The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-05-26
WITNESS IN
CAZALAS CASE


which the negro Robertson was held.
After short time. according to Gil
lis. one Of the party came back. ellis
had given them the wrong keys. The
lyncher asked for another bunch. Gil
lis declared he had no more. but when
pistol muzzle was thrust in his side,
he said. he found the right bunch.
They came back after awhile, he
says. and gave back his keys. The
two men still remained to guard him,
he says. and he knew nothing more of
the iynching until 1t was all over. and
he went out to view the body of the
negro hanging to tree.
On cross examination. ellis admitted
that he remembered having talked with
Webb. the former solicitor. during the
morning before, when the lawyer had
mentioned the likelihood OF mob vio-
lence. though he said that there was
nothing to lead him to suspect a
lynching.
Second night taller Kreuse. was the
second witness for the defense. Kreuse
had heard nothing, he said. of the pros
pectivo lynchlng, and the first he
knew Of the intention of the lynching
party was when he looked up into the
muzzles OF score of revolvers. as he
sat with ellis in the guard room Of
the jail.
He told. as did ellis. Of how the
keys were secured. of how the two were
guarded by two of the lynching party.
and how, after 1t was all over, he tele-
phoned to Sheriff Cazalas, that the ne
gro Robertson had been taken from
them and lynched.
Mayor Pat Lyons was a witness for
the defense. Mayor Lyons told that II
was his custom. each morning, to drive
about the city for two hours, TO OBJ
serve things. and that. upon the morn
ing preceding the lynching. he had OBJ
served nothing out of the ordinary--no
excitement. nothing abnormal.
Mr.. Smith, of the defense's attorneys,
used the Mayor in an endeavor to Inn
peach the testimony OF Delhomme. a
States witness. Mayor Lyons declared
that Delhomme's reputation was not
good that the man had been discharg-
ed by him from the police force.
DR.. w. g. Ward. physician engaged
at the county jail and poor house, was
on the stand. DIR. Ward told that things
were normal throughout the day. as
far as he saw: that he had heard ex.
pressions that the negro ought to be
hanged, but that nothing definite. no
threats or promises of lynching, was
heard.
1t was the same rumor. said DR..
Ward. as accompanies every killing Of
a white person by a negro.
Why Prisoner Was Moved.
The State had raised the contention
that. because the negro murderer Of
Fatch had been removed to the con-
demned cell from the hospital. that
the Sherifrs force was evidently aware
of impending trouble. But DR.. Ward
declared that the negro was removed
because the hospital was insecure, and
that an escape from that room could
have been arranged easily.
DR.. Ward told that. during the years
that he had known Sheriff Cazalas, as
subordinate officer. the man had been
good officerfi faithful and brave.
There were more than a dozen wit
nesses introduced at this juncture by
the defense to show that nothing out
of the ordinary had occurred on Mo-
bile's streets on the day prior TO the
lynching. to show that mob violence
was suspected, or had been planned.
There had been introduced, by agree
ment of the counsel for State and de-
Tense, evidence which showed that the
state OF affairs preceding a former
lynching of tho negroes was far diff
ferent from the condition preceding
the lynching of Robertson.
Judge Safold Burnsy. of the Law
and Equity Court; Judge Afford of
the Inferior Court. Secretary Immerill,
OF the Y. NJ. G. A: Adam Glass, a
prominent Mobile merchant: Mr..
Thompson. Mobilian, formerly Sheriff
OF Macon County; r. D. Wood and 8.
j. Dukes, street car motormen; Mr..
Williamson, of the Mobile Electric
Company; W. c. Farnell. T. j, Nc
Quillen, a Councilman of the Mobile
City Council; d. M. Ellsworth, a spe-
cia1 officer of the Cawthon Hotel; w.
J. Carlisle, a restaurant man, and some
others, swore that nothing had come
to their notice during the day proceed
ing the lynching, that pointed to q
iynching.
Judge Afford. of the Inferior Court,
told that he heard nothing out of the
ordinary. He admitted that he had
talked with Solicitor Webb, In the
presence Of Sheriff Cazalas, and that
Mfr. Webb had sounded the warning
OF a lynchtng. The Judge. however,
declared that he passed up the idea,
thinking nothing would result.
L. w. White, q young man who had
been held in the jail as a prisoner on
the charge OF assault and battery, at
the time of the lynching, testified that
he had heard nothing of the iynching,
and that he was not aware of II what
soever. He declared that he had sat
in the guarGroom with the jailers I'M
I'll HlQnlSHl, u DOnQ, D6IOT6
being locked up. and that no breath
of the probable occurrence had come
to him.
Denies Conversation.
Paul Cazalas. the sherif"s son, who
was in the Jail asleep, at the time of
the lynching. declared that he had
heard of no rumors before hand. On
the first day of the trial there had been
introduced testimony tending to show
of a conversation between the young
man and Charlie Cherry, the latter of
whom had mentioned that he would be
around that night for the negro. This
alleged conversation Paul Cazalas de-
MED.
Two other OF the sherifrs officers
were on the stand, Deputy Wade. and
Tom Powers, day jailer. Wade told
that, though there had been much dis
cussion of the murder of Fatch. and
of the probable fate OF the negro,
there had been no threats of lynching
made that he had heard.
Powers told that there had been no
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