The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-07-07
Severe Denunciation of Will
and Bob Blackwell by
Mrs. Eliza Atwell.
SON AND DAUGHTER
TELL OF KILLING
Dramatic Recital of Incl
dents Following Return
of Children to Home.
By Thomas Ewing Dabnev.

'Sy
Crestview, July 6.-"WIl said he'd
killed old man Davis, and | said, You
didn't do it. He said, No, I didn't
but the hoys did" >
With these zvoESs-4frs.@ Eliza At
we'll prefaced her denunciation of
Will and Bob Blackwell, and the mys-
terious stranger from Alabama,
charging them with the murder Of
Bud and Nancy Davis on the night
of March 81, 1917.
Blackwells Identified.
"In height, build, and ALL" de-
clared Harrison Davis. sor of the
murdered man, the prisoners at the
bar compare exactly with the two
men, apparently negroes, who were
seen at the Davis home a few min
utes before the murder; he stated
the belief that Identification would be
positive if their faces were smutted
now as then.
Fixing" Witnesses.
The third sensation of the day was
sprung by Mrs. Eliza Atwell when
she declared that in the Pensacola
Jail, Will Blackwell had named one
of the attorneys for the defense who
would tell three men in Crestview,
whom he named, what to swear in
order to bolster the abb which the
woman stated, he had coerced her
into swearing for him at the coro-
ner's inquest. This recalls the open
ing sensation of the trial proper
when the state summoned two wit
nesses released by the defense, who
declared that only that day Viii
Blackwell had endeavored to get
them to swear to false alibi for
him, offering one pecuniary reward.
Defense started stalking out de-
fensive works in the political frame
up salient today, insinuating indeed
that Mrs. Atwell had been coerced
by certain dark forces into repudiat-
ing her testimony at the coroner's
| inquest, and it was then that Mrs.
Atweu made the statement about the
defense fixing witnesses.
Clothes.
! Today's testimony was largely sar-
| torial. Shoes, coats, shirts, hats and
pants formed the principal theme:
! especially important was Wills coat,
still showing traces of smut on the
collar, for Mrs. Atwell, to whom he
is alleged to have given it with the
request that it be cleansed of the
| telltale evidence, for some reason did
not comply with his request.
! Then there was tx-question of
hat. Had anybody seen viii
felt hat. Several had seen him wear
ing a Panama hat in the summer
| time, but none such a head covering
JooJo1o- 81,
saw on his head on the morning of
! the killing.
| The Hollow Heel.
| Finally the shoes. Sophronia
/ Holmes says it was Will who wore
what has become known as the hol-
| low heel shoes-the shoes with a
concavity in the rubber heel that left
! tiny bumps in the moist sand tell
| tale footprints found about the
! Davis home and leading back into
/ Crestview.
Mrs. Atwell declares that Will the
! summer previous had a pair of tennis
! shoes, but no one has been found VINO
ever saw Will Blackwell wearing
rubber heeled shoes. And when he
came in, at cockcrow on the morning
after the killing, says Mrs. Atwell.
he was barefooted.
Did Will have Bob bring him these
shoes from Alabama to be destroyed
after they had left a false trail ::
Were thew in the suitcase which Will
brought back from Pensacola after
meeting Bob there?
If so, the question arises, how
could a man smart enough to think
of this, be so unutter2blv stupid as
to deny his brothers presence on
Continued on Page Tvo)