Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1909-05-26
Ell. WILLIAMS THE VICTIM
Three White Men and Three
Negroes Were in Conflict,
The Latter all of Whom
Were Unknown Escaped.
The Whites in Custody.

F. H. Williams suffered four knife
wounds, one of them a severe stab in
the back apparently just above the left
kidney, at the hands of a negro whose
identity is yet unknown, at the gate
entrance to the Cottage hotel garden
on Jackson and Seventh streets, about
II o'clock last night. At the time of
writing the city health officer, who
was giving the patient temporary at
tention at the city iail, had not de-
termined the seriousness of the wound
in the back. though it was quite plain
TO observers that it is a deep one, and
Williams complained of a pain in his
abdomen, suggesting that it might be
more serious than appeared. The stab
bling was an incident of a fight be-
tween three negroes on one side and
Williams and two friends, Ben Mar
shall and Pete Davis, on the other All
three of tn men were arrested, but Da-
Wis, who has a horse at the race track,
was released on his own recognizance.
Ben Marshall was jailed pending an
investigation.
Marshal Moore was sitting at his
desk about II o'clock when telephone
message from the cottage hotel an
nounced the trouble. Officers Moore
Connors and CASTOR went to the place
at once and on the way passed three
men near block A. over a block this
side of the Cottage, and while the
marshal had an impulse to take them
into custody there was nothing in their
demeanor that warranted it. Arriv-
ing at the Cottage they learned that
the six men implicated had all gone
away. Feeling sure that the three men
passed were the ones wanted, they
retraced their steps to Fourth street,
where they scattered, Moore going
north on Fourth, Connors west and
CASTOR south.
A moment or two later the marshal
saw a man standing near a tree and
the other two some distance away, and
called to the other officers to come
back. Moore had been told at the Cot
tage that one of the white men had a
gun, so he proceeded carefully, direct
ing the man to reveal his identity and
give an explanation. 1t proved to be
williams, who stated that he had been
stabbed in the back, and advanced
toward the officer who, finding Will
liams was bleeding and unarmed, went
to the tree behind which he had been
standing and found a big revolver on
the ground beside it, the revolver be-
ing covered with blood. Whether the
blood came from Williams shirt which
was saturated, or whether it had been
in contact with someone's head, has
not yet been discovered.
Marshall and Davis soon joined the
party, as did the other two officers.
and all returned to the city Jail though
as soon as the wounded man could be
given attention a search was instituted
for the negro who did the cutting. VIII
lians' story of the incident is that he
and his friends were coming out of
the gate when they encountered three
negroes going in. One of the latter
struck one of the white men a sever
blow, and with an oath and gesticula-
tion said that If anyone else wanted
anything he could get it. The other
two negroes picked up rocks and, see
ing there was likely to be a general
mixup he decided to get in as early as
possible, knowing that delay never
profits a man in fight. He assaulted
the negro who had hit his friend and
challenged the crowd, and in the same
instant he felt a knife slipping into
him. His next blow knocked the negro
down, but he picked himself up quick
" and came back. The other negroes
did not hit anybody so far as Williams
knew, but they kept threatening with
rocks and telling the two white men
to let them alone and not mix with
the combatants under penalty of max
ing things worse, and all the time the
negro was knitting Williams in the
dark. seemingly without the knowledge
of Marshall and Davis.
How it all ended was not made very
clear, except that the negroes hastily
withdrew and the white men followed
as fast as they could coming toward
town to place Williams under the care
of a surgeon. Davis and Marshall, as
far as could be learned, were not
armed unless they had the revolver
before it was found near Williams by
Marshal Moore. Williams was asked
if they had been any previous diff
Guilty with the negroes, and he said
there had not been, and he did not
know their names nor ANYTHING about
them. The trouble all arose in the in
stant of their running together at a
small gate
Three of williams wounds are prob
ably trivial, though painful. One is a
cash on the left shoulder and another
is a cash on the outside of the left
elbow lifting up piece of skin as big
as a quarter, but neither probably in
iured the joints. The third wound is