Evening star., 1923-04-22
PAID FOR CONV|CTS
BRUTAL[YFL0CGED,
WITNESSES CHARGE
Hoboes Herded by Scores
and "RaiIroaded" by Drunken
Florida Officials Is Claim.
SCENES OF TERROR
IN CAMPS DEPICTED
Victims Lashed Fifty or Sixty
Blows With Straps-0ne Mans
Grave Filled With Water.
T., the .tSs0ciIt ii p css.

E' the .'Ss"c at ii P-oss.
TALLAHASSEE. Fla. April a1.---
The high-watcr mark in the number
of lashes alleged to have been ad-
miniStered to Martin Tabert North
Dakota youth who died while serv-
ing as convict in a private leased
camp at Clara, Fla, marked the testi-
mony presented today to the joint
legislative committee investigating
reported brutalities to prisoners.
NJ. b. Bell, a former guard at the
Putnam Lumber Company, where Ia
bert died fourteen months ago. said
he counted ll9 blows struck by Wal
ter Higginbotham. whipping boss.
now under indictment of first degree
murder in connection with the Da-
kotan'S death.
IIigginbotham testified Thursday
that he hit Tabe t ten gentle" blows
and that the boy was able to return
TO work the following day.
Buried in Isolated spot.
Other witnesses testified today that
they prepared the body for burial
and one Arthur Johnson, a former
convict. said he acted as a pail
bearer for the body, and stated that
It was laid away across the river from
Dixie. in Taylor county. at an iso-
lated spot and in a hole filled with
water Witnesses for the lumber
company have previously testified
that he was buried at Mingo GEM
etery, near Clara, Fla, amid the
singing of hymns by townspeople,
and that an itinerant preacher Of
fciated
The committee at the request OF
representative for ths lumber COM
pany took under advisement a trip
to Clara in an effort TO get straight
the conflicting versions OF his funeral
j. W. Jackson, who testified before
the Madison county grand jury
which indicted Higginbotham iden-
titled himself as former guard at
the lumber company and testified
that on the night Tabert died he was
one of the men ordered by Higgin-
botham to prepare the body for
burial. The witness said there were
many bad decorations on the face
and head.
Prepared Body for Burial.
Tom Pope. negro, said he served
= sentence at the logging camp for
running away from a turpentine
man Pope said he saw Tabert
whipped was with him when he died
and was one Of those who bathed
him preparatory for burial. The
h hol
through his night clothes and the
bed sheet looked as If a piece CT
bloody beef had lain on it,
w. F.. Mathews. former steel gang
foreman at the camp, thought until
an hour before he appeared before
the committee that the man he saw
given III blows by Higginbotham was
Tabert, but that he got into an "ar-
gument' with another man who wit
messed it, named Reeves, just before
his appearance before the committee
and had come to the conclusion that
it was a boy called South Carolina"
Boatright who received that f1ogging.
In the thirteen months he was en-
ployed by the company he said he
saw virtually every one of the some
200 convicts whipped and not one, to
his knowledge, was held to the regu-
Iation ten blows. the foggings aver
aging around fifty or sixty blows.
He based his first opinion that it was
Tabert he had seen whipped on the
fact that he saw Tabert after death
and his head was bruised and lacer-
ated and his nose, broken. 1t was fire.
uuently the practice for Higgin-
botham to place his foot on the neck
of the victim, he testified.
J. B. Eurch testified from the view
point of an experienced whipping
boss, but now retired and farming
in Taylor county. He worked for the
Putnam company four weeks as off,
Continued on Page 2, Column ~