The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-03-06
AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.
A White Man Illegally Kept In
the Penitentiary for Fight
Years.

the Atlanta Constitution says an OK.
lTaordlnary case of mistaken identity
las just been developed before Justice
montgomery, of the supreme court. in
the case OF George Johnstonc, a white
who has been unlawfully confined
IN the pcnitcntiary for the past eight
years.
r!itech years ago Il young white man
by the name Of Christopher Bctchler
was convicted in Shelby, N. C, of an
aggravated case of stealing, and was
sentenced to ten years in the pcniten- /,
llary near this city. Betchlcr was the
son Oh German parents who had resided
tor many years in the town Of Ruther-
lordton His fathcr-Augustus Bctchlcr
was a jcweler. After gold was dis.
covered in Rutherford, Burke and Nc.
Oo"eil counties, in 1S49, old man
betchicr was authorized by act of Con
Sress to coin gold dollars, and he bought
inc dust from the miucrs and coined it
INTO dollars as high rs the ffty.dollar
piece. "A. Bctchlcr" was stamped on
each coin and they were worth five cents
more IN the dollar than the coins Of the
Onitca States mintage These coins to
thls DAY arc known as the "Betchlcr
dollars" and arc now preserved by
those who have them as rare coins.
Alter he wal the Bctchlcr family
moved to Spartanburg, s. g. There
were several sons and daughters, all
handsome and well educated. "Chris"
as he was called, turned out to be the
" black sheep" of the flock. After lie
was sent to the penitentiary he remain.
Cd there two years and then made his
escape.
In 1893 Captain j. M. Fleming, who
was warden Of the pcnitentiary when
Chris" Bctchlcr was received there,
and who held this position until 1895,
was III attendance on the superior court
or randolph COunry, at Ashcboro, as q
witness. While there a man known as
George tombstone was the plaintiff in a
case which involved the title to 700
acres of land Gu which gold in consider.
able quantity had been found. Fleming
saw this man and made inquiries con
corning him, and found that he had
located in Randolph County some time
during 1888. 1t was in 1887 that Betchlcr
escapek from the p~enitcntiary. Fleming
was positive that tombstone was "Chris."
Betchlcr and 50 stated. On the trial Of
the land case tombstone was asked if nc
was not "Chris." Bctchlcr, and if he had
not been convicted of stealing in Shelby
in 1885 and sentenced TO the pcnitcn-
tiary for. ten years, and had escaped
therefrcm in 1887? or course John
stonc denied bitterly all this and said he
was an entirely different man from
Bctchlcr, The defendants in the land
case had tombstone arrested as an
escaped prisoner. Johustonc sued out
a writ of habcas corpus, but could not
produce any witness beside himself to
disprovc the positive assertion Of Elem
ing hat he was Chris" Bctchler, and
the Judge refused to discharge him and
ordered that he be returned to the peni.
tertiary. The arrest and decision of the
judge caused tombstone to lose the land
suit. AS soon as tombstone reached the
pcnitcntiary be sent for q lawyer, but
had no money to pay him. He gave the
lawyer the address of a number of Dco.
pie in Montgomery County and tina of
a man in Atlanta, whom he said knew
him and would swear he was not Bctch-
Ter. The lawyer wrote twice to each of
these parties and did not receive an an
swcr to n single letter that he wrote.
The failure to have his letters returned
or to receive an answer from either of
the parties to whom he had written did
not impress the lawyer in favor of John
stone and he gave no more attention to
the case.
Four weeks ago Colonel Cebern l..
Harris, a man sevcnty-ninc years of age,
who formerly resided, in Ru~therfordton
and knew the Bctchlcr family well,
went TO the penitcntiary to examine the
manufacture Of brick, which is carried
on inside the %stockade. While in the
yard he saw a tall white man at work
and inquired who he was and was told
that it was "Chris" Bctchler. Colonel
Harris then asked and was allo wed to
talk with the prisoner. He stated to
Colonel Harris the facts herein stated
as to his identification AS "Chris."
Bctchlcr and asked Harris if he knew
Bctchlcr. Harris replied that he had
known all the family for fifteen years
Ruthcrfordton. He was then asked if
he, the prisoner, was "Chris" Bctchlcr
and Harris unhcsitatingly declared that
the prisoner was not Bctchlcr.
A lawyer WAS then employed and
another write of habcas corpus was
issued by Justice Montgomery and the
prisoner was brought before him. Cap.
tain Fleming swore that he believed the
prisoner to be Chris" Bctchler, and
that he had known him as a prisoner in
the pcnitcntiary for the two years he
was in the pcnitcntiary. That he had
escaped and remained at large until 1898,
when he was arrested at Asheboro and
returned to the prison, and that the re.
scmblance of the prisoner to Bctchlcr
was very striking. Colonel Harris was
put on the witness stand and tod of the
young boy Chris" Bctchlcr he had
known before the wal for fifteen years;
how he had seen him grow up to be a
man, n that he knew him perfectly
well and could not be mistaken, and the
prisoner before the cour: was not
Chris" Bctchlcr and hat since he had
seen the prisoner in the pcnitcntiary he
had thought the matter over and had
talked with his wife about the case, and
there was a test that would certainly
show whether the prisoner was Bctchlcr
Harris then asked the prisoner to ex.
hibit his right leg above the ankle for
examination TIL" prisoner complied
with this request and Harris made an
examination and said that the prisoner
was rot "Chris" Bctchlcr because
Betchlcr had the scars of a bad dog bite
on his right leg which he received when
ne was not over ten years old, and that
Harris had killed the dog. On this
evidence, Justice Montgomery dis
charged the prisoner from further i'm
prisOnment.
The attorney Of tombstone is now
awaiting a decision Of the supreme court !
IN another case as to whether the States |
prison Is such a corporation as can be
sued If this decision is to the effect
that the States prison can be sued the
attorney of tombstone intends to sue for
a large sum in damages for The false i'm.
.prisonment.
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