The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-07
BOB WATTS AGAIN
 IS GIVEN RESPITE Was to Have Been Hung Tues-
 day for Murder PROTESTS HIS INNOCENCE Contract Awarded Sullivan & Long of Bessemer for Building Gunters-
 viIe Water Works-WilI
 Pave Sidewalks.
PROTESTS HIS INNOCENCE

Guntersville, April 6.-(Special. Bob Watts, the white man who was sentenced to be hanged here next Tuesday, was given Q respite today to April 25 by Gov ernor Conner. Watts was also paroled into the custody of the authorities of the Ala bama insane hospital at Tuscaloosa where he has been confined for the past year.
 Watts is charged with the murder of Pud Wrinkles in the fall of 1904, presum- ably to secure pension money the latter had just drawn.
 This is a case that has attracted con- siderable attention throughout the state for the past two years. Watts was con- victed at the spring term of the circuit court April IS, 1905, and was sentenced to be hanged on the 18th day of June fol- lowing
 In the meantime an appeal to the state supreme court was made and execution of the sentence stayed pending result of the appeal. The November, 1905. term of the supreme court rendered an opinion af- firming decision of the lower court and fixed date of execution on February g, 1906 During this time the condemned
  of Jefferson county for safe keeping where, it is said, he became insane. On the 18th day of January, 1906, Governor Wm. D. Jelks reprieved the condemned man until the 17th day of July, and at the same time paroled him into the GUS tody of the authorities of the Alabama in- sane hospital at Tuscaloosa. Another re- prieve was granted by Governor Jelks June 23, 1906. until February [, 1907, and also further paroled into the keeping of the authorities of the insane hospital where he had been confined for almost year.
 Governor Conner on February granted d further reprieve until next Tuesday, April g, and continued the parole in the insane asylum. Inquiry having developed the fact that the condemned man was now sane, Sheriff Lewis last Monday re- ceived authority from the governor to take charge of Watts and proceed to exc cute sentence of law.
 Story of Crime.
 Accordingly Sheriff Lewis. accompanied by two of his deputies, went down to Tus- caloosa Monday night and brought the condemned man back Tuesday morning, and he is at present confined in the coun- ty jail at this place, surrounded day and night by the death watch that will leave him no more until his lifeless remains are lowered from the gallows.
 The crime of which Bob Watts stands convicted and must soon pay the penalty with his life was a most atrocious one. Perd Wrinkles was an old man residing in the same neighborhood drawing a small pension from the state. He had just re- ceived his claim of something Ike $30 paid him in the fall of 1904. aTaf wss return ing from the home of his Friend, John Ol- Ter, who lived not far avkay. The report of rifle rang out on the still clear au- tumn air and old man Wrinkles was heard calling for help, saying that he was shot, His friends from whose house he had just gone rushed down the road to where the old man lay and found him dying with a ghastly hole in his side. A 3S caliber rifle bullet had entered the old mans back tearing a frightful hole.
 Calvin Hill, justice of the peace, was sent for and to him, between dying gasps, the old man told that Bob Watts shot him, that he saw him as he ran off through the trees.
 Watts was arrested and held to the grand jury which indicted him on charge of murder in the first degree He was convicted at the same term of the circuit court held for Marshall county in April, 1905.
 Unless 1t was robbery no motive for the crime has even been found.
 Watts has always maintained his inno- cence and to your correspondent who vis-
  he was being killed for crime he never committed He also told the guards around his cell today that he would walk upon the scaffold with a smile on his face and that his dying statement would be that he did not commit the crime for which he is soon to die. He was cheerful and very composed except a wild, startled look from his eyes, and expressed an en- tire willingness to die, saying that he had no i'll will against any one and that he forgave those who had done him wrong
 Bob Watts is a typical illiterate moun- taineer, having been raised in the north ern part of this county, where his father. mother, brothers, sisters, wife and four children still reside. They are people in humble circumstances and his complaint is that if he had had more money and had been able to employ counsel that he would not have been convicted.
 Watts had a brother shot and killed by another brother in this county about fff- teen years ago. He was tried and &C., quilted on the plea of self-defense. This occurrence had the effect of arousing the suspicious of many good people in the northern portion of the county at the time, as the boy killed, 1t is said, was about to foreclose a mortgage on his fa- ther's property which he had paid off and had been transferred to him. There is no doubt that the unfavorable sentiment cre- ated by this sad occurrence years ago still hangs over Bob Watts.
 To Build Water Works.
 The contract for water works for this town has been awarded to Sullivan &s Long of Bessemer at a contract price complete of Sl3100, the job to be com pleted by September 15. The water sup ply will be taken from boiling spring, one- half mile east of town, and will be pump ed into a reservoir located on top of a high hill west of town with an elevation of 40 feet above the public square, thus giving ample pressure for all purposes and particularly against fire.
 When the water works are completed no town in the entire country can boast of any finer and purer water supply, as Boiling Spring rolls forth the year round, fine stream of pure cool, sparkling wa ter, equal to any in the land.
 Under power conferred by recent act of the legislature Mayor Isbell announces that sidewalks and streets will also be