The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-01
ADMITS PART IN ROBBERY ATTEMPT ANDLEWIS MURDER
By Associated Press

Knoxville, May 31--While a posse of between 200 and 300 men tonight secured the mountain fastnesses of Morgan county in an effort to appre- bend two of his three confederates still at large, John Mcclure, of Col
 umbus, Ohio, one of the four men al- legged to have attempted to rob a bank at Oakdale, this morning. tonight made confessions to his part in the crime, which implicated Charley Petre, a man named Wilson and Tom Christmas in the murder last night of George Lewis of Knoxville, and the brutal assault on Arthur Crumley. of Knoxville, who. with his throat slashed, was left for dead when the quartet took his auto mobile and fled.
 Only two of the alleged criminals have been captured instead of four as first reported. Mcclure and Petre are held'in jail here.
 Christmas and Stephens are reported to have been hemmed in by the posse and authorities expressed the opinion here tonight that it would be impossi- ble for them to escape alive. It Is also feared that summary justice may be dealt the alleged murderers If cap tured. A large crowd gathered at the jail tonight when 8 portion of the posse brought Mcclure and Petre in but no demonstration was made.
 Lewis bled to death last night when his jugular vein was severed by & knife in the hands of the alleged band it's. Crumley's throat was also cut. He lfeigned death, and although his hands were tied behind him managed to swallow his handkerchief and stem the flow of blood. He was resting -comfor rtably at his home tonight but physicians regard his condition as se- rious.
 Mcclure made his confession to re- porters for The ---ournal and Tribune tonight. in the presence of number of officers and other citizens. He dis claimed having welded the death knife, but admitted his association with the ones whom he said did the killing.
 Here today Crumley related his ex- periences. He said two men ap-
 preached him last night and engaged the car he was driving to take them to Clinton. Lewis had formerly lived in Clinton and he, Crumley, asked Lewis to go along for company on the
 way back. The men stopped In Clin- 1 ton on some preteIt and returned with a valise. Crunlly suspected it contained liquor and refused to haul them, saying they only asked to be brought to Clinton. They denied
 having liquor and asked to be taken a little further in tho direction of Cakdale. This he acceded to.
 After passing through Clinton, 80
 miles from Knoxville. at about s:15 ?. m.,i the cor proceeded to the point be- yond where Crumley and Lewis were ordered to throw up their hands. After being manacled, Lewis and Crumley were marched to secluded spot, l where Lewis was slain and Crumley
 wounded. He escaped death. he says, only by feignipg to be dead. The slay-
 CTS then drove away in the car, but
 from a vantage point Cruntey saw
 them return presumably to be sure that both their victims were dead Later in the night Crumley -5tumbled upon a sfarn, house and by telephone notified Anderson county authorities of the crime. #Bt After Lewis had been dealt an awful blow with what Crumley believed to bc the butt of 8 revolver, the leader of the two strangers then commanded the other to be sure of the job by cut ting his throat. Meantime, Crumley himself had been dealt crushing blow on the head, but did not be- come unconscious, and could hear the deadly thrusts given Lewis. The or- der was chen given to also cut Crum- leys throat and this was done, after which the passengers took Crumley's s car and sped away.