The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-09-20
MRS. KIRBY'S PLEA FOR
CLEMENCY REFUSED
Mrs. kirby's Plea is That Her Hus-
band Was Subject to Temporary
Fits of Insanity

+ It's OF insanity
Columbia, S. c., Sept. 15.-Mrs. S.
]. Kirby's oral plea for executive
clemency for her husband, made to
Governor Cooper Wednesday after
noon will not have official considera-
tion from the governor. 1t was stated
at the governors Office that unless a
statement was filed with the execu-
tive no consideration could be given
TO the plea for clemency.
Mrs. Kirby and her eleven-year-old
daughter called on tile goevrnor today
and asked that he change the sentence
from death to life imprisonment.
Mrs. Kirby gave as her reason that
her husband had often been subject
to temporary periods of insanity.
1t is also stated that relatives of
Jesse Gappins will make similar
plea to the governor.
E. C. Fox is resigned to his fate.
His aged father, who is here, states
that his only concern is the eternal
welfare of his sons soul. He has ad-
vised the boy to try to get right with
God.
:. Fox, Kirby and Cappihs are under
death sentence for the murder of Will
.. liam C. Brazell, Columbia taxi-cab
driver.
Columbia, Sept. 14.-'I wish it
were all over with"
The speaker, with drawl in his
voice, sent these words through the
bars. The words came from the lips
of a man who is spending his remain
ing days on earth in the penitentiary'
death cell. The speaker was S. j..
Kirby, one of the. three sentenced to
die in the electric chair on October
21 for the murder of William Brazell,
Columbia taxi driver, who was stabbed
to death on one early Monday morn
ing in August.
Kirby and his two partners an
crime, C. O. Fox and Jesse Gappins,
the three of the most famous prs
oners the state has ever had. Their
/. careers have been marked by remark
able events, the murder of a young
boy to steal car he drove, chased by
a mob for several days over two
states, held in Charleston under hea-
Wy guard to escape lynching, secretly
brought to Columbia under heavy
guard, the three men are now stoically
awaiting the day of their doom, and
their loved ones cry about them and
plead for mercy.
The three men are very talkative,
for men under sentence of death.
Through the bars of their cells in
the death house they talk to their
friends and talk to officials, and they
even appear slightly cheerful at
times.
s. Mr.. and Mrs. Fox, parents of the
young man sentenced to die, have
been frequent callers on their son at
the state prison, since the trio was
brought Tuesday from Lexington.
They are nice looking old people and
their loss excites the sympathy of on
lockers. Mr.. and Mrs. Gappins, the
father and mother of Jesse Gappins,
have called on their son, too. Mrs.
Kirby and Kirby's little daughter have
likewise seen the man to whom they
will say goodbye on October FL.
Gappins is Columbia boy. Fox
came from Stanley Greek, N. c., the
home of his parents. Kirby came to
Columbia from York county. HIS
first visit to the capital was as prs
oner in 1917, when he was sent to
the pen under two-year sentence for
& crime committed on a man of York
county whom, it is said, he beat into
insensibility and robbed. The victim
of that crime was left in the woods,
apparently dead. However, he re-
gained consciousness, bat could hard
ly move from the ground. He reached
a small sapling, and bending it over,
hung his coat on it. This he waved,
until a passerby saw the waving coat
and rescued the suffering man. Kir-
by serevd year of his sentence and
was pardoned by Governor Manning.