The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-05
WHITE MAN FOUND FATALLY WOUNDED D. Y. West in Dying Condition
 on Lonely Road BODY WAS IDENTIFIED He Had Been Shot By Someone Evil dently Intent on Robbery-He
 Spoke Only a Few
 Words.

D. Y. West, white man S2 years old. was found on the old Tennessee road about four miles from Birmingham at an early hour yesterday morning in a dying condition. A negro man passing a lonely portion of the road leading from the fur naces of the Sloss-Sheffield company at North Birmingham to Dolcito, saw the body of a man stretched out in full length and apparently unable to move. Approach ing the prostrate form he was startled to hear the man say that he had been shot and was mortally wounded, and that he had been in the road the greater portion of the night.
 Several people in the neighborhood were notified by the negro, and the man was removed to a blacksmith shop and med ical aid was summoned. In answer to in quiries he was unable to tell who he was and how he had been hurt but it was seen from steady flow of blood that he was in a bad condition, and the investigation that followed revealed a bullet hole in his neck. The ball had entered near the shoulder blade and lodged in his chest.
 Coroner Paris was notified by telephone and the ambulance of the Gaudin com pany was sent to bring West to the city, While the ambulance was being rushed to the scene with all possible haste, the man died and the story of how he got shot and the trouble leading up to 1t went to the grave with him, and the facts may perhaps never be known. When he was taken to the blacksmith shop he had a small knife clutched in his right hanc, indicating that he had attempted to de- fend himself from some one evidently in- tent on robbery. It is said that the man was known to have about s10 in his pock- cts early in the evening, and the suppo- and when commanded to turn over his money offered resstance.
 His pockets had been rifled when he was found and there was ever indication that robbery was the motive of the trag- edy. West was a large, powerfully built man and would have been a match for any one man and 1t may have been that there were two persons involved in the murder.
 The dead man was brought to Birming- ham and placed in the morgue where sev- era1 people viewed the body during the day. Until late in the afternoon the body had not been identified and 1t was thought that the man was a stranger. However, shortly before dark he was identified and his relatives were notified. The man had resided at Bessemer the greater part of his life and was a son Of Captain West. at one time sanitary inspector of that place and a candidate for mayor. He was ago and removed to North Birmingham, where he was employed as a machinist by the North Birmingham Forge com pany.
 Williams, a prominent saloon man of Bes- semer, and was we'll known. On the back of one of his hands he had the letters ID. w" tatooed in the flesh and this was commented on by the undertaken as a possible clue that would lead to an Identification. The relatives of the dead man made the identy positive and the body was removed to his late home at North Birmingham where the funeral will probably be held this afternoon.
 It was stated last night by parties from Bessemer that West had been seen there yesterday afternoon and that if he had a difficulty with any one later it was not known. The officers are now at work on the case and may obtain a clue that will lead to an arrest.