The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-10
All Were Placed Under Two
Bonds of $500 Each
Yesterday
WRONG IMPRESSION
MIGHT BE CREATED
Would Not Wilfully or Intentionally
Cause Any Human Being to Suf-
fer-No Effort Made "to
Whitewash .

The four members of the Moose orde,
who yere ordered held Friday night nv
the coroners jury were each placed undo,
two bonds of $500 each yesterday. They
are John p. Abbott. dictator of the local
lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose. D. "
Williams, secretary; r. E. Vanlandina
ham, prelate and assistant secretary, and
DR.. L. c. Neill, lodge physician .
These four men yesterday issued the fol.
lowing formal statement regarding the
deaths of Donald A. Kenney and Christie
|pher c. Gustin, which occurred during
their initiation into the order:
1--WE regret exceedingly that the jury
has seen fit in their judgment to place us
In the eyes of the world as characters who
would willfully or Intentionally cause any
human being to suffer, much less to meet
with such AN untimely end as was the los
of Kenney and Gustin. We trust thai
every person whom 1t is our lot to know
will not draw the conclusion that the loca
order of Moose was a fraternity, whose
purposes and teachings were other thar
that to promote a feeling of good fellow.
ship among it's members and to aid the
weak and afflicted, and that we, as Its
It's officers, were endeavoring conscien-
tiously to carry out the teachings of the
order, and that this occurrence is to be
more depiored than censured. We each
feel that we have committed no wrong,
and while we deeply regret this great ca
lamity which has befallen these two un-
fortunates and our beloved order, that
the public will give to this matter serious
thought and consideration before they see
fit to condemn us and the order.
No Effort at Whitewash
1--WE are at loss to understand the
statement in this mornings Age-Herald
purporting to emenate from Coroner Spain
to the effect that 1t was not the white
wash some people expected for never at
any time has any officer or member of our
order asked for anything tending to be
white wash or insinuated that a white
wash would result from the investigation
made by the coroner, We have at all
times cheerfully and willingly, in so far
as we were permitted, furnished such ev-
idence and information as was within our
knowledge. We desire the public to un-
derstand that we were deprived of the
privilege of being present, either in per-
son or by counsel. at the session of the
coroner's jury, and we did not desire to
persist in requesting this privilege, as we
thought that it might give out the im-
preston that we were trying to influence
the coroner's jury in its deliberations. We
readily furnished without request from the
coroner the names of all witnesses whom
we, recalled as being present upon the
night of the fatal initiation. We also re-
quested that they summons medical elec-
trical experts to give them the benefit OF
their knowledge and experience as to the
effect of electricity upon the human BODY.
The names of DIR, ]. III, Edmondson was
suggested by DIR. Neill and also the names
of Dr. l.. r. Iucky by Mr. Abbott. In so
far as we know neither of these were ex-
amined or requested to appear before the
Jury. Neither of these physicians are
members of the order but both have the
reputation of being experts along this
line.
No Reflection on Jury
"While we have no reflections to cast
unon anv member of the coroner's jury,
we desire 1t distinctly understood that
we consider each member of the jury a
gentleman of the highest calibre, many
of them being our personal frlenos anu
acquaintances. but it seems to US tha'
the investigations of the coroner's jury
was confined more to the examination oil
experts rather than to the examina-
tion of witnesses on facts. Also the test
ing of the strength of the magnetic used
upon the men. 1t is with regret that we
notice that one of the witnesses testi-
fed that he considered the use of this
magnetic as crude cruelty yet in the same
breath, he admitted that he sold the same
idertical magnetic for the same identical
purpose for which it was being used at
at the time Kenney and Gustin met their
Il Go for xxrA
not been an expert, who has testified that
this magnetic was of sufficient strength
to produce death, when applied to men
in normal physical condition, and we
submit that the undisputed testimony
shows that this Identical magnetic has
been in use for the same identical pur-
pose and used approximately upon more
than 500 men without serious result, that
any reasonably fair minded man would
be led to the honest and conscientious
belief that no harm would result when
used for that purpose. and we trust that
the public will not hold us guilty as
criminals, when we felt at the time that
We were earnestly giving our time and
labor for the promotion of good fellow
ship among mankind.
EmbaIming of Bodies
There is one other subject that we
would like for the public to understand,
and that is with reference to the em-
balming of the bodies of Kenney and
Gustin. 1t seems that there has been a
disposition on the part of the coroner
and the press to leave the public In
doubt as t. the connection of the Off
GERS and members of the Moose lodge
with this matter. Mr. Abbott states
positively that he notified Coroner Spain
over the telephone at eleven Cd O'Clock
on the night of the initiation and death
of the two men and Officer Jones. OFF,
Ger Christian. Officer AIc(Seavar and an