The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-01
Mrs. Williams Talks.

Baltimore, August 31.-Seated today in the drawing room of her home at Long Green, Baltimore county, Mrs. W. s. G. Williams described in detail the shoot ing of Charles B. Roberts, Jr., who was wounded on Wednesday night on the board walk at Atlantic City, while in her company.
 Mrs Williams discussed the affair with the utmost candor
 'It was an attempt at robbery, pure and simple' she declared, "and MT. Rob- erts was shot because he refused to com ply with the demand of the man in the mask who had ordered him to give up his money.
 "Mr Roberts was going along with me in the rolling chair and we got to a place where the walk was rough and the chair bounced a good deal. l sug- gested that we turn back. The chair was a covered one and MT. Roberts rapped on the glass and told the negro chairman to turn around. Just as ne did so, the chair stopped and masked man thrust a pistol into the chair ana ordered us to get out.
 "Without a word I got up and held up both hands. MT. Roberts followed me and as soon as he had emerged from the chair the man told him to give up his money. I had a little chatelaine bag attached to my waist, but the man made no effort to get this.
 "When ordered to give up his money MT. Roberts declared that he would do nothing of the kind.
 Scared Man Away. | 'I was scared and begged MT. Roberts | to give the man what money he had, | but MT. Roberts instead rushed at the man. who was covering him with a pis- | tol and stood a few paces off. As MT. l Roberts started forward the man fired | two shots Although struck by one Of the bullets MT. Roberts kept on toward the man and the villain ran and escaped | in the darkness
 "Did either you or MT. Roberts rec ognize the voice of his assailant?' Mrs. | Williams was asked. She replied III all | indignant negative.
 Mrs. Williams was asked regarding a statement she was alleged to have l given to Chief of Police Woodruff or l Atlantic City, in which she was re- ported to have said that her husband | had not been to Europe at all but had | been in a sanitarium.
 | q never said anything of the Kind, declared Mrs. Williams emph atically, ito this this very day I have never l seen MT. Woodruff. Any interview with
 me that he has given out would, of l course. be a fabrication of his own inn | agination."
 1 Mrs. williams characterized as ab- | surd the connecting of the names oi l her husband and brother with the shooting and severely criticised the At
 lantic City police for their course from | the first. She declared that any of l the things she has been quoted as say l ing she never said and that she has | never even seen Chief of Police Wood ruff. She Justified her being with Rob- | erts as entirely proper and bitterly | condemned as unfair and cruel the en- l deavor of some newspapers to show a l motive for the shooting at variance | with the hold-up theory
 Denial of Story. Col. Sherlock Swann, president ol | the board of police commissioners, and | A brother -in-law of Mrs. Williams. who 1 was with Charles B. Roberts when he | was shot on the Atlantic City board | walk, today called the newspaper men | before the board and summoning Police | Marshal Farnan and Captain of Detec- | lives Humphrey, said:
 l "I have sent for you in regard to Sne | publication purporting to be dispatch | from Atlantic City stating that the police of Baltimore had not co-operated | with the Atlantic City police in tryina | to run down the man who shot MT Roberts. The dispatch, by innuendo, in inmates that the lack of cooperation
 was caused by the fact that a membel
 of the board of police commissioners
 is a family connection of one of the
 parties whose name has been promi nently mentioned in the case. I war;
 both of you to tell the commissioners
 exactly what you have done and wha
 the Atlantic City police asked you tt
 do."
 Both officials then told in detail thu | efforts they had made to discover thu
 identity of MT. Roberts assailant.
 Then Col. Swann, speaking with som'
 show of feeling said:
 "I am sure that the Baltimore police have done their duty and that the fac that my name has been mentioned il the case because I am personally ac | auainted with all those whose names
 have been mentioned has nothing to d. l with the innuendo that our offciai
 here have not been active"