The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-06-12
OLD MARION co. MAN
COMMITS AWFUL CRIME.

vi plloc.
Possibly a number of our readers
will recall the name of Doc Conner,
said to have been born and reared
in the Pages Mill section, formerly
part of old Marion County. Con-
ner left this State several years ago
but before leaving, he is said to
have legally changed his name from
Doc Connor to Cornelius Powers. He
landed later in Florida, where he
was engaged in farming. The Tri-
bune, morning paper published i'll
Tampa, Fla, has the following story
in its issue of May 29th:
Lakeland, May 28.- Numbering
an. aged woman with an axe, accord
ing to his own admissions, bury
ing her in a field and plowing over
the spot, and later with his hands
cuffed, attempted suicide by jump
ing out of the swiftly moving auto
mobile of Sheriff Logan, of Polk
County, a man named Powers was
finally landed in the County jail
at Barlow this afternoon. His vic
tim was Mrs. Eliza Slade, ,sixty-five
years old, who was killed about
dusk Tuesday at her home, thirteen
miles east of Kathleen. After the
murder Powers carried the body tc
a nearby field making his thirteen
year old son, witness to the muir
der, carry lantern while the corpse
was buried face down in cane field,
and the ground plowed over to hide
the primitive grave.
Soon after the crime Powers con-
fided in a neighbor, Lee Startling, Of
fering his services for the remainder
of his life if he could be protected,
according to Starling's statement.
1t is believed here that Powers
slaughtered his aged victim in
fit of anger over his swearing to
warrant charging him with threat
ening her life. Powers farmed
part of the Slade place, working OF
shares, and differences in the past
few days led him to telephone Sher-
iff Logan that the woman was max
ing and selling whiskey.
Mrs. Slade is an old settler OF
Polk County and is survived by tw
married daughters, both of Green
Swamp, northwest of Loughman,
Powers is a widower, about Al years
old and has two sons; the thirteen
year old boy who witnessed the mur
der and who later told the tragic de-
tails to Sheriff Logan, and another
boy ten years of age, the younger
boy living at the home of Lee Starl
ing to whom Powers first confided
his crime"
After the murder, Powers and
his elder son returned to the Starl-
ing home where they slept, and this
morning told of the events of the
night before. Startling persuaded
Powers to accompany him to Kath-
leen under preteXt of other matters,
and later phoned Sheriff Logan the
details. Sheriff Logan rushed to
Kathleen, and told Powers he was
under arrest for the murder OF Mrs.
Slade.. Powers tainted but was soon
revived and was handcuffed, and II
was while driving for Lakeland at
thirty-five miles an hour that he
jumped from the rear seat, landing
on his head, in the soft dirt at the
side of the road, uninjured.
After his arrest Powers refused to
talk. He was we'll known in the
community and WAS considered 4,
quiet and not of a troublesome ma
ture.
Powers thirteen year old son told
Sheriff Logan that his father had
me. the old woman at the gate near
the rear of the home. had struck
| her with an axe, and then carried
the body to the nearby cane field
where the boy held a"1antern while
the grave was being dug three feet
deep. between the cane rows. The
boy said Mrs. S!ade had cried out
several times. but with the nearest
nei-h six miles away. there was
mo alarm. y corouers jury has been