Thomasville, Jan. 16—It was said by several citizens here at the time of the killing of Chief of Police J.E. Taylor by Dr. J.W. Peacock on April 16, 1921, that the act of the killing itself was only the executive work of secret conspiracy, a well-laid plan on the part of a considerable number of men who “had it in” for Taylor on account of his activities in apprehending bootleggers and other violators of the laws of the state and nation. Dr. M.L. Kesler, general manager of the Thomasville Baptist Orphanage, stated at the grave of the deceased in Winston-Salem during the funeral services that the murder was a “compound murder,” and as far as has been learned the statement has never been successfully contradicted.
Unceasing Efforts
It is known now that the activities here in behalf of Dr. Peacock have never for one moment ceased, but a secret campaign has been waged for him from the day the crime was committed, only at certain periods the speed has been increased.
There are parties here who do not hesitate to say that they have been doing their best from the time he was committed to the criminal insane department at the penitentiary to get him liberated. They are willing to say that they have written letters of recommendation to Florida insisting that Dr. Peacock is as “sane as any man” and they say they feel that they were only doing their duty.
The crowd that cried the loudest, “insane, insane,” during the trial, are the loud proclaimers of the doctor’s sanity now. Those who did not believe the doctor insane during the trial accepted in good faith the testimony of the able alienists and submitted quietly to the judge’s sentence to the criminal insane department at Raleigh, saying at the time “We must have been mistaken and the able doctor must have been right.”
But what seems to be the sentiment today in the community? is the question which is constantly coming in over the wires.
Here it is in a nut shell: “Our laws may be all right, but our courts in too many instances are a farce,” one says. “If the state does not do the clean thing in the Peacock matter and bring the criminal back behind the bars, the strength of the state authorities will be discounted for years to come,” say others.
Friends of Peacock say: “The authorities of the penitentiary don’t want him, for they say he is sane as anybody; in fact, they turned him out and he didn’t have to break out or saw out.” They further say: “Suppose, just suppose the state brings him back, he will not stay there next time, for the simple reason he’s not insane, and they don’t want him confined there.”
Chief George B.W. Wimberly says, “Thomasville is now a good town.” A minister says “The blood of Taylor has been sprinkled on the lintels of the doorsteps of Thomasville and while these marks remain, the destroying angel will pass over and do no hurt to its inhabitants.”
It is stated that in a letter Dr. Peacock wrote a friend at High Point last spring during his confinement in the Raleigh prison, “I hope to get out if this hell hole sometime this year.” In another letter since he obtained his liberty, written to some of his people here, he spoke of how he walked 10 miles the first night of his liberation, hoboed a freight train going toward Florida for some distance and next day walked 27 miles at a rapid pace. In another letter still he spoke of making a pleasant visit to some friends in Arkansas during the fall season, but it seems that most of his energies have been given to his case in court in Florida, where he was adjudged to be sane and free from the judgments of the North Carolina courts.
From the front page of The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., January 17, 1923
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