The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-08-18
FOX AND GaPPINs TELL OF KILL
ING OF TAXI DRIVER.
HELD IN CHARLESTON JAIL.
Sheriff Plunkett of Augusta Drives
All Night to Evade Mob Which
Storms Jail in Augusta.


Savannah, Ca, Aug. 11.-Confes-
sion to having committed one of the
most brutal murders in police annals
was wrung from c. o. Fox and Jessie
Gappins, the two prisoners brought
to Chatham county Jail at 5:55
O'Clock this morning after an all
night ride to avert lynching party
that stormed the Richmond county
jail at Augusta shortly after Sheriff
Plunkett left with the two men.
Their statement of the killing Of
William Brazell, young chauffeur
of Colum bia, whom they had engaged
to go for a ride with the intention
of robbing him, was practically the
same as that made by S. j. Kirby,
now in the South Carolina peniten-
tiary.
Fox and Gappins were hurried from
the Augusta Jail Thursday morning
by Sheriff Plunkett following infor-;
nation that a party of so automo-
biles vas coming to take the men.
He left instructions with the jailer
to let the lynching party in to search
the jail. The sheriff with his two
prisoners left the jail and started
fer Savannah, stopping only at
Waynesboro to pick up a Burke
county officer who was familiar with
the roads leading to Savannah.
At First Refused.
When the party arrived at the
Chatham county jail they were refus-
ed admittance with their prisoners
due to a rule that no more foreign
prisoners were to be accepted with
out written order" The men were
placed in the city jail but were later
returned to the county jail upon the
proper order.
In the presence of Sheriff Plunkett
and Jailer Kidwell the two men con-
fessed their guilt, telling revolving
tale of the murder of Brazell. The
confessions of the two men were then
signed, Kidwell witnessing the sigma
lures.
In their confessions the two men
stated that they with Kirby engaged
the car from Brazell with the inten-
ton of driving to Lexington. They
planned to get him out of the coun-
ty, they said, and to take the car from
him, but at the time had no inten-
tion of killing Brazell.
Brazell, after driving them about
for some time, stopped the machine
to buy some gasoline and one OF
the party stepped from the machine
to see how much money he had with
him when he paid for the gasoline.
It was found he had SO in his pos
session.
The automobile started again and,
stopping for a few minutes in the
road, according to the statement OF
the men, Fox struck Brazell in the
head with billy. At this point the
three men attacked the helpless
driver with knives, brutally stabblng
him in the body. Brazell put up
hard fight, but was overpoWered oy
his assailants, two of them holding
his hands behind his back, while FOX
plunged a knife in the drivers body.
Pleaded for Life.
Vhe two men admitted that Bra
zell pleaded earnestly with his as
sailants that they spare his LIE,
protesting that he would not turn
them up. His assailants turned a
deal ear to his pleadings. Fox, in
a confession, admitted twisting the
knife around in Brazell's body after
he stabbed him.
The body of the dead man was tax
en- in the automobile and carried
along the road short distance be-
fore the slayers took it into the
woods some yards from the road.
There was very little money in the
pockets of the dead man, but after
relieving him of the few dollars he
had, they drove the automobile on.
The automobile finally broke down
near Waynesboro and the three men
deserted the car. Kirby told w. u.
Roberts, of Waynesboro, n. c., that
the other two men had committed
a murder. Kirby then showed where
the body of Brazell had been taken
by the passengers of the murder
car. Kirby is at present under arrest
in Columbia.