The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-10
DEATH PENALTY AT DARIEN.
JONAS JONES HANGED FOR MURDER
COMMITTED ON A TRAIN.

His Victim "A Negro with Whom He
Had Been GambIinE-JOnes' Neck
Broken by the FaII-He Exhibited
No Fear of Death end Was Conf
dent He Was Going Straight to
Heaven - The Crime Committed on
April "a Last and the Prosecution
Conducted by Solicitor General Os-
borne.
Darien, Ga, July 9.-Jonas Jones, color
ed of Montgomery county. who shot and
killed Luke King. colored. on a Darien and
Western train April Is, was hung here this
morning at 1870 o'clock in private. The
crime was cold blooded.
Jones sang and prayed all the morning
and suffered the terrible penalty without
the least show of nervousness, proclaim
ing loudly that he knew his soul was saw
ed. He advised his colored friends not to
cry for him, and after the usual religious
exercises he was swung into the next
world. His neck was broken and he was
pronounced dead by DR.. Clark in about
fifteen minutes. A large crowd gathered
outside the jail yard
with a number of others, rafthands, left
Darlen on the D. and w. railroad to meet
the north and south bound trains of the
F. c. and P. railroad. Just after leaving
Darien Jonas Jones, Luke King and some
others began to play skin" and soon were
deep in the game. About a mile east of
Crescent a dispute arose between Jones
and King about a nickle. Jones claiming it
was his money and King taking it and say
ing it was his. The prisoner, Jones, de-
manded It and drew his pistol, and accord
ing to all the testimony began to shoot; he
missed King. but a bullet struck one Ham
ilton.
About five to ten minutes later the train
having stopped at Crescent, Jones appear
ed at a window of the car and asked If
King was in there. One of the passengers
answered that no such person was In
there, when Jones with an oath insisted
that King was in the car. King was in
the car, having climbed in through a win
dow, and was then trying to induce one OF
his friends to give him his (<ing's) rifle,
and while trying to get the gun Jones en-
tered the rear of the car and seeing King
with his hand on the rifle, exclaimed,
what you are after, let's start right now
and Immediately fired the fatal shot,
which killed King almost instantly. The
conductor of the train came up about
that time and found Jones with
pistol and rife in hand, who remarked, II
missed him first shot but got him the sec
ond shot, and am ready for any other that
comes on me-" Jones then left the station
and started back toward Darien.
All the states witnesses told substan-
TALLY the same story. The defendant,
Jones, made his statement and claimed
that he shot in self-defense; that when he
asked King for his money that King re-
fused and put his hand In his shirt bosom
for a pistol or a knife, and when he put
his hand in his shirt front he fred and
missed; that King then went out of the
car and got a rife, which he aimed at
him when he entered the car, and that he
fired to keep from being shot. This state
ment was rebutted by a witness of the
state
Jones is a desperate of the worst stamp
and the verdict of the jury could not
have been different. Solicitor General Os-
borne represented the prosecution and c.
l.. Livingston and w. der. Barclay the
defendant