THE PENSACOLA JOURNAL, THtTRSDAY frlORNrNG, JULY 12, 1ZL7.
CASE OF TWO
BLACKWELL'S TO
JURY TODAY
(Continued on Page Ten)
bepn blasted by A- J. Melvin, who
Evrore that he perjured himself when
he said he saw the prisoner in a
chair car on the night in question.
Documentary Evidence.
The state then offered in evidence
the' motion for continuance filed ay
Will Blackwell when he was first ar
raigned on the first of May, stating
that he was not prepared for trial
because he had not been able to com
municate with Henry Weaver or Jeff
Russell, two material witnesses, as
he claimed; bringing out the point
that the said witnesses had still not
been summoned, and that the affi
davit was further false.
Shortly after his arrest, Will
Blackweil declared that Jeff Russell
could establish his alibi, that he was
the only man in Crestview who had
seen him on the night of March 21;
and the state now called J. D- Rus
sell to the stand who swore that his
son Jeff had been in Oklahoma since
last September, was there still and
had not been back in the meantime.
The defense insinuated that there
mijrht be some some other Jeff Rus
sells in this part of the country, but
Sheriff Sutton settled this point
effectively.
Picture on the Wall
Eliza Atwell going upon the stand
for the fourth time and tying bher
Iff Sutton's record, described Will's
peculiar conduct with the picture on
the wall. She held the atrocity in
the white enamel frame in her lap,
where all could see it the red coated
woman with a petrified smile and a
gray gloved hand, enormously out of
nronortion. restinsr cn the horse's
head. The picture had been hanging
1 for months in Will blackwell's room;
shortly after the crime it appeared
in her room- She returned it. He
; took it back into her room and told
t her not to move it again- When she
'informed Mr. McGeachy about this, ,
as alreadv broueht out, he had De
tective Moore examine the offending
I work of art. When the pasteboard
' backing was removed, Bob Blak
! well's Woodman of the World card
i was found cunningly hidden between
! it and the picture; the card that
! Bob and Will acknowledged was in
the suitcase and which Will was un
i able to remember whether he had
hidden in such a remarkable place!
Further Confirmation.
Mrs. Atwell further testified that
Will Blackwell was in the habit of
doing her marketing, but did not uo
it on the night of the murder; she
was corroborated by W- J. Haynes
and L. R. DuBose, her boarders, who
further said that it about midnight
on the night of the murder Mrs- At
well was in Blackwell's room alone
and that at daybreak Will was there.
Mrs. Atwell was called for the
second time that day and the fifth
i mo since the case started, and adrt
cd further confirmation. Sheriff Sut
ton's record was broken!
Smashing Will's Alibi.
Discredited already, the state now
proceeded utterly to confound Will
Blackwell's alibi.
Charles Cox went on the stand and
swore that Tuesday of last week he
had seen Duncan Blackwell, father of
the accused, and Mrs. Robert Black
well, wife of Bob, coming from the
house of Mrs. Erin Settles, the
; woman who swore that Will was in
' her house drinking whiskey at the
i time of the murder- Mrs- Settles
though arrested for perjury last Sat-
urday, has not yet seen fit to change
i her testimony; so the state called
! representative men and men of
standing in the community, begin
, ning with Mayor White, who swore
that the Settles woman Jiad a bad
reputation and that they would not
believe her on oath. M- E. Savage,
A. T. Jones, L. E Bowers, W. R.
White, and C- H. Griffith so testified;
and so that alibi went to join the
snows of yesteryear.
Merely to round out the case, the
state put Mrs. A. J. Melvin on the
stand who swore that her husband
was home on the night of March 21
and not at Holt talking to Bob Black
well as he claimed before he re
nounced his perjury.
The state and the defense rested
at 10:30 a. m-
Judge Campbell announced that
each side would be limited to eight
hours-
At 10:40 R. A- McGeachy. the tal
ented state attorney, whose first case
this is in his official capacity, began
his speech.
Remarking that there was nothing
that he could say would strengthen
such a strong case, he referred to
the probity of Judge Campbell, and
to the care with which the jury had
been selected to prevent any man
with any bias being allowed to serve.
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In a Big Hurry
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President Appeals
Country's Business Interests
Washington, July 11 The presi
dent appealed to the country's busi
ness interests tonight to put aside
evejy selfish consideraion and give
their aid to the nation and freely to
those who go to offer lives on battle
fields. The statement is addressed
to coal operators and manufacturers
to whom he gave assurances that just
prices will be paid by the govern
ment and public during the war, but
Both the state and the defense he
said had examined the jurors and
were satisfied with the honesty and
had so expressed themselves. Mr
McGeachy then paid a flowing trib
ute to his assistant and predecessor
in office, who had begun the case
and whom he was rlad to have as
sociated with him. He said that the
citizens of Okaloosa county had done
him a favor by retaining the services
of Mr. Stokes, and had assisted the
ends of justice as well, because of the
familiarity of his assistant with every
detail of the hideous tragedy.
Summarizes Evidence.
Summarizing the ' evidence. Mr
McGeachv told of the visit of Bob
and Will Blackwell &nd Mrs. Atwell
to Camp Walton a year ago; of
Will's visit to the Brooks house and
his suspicious actions and inquiry
after the financial status of the vic
tims, as related by Blaney Brooks
yesterday the man who even warn
ed Bud Davis, that a shifty-eyed
stranger was interested in his money.
He discussed the testimony of Cur
tis and Bud Adams, of Levy Dollar,
and George Jones, the men who
swore that Will
to be his accom
and referred to
guise which the
them and accordinir to the evidence
it was burnt cork with which the
Blackwell brothers and the mvsteri-
ous third man from Alabama were
disguised. A sooty deposit resem
bling burnt cork was rubbed off Will
Blackwell's coat, and Mrs. Atwell
swore she helped clean his face of th
dark disguise.
Alibi Struggles
Mr. McGeachy told of Will's strug
gles to secure an alibi by corrupting
the youth of the land, even while the
trial was in progress, referring es
pecially to the testimony of L. C
Carr, G. D. Adams, and Louis Ates.
Where Is Gradie Bartlett?
He discussed the Gradie Bartlett
land deal plea. If Gradie Bartlett
had not seen Bob Blackwell since he
was a little boy, how did he know that
Bob was in Sylacauga, Ala , that he
went there offering to pay $20 an
acre for some land that he had not
seen for 20 years such being the
testimony that has been "-brought
out?
To my mind," declared the state
attorney in one of his bursts of elo-
quence, "he's the third man in this
crime and he lives in Alabama "
If Bob's and Gradie's visit to Flor
ida was as innocent as the prisoners
sought to make out, why was not
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this famous food retains
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many cereal foods.
From every standpoint
good flavor, rich nour
ishment, easy digestion,
convenience, economy,
health from childhood to
old age Grape-Nuts
food.
Th
ere s a Keason
Doings of the
irien 10 eei mem arterwarci. Mate .ittornev .Mcbcacny i . , - . -
y'"-" juwn, U-ini lie uusuiveiy utrueveu. i.. l o H1,
the burnt cork nis- ! After discussinc the absurdity of i T "...
prisoner proposed to the motive alleged by Bob for letting - 1 e nA,:' r;ifQ
I 1
!
ToM,TWRoJ TUAT CkiAR AWAS-)
I wamt Nou xo no cvt amd j
SpeAK' To MWS VAA.SToR - Sov
RememOeR SotfvB met Heel I
to the
warned that no attempt to extort any
unusual profits will be tolerated.
The president declared that t-Vre
must be one price for the govern
ment and public. He was confident
that business generally will be loyal
to the last degree. In unmeasured
terms the president condemned &6
ship owners for maintaining the
schedule on ocean freight rates whicJi
placed obstacles in the path of the
government.
Gradie here to say so? The state
had tried to locate him; the defend
ants claimed they had tried; the
press had carried the news of the
crime broadcast over the land. Would
Gradie let an innocent man suffer.
And if the prisoners had a hundred
acres of land worth $20 an acre,
which Will declined to sell because
he wanted $25 for his share, why
had they made affidavits of insol
vency ?
Adverting to Bob's struggle to get
an alibi. Mr. McGeachy referred to
George Blair, the Pensacola boarding
house keeper, and Jim Sellers, who
the prisoner claimed would be able
to establish his presence in that es
tablishment the night before and
the night of the crime, who swore
yesterday quite the opposite, Blair
saying Bob had not been in Pensacola
for three weeks before the crime, and
Sellers that instead of sleeping with
Bob on the night of March 21, was
at Ferry Fass.
, Bob's Name forged.
That Bob Blackwell's name on the
lodging house register was forged by
some member of his farnilv weeks
.: ,i i . u . iV: j loiieu, iririrmg lu ins esiar, mj
! ...... . . ...... .. . Ill LUC UVSItlUii VI JL 1. liaiu
win riacKwen iase nis suitcase 10
. i i j. i - -i
snipping a uencaie piece ol macnin
ery by express with such flimsy pro-.
tection it it had been, Mr. McGeachy
said that the suitcase contained the
disguises that the nv-n woie spec
ially Will Blackwell, who h..d Bob
Blackwell bring him a white felt hat,
' and a rubber heeled shoe with a de
pression in the heel, in order to
throw people off the trail, because he
had never been known to wear such
a hat or such sKes-
Sophronia Holmes.
Mr McGeachy then adverted to
Sophronia Holmes, who had declared
at the coroner s inquest, before she
knew who Will and Bob Blackwell
J wore, that she believed
: identify the three men
she could
who had
passed her house the morning of the
j .rime, one of whose foottracks raised
surfaces in the sand corresponding to
j tne sunken places in the heels. Two
i 0f these men she subseauentlv iden-
i tified as Will and Bob Blackv. ell the
third man is still at large.
k Gave Themselves Away.
Harrison Davis also identified, but
not as positively as Sophronia
Holmes, the men disguised as negroes
who come to his father's house the
fatal niffht. as Will and Bob Black
well. Mr. McGeachy thn declared
that when the black-faced men calleii
"Oh Massa" at the gate of the gate
of the murdered couple, they showed
they were not negroes. who have
abandoned that form of address; aw'
further gave themselves away by de
claring that tney did not eat meat
because all negroes do- They were
masqueraders. and fool masquerad
ers. he declared
Mr. McGeachy then referred to ihc
4o calibre steel jacket bullet that ha'
shot the Winchester from Bud
Davis' hand, and discussed Colt's 4-"
that Will Blackwell was known to
have before the crime, although it
had subsequently disappeared.
Regarding Sophronia Holmes state
ment that none of the men she had
seen had either coats or guns, he
suggested that they may have been
held on the off side for concealment.
Mr- McGeachy adverted to Bob
Blackwell's ramblings, his alia. ad
his smashed alibis, which he had trLtl
to establish through Melvin, Sellers
and Blair.
Settles Mrs. Settles.
Attacking Will's alibi, he showed
how Mrs. Settles trustworthiness ban
been utterly discredited by men
standing who swore tney would not
believe h?r on oath; and he ad
verted to Henry Weaver and Jeff
Russell, the men bv whom the ac
cused stated previously could prove
his presence in Crestview that night
before the Settles woman had been
thought of !
Concluding his speech with a brief I
Duffs
MCAN
1
THe Dame
YiTH THE
I - V w w
, Vu e mV,1 eior-' V,ime' him at first said that He was inno
ar.cl the impossibility of getting a cent ,ater whpn hp wag hourided hy
Remington typewriter into it and the the populace (Mr. McGeachv and Mr.
fact Uiat no one would dream of j Stoltcp)i to sentence Him "to death.
discussion of circumstantial evidence
in general and the unbreakable chain
here forged in particular, he exhorted
the jury to put aside any natural re
vulsion to imposing capital punish
ment, and if they believed the men
were guilty as charged, to mete out
the full penalty of the law.
Mr- McGeachy spoke for two and
a half hours, leaving live and a half
hours more for the state.
Will Blackwell's Speech.
Upon permission given by the
court, Will Blackwell addressed the
jury. His speech, which was twenty
minutes long, could hardly be called
an argument, but a conglomeration
of boasting, politics, abuse of the
authorities, a comparison of himself
to Jesus Christ, and the jury to Pon
tius Pilate, a reading from the
Bible, and a quotation from Patrick
Henry.
Consorted With Millionaires.
"I have had a taste of life," he
said "I have been east and west,
and south, and as far north as the
Canadian border- I know what it is
to dine at the table of a millionaire,
and I also know what it is to share
the humble crust of the cottage. I
have slept in the bed of a millionaire
and I have also slept on the dirt
under the trees."
He expressed great indignation at
what he characterized as the infa
mous treatment he had received in
the Escambia county jail in Pensa
cola, being locked in a condemned
cell, he said, and held quasi-incom-
municado. That he should have been
denied a change of venue and a con
tinuance, he declared an outrage
Dodges Picture.
He referred to the picture on the
wall and the Woodman card, and
without trying to explain anything,
passed on to something else. This is
the closest he came to arguing any
of the terrible evidence that has been
piled up against him.
Victim of a conspiracy, he in-
; when our Saviour was brought before
he washed his hands of the whole
business: he sutreested that the iury
be a little t longer minded than Tilate
and liberate him before reaching the
hand-washing stage- j
Quotes Bible. i
T1 1 11 .1 1 10iU 10.U I
DiacRWt-ii iiif-ii rt-au wit iwi, loin.
and I4th verses of the Fourth Chap
ter of Peter, the 1st and 2nd verses
of the Seventh Chapter of St. Mat
thew, the 5th verse of the Fourteenth
Chapter of Proverbs.
"We have all pot to go into etern
ity," he declared "and I would rather i
J.U 4- 4' U I
ln i in- utMJi in iiaiuif nuw mail uc
tortured as 1 have been since March
2-8. Give me liberty or give me
death."
Nelson Speaks
I. W. v Nelson opened the defense
proper with a vigorous denunciation
of the "perjured testimony," an in
sinuation against the ingenuousness
of the prosecuting officials, and nr.
appeal to give his clients the benefit
of the doubt and let them go. "Better
for a gi-'lty man to escape," he de
clared, "than that, an innocent man
suffer."
Life Imprisonment-
In this connection, Mr. Nelson
made an indirect plea for life im
prisonment in general, though he did
not ask that this penalty be given,
for Will Blackwell had already de
clared for liberty or death. By life
imprisonment, argued Mr. Nelson,
the state would be reimbursed, in the
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NAME.
j labor of the prisoners, for the ex
s pens? they have caused the state;
and if in the course of human events
j it was found that the wrong men
had boon condemned, there could be
partial correction.
I Praises Jury.
Extolling the lntejrrity and the in
J telligence of the jury, and declaring
i that he felt that their verdict what
j ever it was, would be honest, Jlr
Xelson said that two-thirds of the
testimony had no bearing on the case
j He regretted the trouble between
i win BiacKwen. snenn tton. ano
I V,rrnH.. r ,1 t.i a t.
i - nn .iiuuic, da uciaiicu lu Lit
; jury yesterday, but said it did not
' prove the guilt or innocence of the
J men charred with the Davis murder,
j Case Weak But for Witnesses.
"Without the testimony of Mrs.
Eliza Atwell. Curtis and Bud
! Adams," Mr. Xelson declared, "the
j state wouldn't have any case at all.
i Referring further to their "perjured
i testimony," he said that the plea of
fear they had made would not hold
water, because had they told the
Exit, Tom Duff
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ADDRESS ,
coroner's jury what they told this
court, Will Blackwell would have been
clapped into jail before he could do
them any hurt
He made a strong point of So
phronia Holmes declaration that the
three men had neither coats nor
guns. If the jury was to believe So
phronia's identification of Will and
Rob, argued Mr. Xelson, why was
the jury asked to forgret that part
of her testimony in which she de
clared they had neither coats nor
puns : sophronia had furthermore
d Pfl a r frl Ri'rl ATiv Vlon that the
i i - .- '
tmru man was one sam iteea, a man
of demonstrated innocence If she
was mistaken here, whv mieht she
not have been with his clients?
In conclusion Mr. Nelson made a
strong plea for the jury to give the
accused the benefit of a doubt. He
spoke two hours and fifteen minutes,
leaving five hours and forty-five min
utes time for the defense.
Court adjourned at 5:30 until 8
in the morning.
DO iOV EEG2.
give That doc
I L x
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