The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-07-20
SUMTER. s. G., SATURDAY. JULY 90 1919
PARD0NS FOR ASSASS|NS,
lELDIR SAYS BLEASE SOUGHT
t. HAVE HIM MURDERED.
CncrcG to Pardon Convict to DO the
Jot-Says Blcasc Sold One Hundred
Pardons.

Atlanta. July 16.--Thomas l}.
Fielder declared that Governor Cole
Blease # South Carolina had prom
ised to pardon convicts in the State
prison if they would assassinate Eel
der after Blease had brought him in
to the State on trumped up requisi-
ton papers.
But he didn't make good his plot
to get me-" said Fielder, because the
governor of Georgia wouldn't honor
his requisition. Now I'm going to
live to see that governor of South
Carolina discredited for his graft and
thrown out of his office. I'm going
to live 20 see him punished for thiey-
cry, imprisoned for graft and finally
he'll be put behind the bars in Geor-
g'a for crime thar he committed
here that no newspaper would print,
and which l would not name, a crime
Involving unsound depravity
Il can prove by circumstantial evil
dence that since he has cen COVER
nor of South Carolina Blease has sold
100 pardons to criminals ard I'll show
by that same evidence that he got
the money in his own pocket for MAX
ing the sale. He did it in the same
way that he started to do it through
Nichols when we caught him in
Washington through Detective Reed
and his dictagraph.
Declares They Have Proof.
That testimony by the dictagraph
material evidence Of Blease's crook
edness. because We can prove he sold
pardons, and We will dOvetail into
that evidence the speech Blease made
In Spartanburg month ago when he
said that if the people Of South Car
olina expected him to stop the grant
Ing of pardons as he had been doing
since he became governor they'd Bet
Ter not elect him governor again be-
cause he wouldn't stop.
'dite ne on his trumped up chaxse
I've had him shadowed. That's how
] came 10 know about his plot TO as
sassinate me. Some of the hench-
men he had in that conspiracy were
rot in prison, some he had ALREADY
pardoned before. But have evidence
thar Blease offered pardons 10 men
behind the bars if they would kill me-.
That's another Of the crimes can
prove against the degenerate who is
sIill legally entitled 10 call himself
the chief executive Of a great South
ern State.
Detective Reed and | are awaiting
1urthcr summons from the investi-
gazing committee at Augusta. Reed
has telegram from Nichols. with
whom he bargained for a pardon for.
the yeggman bentley. which shows
Us that Blease accepted the $4,000
hribe the Burns detective pretended
t. offer him while the dictagraph
N""oHt t"eir bargain IN the WSShing-
ton hotel.
Awaiting Further summons.
That telegram tells Reed Cknoun
by Nichols as Attorney Porter of Chi
cago) to hurry on South and wind up
the deal and pay his money and get
MS pardon just us Nichols said he
would fix the governor when they
made the contract. That ought to
prove TO any commission what sort Of
man Blease is.
Reed and | are awaiting that
committees : further summons. When
In" committee gets through, when
the people of South Carolina Know
the truth about the man who has
sWindled them out Of a governorshin
and when they bave turned him out
As they surely will when his term cx-
pires if they do not do il before
then We will begin our criminal prose
cutions, will not detail now the
crimes We will prove against that
man because it would forewarn him
and his clique. but if justice Is done
III South Carolina ana here. as il
surely will. BIcase Will go behind the
hafS Tor all the years he lives. And
that sentence will hc no more than
he deserves.