Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-26
SIX FACE DEATH
State Pen Holds White Men Waiting
to Die.

to Die.
Columbia, May 23.-"T guess they'll
clean this place out now soon.'
The speaker looked through the
bars at the penitentiary death house,
and to a reporter who->stood on the
outside, and spoke of the plan to send
him to the electric chair.
The death house Is full, one man to
each of it's cells, and behind double
barred doors and under massive lock
and keys, six men are counting their
days.
The roll call: +. NJ. Jeffords, Ira
Harrison, S. ]. Kirby, c. o. Fox,
Jesse Gappins and Edmund Bigham.
The reporter talked to each of them
and here's the way they talked.
Jeffords: 81 don't want to say any
thing more about my case yet"
Harrison: II told the truth on the
witness stand and I feel better than
if had lied about it, I'm now looking
to the future. l believe God can for
give sins. / wish l hadn't done it,
and If had my chance all over again
I'd not do it."
Gappins: 81 never had part in
the killing of William Brazell, ex-
cept to help dispose of the body. KirI
by tried to make me kill Brazell, tell
ing me I had to kill him and then
drive that car. told him / wouldn't
kill the man and 1 didn't. He then
made Fox do it,
Kirby: THAT boy has to face his
God as well as I do, and he'll have to
tell the story to Him." Kirby then
delved into a story of how he cut up
and how he was kept under guard at
his home and other remarks tending
TO indicate that he was unbalanced.
Fox: Il told the truth on the stand
and I wouldn't lie to save my own
neck. I'd rather die than to live with
a conscience guilty Of such a crime"
Bigham: 81 not only say that I'm
not guilty, but I'm not guilty. 1 never
\ eADeCI W SO yOHueT.
Around Yonder"
Around yonder' Is the electric
chair. In the corridor leading around
the outside Of the death cells there
opens a big heavy steel door, locked
with two big steel keys. Beyond that
door is a little auditorium, with a
bench around three sides. and in the
center, as the stage" n big oak chair,
with wires attached, where on June
Is two men will pass out, and where
during the summer the three con-
victed of killing Brazell will also
probably spend their last living min
utes. In the words of Kirby, the
death house will likely be cleaned
out" this summer.
On the bed in Kirby's cell, on the
bed in Gappin's cell, on the bed in
FoX's cell and on the lied in Bighams
cell lay the Word of God, each book
opened to a passage where the prison.
CT had been reading. That's the best
thing a man in my fix can read" said
young Gappins. Harrison and JEFF
fOrds also have Bibles. They read
newspapers too and know all about
their convictions and what the pub
lie thinks and for what the other men
in their building are there for.
Jeffords and Harrison, the latest ad
ditions to the death house population,
are very calm. Jeffords voice is as
clear as it was on the witness stand
last week, when he contradicted Of
ficers of the law who had said he con-
fessed to the killing, telling the jury
that he didn't have a part in the muir
der of Annette. Harrison is not quite
as cool and calm as his partner in
crime. There is a slight tremor in
his voice and the stare in his eyes is
far-off in its reach. He thinks back
to the crime he says he's sorry he
committed and which he says he re-
lated truthfully on the stand he looks
forward to June 18th and to the eter
nifty after that date. He's little over
twenty-one:
Over in the big main building of the
prison is twenty-five year old Treece,
wearing the blue jumper cloth suit
that will be his uniform the rest of
his life. There's a smile on freezes
face, but it's a smile tempered with
regret
"Are you satisfied with the ver-
dict?" the reporter asked of Treece,
and yes" was the answer.
Didn't you get~off lighter than you
eXpected?" was the next question.
81 can't say that 1 did," was the
answer.