Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-07-27

HOUSE SENATE
PROBE BODY
ENDS SESSIONS
House Committee To Re
sumo Probe Alone
Tonight

|
Separated from the political ma
chine of the prison farm and board
Tuesday night, the house penitentiary
committee will con inue its ezainifa
tion of witnesses tonight. when fur
ther startling evidence relative To
transactions of commissioners ans
conditions at the institution may be
| presented.
Dissolution of the two committees
came at midnight last night after
| Chairman r. w Campbell, who heads
the senate body was presiding, had
| repeatedly refused to recognize mem
| bers Of the house who desired to
make motions. Instead of recognize
| ing the house legislators, Senator
Gtiift2llSi called called tt til csc he de-
! sireG to take the floor TO come to
hfta, and asked that they seek pos
session Of the floor.
| Representative Jones Pefryrnan,
| chairman of the house committee, ini-e
mediately launched another attack on
! the methods of the presiding officers
and the alleged effort to whitewash
| the proceeding, succeeding finalls in
separating the bodies.
The house committee, It was learn
ed THIS afternoon, will not base /
decision Oh the evidence Of Arnold
| Worley, bat will consider it along
| with other matter in its possession
and now being investigated.
The Worley letter to the attorney
general of the United States which
was not read last night, was releas-
ed for publication by Chairman Per-
ryman this afternoon.
After outlining the alleged policy
of the prison farm relative to CEN
sorship of mail and charging that II
was almost impossible for a ninmate
tG describe conditions in the penten-
tiary to the outside world on account
of the warden destroying .he letters.
Worley launched into history Of
his experiences in the prison anI
chain gangs of several counties.
''In 1919 the statement reads.
while at the state farrf, / applied
20 the state courts for a writ Of La
Leas corpus and asked TO be brought
into court that | might exercise my
right to inform against the officers.
| had found that gambling was per-
mitted to be openly carried on; that
both the liquor and narcotic laws
of the state and federal government
were being violated and that prison
comiss.oners and state farm Officials
had laid themselves liable as acces-
sories after the fact to what | regard
ed as wilful and cowardly murder
of a convict by means of the lash
by one C. G. Cotes, deputy warden
of Fulton county.
my investigation revealed that
one Catlin, a white man., believe
from New Jersey, whom had known
in Jail as having had no control OF
his bowels and had been sent to Full
ton county chaingang for hard abor,
WHINE, helpless as he was, he had
been inhumanely beaten, and then,
several days later, carried to the farm
in a closed car at night.
"The mans skin had been beatin
off of him, and he was bNlck and
blue from head to foot, according to
all witnesses. Subsequently, | learn
ed that the man was syphiletic, and
paralytic, and that a~>Sbbet sheet
had been put on his bed prior to the
beating in November or December,
1917, swith an instrument likely to
produce death, with which he was
struck from sixty odd to eighty odd
times, and from which he died Jan
uary or February, 1918, without ever
having left his bed. D. o. Coses adj
mits to striking this invalid only thlr-
teen times.
'T had to instruct the petition to
the warden for mailing or filing, #
he ever mailed it, have never heard
: from it. Just subsequent i, {. was
naltreated, deprived Of my notes, he
I list of witnesses, ard anlongi other
4 things my copy petition
5Worley then described how he
/; had been transferred to Crawford
: county, where he was confined insa
cage with diseased man. He de-
; clared that at this camp gambling
and liquor trafficging were praGticeg
, He charged the warden with having
, had him removed to Upson county
, after it was discovered that he had
plotted to swear out a warrans
against the warden. So
/ In Upsonseounty, he statedsthas he
had found that the Warden had TAX
en- part in the lynchiag of Taeglp,
made by him, the Officer was told
of his activities by d negro convict.
Following this discovery, WorleV said
he was removed to Sumter county@
: 'In Sumter county" the statement
continues, Il found they were traf
ficiking in liuqour, the county prop
J erty, and doing many other illegal
! things A deputy by the name ef
: Conley had beaten-a half wit negro
, named Winston Ray and had beaten
into his flesh, it seemed nearly "a
quarter of an inch deep Subsn-
I quently, he knocked the eye out pf
} one Spivey, and with plated wagon
E whip compelled the negro to report
that it was an accident, and f,if's5f;sss f,fs5,f
S ed whispered conversation with the
Il mans sister.
: "Use Of the mails was, Of eourss.
: out Of question. ! permitted the
!. Continued on Page ~