Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-01-12

prevent dissolution of the ranks"
! Goes After Lawyer
When John A. Cutchins, of Rich.
Imond, Va, COUNSELLOR Major Opie,
took the witness, Fox went right
latter the lawyer.
ST know what you want to do,''
he exclaimed, shaking his finger.
t"You are trying to make a fool of
me. You can't co it."
Cutchins tried to fix the exact
day Of the alleged shooting.
GLOW do you know so much about
this?" Fox shouted. you we're back
at headquarters. thirty miles away"
II was where duty sent me-" said
| Cutchins, who was attached to 10Th
division headquarters. "Wh. were
you behind your lines that morn
ing?"
"By orders. I had been ordered to
get back and destroy grenades."
Complete records in the cases of
American soldiers hanged after
court-martial in France were cabIed
Immediately to the war department.
Colonel Walter A. Bethel, assistant
JAIlSC CANAVOCdlG 5CllCIcl4 III IIlC oil III ,
testified today.
There was a long wrangle after
Mr.. Cutchins gave Fox a letter and
asked if he signed it. First saying
he had, Fox later denied author
ship.
! An important point in the letter,
according to Mr.. Cutchins, was the
statement by the writer that he was
an orphan. Fox today insisted that
his mother was living.
Finally, Senator Ernst, Republican,
Kentucky, attempted to settle the
point by directing Fox to copy the
letter, the senator debating. Senator
Ernst then compared the two letters
closely.
"Do I understand you to say you
Gid not write ito" he asked Fox.
IT am positive about it. - mother
is not dead. Some of it looks like
my writing, but 1 didn't do it,"
Stonewall Jackson Albin. Of
Kernstown, Va, declared he saw
"t1ajor Opie shoot an American SOL
der in cold blood"
Says Opie Shot Runner
'"The runner, who was Shot, was
running toward the major" sa AL
bin "I saw him hanC the major
piece Nof paper, which Major Opie
glanced at. Then the runner turned
his back and started to walk away.
when Major Opie- shot him. Opie
gazed at the fallen man for few
minutes and then moved on
While testifying, Albin, pointing
to a spectator, asserted that the man
had tried to persuade Linn not to
testify against Major Opie.
Another witness, James E. Carl
ton, OF Richmond, Va, testified that
he saw Major Opie shoot a soldier
on October 9, = IS.
"I saw Major Opie seize a rifle
and order him to STOP" said Carlton.
''EIe shot and a man fell"
NO other bullets were falling at
the time, the witness said, but some
shells were dropping.
Pressed by Chairman Brandegee.
the witness said he did not hear
just what Major Opie said, but he
appeared to be addressing his men.
"Do you know that bullet
fired by Major Opie was the bullet
that made the man fall?"
81 won't say positively. But when
he appeared to be dead"
"Why didn't you complaint"
II was afraid I could not prove
it, and in that case L would be
shot"
Answering Senator Overman, Dem
ocrat, North Carolina, Carlton said
he was out of a job and was rece1v-
ing no compensation from the gov
ernment, not having been wounded.
cat that time wasn't Major Opie
trying to reform his scattered
lines?" asked Mr.. Cutchins.
"He wasn't trying to reform me"
Carlton replied.
Next came William D. Gillie, Of
Richmond Va, who testified he saw
Major Opie shoot a soldier on Octo-
Der 8. 1918.
eat that time Major Opie seemed
bent on stopping retreat by his
men," Gillie said. II saw Major
Opie take a rifle and fire; saw him
shoot and the man fall, but can't
swear the major killed him. The
man may have been gold-bricking,
pretending to be dead. Such things
can happen
eff you saw Major Opie threaten
ing to shoot you and there was a
handy shell hole wouldn't you drop
into ito" Chairman Brandegee asked.
well, to give Major Opie credit,
if he pointed gun at me I wouldn't
try to reach a shell hole, for I
couldn't get there in time"
The committee recessed here until
2 p: m.
Publicity for Hangings
Colonel Bethel had been pressed by
Senator Watson. Democrat, Georgia,
whose charges in the senate led to
the appointment of the committee.
as to why no reports of legal execu-
tons were made public until long
after the armistice.
1--WE sent the department the
name of the man hanged, the fact
of the execution and the offense,"
said Colonel Bethel. 81 do not know
how soon the department made the
facts public"
Names of men hanged were not
given to the press out of considera-
ton for relatives, the witness said.
Touching on the case of Benjamin
King, of Wilmington. N. c., who, &C.
cording to previous witnesses, was
killed by orders of "hard boiled
Smith, an officer in charge of pris-
on guard. Colonel. Bethel reiterated
that available war department rec
ords indicated" that King was kill
ed in action or died of wounds. No
evidence, he said, has been obtained
to support the charge that Kingswas
murdered. and information to this
effect has been conveyed to his fam
lily.