The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1905-04-18
MARION A R HANGED.
FIRST White Man To Be Legally tx
ecuted In South Carolina Since
1eq4-His Crime.

murder of Clarence Shealy. Parr,
saws the Columbia correspondent OF
the News and Courier, is the first
white man to be legally executed IN
South Carolina since 1894. He was
q cotton mill operator. While IN a
drunken frenzy he slipped behind his
victim and killed him with a hoe. he
Showed courage on the scaffold n
, lied with a smile on his lips.
Under the influence OF his two
spiritual advisers, the Revs. Hanson,
Baptist, and Snyder, Methodist, who
have been praying with him constant
". he was keyed up with religious
5ervor, which sustained him to the
last, that peculiar light often coming
:aute his eyes as he prayed and sang
on the stand that indicated that he
had made peace with his God.
The drop fell at iii A. NJ, and
he was pronounced dead in four n
a half minutes, his neck having been
broken by the fall. The coarseness
OF his features was V more pro-
uounced in death than in life, his thick
snss and straight mouth corroborat-
ing the evidence carried in his thick,
short fingered hands, bearing marks
of cigarette smoking. The body was
+yrned over to relatives who
had a funeral from the mothers cot
-ton mil cottage home on Saturday.
with interment in the cotton mill VII
lagc Baetist cemetery
He confessed his crime on the
stand. saying that whiskey brought
him to grief.
Parr was taken out of his cell at
10 o'clock, and after he had shaken
hands with all the prisoners through
the bars of their cells he was taken
of into a separate apartment, where
an hour was spent in prayer with his
twe spiritual advisers. On his lett
1ase, he wore a b~outonnlere o. red
roses and on each lapel were pinned
decorations Of small pink ribbons.
The sheriff and his deputy walked on
either side OF him as he proceeded
downstairs to the gallows in the jail
ward, but he needed no support, as
theye was never the slightest evidence
of a breakdown. He carried with
h;m a box OF greenhouse flowers
which he Rugged to his bosom up to
the time he got IN the trap.
Only about fifty persons Id passed
into the yard, but fully II thousand
oeeple, including many apparently
wesi-to-do white men, but made up
mostly of negro men and women
swa.med around the jailyard, peep'cs
through cracks and seeking vantage
ooints from the tops of houses; how
,evee. though this crowd saw the on
des,zed man walk through the yard
10 the gallows they did not see the
.aca,al hanging, as the gallows was
enclosed with canvas. d.
parr mounted the scafold without
Eemor, with the sheriff, his deputy
and the two preachers. He leaned
owe, and whispered to Mr.. IAnson,
vsso requested the audience OF some
atty people at the foot OF the gallo"s
TO- 5o;n Parr in singing "Jesus, Lover
of My Soul" the murderer singing
with visibl: religion JOY as he look
ed steadily into the upturned faces OF
those below. Then there was a
PRAYER by the Rev. IAnson, followed
~ the benediction by the Rev. Sny-
der.
PAR. in a steady voice, then old
his hearers that drink was the cause
of all his troubles. In a ramllng sort
OF way he said that years ago ne could
30 about and preach the gospel as
we'd as any one, but that drink had
brought him to crime, and he hoped
his hearers would let it stay IN the
bottle and that they would use their
influence for prohibition. Then ne
said a final prayer. asking for forgive
ness and praying for prohibition tor