The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-18
THE SEQUEL T0|
THE POISON TRIAL
A Suit Has Been Started For
damages.
Mr. SKIES SUES Mr. JONES
Claiming Heavy Damages for Arrest
Upon False charges.
Mr. SKIES SUES Mr. JONES
TWO NEGROES BROUGHT TO PEN
For Poisoning Or. Long in Stanly County II
August 1900. There Is Much Differ
ence of Opinion as to Whether
They ara Guilty.

Sheriff Mccain, of Stanly county.
brought two colored prisoners to the
penitentiary on Sunday, about whose Of
Tense there is a very interesting history.
They were John Knott and Ella Knott,
wife of Johns brother, charged with
killing DR.. S. j. Love by poisoning On
the 2sth of August, 1900, there was a
wheat threshing at the home of Mr..
Thos. Love, in the western part of Stanly
county. The Knott negroes lived on Mr.
Loves plantation and helped about get
ting dinner for the large number that
had gathered at the threshing. After
the dinner that day quite number OF
persons We're violently sick from arsenic
poisoning. All got we'll except DR.. S. j.
Love. who died. Suspicion pointed to
the Knots solely because they prepared
the dinner. They maintained their in
nocence. There had been no trouble be-
tween them and the Loves. A few nights
after the death of Dr. Love a crowd went
to the home of the negro man and woman,
put ropes around their necks, carried
them into the woods, separated them,
and sought to secure a confession of the
his innocence and said: You may kill
me, but 1 will not tell a lie. know
nothing about. it," But the woman-as
she says under threats-made a confess
sion. She says that it was under com
pulsion and upon the promise that she
would not be punished. Her confession
in brief was that she put arsenic on to-
matoes which were served to Dr. Love
for. linz or Thn efrar fall hot
John Knott gave her the arsenic, saying he
got it from a negro to whom it was
given by Mr.. Vann Sykes, very re-
spectacle and highly esteemed young
man of Union county--the story being
that Mr. Sykes would pay IS if it was
used to poison DR.. Love.
What was tkefalleged motive on the
part of Mr.. Sykes. Here is Fthe story:
Some time before the poisoning Dr. Love
had been called to professionally at
tend tenant who lived on the farm of
the father of Mr.. Sykes. 1t seems that
young Mr.. Sykes and this tenant had
had a disagreement and fight in which
the tenant received severe injuries. At
ter ne had treated the tenant, DIR. Love
is reported to have said that if called at
court he would be compelled to testify
that the blows received by his patient
weer not from the first, but from some
thing like knueks., The story is that
Mr.. Sykes became offended at the state
ment of the Doctors. The theory of the
prosecution is that becase of this he
furnished the arsenic and paid S. to the
negro to poison DR.. Love. After the con-
fession-extorted or otherwise-by the
woman Mr., Sykes was arrested There
oh NJ no 1fy1ff
after hearing the officers of the law
decided that there was no evidence,
against him sufficient to hold him for
court and he was released. tt 49,.
Several of the parties who visited the
negro woman when she made her confess
sion have gone to Texas
Upon the trial at Stanly court last
week, the fight between the lawyers was
whether the evidence written down, given
by the woman on the preliminary trial,
should be used. The Solicitor, who was
assisted in the prosecution by Judge
Montgomery, contended that it was
proper and important. The attorneys
for the Knotts-Messrs. j. M. Brown, r.
l.. Smith and r. E. Austin-vigorously
fought its being admitted. Judge Shaw
decided TO admit it, holding that it was
competent. After that an agreement was
reached by which a verdict of murder in
the second degree as to the woman was
entered and for manslaughter as to for
man.
The judge sentenced the woman to ten
years in the penitentiary and the man
TO five years. And the sheriff of Stanly
has put them safely in the penitentiary.
The man is in wretched health.
But there is a sequel to the case Mr..
Vann Sykes has entered suit for dam
ages for false Imprisonment against
Messrs. Tom Love, Wade III. Love and D.
NJ. Dry, and it will be hard fought
battle when it comes up for trial.
x,vrcU xynnDED