The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-09-22
s. ]. KIRBY SAYS HE
WISHESIT WAS0VER
CONVICTED TRIO WILL DIE ON
OCTOBER Fl.
Famous Prisoners.
Relatives Of Condemned Excite Sym
pathy-Not Likely to
Appeal.

Columbia, Sept. 15.-s'I wish it
were all over with" The speaker,
with a drawl in his voice, sent these
words through grated bars. The
words came from the lips of man
who is spending his remaining days
on earth in the penitentiarys 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, Co.
lumbia taxi driver, who was stabbed
to death on one early Monday morn
ing in August.
Kirby and his two partners in
crime, CO. Fox and Jesse Gappins,
are three of the most famous prison
ers the state has ever held. Their
careers have been marked by remark
able events, the murder OF young
boy to steal the car he drove, chased
by a mob for several days over two
states, held in Charleston under heavy
guard to escape lynching, secretly
brought to Columbia under much
heavier 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 talkatlVe,
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 ap-
pear slightly cheerful at times:
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
court house. They are nice looking
old people and their loss excites the
sympathy of on-lookers. Mr.. and
Mrs. Gappins, the father and mother
of Jesse Gappins, have called on
their son, too. Mrs. Kirby and Kir-
by's little daughter have likewise seen
the man to whom they will say good
bye on October 21.
Gappins is a Columbia boy, Fox
came from Stanley Creek, n. C., the
home of his parents. Kirby came to
Columbia from York county. His
first visit to the capital was as pris-
oner in 1917, when he was sent to the
pen under a two-year sentence for a
crime committed on a man of York
county, whom, it is said, he beat into
insensibility and robbed. The victim
of the crime was left in the woods, ap-
parently dead. However, he regain
ed consciousness but could hardly
move from the ground. He reached a
small sappling, and bending it over
hung his coat on it. This he waved,
until a passer-by saw the waving coat
and rescued the suffering man. Kir-
by served a year of his sentence and
was pardoned by Governor Manning.
Gappins's wife, whom he said at the
Kirby trial Monday, was in jail the
last time he saw her, was at his side
Tuesday, as was his father and sister.
The mother and sister attempted to
get at the boy to kiss him, at one
time, but court officials interfered
and prevented a scene. Fox's aged
father attended part Of the trial, but
he had given up hope several days ago
and had told the lad goodbye. Kir-
by's wife and small daughter were
also present. Today they are at
their homes and their men folks are
in the death cell.
Never before, it is stated, have
three white men been electrocuted
for the same crime on the same day.
The case in this instance will not be
appealed and it is expected that Oc-
tobed 21 will see the passing OF the
perpetrators Of one of the worst
crimes South Carolina has ever
known.