The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-06-11
i received this answer:

| outside on the grounds, on comes
your headn
The witness was elected to the
House, however, at the second pri'
mary and said he was informed thai
his successful candidacy had made
"the opposition" in Wagner more in
tenseiy bitter against him than ever
before, and that it would be best fol-
him to stay away from Wagner for
while. He said that more than a
hundred people warned him of the
deceased's alleged threats to kill,
among them NJ. T. Holley and j. P.
Permenter, and he corroborated the
testimony that these latter two gave
Wednesday. Also, he testified, num-
Der Of his friends in Wagner among
them E. B. Gunter Jr., of the Bank of
Western Carolina, and Van Jones,
who was acting mayor, advised him
that it would be discreet to remain
away until the ill-feeling subsided.
Gunter and Jones testified Wednes-
day, it will be recalled. Acting upon
these many advices Long said he de-
termined to remain in Aiken for some
time, and had his wife and child to
go there, where the family boarded
until after the third primary election,
which was just a few days before the
homicide.
Long said he remained in Aiken
because he wanted to avoid any trou-
BILE, but that after J. c. Busbee, "the
opposition's" candidate, was elected
in the third primary, he had thought
that would bring an end to the polit-
ical troubles. Further, he said, that
his home and his business were in
Wagner, his money invested there,
in fact everything he had, and he felt
that he had a right to return to Wag-
ener; that under the circumstances
ne didn't feel that he could do any
thing else.
But before he went back to his
home he had published to the voters
Of Aiken County card Of thanks, in
which he expressed to them his APP
probation of their vote, the conf
dence they reposed in and the honor
they conferred upon him, stating in
the card that he "could even forgive
those who had mistreated me, for I
have not one tinge Of hard feeling
left in my heart for any one. The
published article was exhibited in
Court and accepted as evidence.
The defendant then continued that
when he returned to Wagner, he
found that his newspaper office had
been entered surreptitiously and his
private papers ransacked; even that
his home had been surrounded and
pried into, and, he declared, some
party or parties had been at his house
after midnight, but, after unseemly
demonstrations and efforts to enter at
the windows, departed.
Not accustomed to using or carry
ing on his person firearms, Mr.. Long
said, he had not trustworthy wea-
pom in his possession and secured
gun and revolver from DR.. O. B.
Portwood and revolver from one
Joe Brown, this latter weapon being
the one, he believed, with which he
fatally wounded Pickens Gunter.
"And when I got them," he said, II
carried them directly home by the
nearest route. I did not, as has been
alleged, walk the streets Of WAGNER
with gun on my shoulder"
The defendant then told Of the
tragedy:
He had been to the post Office, he
said, and was standing glancing over
the headlines Of newspaper when
he was approached by man in his
employ. They stood there some mo-
ments conversing, he testified, when
he felt some one grab him, jerk at
him and strike him stunning blow
in the back of the head. He had not
seen Gunter, he declared, and was not
aware that he was anywhere near.
The blow stunned him, and as he
fell to the ground he recognized the
face of Pickens Gunter, whose coun-
tenance, he said, looked like that Of
a wild man in a cage" The legisla-
tor said that as he fell, he had an
idea that the affair was the execution
Of the numerous threats made against
his life, and that this fear prompted
his deed of a few moments later.
About the time he fell, he said, his
assailant struck him heavy blow
between the eyes and blinded him to
such an extent that he did not re-
member to have seen consecutively or
very consciously anything else that
transpired until he got up.
After they fell to the ground, Long
affirmed, Gunter's left hand gripped
over his throat and was choking him
into Inconsistencies. He was grap-
ping for his pistol and when Gun
ter realized this he grapped Longs
wrist and tried to wrest the revolver
from it. The first shot did not find
it's mark, and Gunter, said Long, re-
newed more vigorously than before
his efforts to secure the weapon, but
Long fred the second and fatal shot,
and Gunter's muscles relaxed.
At this juncture, Mr.. Long, in
clear, steady voice, declared:
ri shot because I believed my life
to be in imminent danger and that I
myself would be killed unless I did
fire. I fired the two shots in defence
Of my life. I knew that If Mr.. Gun
ter secured my revolver he would kill
me, if his friends didn't"
Mr.. Long denied that as he left
the scene, he encountered c. x. Ly-
brand, who testified that he heard
Long saw that he had intended all