The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-09-26
CRAIG CONTINUES
NERVOUS AND SILENT
ABOUT GRIM MURDER
MAN ACCUSED or KILLING NEIL
PRiMM TRAMPS JAIL CORRlD-
ORS SILENTLY.
KILLING WAS RESULT OF DISPUTE
Prisoner Does Not Deny killing--Will
Be Given Preliminary Hearing
Before Squire Webster Next Tues.
day. 4
(Daily Herald. Sept. 25.)

(Daily Herald, Sept. 25)
Wallace Craig, charged with the
murder of Neil Primm near Grove
land Wednesday morning, will be
given preliminary hearing before
Justice of the Peace Hugh Lee Web
ster. The prisoner has called for a
lawyer and by the time his prehmin
airy trial occurs there will be a decis.
ion as to the nature of defense that
will be made by him.
With disheveled hair and clothing,
eyes shifting and hands twitching,
Wallace Craig, accused slayer of Neil
Primm, continues to tramp the corri-
doris of the Jail cells and humble only
in an almost incoherent tone when he
is spoken to- He spent a restless
night and was but little calmer, this
morning than he was a few hours
after the tragedy occurred on q road
near Groveland and he was arrested
as the slayer of his neighbor over a
cedar timber trade dispute.
Il signed contract on first thought
without reading it," Craig told Her
aid reporter shortly after the tragedy
He didn't mention the name of the
man who was slain. II asked him to
let me have the contract back when
found it had things in ii that didn't
agree to. | went To him several times
about it but he wouldn't talk about it.
offered to give him back his money
with a profit on the cedar, but he
wouldn't talk about it," continued the
prisoner in almost inaudible tones.
Craig talked in a rambling way with
the reporter about the trade and told
how he had decided Wednesday morn
ing to go to Primm and have settle
ment. When asked if he took the
shotgun with him to kin Primm he
was silent, but became more tense
than ever in his nervousness. He
would say nothing about the actual
tragedy, but said that after the shoot
ing he left the gun on the road and
went TO Groveland Il He would neither
deny nor admit that he killed Primm,
always becoming exceedingly nervous
when that question was asked him.
He said he lived alone on his farm
and had never had any trouble with
Primm before the cedar trade was
made.
Friends and relatives of Primm say
that the only misunderstanding be-
tween the slain man and Craig that
they knew of was that Craig had
found six cedar trees on his land cut
below the dimensions of inches call
ed for in the contract and when he
demonstrated with Primm the latter
agreed to leave uncut as many trees
above inches.
Another report is that Craig had
asked Primm to leave enough timber
on the land for him to build barn
with, to which Primm is said to have
cheerfully agreed.
But little is known about the life
of Craig. He lived alone and associat-
ed but little with his relatives and 9th
er people. He came to Columbia fire.
quently and was known here as an &C.
centric man.
Primm was one of the most popular
men in the fourth district and had no
enemies. He had but recently been
elected constable of his district and
had made splendid officer. He serv-
ed as officer of the court at the last
session of the circuit court.
The tragedy of Primms death,
which is accentuated by the fact that
he leaves a wife and two children,
will not be a mystery for the unravel-
ing of the courts, but when Craig is
put on trial the case will be one of
peculiar circumstances, revealing the
life of man whose mind did not func
ton normally, and the death of man
who became the victim of that mental
deficiency.