Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-04-19


Logical Outcome of Such Verdicts'
"Charlie Adams, seventy-year-
old negro, was shot and instantly
killed bv Elmer Dimon, %, yester-
day morning at S:45 O'Clock. The
shooting occurred, t was stated by
the police, while the negro was at
work in the flower garden IN front
of the home of Mrs. ID. +. Rogers.
1717 Tenth avenue. Witnesses to
the killing say that Dimon walked
M on the sidewalk and fired three
times in succession at the negro
apparently without saying a word.
The above excerpt from a news
story that appeared in Saturdays
Enduirer-Sun is not, it seems to
us, without its significance. This
young white man, it appears, slmp-
ly took it into his head to kill him
a negro" as the saying is, and he
did. When asked why he killed the
old negro, it is said, he replied,
"Oh, Just on general principles.
1t is explained in his behalf, of
course, that he is an "ex-service
man'-though he never went over
seas-and has undergone treat
ment for a nervous condition"
Perhaps, he really is of unsound
mind; certainly, he is abnormal.
But that is not the point. Nor
are we seeking to try this latest
murder case in print; there are al
together too many of them for
that. The young man who shot
down this old negro in cold blood,
with as little concern, apparently,
as if he were shooting at mark,
may be demented, for all we know.
If so, of course, he ought to be
confined in a sanitarium, instead
of the penitentiary.
But, crazy or not, what put it
nto his head to "kill him a negro?"
1t would be interesting to find out
something about this. He may
have thought it would be
Smart" thing to do; that it would
make something of hero of him
in the eyes of his fellows.
Anyway, there is one thing he
must have thought-that nothing
in particular would be done about
it. For had he ever heard of any
thing being done about it when a
white man killed him a negro?"
Had he not just read, in Fridays
paper-the very morning he took
it into his own head to kill that
old negro-or, maybe, somebody
told him about it, how a Sumter
county jury tried to make a mis-
demeanor" out of the cold-blooded,
cowardly murder by a band of
white men of an offenseless negro
in Schley county. 1t is not easily
conceivable that a story such as
this might prompt a hair-brained
youth to take chance and kill a
negro on his own hook?
Americas, Ga, April Is. -
Three men, Benny Devane, Hen
ry Harvey and Henry Lewis Full
ford We're convicted of Shooting
at another" by a jury in the Su-
perior court here today in connec-
ton with recent lynching of Will
Jones, a negro. The jury recon-
mended that the cases be treated
as misdemeanors but Judge z. A.
Littlejohn declined to do so and
sentenced them to serve one to
four years in the penitentiary.
They were released on motions for
new trials"
When a jury sworn to render a
true verdict declares a murder
such as that of Will Jones to be a
"misdemeanor," why should Elmer
Dimon, or any /other reckless or
halr-bralned person, hesitate to kill
a negro, should the notion strike
them, so far as any particular trou-
Bile from the law is concerned? The
answer is-they adon'tl
These comments prove one thing,
we agree with either opinion
1r not: Schley county is being dis
'ussed and that discussion of an act
Of some of her citizens, is not all
favorable. But We believe her citi-
is to be highly commended
or what we consider a good begin
ing at cleaning house. The lob is
lot complete, however.