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LANE IS UNCERTAIN ON SHORE RETURN
No Definite Date Set For Coroner's Inquest In Salisbury Lynching
PROBE BEING CONTINUED
Attorney-General, Who Returned To Hagerstown For Week-End, Conducting Investigation
[Special Dispatch to The Sun] Hagerstown, Dec. 21—With no definite date set for a coroner's inquest, William Preston Lane, Jr., Attorney-General, who returned here for the week-end, said he had not determined when he would go again to Salisbury in connection with the investigation of the lynching of a Negro there on December 4.
The Attorney-General said inquiries made on the Eastern Shore and the questioning of witnesses had not progressed enough for him to say when the investigation would reach the stage that would warrant laying findings before the coroner's jury.
Dragged From Hospital The day after the lynching a jury was impaneled to view the body by Magistrate S. King White and after this fomality was dismissed subject to the call of Sheriff G. Murray Phillips.
The Negro who was lynched, Matthew Williams, had earlier in the afternoon shot and killed his employer Daniel Eliott, a box manufacturer. The lynching victim was dragged from the Peninsula General Hospital, where he had been taken for treatment for wounds inflicted by himself and Mr. Eliott's son.
Bailey Conducts Probe Levin C. Bailey, State's Attorney for Wicomico county, took over the investigation the day after the lynching and Governor Ritchie ordered the Attorney-General to aid him in the vigorous prosecution of the mob.
Hundreds of pages of testimony have been taken during questioning of Salisbury residents by the Attorney General.
Task Of Gathering Data On Lynching Continues
Salisbury, Md., Dec. 21—In the absence of Attorney-General William P. Lane, who returned to Hagerstown on Saturday, State's Attorney Levin P. Bailey today continued to take state ments from witnesses of the hanging of Matthew Williams here on December 4, in order to complete a file of information to turn over to the cor
oner's jury, which will fix responsibility in the case.
Detectives furnished by the Baltimore Police Department have joined in the investigation here and a number of witnesses have been questioned. No call upon the coroner's jury is expected until the various investigating agencies have completed their work.
Mr. Bailey does not know the future plans of Mr. Lane and stated today that he did not know if Mr. Lane planned to return to Salisbury to resume his questioning of witnesses. In the meantime Mr. Bailey is expected to continue with the work of taking statements from all eyewitnesses who can be identified, and at its conclusion to call the inquest together.
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