Fayetteville, July 22—Deputy Sheriff Al Pate, aged 55, shot dead tonight near Godwin by an unknown assassin, was a brave officer and honorable citizen. Three bullets were aimed at the posse of six officers, headed by Sheriff McGeachy, which had just captured a large copper still, but only one of the shots took effect.
The officers had gone on a raiding expedition in the northeastern section of the county, 20 miles from this city, and located the blockade plant about 9 o’clock. They found an army rifle in which the cartridges had jammed, indicating that attendants at the sill had tried without success to open fire on the raiders. In the darkness no one was seen.
After destroying a quantity of blockade material, sometimes called whiskey or beer, the big copper outfit was loaded into Sheriff McGeachy’s automobile in which the officers had come to the place. Four of the officers, including Deputy Pate, had gotten into the car. Sheriff McGeachy and Deputy Sheriff West were on the ground when suddenly a bullet whizzed by West’s head. He and the sheriff dropped to the ground.
Three shots were fired from the bushes and one struck Pate squarely in the back, tearing through his body and killing him instantly. The officers brought the body to the city and the body was prepared for burial.
One week ago a daughter of the deputy sheriff was married to Sergeant Stevens at Camp Bragg and they are now away on their honeymoon. Surviving also are his wife and several other children.
Deputy Sheriff Pate was considered one of the most efficient law enforcement officers in the county. He had served for many years as Deputy Sheriff and was absolutely fearless in the discharge of his duties.
The shooting has aroused intense indignation here against those who carry on this nefarious business of making blockade liquor.
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Fayetteville, July 23—J. Marshall Williams, son of a former county commissioner, who had been sought since last night as the slayer of Deputy Sheriff Al J. Pate, gave himself up to Sheriff N.H. McGeachy at noon today. In response to a telegram from Godwin, the sheriff went to Williams’ home near that place, accompanied by Deputies W.O. Patrick and J.H. Benton and W.W. Bendiman, chief of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad police, where he met the accused in company with his father, Claude Williams. After Williams had surrendered to the sheriff, he was carried to some point not divulged by the officers, but thought to be either Raeford of Lumberton. Young Wiliams’ father went with them.
Williams is married and his home is within sight of the whiskey still where Pate was shot from ambush last night. He is from a respectable family and has been in trouble before.
When Sheriff McGeachy and five deputies approached the still last night they were commanded by blockaders to halt. The officer charged and three men at the still scattered. One of the deputies says that he can indentify the one white man in the party.
After the raiding officers had been fired on from ambush and Pate instantly killed, the sheriff went to Williams’ house in an effort to apprehend him, but his wife declared he had left home in an automobile. Several hours were spent in searching the woods surrounding the scene of the crime, and the whole section was kept under a constant watch until Williams gave himself up.
From the front page of the Dunn Dispatch, July 26, 1921
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Again We Yell
Once more we yell agin the blockader. It looks as if the amount of damage the blockader is doing is unlimited, and the killing of Deputy Pate, the Cumberland officer, by a blockader last week raises the ire of all law abiding citizens. Deputy Pate was an officer of the law that Cumberland was proud of. He held a record for brave and efficient service in the war against the ever mischief making blockader when his work proved his end and decided his mode of death.
It is said that the still which was raided by the Cumberland officers when Deputy Pate was killed has been sitting there in those bushes so near the public highway for as long as two years, and it is also said that the people of Godwin knew all about it. We have read too frequently in recent issues of the daily papers of crimes and tragedies which are the direct result of the stuff made in just such places, and it is not right that people should allow it to go on when they know that the result of drinking this moonshine is too often deadly and tragic.
We sometimes wonder if prohibition is wise, and if, after all, the world would not have been better of saloons still existed in our cities and town. But prohibition is passed, and it is a settled fact that moonshine making is not wise and ought not to be tolerated. Let everyone join in the war, and let up the yell against the traffic.
From the editorial page of The Dunn Dispatch, July 26, 1921, L. Busbee Pope, publisher.
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