Public Ledger

HANGING OF WILLIAMS.

Of the negro, William Williams, who was hung at Bartlett to-day, the following particulars will be read with interest:

Wm. Williams was a mulatto, aged forty years, and was born near Huntsville, Ala., in 1835. He was committed to Shelby County Jail September 22, 1874, for the murder of Joe Fields, colored, the Saturday preceding that date. He had an accessory after the fact in Sampson Pryor, also colored, who assisted in concealing the body of Fields and afterwards turned State's evidence against Williams. Two causes are assigned for the murder: First, Fields was a tenant of Williams, who was in good circumstances, financially, and Williams had become security for the payment of $14 due from Fields to a white neighbor. Out of this a quarrel arose, as Williams was about to become liable for the amount. Second, Fields charged Williams with an attempted rape on his wife, and threatened to indict Williams therefor. The testimony was purely circumstantial which led to the conviction, save the direct evidence of Sampson Pryor, the accessory. It appears that late in the afternoon of the day of the killing, Williams, Pryor, Fields (deceased) and other negroes, were assembled at the house of a negro named Branch Quinnell, on or near Jo Barnes' place, two miles from Shelby Depot. Some of them had just returned from the depot, and were drinking. They had several bottles of whisky. Pryor testified at the trial: Came by Williams' house at 2 or 3 o'clock p.m., with Frank Ketchum; went to Quinnell's with one of them; Williams carried a hickory stick; separated from party at Branch Quinnell's, and went home alone; didn't know when the others went away from Quinnell's; subsequently Williams called witness from cotton-patch and they went back to Quinnell's. He relates what occurred then, referring to frequent drinks all around and other matters not pertinent to the case; Williams left Quinnell's in company with Fields, walking in the direction in which the murder took place. Frank Ketchum and witness walked home after dark; met Williams, who said he was going back to Quinnell's; Frank and witness went to witness's house; witness left Frank in the house and went to the stable to feed the horses with corn, which he carried in his arms.

Billy Williams came up behind witness as he was entering the stable and scared witness so that he dropped the corn; I said, "Who is dat?" and he said, "It is me." He said, "I am in distress and I want you to go help me." I said, "What is the matter, Billy?" He says, "I have killed Fields with my stick." I said, "What in the world did you do that for?" He said, "Because he threatened to indict me for committing a rape on his wife, and I thought my life as dear to me as his was to him, and I killed him and throwed him over the fence so that Billy Mitchel would not see him when he came along with the wagon." He wanted me to go help him carry him off. I didn't want to go, but finally being drunk, I went; we then went by Aunt Jane Cooper's; Billy jumped over the fence and got a sea-grass rope off the well, and we went up to where Fields was, and Billy got over the fence and tied his legs and hands with the rope, and he put a rail in between his legs and hands, and Billy took the front and I took the end, and we carried him through the bottom in a run. I was so drunk that I fell down several times, and when we came to a little ravine I let my end down, and the body fell back towards me, and I was afraid to let it touch me; I ain't touched it till yet; I dropped my end and run back a little; I then went up and took the other end of the rail, and Billy come and took my end, and we dragged him up the bank; we then went on about a hundred and fifty yards, and I told him I wouldn't go any further, and we put him between two logs, and Billy cut the rope off and took the rail on his shoulder, carrying it 100 yards, and threw it down.

This witness made a detailed statement about their return to the house, subsequently meeting at church next day. Williams' advice to Pryor was to get out of the way. Pryor went first to Mississippi and then Arkansas, from which latter State he returned to testify. Williams was tried and convicted at the November term, 1874. He got a new trial and was then tried, convicted and sentenced at the May term of the same court, from which he appealed to the Supreme Court, which affirmed his sentence to be hung on last Christmas eve, but as in the case of Frank Scott, Governor Porter respited him until the 7th of January-to-day.

The condemned man, William Williams, was carried out to Bartlett this forenoon by Deputy Sheriff Tom Taylor and assistants on a special train. A scaffold similar to that put up in the jail yard has been erected at Bartlett for the execution of Williams. At one o'clock this afternoon Deputy Sheriff Taylor placed the fatal noose around the neck of the criminal and he was launched into eternity. The particulars of the execution did not reach us in time for publication.