TO investigate the mislemeanor convict
camp Of the state, was filed in the eXecu-
tive Office to-day.
As intimated in these dispatches last
week, when Capt. Byrd was here prepar-
ing his data. it is one of the most highly
sensational documents ever made in rela-
ton to the convict question. If it does
not result in the passage Of legislation TO
remove this blot from the state it viii he
because the legislators do not believe the
horrors exist as described. or are totally
without human feelings. cant. Byrd
report. which deals with every misdemean-
or camp in the state, and is replote with
details Of mismanasement. discloses a Sc
ries of horrors, and abuses almost incon-
ceivable in a civilized state.
The mhuman treatment of prisoners In
some of the private camps is too horrible
ana revolving loI Uublit'fi piis ''N Va
taIity in several cases amounts 70 muir
der, and in a number to torture. Nearly
all the abuses, both Of cruelty and disre-
gard of sanitary provisions, occur in pri-
pate camps where misdemeanor convicts
are leased to individuals. OF 1872 INSIDE
nneanor convicts about 600 are thus hired
IN violation OF law.
Only one case of brutal treatment was
discovered in county camp and that was
the beating of Buster Tucker in Houston
county. The mortality in private camps
is 10 in an average of $50 inmates. In the
public camps it was % in an average Of
100, The rate is, therefore, about dou-
BILE in the private camps. In one of them
it was go per cent
The camps of J. r. Allison & Co. seem
TO be among the worst. Mr.. Byrd re-
ports upon the statement of a man who
offered to swear to the facts before the
grand jury that a convict in Allison's Pu-
lasld county camp was beaten to death by
two guards, who took turns at the brutal
work until they finished him and then they
buried him in his stripes and shacl1es.
reputable citizen told men that he had
seen the guards beating the convict says
Mr.. Byrd, "and that In their anger they
caught him by the shackles and ran
through the woods dragging him feet
foremost. He stated that he had been
before the grand jury Of Pulaski county
and sworn to these facts, but that Mr.
Allison had friends on the jury, and that
other citizens on the jury thought 1t
would be best to hush the whole deplora-
Bile affair up and keep 1t out of the courts
and the newspapers"
Mr.. Anison's son-in-law, the camp SUI
perintendent, claimed that the negro died
of dropsy. Three of the seventeen convicts
at this camp died in a year. There was no
stove and only skillet, to cook in. The
Allisons in Erwin are reported in bad con-
dtion, and the three camps, with a to 1872
convicts, had deaths. At the time of the
inspection there were 50 convicts in these
camps, and this seems to be about the
average Allison's Irwin county camp Mr.
Bryd says. looked worse than any other
Inspected the couvicts were filthy and
ragged and there were five deaths in that
camp.
In the Lee county camp of j. r. Allison
& Co. one negro died of brain trouble be-
fore a physician could be sent for. An
other died of wounds, having been shot
a
wards discharged.
The greatest horror of all Is the report
of the camp of W. II. & ]. II. Griffin, i'm
Wilkes county, where the guard. Bob Con-
nors, beat an old negro. Frank Roy, to
death. In this case Mr.. Byrd reviews the
testimony In the case where Connors was
prosecuted for murder 1t appeared that
Frank had been beaten number OF times
and so numerically that the aged negro
almost unconscious, ana perfectly help
less, fell upon the ground where he lay
and asked, BOSS. is you gwine 10 kill
me?" to which Connors angrily replied
Eyes. Cd d-n you, 1 am"
The negro then begged to be shot and
spared such torture. After the last whip
ping Connors dragged the negro to tree
and chained him up so that he could not
lie down. Half an hour after when the
gang walked back, Roy was dead.
The evidence is also referred to as
showing that Connors made another ne
gro sit on the old mans feet and on his
head, and then beat his bare back into
jelly and PUPPY mass.
The report also refers TO the horrible
case Of Lizzie Boatright. who was made
10 wear mems clothes and beaten on her
bare flesh by the same brute IN the pres
ence Of the male convicts.
The law requiring daily record of the
conduct Of each convict Is a basis, for the
good time allowance Of four days a month
IS almost entirely ignored. IN public ana
private camps. there is an allowance in
most OF the camps, though less than the
law provides. In some of the private
gangs there Is no allowance at an only
eight Of twenty-four private camps gave
good time. ranging from seven to thirty
five days a year.
In Barlow and Glynn the whites and
blacks slept IN the same room I'M the
East Macon camp thirty negroes and one
white convict slept chained together in a
close unventilated room, only Is by II feet.
WIN windows nailed up
IN The Gynn county camp az the first
visit Mr.. Byrd found forty-siX negro
males and fifteen white males sleeping in
a room ninety feet square and less than
eight feet high. There was but one door
which opened into the guards quarters.
Some or these white convicts complained
says Mr.. Byrd, land the records showed
that they were put ln for vagrancy. that
az night when they came an from tine
bitches with clothing wet. they were
made 10 strip ana blacks and whites were
required TO throw their clothing in "a COM
mon heap They slept dry, hue n the
morning We're ordered out ana had TO
dress ln garments handed them from the
heap and not uufrGQuDuIlN "a white NouIt