Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1921-11-07

for either OF these gentlemen in the
public service to publicly condemn
another without the slightest invita-
tton." F =
Senator Watson then read q letter
from an unidentified Richmond, Va.
woman who said she had served
we've months as an army nurse.
The letter said that OFFICERS made
c~ourtesGns of the nurses wherever
possible. and nurses who resisted were
subjected to personal indignities."
= Mr.. Watson also said he had been
told personally by a former nurse that
assault Of an'officer.
More kilograms and letters in sup
port OF his illegal hanging charges
ais were presented by the senator.
He submitted another photograph of
what he said was az army gallows In
france which photograph, he said.
mad been smugsled into the country
by a Huntington, w. Va, private.
Thinks There Were Many Gibbets.
Apparently there were as many
gibbets as Hospitals said the senator.
who for the first time gave the name
l.. A/er-of the man he
said told him Of hearing from the
gallows guard that twenty-one SOL
diers had been hanged without court
martial. He presented a telegram
from Aver sta&ng that an affidavit
was being forwarded for the OF
Monday to determine procedure in
the investigation of the senator's
charges. The senator promised to
protect his witness If any attempts, he
said, were made to "browbeat or in
timidate them"
Another telegram presented by the
senator was from George Carbough,
Aaron, Ga, who said he served in the
605th Engineer corps and declared
that Mr.. Watson's charges Of illegal
hangings were true. Senator Watson
the committee and face the general
staff. '"
The senator received another tele-
gram which requested that the. in
~vestigation include the case of Albert
Purcell of Cincinnati" about which he
vas able to learn nothing from the
war department. The message said
Purcells death occurred at 4 camp at
San Antonio. Texas.
William Gibbons Of Cleveland. had
VIII wrl1te nha mr.: W nh said that he had
and h other after hanging of a SOL
dier against whom the writer said the
charges lacked dehniteness.
The senate also was told by Mr..
Watson that a former serviceman
now living in Washington had given
him a statement as to the hanging of
four negro soldiers ION n gallows
at one time, each clad in the uniform
that General Pershing wears"
The same soldier informed him. he
said, that these men were Hanged
without courtmartiaL
Another soldier had Informed him.
MI. Watson said, that the body of
"a negro convict, the black cap still
over his face had been exhumed
and sent to the home Of a white wom-
an in Rochester. N. T., whose son
had been killed in action.
Just suoh a case happened in my
home county in Gcorgia," the enato
'The further we 60, the worse it
gets" he concluded. "The more we
stir 1t. the worse it stinks."
Hanging DtdNNot Take Place, Is Claim.
Beaumont, Texas, Nov. 5.-The al
legged hanging of a negro soldier in the
La Rochelle area in FRANCE during the
war. referred to by Senator Watson,
Georgia. did not take place. and the
negro, William Curtis. is now serving
a term in the Leayenworth prison. ac-
cordtng to a statement today by o. A.
Daisles Houston and Beaumont adver-
Using man.
Daisle. then a lieutenant in the la
Dor battalion. said he attended Curtis
c~ourtrnartial as an interpreter, adding
that Curtis is said to have been found
guilty and to have confessed to at
lacking q seven-year-old French girl
while she was on her way to school.
He was condemned to death, Daisle
said, but later sentence was commut-
ed because the French law is oppos-
ed to capital punishment for such
crimes. The negro vas prosecuted by
Julius Dornfield, now an attorney Of
Houston. Texas, and at m time judge
advocate of the Acourtmartial, accord
ing to Daigle.,
Curtis was sentenced~to life impris-
onment but, according to Leavenworth
dispatches, this was later reduced to
20 years.
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