The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-21
WAS FOUND GUILTY
WITH ALL RECOMMENDATION THE
JURY COULD ADD TO ITS VERDICT.
RAILROAD MEMS FIGHT.
LEADS TO SHOOTING OF COX AND
TRIAL OF CHARLES f. wIEHRs.


Employ of the Company Jan. %.
Tried in Superior Court for Assault
with Intent TO Observation-Disclosures
Divided Into Factions and SwOre
Justify Against Each other.
The jury that tried the case of the state
against Charles F. Wiehrs. in the Superior
Court yesterday, for assault with intent
10 murder, returned a verdict of guilty,
but recommended that Wiehrs be punish
ed as for a misdemeanor and further rec
commended him to the extreme mercy of
the court
Wiehrs is night foreman Of the round
house of the eaboard Air Line Railway
in Savannah. Jan %, last, he shot Will
lam Cox, an engineer in the employ of
The company, inflicting wounds which,
while not dangerous were troublesome
and exceedingly painful and which caused
Cox's confinement to his room for a week
and his inability to get about with any
great degree of alacrity for some consid-
erably longer time.
There was plenty of interest in the trial
of the case. In the first place there were
about two dozen witnesses, almost all of
them fellow employees of Wiehrs, and the
man whom he had shot. Other minor
employees of the mechanical and operat-
ing departments of the road were in the
court room to hear the evidence and lend
their countenance to either the defend
ant or to the prosecutor. The Witnesses
seemed to be divided into two hostile
camps, representing the engineers and
the employees of the round house, and they
blackguarded each other with great free
dom, bitterness and descriptive power.
Cox, the man whom Wiehrs had shot,
told a story of the shooting, that offered
no excuse whatever for the defendants
action. Cox said he had come down to
the round house to take out his engine
on the afternoon of Jan. %, and, in ac-
cordance with the custom of engineers in
the service had gone to sleep in the cab.
He was tired and sleepy from the run of
the night before After a time he walked
up, saw that his engine was yet
ready to be pulled out of the round house,
and went back to sleep again.
From this second slumber he was
aroused by Wiehrs. Much to his sur
prise, said the witness, Wiehrs informed
him he was drunk and told time to climb
off his engine and go home This was the
best thing he could do, Wiehrs explained.
Cox said he insisted he was not drunk
and had not even been drinking. He
wanted Wiehrs to take him before the
train dispatcher and let that official de-
eide whether there was any reason why
he should not take out his engine This
Wiehrs declined to do, insisting that he
was drunk and that the best thing for
him to do was to go home.
quarrel ensued. The witness said he
cN1 TIA IL
TO mind his own business and that with
this Wiehrs drew his revolver and COM
menced shooting. After the first shot was
fired Cox said he closed with the man
who he thought was trying to kill him
and succeeded in catching him by his
coat or shirt and preventing further i'm
mediate attack. AS he turned he fell and
Wiehrs fired again The first bullet pass
ed through his left arm and grazed lis
breast: the second imbedded itself in his
right thigh
This was the story of the prosecutor.
Wiehrs had one that was essentially diff
ferent. lie said that on the afternoon OF
the shooting he had been told that Cox
drunk and on going out to the engine
had found Cox asleep in his cab With
some difficulty he walked Cox up and
told him that he was drunk and that the
best thing he could do was to go home
and sleep it off. Cox had refused to
IHt6n 10 ultls Out on Ine contrary nd0
cursed and abused him in the vilest man
ner Not content with this. said the de-
PENDANT. Cox had jumped upon him and
assaulted him, striking him with his
clenched fist on the head, forehead, nose
mouth and chin. Cox is a man consider
ably larger than the defendant and when
he was thus treated he said he felt him
self called upon to protect his life. He
drew his revolver and fired
Supporting in greater or less deprea tho
stories told by Cox and Wiehrs respec-
lively, there was great mass of testi-
mony. 1t was so conflicting that it was
impossible that both sides should be tell
ing the truth, and so involved that the
jury must have experienced great diff
Guilty in resolving it into it's component
parts, and sitting out the true from the
false. ~
Two of the witnesses, one for the state.
named Blocker, and the other for the
5F1soner, named Smith, were marked
out for the criticism of opposing counsel.
Judge Twiggs of counsel for Wiehrs was
particularly bitter in his denunciation OF
Blocker, whom he said would be immor-
talized in the future for his assault upon
the truth 1t is only fair to Blocker to
add, however, that the statement which
aroused Judge Twiggs' severest cyiticism
was substantiated in every essential par
ticular by one of the prisoners own wit
y nesses. Mr.. Osborne, when he jumped
on Smith. did 1t mildly but effectively
Mr.. Osborne defended Blocker, in his
argument to the jury. against the STRIFE
lures which Judge Twiggs had passed up
on the witness. Blocker had related 20 the
jury the story of the quarrel between
Wiehrs and himself. in which, after some
prelude he had turned TO the defendant
and said: See here, Wiehrs, you're a -
fool"
Now" said the solicitor general, poor
Blocker may be good part of what my
friend, Judge Twiggs, says he is, but II
passes doubt that he knows a thing OF
two. When he told Wehrs he was a -
fool, he expressed a self-evident fact and
furnished all the explanation that this
case needs.
Here is Cox, an engineer in the EN-
ploy Of the road competent and skillfu
and conscientious in the discharge of hi,
duty, according TO the undisputed evi
dence Here is Wiehrs. holding it'll,
two by four Job with the road and dressed
in a little brief authority. He finds Co,
asleep in his cab. jumps 10 the conclu
sion that he is drunk and tells him {,
20 home. Mark you, there, isn't a wor,
OF evidence showing that Cox was drunk
other than the statement OF the defendant
The defense here Is proceeding on tn
same assumpffOn that Wiqhrg did on tina