Alvin Mansel Is Innocent, People Tell Gov. McLean, June 29, 1926

Alvin Mansel Is Innocent, People from Asheville Say. . . It Would be a Grave Injustice, They Declare, to Allow Him to Die in the Electric Chair. . . Appear Before Governor McLean. . . Special Hearing Before Governor of Those Seeking a Commutation of Mansel’s Sentence

Raleigh, June 29—Alvin Mansel is innocent. He did not make the attack on the Asheville woman who later identified him as her assailant, and is the victim of mistaken identity. It would be nothing short of a grave miscarriage of justice for the State of North Carolina to allow him to die in the electric chair.

This was the burden of the contention of those who appeared before Governor A.W. McLean here Monday as a special hearing granted by the governor to those seeking the commutation of his sentence to one of lesser severity—or an absolute pardon. And the contention was substantiated by amass of affidavits constituting new evidence to show that the young Asheville negro had nothing to do with the crime, knew nothing of the crime and was entirely innocent of it, in that his whereabouts have been accounted for throughout the entire period during which the crime is alleged to take taken place. And the further contention that the rank and file of the people in Buncombe County and Asheville believe that he was convicted of a crime that he did not commit is substantiated by a sheaf of petitions signed by the most representative people of the city and county to the effect that there is a very definite doubt of his guilt and that hence he should not be put to death.

But that is not all. Six of the 12 jurymen who convicted Mansel on the evidence as introduced in the trial have signed a letter addressed to Governor McLean that in view of the new evidence that has been found and submitted to them since the trial, they are sure that there is a reasonable doubt as to Mansel’s guilt. The other six jurors have either removed from Buncombe County or were away at this time and could not be reached with the new evidence.

‘But I have not the slightest doubt that every one of the 12 men on the jury would have signed that letter, could they all have been reached,” Hall Johnson, attorney for Mansel, who is now leading in the effort to have is sentence commuted, told Governor McLean at the hearing.

“It is not at all strange that Mansel was convicted under the conditions that existed at the time of the trial,” said Johnson. “In the first place, I was given less than a day to prepare the case before the trial started. Even then I was able to account for his whereabouts during the day of the crime for all but 45 minutes of the time. But this only by affidavits from patients in the sanatorium where he was employed. I could not take these witnesses into court from their sick beds.

“Then there was the intense feeling that prevailed at that time. Feeling was so hot you could cut it off in chunks. There were the national guardsmen outside the courthouse and inside the courthouse, with their guns always ready. Why, at one time, when I started to get up to speak I stumbled over one of those miserable guns and almost broke my leg.

“But now I would not be afraid to go before any jury anywhere, under any conditions and retry this case. And I would acquit that boy. The night before the trial started I went to the jail and told the jailer to lock me up in a cell with Mansel where we could talk alone and undisturbed. I tried at that time every mention I knew of to get him to confess. I argued with him, plead with him, bullied him—did everything I could to get some sort of statement out of him tending to show me that he had some knowledge of the crime. And at the end of that two hours or more, I left the jail firmly convinced that that young negro boy was as innocent of the charges as I was. And now I am more sure than ever that he is innocent. He did not commit that attack. And he should not be allowed to die in the electric chair for a crime that he did not commit,” Johnson told the governor in making one of the most fervid pleas for a man’s life that has ever been made.

Governor McLean deserved his decision, taking the case under consideration until an indeterminate date.

Editor's Note: The governor would remove the death sentence but replaced it with life in prison. From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 29, 1926

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Sentencing of Convicted Murderer Edmund Bigham Postponed, June 28, 1926

Sensational Murder Case in South Carolina. . . Bigham, Who Slew His Family of Five, Will Not Know His Fate Till Fall

By International News Service

Florence, S.C., June 25—“Finis” has not yet been written to South Carolina’s most sensational murder case, and Edmund D. Bigham, twice convicted slayer of his family of five, will not learn his ultimate fate until autumn.

When his trial came up for a third time in Horry County court, defense counsel obtained a postponement of the trial.

After watching his fate swing pendulum-line through the courts for five years, as his counsel waged one of the longest legal battles on record to save him from apparently certain doom, the prisoner now has lost some of the stoicalness that has marked his five-year fight to evade the electric chair, and now wants to “get through with it all.”

The prisoner vehemently protests his innocence of the wholesale slaughter, maintaining that his brother, Smiley—one of the five victims—wiped out the entire family in one of his characteristic “fits of madness” and then ended his own life by suicide.

The prosecution, on the other hand, contends that Bigham committed the crime in order to fall heir to the vast Bigham estate.

From page 6 of The Concord Times, June 28, 1926

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Walter Woods Taken by KKK, Leaving 10 Children Alone, June 28, 1926

Durham Man Seized by a Masked Party. . . Walter Woods Says He Was Taken from Home but Not Harmed—They Just Talked to Him

Durham, June 25—Reports that Walter Woods, a paper hanger, had been visited by masked and robed figures at about 9 o’clock Thursday night at his home on James Street, in the Lakewood Park section, and transported against his will to a spot somewhere on the old Cornwallis Road, were confirmed tonight by Mr. Woods when interviewed by a reporter of The Herald. Mr. Woods stated that he believed the figures, 10 in number, to be representatives of the Ku Klux Klan.

“They just talked to me,” he said. It was about 9 o’clock and Mr. Woods had already retired when the alleged masked figures entered, some by the front door and some by the rear, and requested that he come with them. He refused, he said, whereupon he was taken with force. In the bed at the same time were two small children, both of whom were awakened by the conversation, as were also two other children asleep in a room across the hall.

Mr. Woods is a widower with 10 children. His wife died in December, several days after giving birth to a child who is now five months old. Mr. Woods’ chief objection to the whole incident, he said, was the fact that the children were badly frightened by the appearance of the figures, and that they were left alone in the house for the half hour or so that he was removed.

He was not subjected to any abuse, nor was he treated in any but a courteous manner, Mr. Woods said, adding that he was carried out to the spot on Cornwallis road and returned later, being let out from the car at a point about 400 yards from his house.

From page 6 of The Concord Times, June 28, 1926

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Diversification of Crops in Vance County, June 29, 1926

Diversification is Watchword in Vance. . . Farmers Going in More and More for Varied Type of Agriculture

Henderson, June 29—Sideline activities for farmers in Vance County are beginning to take on turns this season, and more and more farmers are turning to other means of income than tobacco and cotton, for many years almost the sole reliance for the growers of their money income.

County Farm Agent J.C. Anthony reported today the procuring of 25 heads of shoats by J.C. Puckett and M.T. Greenway, who are co-operating on their farms a few miles east of the city in a demonstration to show how money can be made in raising pork.

The county at this time also has at least one commercial peach orchard, which covers only seven acres but has approximately 600 trees, each of which is expected to average two bushels of fruit, and which may net the owner, W.H. Ayscue, from $2,500 to $3,000 for his crop. This is in addition to Mr. Ayscue’s other crops and has so clearly demonstrated the possibilities of peaches in this section that it is regarded as not improbable that there may be additional orchards next year to supplement the farm incomes.

All of these side lines are in addition to poultry on hundreds of farms, and the dairy industry, which is now being agitated.

From the front page of The Concord Daily Tribune, June 29, 1926

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Clarence Choate Feeding Barley and Vetch Hay to Work Stock, June 28, 1926

Farm News from Kope Elias

Charlotte, June 28 (AP)—Clarence Choate of the Observer section of Mecklenburg County, is using hay from a crop of barley and vetch sown last fall as the entire feed for his work stock this this spring, reports County Agent Kope Elias. This stock remains in good flesh, even while plowing every day, and Mr. Choate is delighted with the result. This is the first time that Mr. Choate has sown barley, but ow he is planning to use the crop as a regular part of his farming operations, according to Mr. Elias.

From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, June 28, 1926

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Soybean Club Members Increasing Production in Stanly County, June 28, 1926

Albemarle, N.C., June 26 (AP)—Members of the soybean club in Stanly County are responsible for the increased acreage planted to the crop in that county this year, according to County Agent O.H. Phillips.

Two of the members, Banks and Ray Barrier, secured enough seed from a pint of beans planted last year to sow more than two acres this spring. Macon Rowland, a club boy in the Millingport section of the county, has a 10-acre field sown to the Laredo variety, while Bessie and Ray Almond have two acres sown to the same variety.

These club members are in love with their work, and all are planning large acreages for the next year, asserts Mr. Phillips.

From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, June 28, 1926

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52 Henderson County Farmers Supplementing Income Selling at Curb Market, June 28, 1926

Hendersonville, N.C., June 26 (AP)—Produce has been sold on the curb market by 52 Henderson County farmers this spring as compared with nine farmers last year at this time, according to County Agent E.F. Arnold. The sales since May 15 have reached a total of $922.30, while the sales for the same period last year were only $111.19.

The market is a success from a financial standpoint, states Mr. Arnold, and the steady growth of patronage assures a permanent market for the farmers’ produce.

From page 3 of the Concord Daily Tribune, June 28, 1926

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