The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-08-29
STARTLING SENSATION.
Five Prominent Citizens Charged With tho
Assassination of DIR. Williams.

Gallatin, where four of the most
prominent citizens have been placed
under arrest for alleged completely
in the assassination of DR.. A. H.
Williams, who was shot down almost
at his own threshold on the night Of
April 10, 1896. 1t is said that nine
men altogether are charged with be-
ing implicated, but those who are
under arrest are as follows: Edgar
Mann, farmer and stock raiser, Hen
dersonville; R. NJ. Pierce, farmer
and stock raiser, Hendersonville !;
Rufus Bell, farmer, Hendersonville;
Haiden Dodd, real estate agent,
Nashville; Harry Wherry, postmas-
ter, Hendersonville.
No crime ever occurring IN Mid
die Tennessee was any more start
ling or shocking than that which
sent DR.. Williams into eternity. On
the night of the tragedy he was got
ten out of his home on a fake sum-
mons, and just as he was leaving
his own gate he was fired upon twice
and fell riddled with buckshot. The
crime set the community into disor-
der, and at a mass meeting the next
day a reward of $1,000 was offered
for the assassin. The sum was raised
to 500 by the State. Every de-
vice of human ingenuity brought
to bear to ferret out the murderers,
and detectives fixed the guilt on Ru-
fus Bell, William Butler and Tom
Jones. They were tried, however,
before a magistrate and dismissed.
The first named is among those who
have just been arrested, and Jones,
who before that time had gained Gel
ebrity by shooting DOWN Joe Win
tiers, the slayer of his father in the
courthouse of this city, now turns
out to be the main witness against
all these whom the grand jury
charge with implication in the plot.
Jones, since killing Winters, has
gone from bad to worse, and last fall
was arrested at Cherry Mound Oh
the charge of house-breaking and
larceny.
The secret of DR.. Williams kill
ing had been buried for more than
five years. His brave wife, who had
cried in vain for justice against the
slayer of her husband, sank early in
to her grave, following her husband
within year after his tragic death
DR.. Thompson, a prominent drug
gist of this city, brother of Mrs.
exhausted the accumula-
ton of years in trying to discover
the murderers and in fighting dam
age suits against him. The Will
liams killing lapsed into almost for
gotten history when Tom Jones re-
vived the case with startling effect.
Last February he made a statement
to the attorney general at Gallatin,
and later to the grand jury, which
brought about the indictments. In
this he claimed to have had repeated
offers to do the work of assassinat-
ing the physician and refused, but
knew all about the crime, having
been let into the confidence Of those
The confession of Jones is in eff
feet that two men did the shooting,
backed up by others. The actual
assassins, it is charged, are now out
IF the State, which is the cause of
he secrecy regarding the affair.
Jones' statement, it is claimed by
he officers of the law, is backed up
1y other evidence, which makes the
case strong one. The confession
will cause a sensation equal to that
IF the killing, on account of the
of the men involved.