Tuesday, 4th November 1913: Two Negro Highwaymen Given 20 Years In Pen, The Atlanta Journal

Extreme Penalty Imposed on

Men Accused of Robbing

Attorney Hooper

Sam

Reed and Oscar Wright, negroes, were sentenced to twenty years each in the

penitentiarythe extreme penalty of the lawby Judge Ben H. Hill in the

criminal division of the superior court Tuesday, when they were found guilty of

holding up, assaulting and robbing Attorney Frank A. Hooper June 2.

Mr.

Hooper, widely known because of his association with Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey

in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, was one of the first witnesses called by

the state, and he recounted to the jury the dramatic story of the hold-up.

Mr.

Hooper, on the night of June 2, was walking along Eight and Piedmont walked on

one side of the walk and the others went near the curb, forcing the attorney to

walk between them. Suddenly, Mr. Hooper told the court, both men commenced

hitting him, one of them using brass knucks and the other a sand bag.

FOUGHT WITH ASSAILANTS.

He

was knocked down but quickly gained his feet and clinched with Oscar Wright,

the larger of the negroes. Down an embankment they rolled 20 feet to the bottom

of the ravine.

The

negro landed on top and, choking Mr. Hooper with one hand plied the brass

knucks with the other, leaving more than twenty gashes on the lawyers face and

head.

While

Wright was hammering the lawyer in the face with the knucks Reed went through

his pockets, taking a watch and $2.

Finally

the two highwaymen left the bruised and battered attorney in a semiconscious

condition and escaped in the darkness.

City

Detectives Waggoner and Doyal worked on the case several weeks and finally

located Mr. Hoopers watch in a pawn shop. They then traced it to the negroes,

who confessed. They repudiated the confession in court, but the evidence was

all against them and a jury quickly returned a verdict of guilty.

PAGE 6, COLUMN 1

CHIEF

ADVISES AGAINST

TOO FREE USE OF WAGON

All captains and sergeants of the police force were in

conference with Chief J. L. Beavers behind closed doors Monday. It is said the

cautioned the men against making frivolous cases, but urged them to continue

vigorously the ware.

The chief is also said to have stated

that many of the patrolmen are not free enough in the granting of copies of

charge, and they were urged whenever possible to spare persons charged with

minor offenses the humiliation of a ride in the patrol wagon.