The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-01-20

Sales for the preceding week
amounted to 495,610 pounds, average
$500, amount paid out 500, ,886.58.
Eeen away from the house only about
twenty minutes. He had left his
brother standing in the yard. He had
been acting strangely for several
weeks and he did not appear to be
any more depressed Saturday than
usual he said.
"When / got into the car with my
family to go to Pamplico," Edmund
Bigham testified, 81 left my mother
and sister and the children at their
various occupations and play. AS far
as I know there had been no quarrel
ing during the day. Instead of going
straight to Pamplico, l went up the
road to see Bob Foxworth for a min
ute. AS we came back we saw mother
stagger out of the yard. then turn
ed and caught a glimse of Smile turn
ing into the woods almost in run.
He had his right hand up toward his
breast as if he had something in it,
but l did not see any pistol. My
mother died as we were carrying her
into the house. Mr.. 7. D. Garrison
and Mr.. Hoyt Bostick had come up in
the meantime. I called my sister, Mrs.
Marjorie Black, but she did not an
swer.
Finds Youngest Child.
81 then went out on the back piazza
and found John McCracken, the
youngest child, dead there. My moth
er's cap was also on the floor just by
the back door and there was blood all
about. l believe my mother and the
child We're shot on the piazza and that
she tried to get into the road for help.
1--WE then started to look for my SIS
ter and the other child. 1t was almost
dark, probably two hours after We
reached home, that we found Mrs.
Black dead in ner room upstairs.
Later someone found the child,
Leo McCracken on a pile of straw be-
hind a potato bank out in the yard.
He was still alive. We called DR.. Pos
ton as soon as possible. The boy died
about 5 o'clock. 1t is evident the boy
was running when he was shot"
Mr.. Bigham could not say why the
room of Mrs. Black was no! searched
sooner. 1t Just happened So" he said,
"that we did not think abcit it."
"That morning about IL o'clock we
had paid off the hands together and
noticed that my brother was awfully
depressed. He would stand up and
gaze about in an distracted manner
He did not have a pistol that known
of. The pistol he did the killing with
was mine and was in my bereau draw
er when | left the house. There was
another pistol somewhere in the house,
in my mothers room, ! think"
The testimony of Mrs. Edmund Big
ham and her two little daughters, who
Mr.. Bigham in the car
away from the house just before the
shooting, tailed at every point with
that of Mr.. Bigham.
There were some at the scene OF
the shooting who were inclined to
doubt that Smile Bigham had done
the wholesale killing or that he had
killed himself. All of the evidence
which could be found however, point
ed to him as the murderer and suicide.
The complex situation in which the
Bkham estate has been involved for
the past year or two, gave rise to the
doubts expressed by some of the peo>
pie living in the community.
Kills Mrs. Black First.
From the situation at the scene OF
the shooting it is believed that the
murderer shot Mrs. Black first. From
the cleanliness of the bullet wound, he
evidently crept into the room and shot
her before she knew it. 1t is thought
that the man then rushed down the
stairs and met Mrs. Bigham, his moth
ar. at the back door on the piazza
Concluded on Last Page)