Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-05
Prison investigators Fit from Place to Place
to See That Everything Is Spick and Span,
and Decide Stories Of Cruelties Were Greatly
Exaggerated in Testimony of Prisoners.

lllnO1lV OF L T1SOneTS.
, dead from overwork and heat pros
| tration Hes gave up two or three
times during the day, but each time
/ he was made to go back to work in
the hot sun
Coming back from work he col
lapsed completely in his chains. He
was carried to the camp. The next
morning he died. Nothing was done
| for him in the way Of medical at
tendance except TO rub ice on his
head
They would beat the prisoners and
| fog them and then send them 10
| work BY the time they would get
to work the blood would he oozing
| through their clothes. Many times
| the men would collapse In the middle
Of the day from the agony of the
whlppings they had received in the
| morning,
Breaks Thorn In" With Lash.
ION rainy days Tyree would come
into the clubhouse with his whip in
his hand. He would say, Where are
the new ones?' Someone would tell
him, and then he would say, We'll,
this is d mighty good time to break
you in Then he would have the
new prisoners taken out and fogged
for nothing at all but just to break
them in"
Stories OF cruelty inflicted upon
Fulton County's prisoners more
Grand Jury had listened before, were
shocking than any to which the
unfolded when the Jurors resumed
their sessions Wednesday.
IT was not necessary TO take the
words of the convicts. Former con-
Wet camp employees were on hand
to tell of conditions of which pris-
oners themselves had not dared to
speak
Jeffrey Beck was one Of them Beck
smith at the wiauca camp. out
Peachtree road about a mile beyond
Buckhead
Calls Boss Flosqing Machine.
He quit his job as he said. because
he no longer could endure the sights
to which the brutal practices of the
convict bosses" treated him. SO long
as he could he stayed at the camp
and watched each day the tortures to
which the guards put their helpless
prisoners Then he left.
OF Ed Tyree, the convict boss. he
had this to say:
Il don't think that man has a spark
OF sympathy or humanity within his
body. He is as hard and callous and
brutal as a man can be. He is moth
ing more than a fiogging machine.
mo starved, consumptive- ridden
and thoroughly cowed convict in ST.
IBERIA ever was more in the fear OF
the knout and the other methods OF
| torture than these mlstreated negroes
out at the Weiauca camp"
Beck now is blacksmith in a
Gwinnett County camp. Occupying
the position of warden there is
| Charles l.. Nash, who formerly wa
employed in the Fulton County
camps Beck told the Grand Jury
that Nash would voluntarily leave
his work and come to Atlanta to tell
OF the horrors he had witnessed while
in this county's employ.
| Seven Confederate Him.
! Wednesdays session of the Grand
Jury was the most productive of re-
suits of any OF their hearings. Seven
negro convicts' at the Weiauca camp
were called to testify and they bore
out in every particular the sensa-
tional testimony OF Beck.
The things | had to witness and
hear were terrible" Beck said. con-
tinuing his story. II can hear TO this
day the agonized shrieks OF the poor
negro prisoners as they were dashed
and beaten without any mercy what
ever. and many times without any
cause whatever
81 have seen Tyree whip the blood
| out Of the convicts and appear to take
nenulSn Satisfaction III MS Work.
To some OF them he has given as
many as rs lashes Some OF them
were sullen and bore their punish
ment with almost superhuman forti-
tude Others screamed piercingiy and
wrthed in their agony"
Sick Conviets Floaeed.
81 have seen him beat up negroes
for no other reason than that they
were unable TO work. l know OF four
negroes who lay sick and were flogged
because they asked to be let off until
they recovered.
1T didn't do for one of the men to
get sick. TYREE WOULD DRIVE
THEM TO WORK AND FLOG
THEM UNTIL THE BREATH WAS
ALMOST GONE FROM 1'AEIR
BODIES AND THEY WERE READY
TO DIE.
II would suggest that that old QUO