The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1916-08-18
0RDERFORHANG|NG
COMES JusTBEF0RE
HE MAKES ESCAPE
Cut His Way Out OF Jail With
Small Saw-Part of Work
Was Old.
HAS NOT BEEN CAPTURED
Aaron Williams Was Under Sen
tence To Have Been Hanged
Today-No cIemency Recon-
mended by Either Governor or
Prison Commission - Posse
After Negro.
HAS NOT BEEN CAPTURED

When special officers empowered bv
Sheriff Berrie entered the death cell
OF Aaron Williams last night to nat
the usual death watch on the condemn
ed man, he was very busily engaged
making his exit through one of th ,
large cell windows. The men in tAe
party were Constable r. NJ. Brown,
Of1cer ID. c. Houston and Kennith
Berrie, son of the sheriff. Mr..
Houston was on the act of entering
the cell occupied by Williams and as
he saw the form of the prisoner MAX
ing its way through the window he
gave the alarm. However, some lit
tie time was lost iii getting from the
second floor of the Jail where the
condemned cells are located, to the
ground floor and when Mr.. Houston
called that the man was escaping,
he was heard by Horace Symons. who
chanced to be on II street and Mr..
Symons says that he Immediately saw
man running north on Newcastle
street, while the wife of Aaron Will
liams was headed rapidly out II. The
news was Immediately sent to- Sheriff
Berrie at his home en- Newcastle street
and several local policemen and deputy
sheriffs were sent out in posses to try
and locate the fleeing man
1t is a remarkable incident that a
telegram was received by The News
at 7:18 from Attorney J. r. Powell in
Atlanta advising that the Governor and
Prison Commission had refused to in
terfere in the case, and just about for
ty minutes later, Williams was in the
act of making his escape News rep
resentatives visited the county Jail last
surroundings generally
1t had been agreed, after the news
came that the condemned man would
die on the gallows this morning. to
put the death watch on and that Will
lams should be transferred from the
condemned cell which he has occupi-
ed for months into a larger one on the
right hand side Of the building. The
cell from which the negro literally
sawed his way is small one and in
order to make good his escape, he was
forced to saw away two locks to the
grated doors leading TO the grated
windows through which to force his
body 1t so hapens that his cell is
imediately over the kitchen, the
kitchen, hte porch of which forms a
shed and this Williams used in maxi
ing the jump to the ground below, a
distance of some thirty to forty feet.
The work shows that it was not done
in single day, in fact the locks which
are of the Yale type, are even rusty.
where they had been sawed apart and
it is pretty safe to assume that the
work on the bars in the window, has
been under way for some time. In
certain to have had at least one ac-
complice and the fact that his wife was
on the scene last night, while he was
in the act OF escaping, goes to show
that she was posted as TO what was
to happen. According TO J. NJ Lowe,
the jailer, Williams had no visitors
Yesterday. His father and his minister
both were with him on Wednesday.
but he was without callers Of any sort
Yesterday. Mr.. Lowe says that while
Williams knew that Attorney Powell
was iu Atlanta yesterday, making a
last effort to save his life, he ap,
peared to be Indifferent as to the re-
suit Of the visit and did not even ask,
whether or not any tidings had come
on the subject. In getting away last
night Williams did not wear his shoes
and 1t Is believed that he was with