Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-15

United States troops. including the ne
gro troops in the garrison at Browns
vile, and by no other person save
these troops-a weapon which had
only been in use by the United states
troops for some four or five months
prior TO the shooting in question and
which is not I'm the possession of pri-
vate individuals. The cartridges used
will go into no other rifle used i'm the
United States when special chamber
ed-the Winchester of the % model
And moreover the bullets picked out
of the building show the marking of
the four so-called lands which comes
from being fired through the Spring.
field, but not through the Winchester,
the latter showing six.
Submits Bullets
THE bullets which l herewith submit
were found i'm the houses and could
not. therefore, have teen fired from a
rifle, although the cartridges might
have been put into a Winchester mod
el '95. The bullets might have been
fred from a Krag. but the cartridges
would not have gone into Krug
Taking the shells and bullets together
the proof is conclusive that the new
Springfield rife was the weapon used
by the midnight asslssins and could
not by any possibility, have been any
other rifle of ary kind in the world.
This OF itself establishes the fact that
the assailants were United states
soldiers and wodld be conclusive on
this point If not one soldier had been
seen or heard by any resident in
Brownsville on tine night in question,
and If nothing were known save the
finding of the shells, clips and bullets. |
Fourteen reliable witnesses-namely |
Charles r. Chase, Amado Martinez, |
Mrs. Kate Leahy, Palermo Preciado. |
Ygnacio Dominguez. Macedonia Rami- |
rez, George w. Randall, Jose Martinez. |
j. Z. Mcdonald, f. II. Sanborn, Her |
bert Ell<ins, Hale Olin, Mrs. Hale Olin |
and Judge Parks-testifed that they |
saw the assailants or some of them at
varying distances, and that they were
negro troops, most of the witnesses
giving their testimony in such shape |
that there is no possibility of their
having been mistaken. Two other wit |
nesses, Jose Bodin and Genero Padron |
saw some of the assailants and testi- |
fed that they were soldiers the only |
soldiers in the neighborhood being the
Colored troops).
-Four other witnesses-namelyS G. |
Moore, DIR. Thorn, Charles S. Scanada |
and Charles T. Hammond, testified to
hearing the shooting and hearing the
voices of the men who were doing it,
and that these voices were those of
negroes, but did not actually see the
men who were doing the shooting.
About twenty-five other witnesses gave
testimony Corrobora ting to a greater or
less degree the testimony of those who
thus saw the shooters or heard them.
The testimony of these eye and ear
witnesses would establish beyond all
possibility of contradiction the fact
% c1 tal htyI
ten or fifteen or more of the troops
from the garrison and this testimony
Of theirs would be amply suffieinet in
itself if a cartridge or a bullet had
not been found; exactly as the bullets
and cartridges that were found would
have established the guilt of the troops,
even had not a single eye witness seen
them or any witness heard them.
Shots Fired from Forts
The testimony of the witnesses on
he position of the bullet holes show
hat fifteen or twenty of the negro
roops gathered in and about the fort
md that the first shots fired into the
town We're fired from within the fort,
some of them at least from the upper
gallery of the barracks.
The testimony further shows that the
troops then came out over the walls |
the gate and advanced a distance of
three hundred yards or thereabouts |
into the town. During their advance |
they shot into two hoteds and some
nine or ten other houses. Three of |
the private houses into which they
fired contained women and children.
They deliberately killed Frank Natus.
The bartender, shooting him down from
/ distance of about fifteen yards. They
shot at a man and woman, Mr.. and
Mrs. Odin, and their little boys. as
hey stood in the window of the Miller
lotel, the bullet going less than two
inches from the head of the woman.
They shot down the lieutenant of pO-
ice, who was on horseback, killing his
horse and wounding him so that his
Crm had to be amputated, They at
tempted to kill the two policemen who
we're his companions, shooting him
through the hat. They shot out
lighted lamp on the dining room table.
Mrs. Cowan and her five ch,Slrcn were
In the house and they at once threw
themselves prone on the floor and were
rot hit. They fired into the Stark
house. the bullets going through the
bar of a bed from eighteen
to twenty inches above where little
children We're sleeping.
Was a Midnight Attack
THE shooting took place near midi
night. The panic caused by the utterly
unexpected attack was great. The
darkness, of course, increased the con-
fusion. There is conflict of testimony
ON some of the minor points, but every
essential point is established beyond .
possibility of honest question. The
careful examination of Mr.. Purdy, as
sstant to the attorney general, re-
suited merely in strengthening the re-
ports already made by the regular
army authorities. The shooting, 1t
appears, occupied about ten minutes
although it may have been some min
utes more or less. 1t is out of the
question that the fifteen or twenty men .
engaged in the assault could have gath
cred behind the wall of the fort, begun
firing, some of them on the pOrches of |
the barracks, gone out into the town,
fired i'm the neighborhoOd of 200 shots |
in the town and then returned-the |
total time occupied from the time of
the first shot to the time of their re-
turn being somewhere in the neigh |
borhood of ten minutes-without many /
of their comrades knowing, what thew /