Lumberton, Oct. 15—After wandering over the country and keeping his identity from the police for 44 years, Joseph B. Kemp, arrested at St. Augustine, Florida, last month, charged with the killing (of) Daniel E. McNeill, near Red Springs, on August 15, 1878, and brought here for trial, is now at liberty under $4,000 bond and is visiting his brothers and sisters in Bladen county, whom he had not seen in almost a half century.
Kemp’s brother, a wealthy lumber manufacturer of Acala (Ocala), Florida, came to Lumberton last week and arranged the bond. Counsel for the aged defendant seeking bail appeared before Judge W.M. Bond, holding court here, and Solicitor S.R. McLean agreed to release Kemp under $4,000 bond. The case is scheduled to be tried at the November term of Robinson (Robeson) county superior court.
The Robeson county grand jury in November, 1878, returned a true bill against Kemp charging murder, but the fact that he had been admitted to bail is taken here to mean that he will not be tried for murder in the first degree.
Kemp does not deny that he killed McNeill, according to Sheriff Lewis, but claims self-defense. He declares he shot McNeill when the latter threatened him with an axe after they quarreled. The only living witness of the killing, it is said, is the brother of McNeill.
Shortly after the killing, Kemp visited is old home in Bladen county, where he spent several weeks. He then left the state, and nothing had been heard from him by relatives, it is said, until news of his arrest at St. Augustine reached here several weeks ago. Since leaving North Carolina, Kemp has lived in several states, including Florida and Texas, where he went under the name of J.W. English.
Under this name he was married and reared a family. He told Sheriff Lewis he was divorced from is wife several years ago.
From The Messenger and Intelligencer, Wadesboro, N.C., Oct. 19, 1922
No comments:
Post a Comment