The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-07
NEGRO TURNS UP
 AFTER MANY YEARS
Dallas County Criminal i8FOund
 in Denver
WAS SENTENCED TO HANG
After Fifteen Years of Wandering m Foreign Lands He Gives Hmser Up and Tells Unusual
 Story.
BY R. E. L. MEL.

BY K. l.. L. NELL
 Selma, September (Special.) IA special sent out from Denver, under date of September 3, telling of the ap- pearance in that city of Willie John- son, an escaped prisoner from the Dal- las county jail while awaiting the day of his execution some fifteen years ago, has recalled crime in which BIT mingham and Selma were closely con ~nected. The Dallas authorities nave not been apprised of the appearance Of the negro in Denver, but word IS expected from there at any time, the special having stated that Denver de- tectives had the negro shadowed and were awaiting information and papers from Alabama.
 It was in the spring of 1899 that Willie Johnson, while under sentence Of death and awaiting the day Of his doom, escaped through the agency Of a sewer pipe in the water closet of the old county jail, which was after wards burned. The story of his wan derings as told by him to former Selma lady now living in Denver and at whose house he boldly called deter mined to look again in the face of one he had known before he became an exiled outlaw even at the risk of his betrayal into the hands of the law, is as follows:
 Tells He Story.
 T stayed in the swamps around Selma for three or four days after I got out and finally made my way to Mobile in an open skin that I broke from It's moor ing in the Alabama river. travelled only at night and laid up in the day time. 1 hid ten days with a friend of mine in Mobile, and then got chance to stow away in a fruiter bound for Blue Fields Nlearauga. I joined sne insurgents and helped to overthrow the government While In Blue Fields I saw MT. Emanuel Steinhardt who once lived about Mar tins station, out from Selma. I made my way to British Columbia, where I saw Judge Frank Randolph, who Former ly lived in Montgomery.
 'I decided that he might recognize me through descriptions they sent out and left that country and went to Peru, in South America. l joined the Peruvian army and fought; against Chile. After that I wandered back over the isthmus and went into old Mexico Travelling all over that country I landed in the territory of the Yuaqui Indians and joined them in their struggle against the Diaz govern ment. Six months of that was enough, and I deserted the Indians and turned my face toward the states again. On the first of May l crossed the Rio Grande and have been in Texas ever since, doing first one thing and then another. until the first part of August, when l left Gal weston and started west"
 Killed Negro Woman.
 The crime that made the negro wan derer on the face of the earth and for which he will likely yet drop between the two floors of the Dallas county jail, was the murder of negro woman by the name of Frances Rogers in this city in the fall of 1887. With Willie Johnson were indicted three other negroes, Wiley Lewis, Sanders Collier and Sam Roan, the first named and Johnson all living at that l time in Birmingham.
 Wiley Lewis married the daughter of | Frances Rogers. He was well off, as | negroes go, and had considerable prop erty besides running a saloon in the Magic l City. The woman's daughter was suing Lewis for a divorce and claiming alimony. | Cruelty was charged and Frances Rogers was the principal witness. It was while the testimony was being taken before | J. i-. DlSHpp, dCllllS dS CDIlIHiSSlOneI, that the woman met her death, having 1 been called to the door of her house | on Sherrer street near the union station and shot down.
 Another negro whose name is not re- called was implicated in the affair and | he turned states evidence, declaring that l Wiley Lewis paid the others to do the | killing. Collier and Johnson came to Sell ma on a midnight train, went immediate | ly to the house of the woman, called her to the door and after shooting her made their escape but were afterwards appre- | hended.
 The trial was a long drawn out one. Lewis disposing of all his property in the | effort to save the necks of himself and his fellow criminals Continuances were | effected from time to time, and on one | occasion Judge Jonathan Haralson now associate justice of the supreme court, then judge of the city court, sent a deputy sheriff to Birmingham and arrested some thirty witnesses from 'Buzzards' Roost" and Scratch Ankle districts who had failed to put in their appearance, and whose absence was being used to delay | the trial.
 On June 21,1SSS, the case against Sam | Roan was nolle pressed and he was given his liberty only to die shortly after | wards.
 Sentenced to Be Hanged. | On February 23, 1889, Willie Johnson was sentenced to be hanged on April 1s, | following The sentence was supended and it was while awaiting the decision of the supreme court that he made his escape and has not been heard from until | today.
 | On June 2s. 1899. Wiley Lewis was sen | fenced to the penitentlary for life and | succeeded in making his escape some three months afterwards but he, too soon died according to reports. His wife | Is said to be living in Birmingham yet | On July 4, 1899, Sanders Collier was sentenced to be hanged but before his execution day rolled around he died in jail from pulmonary trouble.
 Thus 1t is that Willie Johnson is the only survivor of the four connected with the killing of Frances Rogers and he turns up many miles away unable to forego looking into the face of one whom he had known during his incarceration here.
 Johnsons attorney in the long trial was Gaston A. Robbins who represented this district in congress for several terms and whose untimely death came in hote fire in New York about three years ago
 
 Alabama Boys on Battlefield.
 Camp No. 1, Manassas, Va, Septem II ln haf