The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-24
Evidence Completed in
 JOhnStOn'S Case.
DEPENDANT TAKES STAND
Garner C ,es to Pieces Under
 SOiicitor'S Fire.
For TAird Time Witnesses Tell of the Horrible Crime on the Mountain side in
 July.
ny wiil T. sheehan.

By will T. sheehan.
 Gadsden. Nov 2s.--tstaff Correspon- dence.)-wilI Johnston cannot know his fate until tomorrow.
 On the night of July Is. he followed Jack Hunter and Vance Garner down the railroad as they trailed their help less victim. He followed them then. and 1t is for the jury to say tomorrow whether he will follow them to the gallows.
 After darkness had fallen tonight. Judge Disdue adjourned his tired court with the Johnston case still uncom- pIeted Solicitor Martin had his clos ing argument to make. and the Judges charge was to be delivered.
 It was a sensational day in court. Vance Garner. the first of any of the accused men to do so. took the stand to do what he could toward saving the life of will Johnson. Garner was thrown in the breach by the attorney for Johnston as last resort, final Garner and Hunter are convicted and under sentence of death. Nothing they could say would affect their well fare, legal or material. but one of them might and could say something to help Johnston. however helpless and hope less their own case was. And Garner had been upon the witness stand but few minutes before the wisdom of the attorney's attempt in keeping the pris- oners from testifving was apuarent.
 went to Pieces UBder Fire.
 After going along swimmineiy and denying any connection with the mur- der of Mrs Smith while his own lawyer was examining him, he went to pieces before the solicitor had been question ing him two minutes. He not only went to pieces. but he made confess sion that would have sent him to the gaJiows if he had made 1t on his own trial and there had been no other evf- dence against him.
 He noundered about telling the truth and denving the truth asain and again But he was present. He stood by In the darkness when the terrible deeds 3f that Jsfiv nf@ht were being done on the mountain side. He heard the des- pairing cries of the unhanpy victim Even If he did not assist. he saw the terrihle work of the lends as thev strugeled on the ground in the com mission of the inhuulan crime. He stood above Jack Hunter when he had his knee upon the neck of Mrs. Smith and was trying to shove a towel in her mouth to stop her pleadings and her heRginrs.
 This he told. Those who heard him believed that he was partly telling the truth hut not all the truth. He was. he said down on the railroad tracks with Bunk Richardson when he heard the screams of woman on the noun tain side. He thought 1t was his sis ter so he said, and rushed to the spot In the road he came across JACK Hun fer stru9~rire with Mrs Smith.
 Trying to stiAe Cries. His knee was unon her neck and he was trying to stifle her cries with towel He says he stepped up to Hunter and puttin~ his hand on his shoulder. said: What are you doing neck broken To which Hunter re- piled: "Go on away from here. know my damn business better than you or anybody else"
 He turned to walk away. so this negro said on the stand. coolly and without errotion. when Mrs. Smith cried out: Please make him stop, he is killing me
 According to his own story. with that voice of appeal in his ear. that voice of pleading that would have reached any heart. but the heart of q brute, Vance Garner walked down the mountain side and left the white wo- man to her horrible fate.
 Even with this confession of par tiaI confession. the solicitor tore Gar ner's statement to tatters. He wound him LID again and again in contradiction out of his own mouth. and then he put up eight witnesses who contradfcted every point in his testimony except as to what he saw in the darkness on the mountain side and about which there has been no direct testimony from an aye witness.
 When he took the stand. Garner was given an earnest and solemn caution by Judge Disque He was told that as a convicted and sentenced prisoner, as
 npen not make any statement unless he wanted to, and that he need not answer a single question If he did not choosc to do so. But to help Johnston he went on with his statement
 Hunter Declines to Testify.
 An effort was made to have Jack Hunter take the stand for the same reason, but Hunter disposed Of 1t, say ing, Well. don't have to go on the stand, and won't do it. The oth. CT nigger did not do anything but make fool of himself"
 The story of the savage. inhuman crimes of that summer night Is yet to :. be told to the full. The story that has been brought out in the court room IS but as a sketch by impressiunistic art ists With only the outlines, the main points are marked deeply. with here and fhere periods and spaces to be filled out by the imagination. In the court
 
 ribly sketched, but the full picture is yet to be drawn.
 Savage as it may be, 1t Is shrewdly suspected that the barbarous cruelties of that night were planned with low cunning. The negroes who had a part in it, may have planned the disreputa- ble carouse of the two sons of Mrs. smith on Crap Shooters HILL" They may have tolled them off up there then slyly slipped to the mother and told her that her boys were out drink. ing with a crowd and when the old mother groped about in darkness look. ing for her unworthy children. the brutes stalked her and bounded heI foot steps as wild beasts might hunt their prey. Perhaps the entire crowd was not in the inhuman game when fine hunt began, but the number wal increased as the night wore on. Truth May Be Known. The trath will be known some day So much of a confession has already been made that 1t is confidently ex. fn- rsrf4 f.fsf IIs