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Many Called In Shore Probe Of Lynching
Prominent Bu siness Men
And Police' Officials to
Be Questioned
A-TTORNE^ GENERAL
TO ASSIST IN CA !
"Outside Organization's"
Activities in Outrage
Also, to Be Studied
(From the Baltimore Sun, March 15, 1932)
Salisbury, Md., March 14.— State, county and city police officials, members of the Peninsula General Hospital staff, prominent business men and industrial leaders of the three southern counties of the Eastern Shore were on the list of 102 witnesses summoned before the Wicomico county grand jury investigating the lynching of Matthew Williams.
The list was made public today by the State's Attorney's office. On it were the sheriff and two of his deputies of Wicomico county, the superintendent, physicians and and nurses of the hospital, Salisbury chief of police, city solicitor, a judge of the Orphans' Court, two former mayors and four newspaper men. Sixteen, Negroes also were called.
Charged by Judge Bailey. The jury, assembled today to begin its investigation, was charged by Judge Joseph L. Bailey.
Not only did the jurist ask for a probe into the lynching of the Negro, who had shot and killed Daniel J. Elliott, lumberman, but he also charged the jury to go into the events preceding the hanging and the activities of an "outside organization" on the Eastern Shore.
Lane to" Aid in Case. William Preston Lane, jr., Attorney General, will come here tomorrow to assist the State's Attorney. They also will be assisted by Deputy Attorney General Anderson, who, with detectives from Baltimore, have conducted an investigation for several weeks, during which they made stenographic reports of statements made by scores of persons questioned.
In his charge Judge Bailey did not say the "outside organization" was the International Labor De-tnse League, which has figured n other Eastern Shore criminal cases, notably in the defense of Euel Lee, convicted of murder. Refers to "Outside" Influence. Frequently during his discourse the jurist referred to "outside interference" in court procedure and "false accusations" made against officials and residents of the Eastern Share preceding the Elliott murder and lynching.
The jurist referred to the International Labor Defense League without naming it in connection with "another case" on the Eastern Shore.
Shootings Described. Williams, an employe of Elliott, went into the office of the lumberman December 4 while the latter was talking over the telephone. The Negro fired his pistol into his employer's body and tried to flee. Elliott's son saw Williams running away from the scene of the crime and fired at him. One of the bullets hit the negro, who, with his own gun, inflicted a wound on himself.
Williams was taken to the Peninsula General Hospital, where a mob of more than 2,000 gathered that night. Policemen stopped the mob at the main entrance, but six of the mobmen entered a side door, dragged the negro from his bed and took him to the courthouse green, where they hanged him to a tree.
Witnesses Are Listed. The list of witnesses summoned follows:
G. Murray Phillips, sheriff. Charles H, Pruitt and Donald A. Parks, deputy sheriff.
Sergt. M. D. Brubaker and Patrolman J. C. Peroutka, State police.
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