Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-19
ARMY PROBE HEARS
u. S. GRAVE WORKERS
Continued Form Page 1.

Conn, lieutenant colonel with the
, expeditionary forces, was called,
-"Did you witness any executions
in France?"
eyes. Two at Bazailles. Both were
contaminated" he said.
Lamb gave the committee the
names of both men, who made
| rambling statements which were
| taken down." he said. The con-
demned men were given opiates be-
! fore the hanging to compose their
| nerves, the witness declared.
"Did the men claim they had not
been tried?"
mo, SIR
Neither protested his limo
cence?"
mo"
Gin the case of the second man
hanged | think the body was placed
quickly in a coffin with the rope and
cap still on it," Lamb added.
Were Duly Tried
'What is the probability OF men
being hanged without triaI?" asked
the chairman.
mot the slightest" Lamb replied.
And you mean to say that these
men hanged for an almost unmen-
tionable crime were buried along
with the honorable dead?" Senator
Watson asked.
Eyes. They were our men who
had fallen and paid the extreme pen
atty"
Some of the doctors later suggest
ed he added, that in future execu-
tinnC no h1Iy, inI
rate lots, but there were no other
executions at that post.
Rufus Hubbard, who recently tes-
titled that many bodies We're sent
home without proper Identification,
was described by Major Samuel J.
Heidner, now of West Point, N. Y,
as civilian employee, "who was the
worst trouble-maker in the section"
Major Heidner agreed with Hub
bard, however, that rope and black
cap were found on two bodies dug
up at Bazoilles.
1.-THE body of only one of the men
hanged was shipped to the United
States, and in both instances the cap
and rope were removed" said the
witness.
The care taken by the graves
registration service in making sure
of the Identification of each sol
dier's body was described by Captain
Charles j. Wynne, of Washington,
in charge of records.
"Of the $4,000 bodies shipped to
the United States, every single
one was Identified" said Captain
Wynne. 1.-THE records thus far show
Of mistakes in Identification were
very small
There were six records out of the
$4,000 of the shipping of wrong
body, but in each case the errors
were corrected, he said, explaining
that this was due to similarity of
names on shipping orders.
Captain Wynne said that in the
course of his work he never came
across a body with a rope around
the neck.
Were negroes buried alongside
of white men?" asked Senator Wat
son.
Yes, sir-they were soldiers"
Rope Was Removed
Norvak Tabler, of Washington,
said the bodies of two negroes were
disinterred at Bazoilles with rope
and cap in collins, along with identi-
fication records IN bottles.
1.-The rope was removed from one
body before it was buried" said Tab
Ter. 81 am confident it was remov-
ed from the other"
"What was Rufus Hubbard's repu-
tation for veracity?" the witness
was asked.
"NOt good"
While on his way to work one day
at prison camp at Gievres, John
Sebastian, of Jacksonville, Fla, said
he passed the bodies of two negro
soldiers, face downward on the
ground.
I'm the presence of eight hun
dred prisoners, the sergeant an
lynched," said Sebastian. ''He told
us to watch our step or we would
get the same dose
Answering Chairman Brandegee,
Sebastian said he was in prison
eight months for being absent with
out leave and escaping confinement.
He did not know how the men had
come to their death.
One of the prisoners went over to
look at the bodies and was ordered
away by the guard, said Sebastian.
Inc urSI woman TO appear before
the committee, Mrs. Griffiths, of
Washington, whose husband, Col
onel Richard H. Griffiths, was killed
in France, tSld of going to France
in an effort to locate and identify
his body.
"It was a headIess body" she de-
clared, land there was no tag on it"
Are you sure the body was, or
was not, that of your husband?'
ut was quite impossible to tell"
Mrs. Griftiths declared there were
no identification marks on crosses
above the graves at the cemetery
where ha1, h11Slna nd ln,,,.ind |