The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-08
WILL DIE DECEMBER FIRST.
WALTER CHANNELL AGAIN SEN
FENCED FOR MURDER.


of GIenwoOd, More Than six
Months AgO-At the Time of the
Tragedy the Cause Was Alleged to
BE ThompsOn's Undue Intimacy
with ChanneII's wife, But This
Was Never Proved-NOw Thought
Thompson Had become Objection
able to Fraudulent Users of the
Mails.
w T. Channel, a convicted murderer
from Montgomery county, is con-
fined in Chatham jail. Channels applca-
ton for a new trial has been refused by
the Supreme Court and he has been SEN
tened 10 be hanged on Dec. l.
If the sentence Of the court is carried
out in its merciless entirety. its execution
win terminate a young life, that before
the commits sion of the dreadful crime for
which Channel is to suffer the fun pen
atty of the law, had contained little but
promise. He is a young man of more than
average education and intelligence, and in
appearance has nothing of the desperate
and determined dir of the criminal his
enemies would paint him.
of his fun guilt as charged in the bill of
indictment, and that the crime of which
he has been convicted was committed de-
liberaely and with malice afore thought.
Postmaster Thompson of Glenwood a nit
he town in Montgomery county, was shot
down in the night, without notice or warn
ing and with such evidence of cod-blood-
ed elaboration as prevented the jury find
ing any mitigating circumstance, that
would warrant the reduction of the penal
ty to Imprisonment in the penitentiary for
life.
AT the trial It was sought TO show that
Thompson had been unduIy intimate with
the wife of Channel and that this intima-
cy had brought about the separation of
the parties. This defense was not sub
Stimulated, the alleged evidence to this eff
feet proving on the trial to be weak and
easily discredited. Although the state
could show no other and better motive to
explain the killing, it was content to rest
It's case upon the act and leave Ii with
out other explanation than that furnished
by the criminal animus of what the law
terms IAN abandoned and malignant
heart" Channel would make no state
ment other than that which involved
L A4DAilioCA hlItStu dAltiltlOilS 70 HIS vile,
and when this fell TO the ground. the crime
was left without the basis of an adequate
cause, until some four or five weeks ago.
Then Postoffice Inspector Peer, who had
been investigating an extensive scheme
to defraud the wholesale merchants of the
country through the use of the mails, I'M
earthed what he believed and still believes
to be the true explanation. At the time
of this investigation, Channel was con-
fined in the jail of Chatham county, where
he had been since he was found guilty
of the crime of murder and sentenced TO
death by hanging. He had a motion for
a new trial in his case pending, that had
been refused in the Superior Court and
taken by writ of error to the Supreme
Court,
The fraudulent scheme that Inspector
Peer unearthed Is alleged to have been
conducted by T. j. Hammond j. II.
Hutchinson and M. E. Hutchinson, all res
idenis of the immediate section in which
Glenwood is located. It's successful oper-
alton must have compelled the assistance
of the railroad agent in that town. and
this position was held by CHANNEL at the
time when the more extensive of The fraud
ulent schemes were carried out. 1t is be-
lieved that in this manner Channel be-
came involved in the conspiracy, and that
he entered it for the purpose of meeting
expenditures that he had been in the habit
of making, and that were far and away be-
yond his means.
Ii is known, too, that the postmaster,
Thompson, had got hold of more than a
suspicion of the existence and mode of
operation of the conspiracy, and that he
had threatened to disclose it to the gov
eminent. He had been pleaded with and
every method known to those who Were
guilty had been used to divert him from
this purpose, but all of them with uni
form lack of success. Thompson had re-
manned firm, and it became necessary eth
err to get him out of the way or to
give up all future hope of acquiring gain
through the same means that had proven
so profitable in the past.
Although there is no positive proof that
this was the motive that impelled Chan
nell to take the life of Thompson, it is
strongly suspected, and 1t at least affords
the only reasonable explanation of the
crime that has been yet suggested. 1t is
quite generally credited in the vicinity of
Glenwood, and the people of that section
are for this reason even more wrought
up over the punishment of the convicted
murderer, and anxious that he should not
escape the fun penalty of the law The
sentiment against him is so strong that
Immediately after his first trial he was
removed from the Jail of Montgomery
county TO Savannah, where with one short
intermission he has been confined ever
since.
L ms lulcrnlSSlOn peSau on SUNDAY last,
when he was taken up to Mount Vernon
to receive his second sentence. The writ
of error to the Supreme Court had been
heard, and it had been decided that the
decision of the lower court should not be
iuterfered with, and that a new trial
should be refused. Hammond was sent up
to receive the sentence, leaving the city
on Sunday night. When Mount Vernon
was reached the murderer was removed to
the Jail and strongly guarded until court
assembled the following day. He was car
ried then to the court room, and for the
second time heard the dread words pro-
nounced that condemned him to end his
life on the gallows. Late Monday night
he was brought back to Savannah.
Channel takes his prospective fate hard
From the bright and cheerful man he
once was, he has become broken and des-
pondcnt, and is the very picture of aSan-
doned misery. He rs accustomed to saw
thai he expects the board of pardons TO
commute his sentence to imprisonment IN
the penirentiary for dte, and it is known
that a strong and determined effort to this