The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-13
Murder Of Private Hand
By Major C. b. Russell

the guilty to punishment seemed dubious
Back in the next mail came the report will
this laconic Endorsement:
Report noted. Find the murderers.'
1t is very easy, you know, to sit In
swivel chair in a cool and comfortable offic
and say:
Find the murderers.
Eyes, but how" we might have aske
had we been civilians but we were in tn
army where "But hows'' did not go.
Hunting for needle in haystack woul
be childs play compared to searching
through a camp of 5000 -stevedores for
murderer. At best, these negroes were sus
picious of u.s. To them an army office
represented the authority that had tori
them away from peaceful, happy life AM
after submitting them to the horrors of
sea voyage, had transplanted them to
foreign shore. Like all peoples far ava.
from home they were very clannish, and gu
first investigation netted nothing new
two lead bullets and blood stained uni
form, in the pocket of which we had fount
pass, were still all we had to work from
The pass belonged to a man by the name O.
Williams. Williams we found was a mem
Der of Hands company.
If one can believe the correspondent,
schools that teach you how to become
detective, there is mystery in the solv
ing of crime.
Gust place yourself" they say, Sin th'
position of the criminal. Decide what 20,
would do under like circumstances and il
sc per cent of these cases, the real Grim
inal did exactly what you yourself would do
Then find the motive for the crime and the
mystery is solved"
Here we had an easy case: Williams
pass in Hands pocket. Get Williams anc
we would have the murderer: for it wa.
self-evident that Hand had no right to Viii
lams pass. The stolen pass was the mo
tive. Hand without doubt had stolen the
pass, thus preventing Williams from spend
ing his monthly leave in Bordeaux Hand
realizing that with stolen pass he coult
not hope to enter the camp through tbs
main gate, was trying to slip into the camp
over the ridge. Coming in he encountered
Williams Word and accusations followed
Williams in rage at Hand for causing hin
to lose his evening in Bordeaux killed Hand
1t really resolved itself into a very simple
case after all: Finding Williams was easy
enough. He was in the guardhouse at Bias
sens-and had been there for two weeks. Il
the records of the guardhouse were correct
and they were, Williams could not have
been on the ridge; not having been on tbs
ridge the night Hand was killed, he coulc
not have committed the murder The
guardhouse records proved a perfect alb
for Williams.
AS long as we could not pin the crime
on Williams we fondly hoped that an exami
nation of Hands history would provide u.
with the motive. How, we hustled and dug
into that mans past! The entire result
however, was a clean bill for Hand. Hand
we found, was one of the best men in the
camp-never causing trouble-quiet-nt
wine-no gambling, nor did women enter
into the well-ordered life of this black sol
der, for Hand was a full blooded negro, one
of the best of race that produces some
of the faithfullest, God-fearing humans il
the world. His Bible was his best friend
he was always willing to assist the Chaplain
in his religious work Every one was sing
ing the praises of the murdered man. Hand
captain summed it all up when he said:
Hand was a good Christian boy. H,
lived clean, thought clean, and didn't hav,
an enemy in this camp, to our knowledge
And so we found ourselves humping oul
several noses against very blank wall.
Inasmuch as the camp was composed ex
clusively of colored troops we could no
work under cover. We tried staining tn,
skin Of one of our men and we were con
graduating ourselves that we had been yer!
successful when one of the men called at