The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-31
THE NEWS AND OBSERVER TUESDAY MORNING. DEC 81 1901.
THE CASE AGAINST jim WILCOX
Detective StweIl Says Ella Cropseys Ridicule of
Wilcox the Presumptve Motive. introduce
ton of Skiff in the Crime.

street door AS he did so the town
clock struck IL, and he heard the steam
whistle at Blades mill sound for the
night force to stop for their midnight
lunch.
A few minutes before II o'clock Fanny
Mitchell and Alexander Brown were
standing on Sheppard street, Immediately
opposite the Wilcox home. They say
that on the corner of Road street, not
more than 200 yards away, they saw Will
cox, whom they both know well, speaking
to two other men. That the three sep
aratd and that they saw Wilcox go into
his fathers house.
At IL 40 on the same night Leroy
Crawford, the young man who had been
visiting Miss Olive Cropsey, left the
house for home. His course lay precise
ly along the same route as that taken
by Owens. 1t took him ten minutes to
reach the point where Wilcox and Owens
met, and, as he did not see the latter
during his journey, it shows that Owens
had already passed
When Crawford reached his lodging
house the proprietor had to let him in.
1t was then exactly 1906. This is of
Importance, because it takes just twenty
five minutes to walk the distance, and the
| accuracy of the Cropsey dining-room
clock is thereby established
The pier near which the skiff was
seen lies between the point at which
Wilcox was met by Owens and the
Cropsey house and not more than three
minutes walk from the latter. The
locality is extremely quiet and we'll
| suited to the preparation of the crime
| that was committed
Here is the statement made by Wilcox
to me, and written at his dictation. 1t
is now in the possession of the Commit
tee of Five
| When l called Ella Cropsey to come
out and speak with me it was for the
purpose of returning to her two photo
graphs of herself then in my possession
/ One of them ] had worn in the case of
my watch for some time and this re-
moved as / sat in the room few min
ates before leaving. The other was a
larger picture, which had in my pocket.
thought that as she didn't want to
have anything further to do with me I
would give them back to her. l also had
an old white silk parasol belonging to
her, and this / placed beside the steps in
/ front of the porch when / arrived early
! in the evening.
After calling to her | waited just a
moment till she came into the hall, and
as she did so, l walked out on to the
/ porch
She followed me as far as the outer
door only, and, as she stood on the
(! threshold | handed her the smaller of
the two photographs and said, Here,
| Nellie, take this
She took it from me and said at once:
II know what this means.
She then commenced to cry. / handed
her the other photograph and walked out
to the edge of the veranda and stopped
down and got the parasol.
BY this time she had come forward and
stood beside me. I gave her the parasor
She was still crying, but she said moth
| ing to me.
| 1t was a bitter cold night, and as she
had nothing over her shoulders or on
her head ! asked her to go in the house
She said she would not.
| repeated my request several times
without effect, and then told her that |
had an engagement with a man down
town and wanted to reach there before
the saloons closed
She then told me to go, and | went
leaving her crying at the top of the
steps.