Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-04-07
NEGRO BOSS TELLS
OF KILLING ELEVEN
To Save His Own Neck at Hands
of Georgia Planter-Accused
of Peonage

tor his own LIE was the motive
that prompted Clyde Manning,
negro farm boss, to help kill II
negroes employed on the Jasper
county plantation Of John S. Will
liams, Manning told the jury Wed
nesdey in the trial of Williams in
Newton county Superior Court.
Manning said on cross examin-
alton, that he did not want to help
to kill the men, but feared to dis
obey Williams, who, he declared,
was attempting to do away with
the negroes for fear they might
testify regarding alleged peonage
conditions on the Williams farm.
They wasn't a-bothering me, J"
said Manning, a coal-black, short,
stockily built negro of $50 pounds
and | didn't want to get 'em
out of the way" but, he added la
ter, "Mr. Johnny said: It's their
necks or yours"
The negroes met death shortly
after federal authorities started
an investigation of alleged peon-
age on the farm. Six of them.
according to Manning, were
chained to rocks and thrown into
rivers, and five were struck in the
head or shot and buried on the
farm.
Throughout an hour of cross
examination, Manning, who wa
indicted jointly with Williams,
denied any pressure had been had
been brought to bear on him toI
make him tell the story. 1t was
was only after long questioning
by officers, he said, that he first
told his story, but he denied he
had been beaten, threatened with
drowning or promised light SEN
tcnce. if he would help convict
Williams, as the latter's counsel
Manning was the states chief
and during his testimony
the court house was packed toI
capacity. He seemed to be little
affected by his recital and rarely
changed the infection of his
voice. He is unable to read or
write, he said, and is 20 years old,
but does not know where he was
born.
"When l first remember my
SELF" he said, 81 was in Jasper
county"
During three hours of direct ex
animation the negro told in detail
of the alleged murder of the III
negroes, giving his description in
simple words. He was not asked
to describe the alleged binding Of
the negroes who were drowned.
but told how they were thrown
off the bridges by himself and
Charlie Chisholm, another farm
hand, whom, he said, he later
helped Williams drown.
They was stubborn and a-beg-.
glng," Manning said in his YER
sion of the death Of Peterson and
Willie Preston, "and me and
rolled 'em over the ban
mister of the bridge"
These men, as were the others
killed, he said, had been lured
from the farm by Williams on the
pretext that they were being ia
ken to trains and would be allow
ed to return 10 their homes in At
anita or Macon, where they had
been taken from jail by Williams, |
who, it is said, paid their fines.
Peterson and Preston, Manning
said, were bound together by al
trace chain around their necks toI
which was fastened sack CON
tanning about 100 pounds of brick.
Their hands were bound together
by wire, he said. Williams drove
the automobile in which the ne
groes were carried, Manning tes-
tilted.
Harry Price. another negro ia
ken to be drowned, jumped off the
bridge himself, Manning said,
when he found there was NO hope
for him.
Don't throw me over; I'll get
over Manning quoted Price as
having said, and added that the
negro with cry of Lord, have
mercy flung himself into the ri
yer.
Manning then went into the de-
tails of the alleged murder Of 9th
er negroes, declaring one known
on the farm only as Little Bit,
was induced to help lift "Red"I
Brown, another negro, over the
bridge railing on the pretext that
merely wished to scare
Brown. The latter, already
down, was dropped into
the river. Manning said, and them
he said he helDed to send "I title