The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1921-02-24

Hatton, had been arrested on charges
Of highway robbery, for wholesale
holdups of drug stores. Hatton, who
did not break for liberty with the
others, has been tried since and con-
victed.
Mrs. Reeves said she had gone
out Of the front door Of the Jail when
she heard her husband cry out
HAITI
She ran in and saw George near
the trapdoor, and Hamilton with a
pistol about Is feet away.
u ran up to Hamilton and put my
hands on his shoulders and begged
him not shoot my husband" she tes-
titled.
Hamilton, Mrs. Reeves said, looked
unconcernedly past her toward
Reeves.
Reeves cried out then, ''Get out Oh
the way, Claudio, you'll get hurt"
she said.
Mrs. Reeves said she obeyed her
husband, then ran to the doors with
the intention of shutting them to
cut off Hamilton's escape Other
persons were in the jail doors. she
said, but she could not recall who
they were.
Mrs, Reeves said she turned from
the doors to the little iailer's office
hi the southeast corner Of the Jail,
and saw her husband, covered by
Hamilton, backing toward the office,
while Hamilton, gun in hand, slowly
backed toward the front doors Of
the Jail.
Then, she said, she heard two
shots, rushed out the office door,
saw Hamilton with smoking pistol
IN hand, and was Just in time 70
catch her husband in her arms as he
began to fall, with bullet wound
in his abdomen. The weight of his
oody carried her to the stone floor,
she said, and when she got up Une
jail foyer was empty.
The shooting occurred, she said,
between 10 and II o'clock in the
morning.
"What did your husband say to
you at that time r. asked Attorney
General Sam Bates, who questioned
Mrs. Reeves on direct.
Attorney Galloway objected, and
Judge Baptist sustained his object
ion.
Then, after short conference,
Attorney Abe Cohn, (who represents
Kelley withdrew the objection, stat
ing that the defense would not OBJ
feet to the answer.
"He said NY gun failed me or
would have got him." replied Mrs.
Reeves.
Mrs. Reeves declared that she did
mot see gun in her husbands
hands.y She explained that he ordi-
fnarily used an automatic pistol
which he never wore into the cell
portion Of the Jail, and which re-
posed in drawer in his roll-top
desk in the iailer's office.
Pump guns for emergencies were
also kept in the office, Mrs. Reeves
said, and she stated that she be-
lieved her husband was working
around toward the office to get one
Of these when Hamilton shot him.
Mrs. Reeves told of numerous
visits Mrs. Shaw made to the Jail to
see her husband during his incar-
ceration on the highway robbery
charge. 1t was customary to permit
her to be alone with Shaw In the
consultation room during these visits,
Mrs, Reeves said.
Reeves lay on the jail floor bleed
ing about rs minutes before he was
taken to St Joseph's Hospital, where
he died on the operating table, Mrs
Reeves said.
When cross examination got under
way, Mrs. Reeves retold the same
story, except that she declared she
was looking right at Hamilton when
he shot her husband.
Edward +. Kelley, Aida F. Shaw
and Clyde Hamilton, dandy bandits. =
plotted escape from the county Jail
for three weeks prior to November
80, when they escaped, after killing
Jailer George Reeves, according to
sensational testimony given Tuesday
The man who made this statement
was j. d. Bell. now under indictment
on a highway robbery charge in
Shelby county. Bell was the fourth
member in the escape plot quartet,
but he withdraw when talk of kill
ing Reeves crept into the plans, he
said.
Bells testimony was damaging to
Shaw, but possibly he aided Kelley's
cause some. as he said he, Shaw and
Hamilton laid the escape plans, but
that Kelley, although present, never
took part in the discussions.
Bell served q term in the state re-
form school some years ago for
highway robbery. He admitted that
he now is Kelley's cell mate, but he
said he gave his information of the
escape plot to Attorney General Sam
o. Bates before he and Kelley be-
came Jail 'abunkies."
Coming on the heels Of the testi-
mony Of Mrs. Claude Reeves. widow
Of the slain iailer, Bells testimony
brought local interest in the trial to
fever heat. The courtroom was
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