The State - September 30, 1915 Five Executions at State Prison - Negroes Pay Death Penalty for Murders - Is Record for State A record for legal executions in South Carolina was established yesterday when five negroes were put to death at the State penitentiary for the murder of John Q. Lewis, a confederate veteran from Chester county, and Prentiss Moore and Guy Rogers, two young white boys of Marlboro county. One hour and ten minutes were required to execute the criminals. A dull gray atmosphere enshrouded the skies and the muggy air about the little death chamber indicated what was appropriately termed "suicide weather." A general sigh of relief went up from executioners and prison officials alike when the five bodies, wrapped in their winding sheets, had been 'stacked' on their couches in the little anteroom of the death house, which had been converted into a veritable morgue. Meek Griffin, Tom Griffin, John Crosby and Nelson Brice were executed for the killing of the aged Mr. Lewis, while Joe Malloy paid the penalty for the murder of the two young Marlboro county boys. The crime for which the first four were convicted was committed April 24, 1913. The Marlboro county crime was committed Thanksgiving day, 1911. No confessions - The negroes did not confess. Three died protesting their innocence. The remaining two had nothing to add to "that already said," which was an affirmation of previous denial of guilt. Meek Griffin was put to death first by his own request. He was the most terror-stricken of all and wildly and incoherently muttered prayers while the curious harness was being buckled about him. Tom Griffin, from whose gun were fired the two charges which snuffed out the life of John Q. Lewis, had "no statement to make at all." "I have told the truth," he said. John Crosby, who was said to have fired the shots, likewise made no statement. "I am satisfied," he kept repeating. His thanks for the kindness from prison officials were also proffered. Good bye to Sheriff - Nelson Brice entered the room in the most buoyant spirits of all. He bowed smilingly to Sheriff Colvin of Chester county, who sat ten feet away, and asked "to shake hands good-bye" with the officer just prior to the placing of the electrode abut his forehead. Joe Malloy was broken spirited early in the morning, but braced himself when the hour for the ordeal arrived. "I have nothing to say," he answered, when his body had been strapped in the chair. "I knew nothing of the crime. I wouldn't be guilty of such a thing, and God would not have me commit such a crime." Malloy had an excellent physique, and was apparently in a resistant mood when the electrodes were being applied. But only two shocks were necessary to produce death. Three shocks were necessary to kill Meek Griffin and four for Tom Griffin. The heaviest amperage recorded since the installation of the chair was for the last named, when the register marked 13 amperes, with the voltage hovering around 2,000. Negro Confesses - John Monk Stevenson, another negro, is yet in jail, awaiting trail on the same charge on which the four were convicted. It was Stevenson's testimony largely which brought about the conviction of the four, he claiming that he watched while the crime was committed. Two other negroes had been arrested. While further investigation was being made, a row at a neighboring negro church caused the arrest of Stevenson, on whose person was found the dead man's pistol. Stevenson turned State's evidence and directed Sheriff Colvin and his deputies to the place where a stolen watch was buried and also told where the empty shells could be found. The shells are now in the clerk of court's office in Chester county. Stevenson's implication of the four was borne out by incontrovertible proof that Tom Griffin's gun was used for the killing, and that a screw driver belonging to the sewing machine in Meek Griffin's home was used to destroy the buried watch. Robbery was supposed to have been the motive. Young Moore and Rogers were killed in consequence of a row while hunting on land cultivated by Malloy on Thanksgiving day, 1911. Relatives Present - J. H. Lewis, a brother of the Chester victim, witnessed the execution of the four men yesterday, as did Sheriff Colvin, who was instrumental in bringing the guilty parties to justice. N. B. Rogers, county treasurer of Marlboro county and father of Guy Rogers; J. C. Rogers of Sumter, a brother, and Early B. Moore of Marlboro, a brother of Prentiss Moore, also came to Columbia for the execution. All available court machinery had been invoked to stay the hand of the law in the two cases. After being carried through the South Carolina courts, the Marlboro county case was taken to the United States supreme court. For more than two years the alleged pleas of newly discovered evidence and other points delayed the execution of the sentences. The Chester case was affirmed by the supreme court several months ago. Gov. Manning several days ago refused to commute the sentences of the five negroes to life imprisonment. The State (Columbia, SC) January 19, 1894 DISREGARDED HIS ORDERS A FREIGH DASHES INTO A VESTIBLE TRAIN Serious Accident at the G., C. & N. Crossing at Chester – Six Passengers Injured in the Wreck – Miraculous Escape The disobedience of instructions and the infringement of the State law by a railroad engineer yesterday morning at 12:38 o’clock caused a railroad wreck that was only by some miraculous intervention prevented from crushing the lives out of many passengers. The engineer jumped before the result of his deed was known to him, for he knew that under the circumstances a car load of people must be crushed to death, and the last seen of him he was making his way across a corn field and leaving for parts unknown. It was just at the hour named that the south bound Washington vestibule limited train from Charlotte to Columbia, running forty minutes behind her schedule, while crossing the Seaboard Air Line track at the Chester crossing, just north of the Chester depot, was struck at right angles by a freight train on the Seaboard road running at right angles to her, and the tail end Pullman sleeping car, containing thirteen sleeping people, was wrecked. The news of the accident was telegraphed to Columbia and Charlotte as soon as possible, and relief trains were sent out from this point. The number of wounded and injured were exaggerated at first, but even when, later in the day, the facts became known, it was found that six persons sustained painful injuries. Fortunately the accident occurred right at Chester, and the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company’s physician, Dr. Devaga, was soon on the scene, taking care of the wounded. All the passengers on the vestibule train who were awake say that the train stopped at the crossing before reaching it, as is required by law. The two road cross in deep cuts. When the passenger engineer, A. E. Williamson, started off again, to proceed across the other track, he opened his engine up and started off at a rapid rate. As his locomotive came to the cross cut, he saw the headlight of another locomotive bearing directly down upon his train, the train evidently moving at thirty miles an hour. In order to try and save the lives of the passengers on his train, he jerked his throttle wide open and endeavored to clear the coming train. He was literally flying, but he could not clear the other track, as his train was long. The last sleeping car just had its forward trucks upon the cross track when the freight hit his. The car was moving so fast and was so solid that the freight engine did not crash through, but was turned round and ran up the Richmond and Danville track in the direction the vestibule was going for some distance. The Pullman car was broken loose from the rest of the train and knocked way up on the embankment, where it rested on its side, badly crushed and smashed. Had the coaches been an ordinary light day coach, the freight engine would have gone through it, and the loss of life would have been terrible. All the glass in the Pullman car was smashed, and the tumbled inmates of the car, all of whom were asleep when the crash came, awoke in all kinds of positions and among broken glass and splinters. The vestibule train was in charge of Conductor T. W. Pritchard. Mr. Thomas Cothran of Greenville, was one of the passengers. His escape from instant death was miraculous. He was sleeping in the berth which was located just where the freight engine struck the car. He awoke in a shower of splinters and glass. He realized the situation immediately, and hearing the screams of the lady passengers, proceeded to extricate them from the smashed car. Mr. and Mrs. Speer of Pittsburg, Pa., were sleeping just across the aisle from him. He pulled Mrs. Speer out; she was bleeding from a wound in the head. One passenger was awakened by hitting the ground outside the car, having been thrown through a window. A lady who was sleeping in the rear stateroom did not wake until some time after the crash. She had been forgotten, and she raised a lively racket to get out, though she was uninjured. The list of the injured, as obtained officially, is as follows: Mrs. F. H. Speers, Pittsburg, Pa., slight scalp wound. J. H. Hoffman, New York, wrist burned. Mrs. M. E. McCarty, Washington, D. C., elbows cut. G. D. McCarty, Washington, D. C., slightly bruised. J. T. Wilson, Pittsburg, Pa., back hurt. Pullman Car Conductor, Davis, head slightly bruised. The injured passengers are being cared for at Chester by the R. & D. railroad. The track was cleared by 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon and the running of trains on regular schedule time has been resumed. Some of the ? of the Seaboard Air Line ? say that their engineer, when he was the passenger train crossing the track ahead, reversed his engine and did all he could to stop. Then he jumped, as did the conductor. From all that can be ascertained, the freight made an effort to stop at the crossing, as it is required to do. The facts seem to be that the engineer was running behind time. He had exactly two minutes and a half to make his meeting point at the next station, over a mile away, get into a sidetrack and let the last passenger of the Seaboard Air Line pass. He knew the schedule of the vestibule, and knew that she ought to have passed the crossing forty minutes before. Rather than stop and lose his position by sending out a flagman to wave down the Seaboard Air Line train, he took the chances, and began to run for the meeting point without paying any attention to the requirements in regard to stopping at crossings. Nine hundred and ninety- nine times out of a thousand he would have gotten through all right. This would be the only explanation of the cause of the accident. It is the theory, based on what facts they can get, of all the railroad men at this point, and the flight of Engineer Gray seems to sustain it. The New York Times August 25, 1871 contributed by Kim Baxley, transcribed by Dena Whitesell The South Carolina Kuklux - More Scenes of Outlawry and MurderThe Columbia (S.C.) Union of Wednesday morning publishes three more letters descriptive of deeds of lamentable outlawry and blood in that State, perpetated by members of the Kuklux Klan.  One of these letters described how 150 masked men rode into the town of Orangeburg on Monday night, and posted on the doors of the public offices warnings, commanding the threatened persons to resign and leave the country under penalty of death.  Another letter, from Newberry, says that Ben. Hair, an old colored man, formerly a preacher, was aroused by the barking of a dog near his house in Newberry, on Monday night.  He arose from his bed, and took his gun with the view of frightening the dog away, and went into his yard and discarged the piece.  No sooner had he done so than a volley was fired from unknown parties, killing him instantly.  He was pierced with six bullets.  It is not known that he had ever given offense to any one.  He was a poor, crippled, rheumatic old colored man. The third letter says that on Tuesday night of last week, a raid of white men visited the house of Bird Sims, a colored man, living about twelve miles from the Court-house in Chester, on the plantation of Samuel McLilly, and broke in Sim's house, when they beat him over the head terribly, and then dragged him out into the yard and shot seven bullets into him, leaving him dead.  The wife of Sims was unable to recognize any of the parties.  Sims was a young man, industrious and peaceable, (so far as is known) and no reason for his murder is known, except that he has frequently said he would never vote a democratic ticket.

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