The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-20
AN OLD NEGRO KILLED
BILL DocKERY gHnowN FROM
 PRECIrICE
Three White Men are Accused of the Crime-They Were Drunk 1t tho TimS Central
 City New.
Adyertissr Bureau !.
 Selma May 19


 Dallas County has another killing charged to its account and from all that can be heard of the affair 1t is one of the most brutal murders that has occur red in the County for many years. The bridge across Valley Creek, in the wes- tern suburbs of the city An old regro, Bni Cookery, who lives on Julien smith . place. some nine miles from the city. had been in town to make his pufchases and was driving home by moonlight, In the buggy with hlm was . little -uegro boy. Gabriel Green.
 They were nearly acruss the bridge when the buggy was. nalte3 hx four fac ois. Eph Fifth and E9 Davif One of the men commenced to curpe fhe old neyco and told him, he had kettGr drive over them. He told them iH rsspsetiul. hum over o,s thsm that hat hs S e @ every Y ~ss % man and had no intention of o0endipg them. The men. who were drinking heav- lily. kept on cursing and abusing the old regro. one of them holding the mule all posed that they throw the negro over the bluff and kill him. This vas no sooner said than one of the men went to the buggy and caught the old negro In the
 
 staggered to the end of the bridge: drag- ging the old negro after him. Wade Cav. thon Is alleged to be the man who had hold of the old negro, and as, he went to shove him down the embankment ai the opposite side of the bridge he toppled over and the negro and white man both rolled down the bank together.
 In the meantime Tom Nichols had com menced to search the buggy and found 2 negro. He took tt and walked to the side of the bridge and seeing the negro in q struggle with Wade CaWthen. fired. the ball missing the negro and causing a flesh wound in the side of cawthon. Inc panions on the bride not to shoot again as he had been shot It was about ten feet from the level of the read down to the bottom of the ravine where the old HncfS Nichols saa and % EpS. Frith ' ran an down the steep blum. swearing and yelling that they would kill the negro. Cawthon loosed his hold on the old negro and the other two caught hold Gs nl Tney 1o,o him over the biuff into Valley Creek and kill him. M < f5
 Dockery was pleading with them all the time to turn him loose. He said that he he lived nine miles in the, country and wanted to get home. But they paid nc attention to his pleadings but kept draw. ing him nearer and nearer to the preci. piee. There is scsnstone hium ai, at tna! nl when they got him to the edge of 1t they dumped him over. A negro girl. Glide Code. had witnessed the whole perform ance as did the iittie-boy in the buggy men to let the old man alone. as he had done them no harm. but they paid nc attention. Ed Davis, one of the four v hite men. also plead with them not tt throw the negro oyer sIaa the Slun' a;S navas na engage in the killing. of the old negro. bu tried to dissuade his companions from doing what they did.
 The negro girl. Clde Code, ran iron do some violence to her when they came up from under the bluff. She came to tn. city and reported to the police what hat occurred and officers went out and foune precipice from which he had been thrown He was moaning and breathing heavii! and was in an unconscious condition. H was taken to house and q doctor wa summoned. It was found that his skull and his spinal column injured. lie In gered until early yesterday morning wher he succumbed. ,, Andy Code, and had forced him to drinf a pint of whiskey without taking the bot tie from his lips. on . threat of killing him if be did not accomplish the feat To keep from having trouble with then Andy drank the whiskey and they lei him go. ---,
 Cawthon and Nichols were arrested bs the police about daylight Sunday morn ing and were put in jall. These two seen to be the two principals in killing tn. n. old negro. A warrant was sworn out TOT Eph. Frith this morning. and he; too will be put in Jail. The Davis man IS the only one of the four who seems to ht innocent of having anything to do witf the affair, i*i i
 Bill DockeRy, the murdered negro. wat about 55 or 60 years old, and was an old time. before-the-war-negro. polite to al and accommodating as could be. H. worked for many, years on colonel Jin Moores place aud the latter speaks 1T the very highest terms of him. At ths time of bis death he was on one Of Juliat Smiths plantations and MT. Smitf thought great deal of him.
 Cawthon came here recently from Mo bile. while Nichols Is an Importation from South Carolina. It is not known wher their preliminary trial will come up. but until that time they will be kept secure ly in the County jail