The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1897-11-18
Dnnrnr cImc
hUbEhI SlMS.
He Was Hanged at Jonesboro for
Murder,
He Shot to Death Walter Galloway, Young
White Man, Who Had Befriended Him.

Robert Sims was hanged atJonesboro
yesterday for the killing of Walter
Galloway The weather was perfect,
the crowd large and reasonably we'll
behaved. The pressure on Sheriff
Pritchett to witness the execution was
tremendous, but he stood firm and fol-
lowed the law strictly and faithfully.
Sims was taken to the court house at
o o'clock in the morning and remained |
there until he stepped from the window
on to the scaffold about II o'clock. Six
colored ministers held services there in |
which Sims Joined, heartily reading a
portion of the third chapter of Matthew,
also lead in singing two hymns. Sims
made a talk, declaring he did not in
tend to kill Galloway, only aimed to
shoot him through the hand. His nerve
did not forsake him. He died game,
and even smiled as the cap was being
adjusted. The drop fell at II o'clock.
His neck was broken, and his pulse
ceased to beat in twelve minutes. lie
was dead in fourteen minutes and in
his coffin within thirty minutes. His
uncle, Taylor Mead, took the remains
to Bluff City.
THE CRIME.
AT late hour in the afternoon of the
9th of last July Walter Galloway came
to the residence of William Boring on
the Watauga River, near Flourville, in
tending to stay all night. He was fire.
quent guest and was always accorded
Joyous welcome to the generous hospi-
talities of this delightful country home.
His atfianced lived there and his visits
we're rife with cheer and hopefulness,
suffused with the exquisite ecstasy of
a that divine passion which the presence
Y and smiles of loving and charming
, woman ever inspires in her adorer.
' With Galloway, who was in the thirties,
the flush of life's spring tide had passed
;, into the pride and glory of manhood g
natural powers, and in view of his mar
I riage that was soon to take place the
e future was all aglow with the most en-
o chanting possibilities When he alighted
= at the gate there was no premonition OF
evil; no signal of danger to warn him
u away. But death was there nevertheless
peering at him from its hiding place in
g the bowers from which his lady love
=. may have plucked the roses which shone
O on her corsage and in the silken meshes
e of her couture with the beauty of clus-
d tering stars.
l. Galloway asked Sims, who was an
g employe of Mr. Boring, to put up his
l. horse Offering to pay him for it. The
II murderer, with show of insolence and
n anger, refused. Galloway then stabbed
d the animal himself. After he had start.
ed to the barn Sims went into the house
a and procured q CUR, and being asked
Z his purpose by Mrs. Boring replied that
;e he was going to kill Galloway. Miss
u Efie Boring heard the reply and
3, screamed to Galloway to get out Of
1t Sims way, that he had the gun and
If was going to shoot him. Galloway
5; evidently feared no danger for he start
l. ed from the barn to the house, Simi
n darted around the corner of an Out
al house and when Galloway came up hi
drew down the gun to execute his muir
le derous threat. When Galloway dis
# covered his peril, he knocked up thu
II gun and the contents entered his head
It Galloway died the forenoon of the mex
re day. Sims Immediately made his es
IS cape, and soon posse of neighborI
we're searching for him, but he eludet
j. the pursuit. Sims went in the direc
i ton of Kentucky, and on Monday fol
ID lowing Sheriff Jrmes s. Pritchett, whit
had failed to get on his track by th,
use of blood hounds, received the graft
flying Intelligence that the fugitive hat
been caught at Church Hill, Hawkin
county, and lodged in the Rogersvill
V Jail. Sheriff Pritchett fearing that, il
% the intense excitement and indignation
:, his revolving deed had occasipned, hi
D prisoner might be mobbed if brough
~ back to Jonesboro, carried him t.
~ Knoxville, where he was kept in jai
=. until the time Of his trial. At the tim