Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1919-09-10
FOR FORTY YEARS IN PRISON.
Strange and Pitiful Case Reported
from North Carolina.
A Raleigh, n. c., dispatch says

service in tho State prison for her
part In the murder Of her husband,
Wesley Wycotf, for which Bob Nc
Corkle, black, has been hanged, has
ceased, by letter that betrays her
innocence, to be prisoner of hope"
and remains one Of choice.
Aunt Sarah was late getting the
letter her daughter-in-law recently
wrote her, telling how a neighbor,
in the terror Of his deathbed, con-
fessed the crime for which McCorkle
died. and which would have cost her
life,' but for her sex. This Mrs. Wy
coff, who is the widow Of the last
member Of Aunt Sarah's family,
writes without great enlightenment
to the oldest prisoner in the States
service. Aunt Sarah has done" her
40 years, and next week will be rs.
The weazened old woman came to
the State prison in 1879, after two
trials and two convictions. More
than half that Incarceration has been
spent on n little cot on the highest
floor in the State prison. She has
not walked in % years. Rheumatism
has drawn her trim fingers double
and deprived her Of all locomotion,
save the power to crawl and Dush
herself with an invalid's chair. But
in 23 years, and fiat Of her back, she
has not uttered word of offense to
her friends in prison, and now, If
the Governor will pardon her. those
attendants will insist that she die
there.
Actual Slayer Confcsses Crime.
Aunt Sarah gave your correspon
dent an interview Friday. She did
not mean to be giving Interviews
she doesn't even know what ono
means. She was reading her Bible.
which is printed in 12-point lypc.
varying this with the scrawled letter
which has come from her solitary
relative, her daughter-in-law. Moth
ing harder has been undertaken since
the original tackler of the Egyptian
hieroglyphics than the reading of
junior Mrs. Wycoff's letter. The
dutiiul widow merely wished Aunt
Sarah to know that she has suffered
III silence and mystery and the actual
slayer Of the old man, Wesley Wycoif,
has confessed the crime. Who he
was the daughter-in-l2w does not
know.
II am left alone with no one to
live with me-" she says, telling MRS.
Wycof for the first timo OF her
sons death. "Jacob is dead and gone
and the children married off. He
had six children-three boys and
three girls. They are we'll as COM
mon. Bob" NARROW was here. You
know her. She said she knowed YOU,
That man is dead that killed Wesley
Wycoff. He told on his deathbed that
he killed him hisself-that you nor
Bob McCorkle never done it. He did
1T hisself and you and Bob was ino.
sunt. | am glad to no and i wanted
you to know the people had found out
how it was done"
Mrs. Wyc.M'S Story.
Mrs. Wycoff is as ignorant OF the
trial and what brought her to prison
as IL she had lived in another cuiso
and by some metempsychosis or
other process had been transplanted
from star, the moon, or the sea
into North Carolina life. She doas
recall that she had Il husband; that
she was accused Of numbering him.
and twice convicted and sent to
prison.
I'VE was first trie.i in Cataw ba
county-that's where they said he
was killed by Bob, and that |
knowed about it," she said. "And
then we was tried in Alexander. 1t
happened the same there as in Ca
tawba. don't know why they tried
me. They said I knowed sumpin'
about 1t. They never said done 1t.
but said I knowed about it," She
could not recall whether the lawyers
and the court talked about acces-
sories before and after the fact. All
that she could recall was that at
happened the same"
Why there were two trials does
not appear from anything that she
recalls. Tht Supreme Court records
do not seem to have the case. and it
is barely possible that one OF them
was tried in one county and the
other in the adjoining jurisdiction.
1t is not impossible that tho judge