Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-05-17
PRISONER KILLED IN JAlL.
4Sommitted Suicide After Holding, the Sheriff
at His Mercy.

i Ar ierson, May l0.--After his fail
ure>to effect an escape last night,
and when he had kept the sheriff's
posses at bay for more than twelve
hours, Tillman Wetberall, desper-
ate negro prisoner, committed suicide
in his cell at noon to-day. BY some
means he had secured revolver, but
when he could not break away last
night he became master of the situa-
tion and the sheriff would not per-
NIT an open battle in the building.
All night the negro paced his cell,
with gun in hand, daring prisoners
or officers to approach him. When
eriff Green attempted to enter the
cage he was warned to fall back.
Several bullets went whistling
through the Jail during the early
hours of the morning. Just before
noon, when Wetherall still kept the
officers away, he ordered the other
prisoners to clear the hall. They
huddled in terror into small cell,
and Wetherall picked up blanket,
walked into cell on the Eastern
side of the cage and lay down on his
back on the cot. In few moments
a pistol shot rang out, and prisoners
rushing into the cell found the blood
squirting from wound in his breast,
his Smith & Wesson 80 calibre pistol
still grasped in his hand, which was
lying across his chest.
In few moments Wetherall was
,'ead and the floor of the cell was
covered with blood. The cell doors
were looked and Cornor Pruitt sent
%r.
Only the GOODNESS and nerve of
Deputy Sheriff Scott prevented a
wholesale Jail delivery about dark
Tuesday night. The officer opened
the outer hallway door of the county
Jail and, and in order TO pass into
the prisoners bucket of ice, threw
over the lever by which all the cells
are locked and unlocked simu!ta-
neously. AS he did so, Tillman
Wetherall and Lonnie Robinson, two
notorious prisoners, ran up to the
door and Wetherall drew a pistol,
ordering the officer to stand out of
the way. Instead he closed the
lever with one hand and reached
with the other for his pistol. Before
he could fire Wetherall and Robinson
had lodged into the dark cells.
While the officers were trying to
locate Wetherall, he fired at range
of about three yards at Marselle
Stewart, who was standing at the
side of the row of cells with his pis-
tol in his hand, but could not we'll
fire at random into the mass of black
faces pressed against the bars. The
posse proposed entering the dark
cells from the electric-lighted steel
corridor and either shooting the ne
gro to pieces or securing the pistol,
but the sheriff ordered that the ne
gro be left in possession of the gun
until daylight. At night he had
every chance to kill half dozen
men, who could locate him only by
the flash of his pistol, and several of
the other prisoners, with whom the
iaDfs crowded, would be hurt.
All the other negro prisoners, who
are confined in the same tier of
cages, professed to be very much
frightened and denied all knowledge
of the method by which the gun W as
smuggled into the Jail. The officers
are always careful to watch closely
the few visitors allowed to talk to
prisoners, and usually conversations
with negroes are held through q
grated window several feet away
from the cells.
~ etherall was a burly black negro,
rently about 30 years of age,
WITH low forehead and vicious, sensu-
GUS face. Very little is known among
the officers here about his life, but
they say that he has served several
terms on county chaingangs and one
term in the penitentiary. He was
arrested for housebreaking an was
awaiting trial.
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