The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-05-22
AIKEN MAN CHARC-
ED With ARSON
Capt. ]. Maxwell Richardson
Arrested and in Jail.
CHARGED WITH
BURNING BARN
Capt. Richardson Laughs
at Charge-Evidence
Circumstantial.

Aiken, May 16.--Intense excite
ment was created here today about
noon when Capt. J. Maxwell Richard
son, one time candidate for the office
of Adjutant and Inspector General,
and formerly major on the military
staff of Governor Blease, was arrest
ed and lodged in Jail upon warrant,
charging arson. The warrant had
been issued at the instigation of B. A.
Wharton, deputy to Insurance Com
missioner F. H. McMaster, the deputy
having been here for about two
weeks past investigating the origin
of a fire which early on the morning
of Saturday, April 10, DESTROYED a
barn. shed and office building belong
ing to Capt. Richardson's wife, they
having operated wood yard here
under the name of the Aiken Fuel
Company.
The preliminary hearing has been
set for tomorrow morning, and 1t IS
understood that Capt. Richardson has
retained the professional services OF
Col. Claude E. Sawyer and Messrs.
Croft & Croft. Attorneys are already
at work to secure bail for the lncar-
cerated man, and it is not believed
that this will be difficult.
1t is admitted by the prosecution
that all the evidence against Capt.
Richardson is of a purely circumstan-
tial nature and hinges around the al
legation that Capt. Richardson, a
few davs before the conflagration, re-
moved to his farm lot of furniture
that he had been storing for negro
woman named Martha Frayser; that
when the fire occurred Capt. Rlcharo-
son told her, and permitted the I'M
preston to go abroad, that her FUR
niture was destroyed in the tre. But
Capt. Richardson very easily contra
diets this. and when visited at the
iail this afternoon by The News and
Courier correspondent, was quite
iovial and self-complacent. He de-
inounced the whole thing as nothing
hut a frame-up, a continuation OF GER
tain political prosecutions to Whlcn l
have been subjected for some time.
Capt. Richardson professed to ex-
perience not the slightest uneaslness
as to his ultimate vidication.
Cant. Richardson laughed at all
that stuff about the furniture, as
he characterized the situation, stat
ing that the furniture over which ne
once held a mortgage, satisfied some
time prior to the fire, belonged ao-
so1n+e1v TO the negro woman, Mary
Frayser; that it was in his way ana
he had several times urged the Wo-
man to move it; that finally portion
of if was carried out to his farm ana
gotten out of his way, while the re-
mainder of it was DESTROYED by the
flames, and that the remains are still
in evidence. He claimed that after
Mary Frayser made an affidavit to the
osoc+ that the furniture had been
moved to the farm and that he hao
told her it was all burned up she
came to him and told him what sne
had done and apologized, alleging ne
stated. that she had been forced lnto
it by the detective.
Can't. Richardson pointed out an
other contradiction in that one OF the
afhdavits affirmed that the furniture
had been moved on the morning OF
the 18th day of April, when as d
matter of fact that was several hours
after the fire occurred, and the 1urn.-
ture had been moved openly on the
18th. and he had so stated. he 1uF-
+her called attention to the fact thaC
he insurance, $500, "a mere pit
tance." he termed it, was paid with
ont anv hesitancy. He also recalled
the fact that when this same propert!
was destroyed about three years ago
bv fire set by the Southern trains,
which runs alongside, he refused TO
accent the insurance and had the
DAMAGE made good by the railway
company without having to lltlgate.
Can't. Richardson is we'll known III
military circles of the State IS a
spanish-American war veteran, 1or-
mer member of Governor Blease
staff, commander of the 1st company
artillery corp, n. G., S. c., now dis
handed, and opposed Adjt. Gen. Moore
when the latter was first elected to
Office. Also he was once a member
of the local councilmanic board.