The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-07
MER ROUGE KHAN
 SHOWN
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noooeo ana armed men about a mile from town.
 Ordered To Stop.
 After a brief conversation they al- lowed him to proceed. When within two miles of Mer Rouge, a touring car drew up beside the truck and it was proceeding down the highway and man, who he said was Burnett, pointed a pistol at him and ordered him to stop. He knew Rogers by sight, he said, but 1t was not until several days later that he learned his name. Rogers was driving the tour ing car and Neelis testified that he did not exhibit arms.
 The truck was in bad condition, Neelis said, and when his captors orr dered him to return to the scene of the first holdup he asked If he could go in their car. They consented and the machine was turned back toward Bastorp.
 Neither Burnett or Rogers wore a mask, he said, but when they turned off the road where the first holdup occurred and joined small party 0. men wearing black hoods over their faces the two drew similar hoods from their pockets and donned them:
 Neelis testified that he asked IT this isn't the klan?" He was given no direct answer, he said, but there was no denial. After son.e talk he was informed that his captors would do nothing to him for they had the wrong man" Neelis was permitted to start out for Bastrop, but boarded a passing automobile and came to town.
 Further questioning by Senator Howard Warren, special assistant at torney general, brought from Neelis the statement that he had asked his captors If they were not after T. x. Richard"
 T don't remember whether they said they were or not" he testifled.
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 Abducted Richards.
 It developed that shortly after Neelis' return to Bastrop the hooded men entered the town and abducted Richards from the garage where he was employed. Richard was taken into the country, questioned, and brought back to Bastrop unharmed.
 Both Rogers and Burnett denied that they participated in the Neei1s affair and numerous witnesses were placed upon the sand to prove that -d plant at Skyker throughout the day in question.
 The state did not cross examine Rogers and it was taken as an lndl- cation that it had little hope of con- victing him for the prosecuting wit ness had testified he was not armed. The men are charged in separate bills of information but for conven- ience are being tried together.
 The trial had not been concluded when court recessed until tomorrow morning.
 The case of Skipwith, Pickett, Pratt, Mcintosh and several others charged with conspiracy to compel man to leave his home, was the nied a retrial of the firearms case and since the charge also grew out of the raid on the Braddock home and the testimony both for the pros ecution and defense would be 1dent- cal with that offered in the fire arms trial, the state submitted its case on the previous testimony and rested. The defense also did this but W. c. Barnett of defense coun- sel moved that the court give spe- cia1 charge, pointing out that the bill of information charged the de- fendants "and others unknown" With conspiracy. He held that the phrase
  information on so far as the de- fendants specified by name were concerned. Another contention was that the state statute under which the defendants were charged did not apply if there had been false arrest. Gets Orders From Sheriff.
 In the firearms case Captain Skip with had testified he had been noti- fled of tho existence of several liQuor stills in the neighborhood or Braddocks place and that Braddock was interested in the murder. He and Sheriff Carpenter testified thas he went to the sheriff and asked If he should bring them in'' and the sheriff instructed him to do so. The stills were captured by Skipwith and his associates and the party then went to the Braddock home, got him out of bed and brought him to Bas-. trop, placing him in the custody of the sheriff. It Is this feature upon which the false arrest" contention of the defense hinges, in spite of the fact that since then Braddock has been indicted for violation of the liquor laws and now Is under bond awaiting trial. Incidentally three negroes captured that night while operating the stills have been convicted but Governor Parker only recently granted them a respite until the next term of court in order to prepare a motion for retrial on grounds that they could not right fully be convicted on such evidence that gathered by captain oklpWltn and his men.
 The questions were injected by MT. Barnett just before the noon recess and Judge Odum adjourned court for two hours to give counsel an oppor- tunity to examine authorities and prepare argument Virtually the entire afternoon session was de- voted to discussion of highly tech nical nature, revolving largely about the definition of the word 'con- spiracy' in relation to things in gen eral and the bills of information in particular.
 Judge Odom informed the state at the conclusion of the discussion that he would take the matter under ad- visement but that his present opin- ion was the contention of the de- fense was correct. He said. how ever, that he expected to examine authorities and would render for nal decision later. Discussions con- tinued after this announcement, the Senator Warrant and Attorney Gen eral Coco. It was indicated that the court would permit further argu- ment and the state tonight took steps to prepare for 1t. Should the court uph old the contention of the defense the state will have no case.
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 Bastrop Has Fire.
 The court had a rival attraction today when fire threatened destruc- ton of part of the business dis trict. It was shortly before ad- journment for over night that a pressing machine in a tailor shop a block away from the court house ex- ploded and fired the building. Those who saw the dense smoke from the windows lost all interest in the pro- ceedings and went to the fire. A one-story brick building containing a tailor. shoe repair shop, a. market aid grocery was destroyed. Embers carried by brisk wind fired other structures, but the flames were ex- tinguished with little or no damage.