The age-herald., 1899-07-09
NO SUCH MURDER
 EVER OCCURRED Account of Double Tragedy From Athens
 a Hoax. WHITES STORY FALSE Says the Police Frightened Him Into Weaving the Wild Yarn. SHERIFF GILBERT OF LIMESTONE Says That the Thomas Woman and Her Daughter Are Alive-The
 Boy Did Kill His
 Father
VIII I
SHERIFF GILBERT OF LIMESTONE

Montgomery. July S.-(Special.) )-Thomas White, the boy who confessed to the brutal murder of his father, mother and sister, is still in the city prison but according to ad- vices received here from Athens, the coun- ty site of Limestone county, no such deed as has been reported has occurred at all in that county.
 The boy now says the police made him confess to the commission of the horrible butchery under threat of putting him into dark cell If he did not do so. He further says that his name is not Thomas White at all. but that it is John Brown, and that he came here from Clanton Ala, on Sat urday. He heard the woman with whom he was boarding reading from some of the state papers of Sunday, in which was an account of the alleged tragedy at Athens, so when he was arrested he gave the of ficers his real name, and says they made him say afterward Ii at he was the muf- derer of his father, mother and sister, and that his name was Thomas White.
 He also says the story of the man named Lawson Is false, and that he doesn't know anything of such a man, but so stpaiRht was his story of the whole matter for a boy of 13 years to tell, the police still think there is something wrong somewhere and are still holding. the youngster. The lad Is evidently bad character, as the police say he tore up the blankets in his cell in the city prison and made ladder which he was evidently intending to use in an at tempt to escape. This was found in tho boys cell while he was gone to have his picture taken. A wire hoop was fastened to the end of the ladder. This was to be used in hooking 1t to the rafters in order that he might let himself down from the cell
 The whole affair from beginning to end r. 1 l,sl. telegram from the sheriff of Limestone county throws some light on the matter so far as that county is concerned, yet there is something about the story of the boy and his strange actions that leads to the belief that he is surely guilty of some terrible crime and therefore he will be held for further developments.
 Athens Sheriff Denies It.
 Chief of Police Gerald has received the following from the sheriff of Limestone county:
 Athens, Ala, July "A. Gerald, chief, Montgomery, Ala-Dear Sir: Yours of yes- terday relative to the arrest of Thomas White is before me. l have investigated the report as appearing In the daily papers of Sunday relative to the Thomas murder ard find it absolutely false in every sense of the word. There Is no truth whatever in the report Now, it is a fact that Will Thomas during last year accidentally as shown then, killed his father and it is the same Will Thomas that this report connects having killed his sister and mother last week. The Thomas family do not even live in this county now nor have they since last year. They live about twenty miles from here on the Louisville and Nashville road between here and Pu- laski, Tenn, and Lester Station, Tenn. I was present at the trial before the coroner when an inquest was held over the body of MT. Thomas. the jury returning a yer eict of accidtal killing. It is believed. how ever, that the boy killed his father know ingly.
 T have seen a brother of the Mrs. Thorl@s who WAS reported as being mur- dered by her son or Tuesday, July 4, and he saw his sister Monday and says there Is nothing in 1t at all.
 L. N. GILBERT, Sheriff."