Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-20
WALKER COUNTY
SHERIFF WRITES
ABOUT BAKER CASE

|
The Journal also has received
the following communication from
L. w. Harmon, sheriff of Walker
county, regarding the case of the
Baker brothers:
L am sure you will give me space to
say a word in regard to the cases of
the State VS.. George and Ralph Ba-
ker.
I'm the first place 7 commend their
father and mother for the loyal and
faithful effort in behalf of their
boys. 1t is but reiterating what ev-
cry man and woman knows when I
say this fight is what David would
have done for Absolem or any other
father would do. 1t is the paternal
man protecting the filial-no eXcep-
ton to the rule. I have the best
feeling for them. For them have
an abundance of sympathy. I wish
I could have the power to have
stayed those truant hands that wild
owed one home and orphaned as
well. But the hands that slew a
good man and in cold blood, without
rhyme or reason, are those of two
boys who slew j. w. Morton, a
deputy sheriff of Walker county on
March 16 last year.
"A cursory review of part of the
evidence will speak to the thinking
people of Georgia much more than
Boy Scout organizations, or clubs in
New York or Atlanta or SandersVille
or elsewhere.
1--WE can not in Walker county
try cases from Richmond or Chat
ham when we do not even know the
participants in the crime, nor did
we see them in the trial, nor did
we hear the witnesses on the stand,
in the other counties. But we heard
all this in the case of these Bakers
and we knew them before.
az shall speak not from hearsay,
but from the record in the case and
the record that the supreme court
read from, which Justice GilberE
spoke for the court, reference to
which I will refer also in this article.
"On the day of the tragedy these
boys lived less than q mile from
what is known as Cenchat, in Wal
ker county, this station being juno
ton point where the Central of
Georgia railway crosses the Ten
nessee, Alabama and Georgia rail-
way. They could have best gone
there with no mountain to climb, in
that event, and could have there en-
barked on the same train they took
at what is known as No. trestle,
where they did take the train on
the eventful morning. But d bit
strange to say, these two boys, with
the wife of the senior boy, trudged
to the mountain top, or nearly so,
and at this No. trestle took the
train, and, going a distance of
miles, when they could have taken
the train in the valley at less than
half the distance.
Seek Out-Of.the-way Course
"It is also bit singular that
they should elect to take the train
at a point around which an awful
and yawning gulch almost around
the point for mile and where the
nearest house was, perhaps, mile.
Here in this secluded quarter the
boys took the train. The train here
is Just overlapping the Lookout
mountain-a coal-hauling train, car
rying a car for passengers. An
other strange feature = is that the
telegraph operator at Durham,
where the tragedy occurred, swore
that Just as this train passed this
No. trestle he could get no con-
nection with the outside world any
more, and very suddenly the wires
went out of commission. Mr.. K. y.
Terry, the depot agent at Durham,
a very reputable man and unlm'
neached. swore that about the time
the train came by No. Z trestle his
wires went to the bad. No storm OF
weather condition warranted that
sudden change. The weather was
good. At that point these boys got
on the train with the wife OF the
senior, George Baker.
"They were not on the train ten
minutes (the evidence shows TIL
they go to a travelling salesman by
the name Of D. n. Peterman and
trv TO make him drink some OF the
whisky they say they got and never
could tell where they got 1T, ana
tell him he has got to drink some
of it and this Ralph Baker, the
Younger boy, but by far the larger
one. had his pistol in hand as they
threatened the man and try to make
him. drink.
This train was going towards
Durham, the destination. Only a
short ways ahead, the flagman, a
Mr.. Harp, swears he saw George
Baker steal some fusees that all
lailroads use for the purpose of
stopping approaching trains. These
| boys had no use for these explo-
sives on a peaceful mission. When
this flagman informs the conductor,
| Capt. G. F. McCurdy, of the theft,
| the conductor goes and asks the
man for them. He denies it, and the
conductor takes them from the
pockets of the man. At this juno
ture this junior boy, Ralph. Baker,
draws his gun on the conductor and