The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-25
THIRD BLACK
 IS CONVICTED Will Johnston Will Hang
 at GadSden. HUNTER ADMITS HIS GUILT One Ofthe Condemned Negroes
 Discusses Crime. The Right Men, He Says, Have Beea Tried and Fesnd Guilty of
 the Murder of Mrs.
 Sara smith.
By WIT T. shcehan .

By WIT T. shcehan. l Gadsden, Nov. 2f.--(Staff Corres- | pondence.)-WillJ Johnston must share | the fate and die on the gallows with Jack Hunter and Vance Garner. The | jury which tried him for a part in the I inhuman murder and assault upon Mrs. Sara J. Smith declared that he was equally guilty with the two men who preceded him to the bar of justice and who before him had been sentenced to death on the gallows.
 The City Court of Gadsden has cleared the docket of the eases which grew out of the assault and killing of Mrs. Smith. Three negroes have been tried for the assault and the murder and three have been sentenced to hang. A fourth negro. Bunk Richard son, is in jail. but no indictment has been returned against him. He was held mere as a witness than as a pris- oner even as Mattie Anthony and An nie Mayo. two negro women who knew of the crime before the officers of the law, were kept in jail until the accused men had had their trial and their fate had been decided. Although charged with the most heinous. the most saw agely brutal crime that could blacken the record of any court, the accused negroes were tried orderly and with every safeguard vouchsafed by the law thrown around them.
 To the Credit of Etowah. The history of the arrest, trial and conviction of the assailants of Mrs. Smith Is chapter of credit and of hon. or to the people of Etowah County and the courS of Judge Disgue before whom week has passed in tho trial of the three negroes. It was | startling, bru- tai crime that was committed, and in no civilized community could 1t have rvfft&nnf rnlatnH the fierce indignation of the people That the law was permitted to take its course Is to be written to the everlast- ing credit of Gadsden and of Etowah County.
 Under most trying circumstances the majesty of the law has ben upheld, If there over was an excuse for mob law Gadsden had it. Rapine and murder could have assumed no more terrible shapes than they assumed July IS last. Whatever there Is of horror in murder and in rapine Gadsden was brought to realize. The fair, legal trial accorded the three negroes accused of the das- tardIy deed that made the blood chill to think of 1t, has given the friends of law and order an argument, a concrete fact against lynching that can not be gainsaid.
 Have they tried and convicted the right men?
 They have. Jack Hunter is authority for the statement. In the County jail of Etowah. Hunter told me and Will Ham Martin, local newspaper man:
 Well, you can tell 'em dey got de right men"
 Not a Full Confessioa.
 It vas not a full confession that he made. He had talked half an hour about the crime without telling any thinl Of importance. A full confession
 K.s A..l1 Ra- sion is atill expected from him, but he Is not ready to make it at this time. It Is such a terrible thing, this killing of Mrs Smith, and all that went before and after the murder, that Jack Hun- ter, brute that he is, shrinks from tell ing 1t all. He draws back from telling white men of the unspeakable horrors of that July night on the mountain side.
 The only account of the killing and it's accompanying errors which has been given has come secondhand from Hunter and Garner, the account they gave of 1t to negro women the morn ing after the murder. more terrible tale was never told than these negro women told in the court room. It chilled the blood of those who heard 1t and one wondered at the patience and respect for the law that the people of Etowah County had shown.
 Hunter was not ready to tell that story this morning. We saw him in the county jail while the jury was out deliberating on the case of Will John ston. Johnston had just been brought in and lodged in cell. nervous and excited and protesting his innocence.
 Thc Significant Scar.
 With changing, rumbling noise door on the upper corridor was un- locked and Jack Hunter came down the whItewashed corridor to talk of the crime with the newspaper men. He wore overalls and the repulsive. sig nificant scar that spanned his neck and seemed so ominous of the gallows was nIaiu to see. He begged a cigarette and seated himself on a couch. Mir. Martin had known Hunter well. Both had at the same time been employed in the pipe works, Mr. Martin fin the of Zee and Hunter as one of the laborers. Hunter professed a willingness to talk freely about the crime and he did, but only for a short time. Then he wandered about in his statements and lied repeatedly
 If was his evident wish to appear as a scape goat. a sort of martyr. At first he wanted everybody to know that he did not deny his guilt in part of the horrible thing, but he wanted it under stood by the outside world. and es- necially by the members of his race he would take all the blame and sufrer all the punishment if he could and let inc others go free. He brought this out. however. in such an awkward manner that the pretense of 1t was only too apparent.
 "It's all up wid me. I knows it. knows Tse got to hang. I'm guilty, guess" said Hunter.
 linen you admit that you are guilty of killing Mrs. SmithT'
 Declares He Was Drunk.
 CT was drunk. I wuz so drunk dat night I tes can't say what I done. But dem other niggers dey say done it. Vance Garner he says he come dere and saw me wid Mrs Smith. If he says so 1t must be true, but I'll swear I don't know nothing about it. I was so drunk I couldn't remember anything
 "Did you and Vance meet Adams and sbuff on the railroad and after talking to them awhile follow Mrs Smith down the track?" he was asked.
 we never saw 'ein dat night at all. I lest know we didn't see em. Lat night after de Rome and Decatur train left I went up to de old furnace quar- .ers wid VIII Johnston to his housa