The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-10-05
Entitled to Acquittal.


causing mistrial. The jury stood ten
for. acquittal to two for conviction.
The charge was conspiracy to- defraud
the State out of certain sum OF
money in the purchase of labels. The
parties being prosecuted by the
State are Messrs. w. o. Tatum, Com
missioner, and l.. w. Boykin and
John Bell Towill, members of the
Board of Directors of the State Dis
pensary. We read every word of the
testimony submitted by the State, and
we have no hesitancy in saying tnat
none of the testimony connected Mr.
Tatum with the conspiracy, if there
was one, and that he should have
been acquitted by the jury.
The State established the fact be-
yond the shadow of doubt that
there was a huge swindle in the pur-
chase of the labels, and that over
twenty thousand dollars in graft was
divided among those who engineered
the deal, but it absolutely failed to
connect Mr.. Tatum with either the
deal or a participation in the divis-
ion of the graft. 1t was clearly
proyen by the testimony Of Dennis
Weiskopf, head of the firm that Sc
cured the famous label order, and
John Farley, salesman for a liquor
house, that the orc for the labels
was given by Mr.. Boykin in person
subject to the approval Of Mr.. Towill,
which approval was later given. 1t
was also proven that one NJ. A.
Goodman, another liquor salesman
was the 60 between in the deal and
handled the graft money and diVld-
ed it out.
Weiskopf and Early testified Boy
kin and Tatum were in Cincinnati
when the order was given by Boykln
for the labels, but they both said that
Tatum was not present when the ord
er was given by Boykin and mad
nothing to do with that famous
transaction. They said Tatum went
TO Cincinnati to inspect and study
bottling plants as the dispensary had
determined to establish it's own bot
ting plant instead of buying bottled
goods upon a wholesale scale. early
said Goodman told him he had given
Boykin $4,000, Tatum $500 and Tow
i'll and a man named McCartha sums
which he could not remember. This
is the only time that Tatum was men
toned as receiving any of the graft
money.
Both Weiskopf and Early denied
paving Boykin, Towill or Tatum any
money on this or any other transac-
ton, but Early admitted that on one
occasion he gave Towill a five hum
dred dollar diamond ring and loan
ed Boykin three or four thousand
dollars. Goodman is the only one
that said he had given Tatum any
and that was the insignificar'
sum of three hundred dollars. Both
Weiskopf and Early said they knew
Goodman we'll and testified that they
would not believe him on oa1h.
Early went so far as to say that COCO
man was known as a low, dirty
rascal" AS we said above, this man
Goodman is the only one that has ev-
en- intimated that Tatum was given
any money.
We have given a short summary
OF the facts in the case as developed
by the witnesses for the State, and
it will be seen that the only man
that connects Tatum with the label
case at all is Goodman, who both
and Early, leading witness
es for the State, say they would not
believe on his oath, and who, accord
ing to EARLY, was generally known
as a Glow, dirty rascal With tnls
showing Tatum should have been
promptly acquitted by the jury, and
had he been tried separate from the
other defendants in the case we feel
sure that the jury would have done
so. The testimony against Boykin
and Towill by Early no doubt 1nhu-
enced two men on the jury to stano
out for a conviction of Tatum along
with the other defendants.
No mans good name should be
taken from him on the testimony OF
a bribe taking go-between like Good
man. who the States own witnesses
declared, they would not believe on
oath. and who, as one of the State S
witness admitted, was generally re-
garded as "low, dirty scoundrel.
No doubt Goodman stole the naltry
three hundred dollars he claimed to
have given Tatum and put it in his
own pocket, and then hatched up the
story that he gave it to Tatum to
fool his fellow boodlers when they
we're dividing the graft money.
Admitting for the sake OF argu-
ment that Tatum was in the consplr-
acv to rob the State, does any sane
man believe that he would have SOLD
out for the paltry sum of three hun
dred dollars when he could have cas-
ily gotten that many thousands?
Such an idea is preposterous. We DO
not believe that Tatum got one cent
of the money the State was buncoed
ont of in this case, and as matter
of Justice we regret that the jury
did not say so. The fact that the
Jury did not say so, however, Will not
prevent all fair minded men from ac-