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Witnesses Heard By Grant
Jury In Lynching Probe
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Twelve of the 102 Witnesses Before Salisbury
Jurors—Sheriff of Wicomico County
Principal Witness
Salisbury, Md., March 15 (/P) — | The Wicomico County Grand Jury today cleared, in half a day, its ponding criminal cases, and then turned its Attention to an investigation of the lynching, last December 4 of Matthew Williams, negro, for the slaying of Daniel J. Elliott, aged lumberman.
During the afternoon session, the inquest heard a dozen of the 102 witnesses summoned in connection with the lynching, but information as to their testimony was lacking.
G. Murray Phillips, Sheriff of Wicomico County, was the principal witness of the day as far as the lynching was concerned, remaining in the grand jury room more than an hour. The nature of his testimony as to the action of the mob lynching of Williams was secret as well as all other testimony before the grand jury.
In addition to the sheriff, doctors, officers and nurses of the Peninsula General Hospital, from which Williams was taken and hanged to a tree in the Court House yard, were the principal witnesses.
Levin C. Bailey, State's Attorney of Wicomico County, declined to say whether or not his office had any information connecting an
"outside organization" with the murder of Elliott.
Judge Joseph L. Bailey, in his charge to the jury yesterday, instructed it to investigate not only the lynching of Williams, but to determine whether or not any "outside influence" had a part in the killing.
His charge revived reports that Communist organizations had held mass meetings in the Salisbury district prior to the murder and even on the night preceding the afternoon the lumberman was slain and his killer hanged.
Judge Bailey did not name any organization, and today declined to comment on a demand of the International Def.Misa League that he be impeached 'for his charge, o charges that the grand jury ha been "hand picked" to perfect "lynch rule."
In the gravid jury room during the parade of witnesses was not only Slate's Attorney Bailey but also Attorney General W. Preston Lane and H. C. A. Anderson, Assistant Attorney General.
Impeachment Asked
Baltimore, March 15 (^—Demands for the impeachment of Judge Joseph L. Bailey and criti cism. of the Wicomico County Grand Jury which is investigating the lynching of Matthew Williams, negro, were made in telegrams dispatched today by Louis Berger, secretary of the International Labor Defense League, a Communist organization.
Berger asked Governor Albert C. Ritchie to impeach Judge Bailey because of the latter's charge to the grand jury at Salisbury yesterday.
The league official said the jurist charged the jury in its investigation not to look for the criminals who were responsible for the death of Matthew Williams but to divert everybody's attention to the International Labor Defense League.
He said the "outside organization" referred to by the judge was the league and the jurist's charge was an insult to his organization. He added that nothing would have been done about the lynching and the investigation would have been postponed indefinitely if it had not been for the strong agitation by the league.
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