Tommy Mann, Shot at Midnight Sunday, Isn't Telling All He Knows, April 9, 1926

Think Tommy Mann Knows Who Shot Him. . . Evidence Accumulates that Elizabeth City Boy Shot on Highway at Midnight Knows More Than He Cares to Tell

Does Thomas Skinner Mann Jr., age 25, an automobile mechanic of this city who was mysteriously shot and seriously wounded after midnight Sunday on the Newland Road five miles from this city know who shot him? Both county and city officials incline to the theory that young Mann can clear up the mystery of his shooting when he wills.

Young Mann was found in his Ford coupe near Berea Baptist Church about five miles from Elizabeth City at 12:30 o’clock Sunday night, crazed with pain from a bullet wound. He had been shot in the abdomen.

The bullet pierced his left lung, passing thru the cardiac end of his stomach, narrowly missed the apex of his heart, and lodged in the flesh of his left side, just under the arm pit, an X-Ray examination at the Elizabeth City Hospital later revealed.

Mann was found in his automobile by Bruce McPherson and a young man named Brothers. After losing some time in trying to get a doctor, they brought him to town and to the hospital. Mann told them he did not know who shot him.

Mann Doesn’t Want to be Questioned

Mann was never in an unconscious condition, although weak from shock and pain. At the hospital Mann again and again declared that he didn’t know who shot him, and each time he has implored his questioners not to ask him any more questions. On Tuesday he requested that no one else be permitted to see him or question him for 10 days.

His brother, Walter Mann, of Norfolk, Va., who hurried to his bedside Monday morning and who went back to Norfolk Wednesday night, made a parting request that no one be permitted to ask is brother about the shooting until he returned from Norfolk next week. Walter Mann indicated that he might have something to tell when he came back.

It all looks funny. Tommie Mann, as young Mann is popularly known, told a well connected and plausible story to the police. He had visited Miss Ruth Overman, a daughter of Dennis Overman Sr., near Berea Church, Sunday night. He said they had gone riding together, and had gone as far as South Mills, eight miles distance and had a Coca Cola. Returning to the Overman home he found he had a flat tire and rode on past the Overman home to Smithson’s Garage, three miles distant, to get the tire fixed. Failing to get the tire fixed, he returned to the Overman home, left the young lady at midnight and started back to town. At a bend in the road close to Berea schoolhouse and only a few hundred yards from the young lady’s home, he says he stopped to fix the tire himself. While bending down fixing the tire, someone shot him, he doesn’t know who.

Miss Overman, when interviewed by Sheriff Carmine early Monday morning, showed instant surprise and shock by the news of the shooting, and told a story corroborating Mann in every detail up to the point of his departure from her home. She told of having given Mann her watch to bring to town for repairs, and a compact to be filled with powder. The watch and compact were on Mann’s person when he was brought to the hospital.

Signs of Scuffle

Early Monday morning Tom Brothers, a Negro, found a cheap .25 calibre Spanish type mail order pistol at about the point where Mann was shot. Two bullets had been fired from the pistol. Brothers says there were signs of a scuffle in the road where the pistol was found. Also nearby the police found a footprint of a woman in the ditch by the side of the road.

And This Looks Funny

But no tools or tire repair material were found in the road where Mann says he was stooping over fixing his tire when shot. And here is another thing that bothers the police: according to Man’s story, he had run a distance of more than six miles on a flat tire before he stopped The inner tube of the punctured tire was not rum cut and showed only two small punctures. The tire was found in the road several hundred yards from where the shooting is alleged to have occurred.

The shooting is alleged to have occurred at the bend of the road just above Berea school house. Just a few hundred feet from there is the home of Dennis Overman Jr., brother of Miss Ruth Overman between Berea and the home of the girl’s father, Dennis Overman Sr.

Tommie Mann—Did He Have an Enemy

But the mystery thickens. Tommie Mann is a quiet, unassuming, friendly boy, highly regarded by all who know him. It has been said over and over again that he hasn’t an enemy anywhere. But Ira Garret, who worked with young Mann at the Auto & Gas Engine Works in the city, tells a different story. (word obscured) on a charge of larceny in the Pasquotank county jail and there when Mann was shot is a young fellow from the Berea section named Raynor Cartwright. Ira Garret says that Tommy Mann told him that Raynor Cartywrigt had threatened to do him up if he ever caught him in the Berea section visiting the Overman home. Cartwright is said to have been enamored of Miss Overman and, being in disrepute with her himself he resented the attentions paid her by the fellow from town.”

But Cartwright was in jail Sunday night when the shooting occurred. It is true there is a gang spirit prevalent in the Berea neighborhood and Cartwright may have had friends who obligated to make trouble for Mann in Cartwright’s absence in jail. But if anything like that were the case, there is no reason why Mann would not be well aware of it and willing to talk openly about the shooting.

Tommie Mann says he was stooping down fixing a tire when someone shot him out of the darkness. The course the bullet took from his abdomen upward thru his lung and stomach to a point near his arm pit would put an assassin who fired that bullet into a stopping figure in a very awkward position. The gun that put that bullet in Tommie Mann was pointed upward when it was fired. And it is hardly possible that it was fired by Mann himself, because there were no powder burns on his clothing. The theory of a self-inflicted wound is thereby exploded.

Mann’s Chances for Recovery Are Good

Thought to have been mortally wounded and at the point of death Monday, young Mann is holding his own with a good chance for recovery. Punctures of a lung are not fatal. The bullet pierced his stomach at alate hour at night, five hours after a meal, when the stomach was empty. That is in his favor. He has not developed peritonitis or septic poisoning. Stomachs can be sewed up. The bullet is in the flesh of his left side up near the arm pit and has gone all the damage it can do. It can easily be extracted any time. X-Ray pictures reveal it to be a small calibre bullet, such as found in the gun at the point in the road where Mann was shot.

Is there more to the shooting than appears on the surface? The police think so. They believe that Mann knows who shot him and is concealing the facts to protect someone. This clue the police are pursuing.

From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., Friday, April 9, 1926

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Crawford Alridge, Who Abandoned Wife, Also Faces Bigamy Charge for Marrying Second Woman, April 9, 1926

Man Returned Here to Face Abandonment Case. . . Crawford Alridge Returned to Concord After Absence of More than Two Years

Crawford Alridge, white man, was brought to Concord Thursday from Martinsville, Va., by Chief of Police Talbirt and Patrolman Baxter Robinson.

Alridge, it is charged, abandoned his wife here about two years ago. He has been gone two years and three months, to be exact, it is said. Police officers have been looking for him most of that time.

Officers returning with Alridge state that he has another wife in Virginia, having married a young woman from Fieldale. It is probable that he will be turned over to the Virginia officers after local officers are through with him and that in that State he will be tried for bigamy.

From page 2 of The Concord Daily Tribune, April 9, 1926

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John Gray Taken to State Pen to Begin Stay on Death Row, April 9, 1926

John Gray Taken to Raleigh

Stanly News-Herald

John Gray, along with four other prisoners, was carried to Raleigh to the State penitentiary Tuesday morning by Sheriff Furr and deputies.

A large crowd assembled in front of the jail to see John Gray carried away Tuesday morning. The prisoners were led from the jail and placed into automobiles by Sheriff Furr and his deputies.

John Gray was led forthwith his hands encased in large handcuffs. He held a handkerchief in his hands but was not seen to use it.

John Gray’s mother, and brother, Theodore, were at the jail early Tuesday morning to tell John good-bye. They were permitted by Sheriff Furr to talk to John in his presence, but were not allowed to talk with him alone.

Theodore Gray and his mother were in tears but John Gray was not seen to shed any tears nor show any particular signs of weeping. John maintains that it will come out all right, he does not believe that God will allow an innocent man to be killed, and he claims that he is innocent.

From page 7 of The Concord Daily Tribune, April 9, 1926

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Guilford County Passes New Law to Expand School Year to Eight Months, April 9, 1926

School Measure Is Passed by Citizens of Guilford. . . By 250 Majority. . . A Hard Fight for Both City and Rural Districts. . . Women Lend Hearty Support. . . The New Law Provides an Eight Months’ School Term for All of the County Schools

By a 250 majority the voters of Guilford County passed an amendment to the county school law providing for an increased school tax in a special election Tuesday, March 30. This measure raises the special tax limit levied for the upkeep of an eight month’s school term in the rural schools from 25 to 30 cents.

The vote cast was heavier than expected, and the result was in doubt until the returns form the last few polls came in. Greensboro, Jamestown, and Friendship cast a large majority of votes for the amendment; while Glenwood, Revolution, High Point and lower Asheboro went against it.

A good deal of campaigning was done by proponents of both sides, and the women were especially enthusiastic in support of the measure. Mr. E.D. Broadhurst, chairman of the city school board, was perhaps the biggest factor in the victory of the amendment’s backers.

Under the law as it now stands, it will be possible to extend the city school limits to include all the territory within the new city limits, since the extra five cents will make up for the revenue that will be lost to the county school system when this territory is taken in. It will also enable the rural schools to provide better buildings and teachers.

From the front page of High Life, the Greensboro High School newspaper, April 9, 1926

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J.B. Coates Breaks Hip When Trapped Under Tractor, April 9, 1926

J.B. Coates Hurt by Farm Tractor. . . Caught Under Machine As It Mires in Field; Suffers Broken Hip

Mr. J.B. Coates, a farmer living some six miles up state highway No. 10 toward Clayton, from this city, was the victim of a serious and painful accident on Wednesday afternoon when an Emerson tractor which he was operating turned over, pinning him so securely down that several of his neighbors had to work an hour before he could be released.

Mr. Coates had been plowing in a field with the machine and was moving to another to continue his work there when he crossed a miry place. There the tractor mired down with sufficient force to throw Mr. Coates from it. Before he could escape, the machine had caught him and sunk him two feet in the mud.

As soon as he was extricated, he was rushed to the hospital here where it was found that his hip had been badly broken. It is reported that he is doing well since his wound has been treated.

Mr. Coates is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Coates of this city, and he is well known here.

From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, April 9, 1926

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Betty Brown Editor-in-Chief of High School Newspaper, April 9, 1926

High Life Leader for 1926-27

BETTY BROWN

Juniors Elect Editor-in-Chief of School Paper. . . Betty Brown Will Direct Destinies of “High Life” for Coming Year. . . Miss Coleman Speaks. . . Impresses Class with Importance of Office—Present Staff Acts as Nominating Committee for Election

At chapel period Tuesday, March 29, at a meeting of the Junior class, Betty Brown was elected editor-in-chief of High Life for the year 1926-27. The requirements of the completion of one semester of Journalism eliminated any one from semester VII. The present High Life staff nominated three of the seven possible candidates, who were voted upon by the rising senior class.

Prior to the election, Miss Coleman emphasized the importance and responsibility of the position. She also stated that Greensboro was the only school represented at the C.I.P.A. convention, which left the election of editor-in-chief to the students, thus proving the great confidence placed in G.H.S. students by the faculty.

From the front page of High Life, the Greensboro High School newspaper, April 9, 1926

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Mrs. Williams Writes of Living in Panama Canal Zone, April 9, 1926

Mrs. Ben Williams Lauds Climate of Her New Home. . . Wife of Former Greensboro School Principal Writes from the Panama Canal Zone. . . Describes New House. . . Very Comfortable and Cool with Porch Extending on All Sides—Rooms Large and Ceilings High

“I think this is the original Garden of Eden for it combines everything that was ever written about California and Florida—all in one place,” writes Mrs. Ben Williams from the Canal Zone where she and her husband are living. Mr. Williams was principal of McIver School last year.

In spite of the American occupation, Mrs. Williams says that the old world atmosphere still clings to the place; and the two Spanish cities, one at either end of the Canal, retain their customs and traditions of days gone by. There are bazaars of India, China, Hindu and Japan where one may barter for linens and laces.

“The Canal Zone is entirely American—everything and everybody is owned by the government. Our homes are assigned to us and preference is given for length of service, so by the time those who built the canal 25 years ago get what’s coming to them there isn’t much left for the newcomer.” However, Mrs. Williams declared that they had a comfortable, cool house with a porch extending around all four sides and surrounded by flowers and shrubs. The rooms are large and have ceilings 15 feet high. The partitions between rooms do not reach the ceiling, but leave three feet open so that air can circulate freely. The streets in Panama are narrow and are filled with cats and dogs and children, with peddlers crying and bells ringing. Mrs. Williams says, “You drive on the left hand side of the street and are fined $25 if you run over a dog and have to give way to horses, donkeys, and ox carts; so it takes head work to drive.”

From page 6 of High Life, the Greensboro High School newspaper, April 9, 1926

The American occupation mentioned in Mrs. Williams’ letter refers to the occupation of the 10-mile wide Panama Canal region, not the entire country. The Canal Zone was essentially a U.S. military base, which explains the assignment of housing. People living on military bases don’t own the land, whether they are military or civilian.

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